Bharat Ratna Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar "Father Of Indian Constitution" India’s first Law Minister Architect of the Constitution of India i This book is in public domain The formatting and illustrations are done by Prof. M. M. Ninan ii Presenting Dr. Ambedkars, “Riddles in Hinduism” Prof. M. M. Ninan This book on “The Riddles in Hinduism” written by Dr. Ambedkar was published posthumously as he died without finishing the manuscript. This book is the result of a prolonged and detailed study of Hindu scriptures. The main purpose of this book is to show the absurdity of the Brahminic logic as contained in the Hindu Scriptures. He has undertaken a detailed study of the inconsistencies and contradictions in the Puranas. I have come across a very descriptive statement defining Hinduism by one of the bloggers as “a cut and paste religion”. In cutting and pasting bits and pieces together from other religions especially from the Abrahamic religions, side by side with myths and legends of local religions, coherence is lost and there are irreconcilable contradictions. Sometime there are many different myths to explain some other myth. As long as there can be no historic or scientific evidence anything will go. Everything however is centered around the supremacy of the Brahmins. When this book was first published it produced a furror. It actually formed part of the complete work of Dr. Ambedkar, published by the Government of Gujarat (vol 8) in 1997. However, in 1999 the BJP Govt. sanctioned the prosecution of a Dalit activist Valjibhai for translating, publishing and distributing the very book the previous govt. has published. Valjibhai had translated one the chapters - on Krishna and Rama - into Gujarati . Bajarangadas, a priest, registered a complaint against Valjibhai who translated the book, Muljibhai Solanki, a local Republican Party leader who had distributed the booklet, and Mansukhbhai Raja, who printed it. The case was registered under IPC 153-A, 295, 501, 502 and 114. However, under CrPC provision 196, a state govt. sanction was required to prosecute iii anyone under IPC 153-A and it was granted in 1999. In Aug. 20006, the Veraval court issued a summon to Valjibhai. This intolerance of free expression escalated under the BJP and culminated in the burning alive of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his young sons Philip and Timothy in January 1999. The All India Christian Council, the All India Catholic Union, and the Christian Lawyers Association, have documented verified and authenticated anti-Christian violence which shows an average of 250 incidents of violence against minority religious groups a year. The violence peaked in 1998-99 Christmas season, beginning with the destruction of three dozen village churches in the Dangs forest district of Gujarat by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal. In three short days, over 100 churches were destroyed, scores of shops, and other Christian establishments and hundreds of homes burnt, with at least 5,000 men, women and children displaced. (See detailed report in Rediff India Abroad: McCarthyism's Indian rebirth May 13, 2003.) And the story continues even today. These are not acidental events. This character of Hinduism is inherent in the philosophy of Gita. The techniques of defeating Kauravas included treachery and immoral acts and were instigated by the Supreme Hindu Deity Himself. It is this inherent contradiction in the Hindu religion itself that Dr, Ambedkar was trying to expose. Dr. Ambedkar wrote: “But the time has come when the Hindu mind must be freed from (the hold) which the silly ideas propagated by the Brahmans, have on it. Without this liberation India has no future. I have undertaken this task knowing full well what it involves. I am not afraid of the consequences. I shall be happy if I succed in stirring the masses” Let this analysis by one of the great sons of India inspire us to break loose of the bondage. 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens .., and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment, and I will take you for my people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens ... Prof.M.M.Ninan 2008 iv http://www.ambedkar.org Born April 14, 1891, Mhow, India Died Dec. 6, 1956, New Delhi Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, was the first Minister of Law soon after the Independence of India in 1947 and was the Chairman of the drafting committee for the Constitution of India As such he was chiefly responsible for drafting of The Constitution of India. Ambedkar was born on the 14 th April, 1891. After graduating from Elphinstone College, Bombay in 1912, he joined Columbia University, USA where he was awarded Ph.D. Later he joined the London School of Economics & obtained a degree of D.Sc. (Economics) and was called to the Bar from Gray's Inn. He returned to India in 1923 and started the 'Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha' for the education and economic improvement of the lower classes from where he came. One of the greatest contributions of Dr. Ambedkar was in respect of Fundamental Rights & Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Constitution of India. The Fundamental Rights provide for freedom, equality, and abolition of Untouchability & remedies to ensure the enforcement of rights. The Directive Principles enshrine the broad guiding principles for securing fair distribution of wealth & better living conditions. On the 14 th October, 1956, Babasaheb Ambedkar a scholar in Hinduism embraced Buddhism. He continued the crusade for social revolution until the end of his life on the 6 th December 1956. He was honoured with the highest national honour, 'Bharat Ratna' in April 1990 . v Works of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar • Essay on Untouchables and Untouchability: Social • Small Holdings in India and their Remedies • Buddha or Karl Marx • Manu and the Shudras • Untouchables or the Children of India's Ghetto • Who were the Shudras? • Ranade, Gandhi and Jinnah • Statement of Evidence to the Royal Commission on Indian Currency • Buddha and his Dhamma • Revolution and Counter-Revolution • Paramountacy and the Claim of the Indian States to be Independent • Decentralisation of Imperial Finance • The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India: A Study in the Provincial • The Untouchables: Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables? • History of Indian Currency and Banking • Communal Deadlock and A Way to Solve it • Federation Versus Freedom • Notes on Acts and Laws • Philosophy of Hinduism • Ancient Indian Commerce • Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development • Annihilation of Caste • India on the Eve of the Crown Government • Preservation of Social Order • Which is Worse? Slavery or Untouchability • The Constitution of British India • Pakistan or the Partition of India • Need for Checks and Balances¾Article on Linguistic State • Maharashtra as a Linguistic Province • Riddles in Hinduism • Lectures on English Constitution vi vii “I tell you, religion is for man and not man for religion. If you want to organise, consolidate and be successful in this world, change this religion. • The religion that does not recognise you as a human being, or give you water to drink, or allow you to enter in temples is not worthy to be called a religion. • The religion that forbids you to receive education and comes in the way of your material advancement is not worthy of the appellation 'religion'. • The religion that does not teach its followers to show humanity in dealing with its co-religionists is nothing but a display of a force. • The religion that teaches its followers to suffer the touch of animals but not the touch of human beings is not a religion but a mockery. • The religion that compels the ignorant to be ignorant and the poor to be poor is not a religion but a visitation!” viii Contents PART I - RELIGIOUS Riddle No. 1 : The difficulty of knowing why one is a Hindu Riddle No. 2 : The Origin Of The Vedas—The Brahminic Explanation or An Exercise In The Art Of Circumlocution Riddle No. 3 : The Testimony Of Other Shastras On The Origin Of The Vedas Riddle no. 4 : Why suddenly the brahmins declare the vedas to be infallible and not to be questioned? Riddle no. 5 : Why did the brahmins go further and declare that the vedas are neither made by man nor by god? Riddle no. 6 : The contents of the vedas: have they any moral or spiritual value? Riddle no. 7 : The turn of the tide or how did the brahmins deceare the vedas to be lower than the lowest of their shastras? Riddle no. 8 : How the upanishads declared war on the vedas? Riddle no. 9 : How the upanishads came to be made subordinate to the vedas? Riddle no. 10 : Why did the brahmins make the hindu gods fight against one another? Riddle no. 11 : Why did the brahmins make the hindu gods suffer to rise and fall? Riddle no. 12 : Why did the brahmins dethrone the gods and enthrone the goddesses? Riddle no. 13 : The riddle of the ahimsa Riddle no. 14 : From ahimsa back to himsa Riddle no. 15 : How did the brahmins wed an ahimsak god to a bloodthirsty Goddess? ix PART II – SOCIAL Riddle no. 16 : The four varnas-are the brahmins sure of their origin? Riddle no. 17 : The four ashramas—the why and how about them Riddle no.18 : Manu's madness or the brahmanic explanation of the origin of the mixed castes Riddle no. 19 : The change from paternity to maternity.