In the 1920’s, a young man was studying the philosophy of Karl Marx and John Dewey outside a New York library, staring at a cloudy sky. Looking at the sky filled with clouds… He thought that what was around him and what was history… The black shadow of despair was everywhere. When he looked around, he realized that the skyscrapers around him, the pulsating trains and the factories that were constantly blaring their horns could be a ray of hope for tomorrow’s world, equality, and progress. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was his name… Although an expert in law and economics, he recognized that science was not limited to the power of steam and the strength of steel but was the path to liberation from centuries of exploitation. As a student, the young Ambedkar witnessed firsthand the descent of centuries of feudal social stratification due to technological advances in America and Europe.
The Enlightenment in the Middle Ages gave mankind two gifts – logic and rationality! Using them, Ambedkar expanded the base of the scientific vision, not limiting scientific reasoning to the laboratory, but demanding the abolition of the caste system through industrialization, quality education, and constitutional guarantees. His approach combines the methodological framework of the natural sciences with the ethical side of the social sciences. Combining these two sciences, Ambedkar redefined “progress.” The creation of a society where not only purposeless mechanical beats will determine the direction of progress, but also the establishment of rational social justice through technological, material and moral development.
Gandhi Vs Ambedkar
While tracing the journey of science and technology of independent India, it will be remembered that Gandhi and Nehru were two narratives. On the one hand, Gandhi was against modernity and mechanical progress. According to him, machines are soulless tools which will lay the foundation of a spiritless, inhuman, moronic society. He believed in a system based on human labour through the development of village industries and cottage industries. Whereas Nehru’s path was towards modernization, relying on the power of mechanization. Nehru believed that industrialization and mechanization had the power to free India from the curse of poverty. Ambedkar believed in Nehru’s liberal policy while thinking closely about science and technology. But for him, this scientific advancement was instrumental in alleviating the sufferings of the downtrodden people of India. On the one hand, the caste system created by the division of occupation and its extension into the caste system had permanently blocked the way for the material progress of the Bahujans. Ambedkar hoped that science and technology would play an important role in breaking the caste system. He believed that with education and skill development, a person at any level would rise to the highest level. Criticizing Gandhi’s technical approach, Ambedkar said that Gandhi’s path was guilty of perpetuating the four-caste system and taking India back to the Middle Ages.
Although Gandhi’s opposition to mechanization was justified in view of the dismal picture of the exploitation of workers, Ambedkar believed that Gandhi had made a mistake in considering mechanization as the main issue. According to him, the class system was embedded in society even before mechanization and was sucking the blood of the Bahujans. It was not machines but the wrong social system that was responsible for this plight. He explained that machines were necessary to free man from daily toil and to provide time for cultural and intellectual development. “The thing that distinguishes between animals and humans is culture. Culture is not possible for animals, but it is necessary for every person to live a cultured life. This means that the essence of culture is to cultivate the mind in a meaningful way rather than just fulfilling physical needs.” Gandhi’s slogan of ‘Go to Nature’ is a message to return to nudity, filth, poverty, and ignorance of the majority. 67% of manual scavengers belong to the Scheduled Castes, and 1064 officially lost their lives in the last 20 years. The government’s decision to provide robots for cleaning is a testimony to Ambedkar’s vision of technology. It is pertinent to note here that although Gandhi and Ambedkar had shown two different ways of technology, a positive debate between the two was necessary for the development of society at large. Therefore, the argument that one is right and the other is useless is unnecessary.
The ethics of technology
While analysing Bertrand Russell’s anti-war book ‘Principles of Social Reconstruction’ at the end of the First World War in 1918, Ambedkar expressed the need to use the power generated by technology in a positive way. In 1943, in a radio address during World War II, he asserted that World War II was a struggle to create a new world order based on liberty, equality and fraternity. They believed that a labour-based, technocratic system would emerge after the war, destroying the medieval feudal system. Unlike Gandhian or socialist ideologies, Dr. Ambedkar was a proponent of urban industrialisation. According to him, industrialisation is the long-term answer to the problem of agriculture caused by low productivity and excess labour. Also, modern industries break the caste system by providing scope for professional mobility and economic freedom. For him, science and technology are not just neutral tools, but political tools to destroy casteism and fascism and to restructure society on the principles of reason and justice. For them, both factories and the state were equally important – one met material needs by producing goods, while the other was producing citizens.
Ambedkar’s contribution
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar laid emphasis on industrialization and technical education as the Minister of Labour in the Viceroy’s Executive Council during 1942-46. Speaking before the Advisory Committee on Technical Training in 1944, he said, “The future development plan is incomplete without technical education… only a nation that excels in science can maintain a high standard of living. “Ambedkar advocated industrialisation to overcome the agrarian crisis. According to him, this will provide additional employment to workers, increase the production of capital goods and improve productivity. He suggested the development of multi-purpose river projects like Damodar, Bhakra-Nangal, Hirakud, Sone, which included irrigation, flood control and hydel power generation. For this, he established the Central Waterways, Irrigation and Shipping Commission as well as the Central Technical Electricity Board. Ambedkar was instrumental in passing the Electricity Supply Act in 1948, envisaging a centralised power grid for the distribution of electricity. To commemorate Ambedkar’s efforts, the Government of India started celebrating 14 April as ‘National Water Day. from 2016. To spread technical education, Ambedkar submitted a memorandum on the grievances of the Scheduled Castes to the Viceroy in 1942. In this, he explained that expensive science and technology courses deprive the backward classes. He urged the government to implement scholarships and training programmes. In the election manifesto of 1952, his Scheduled Caste Federation Party gave priority to industrial expansion.
Beyond these tangible contributions, Babasaheb’s true legacy was cultivating scientific inquiry in India. For centuries, this devout society had unquestioningly accepted caste as divine ordainment – a notion he surgically dissected in ‘Annihilation of Caste’. India’s favourite charade has always been to cloak every grand creation in divine mystique, suppressing critical thought either through self-delusion or institutional coercion. Thus, emerged myths of divine kingship, royal divinity, and pseudoscientific birth theories – all perpetuated since civilization’s dawn. This sun of wisdom taught us to view humanity through the lens of science and technology – to see people as equals and systems as battlegrounds of dominance. He was the radiant sun of intellect, knowledge, inquiry, identity and struggle… Let us strive to at least become fireflies inspired by his light… Otherwise, in this grand illusion of myths and blind devotion, we will inevitably burn like moths drawn to oil lamps masquerading themselves as suns, reducing to mere ashes…
This article was originally published in Marathi at daily Loksatta on 16/04/2025