On that basis, he attacked the Arya Samaj defence of chaturvarna. Then he discussed the many ill effects of caste from the perspective of individual as well as societal progress. He also attacked socialists who ignored caste. Then he explained how the Congress had ducked the issue. First, Ambedkar reiterated the importance of social reform, which he understood as removal of caste. Running to about thirty thousand words (including a lengthy reply to objections raised by Gandhi, appended in the second edition), the text built up an argument over twenty-six sections, covering a number of subjects. But despite Ambedkar’s poor health, Annihilation was finely crafted. The effects included bouts of intense fatigue, headache, eye strain and diabetic neuropathy, leading to difficulty in walking. The details of ill health are not known but can be related to two ailments that had afflicted him since the 1920s and were to dog him for the rest of his life: high blood pressure and diabetes. In a letter to the organisers of the Mandal, Ambedkar had said his “health was not equal to the strain” caused by the “hard labour” he had to put in to write Annihilation (BAWS 1: 35).

(From A Part Apart The Life and Thought of BR Ambedkar by Ashok Gopal) The first edition cover of Annihilation of Caste which Ambedkar self-pubished on. The subtitle of the booklet read, “Speech prepared by Dr BR Ambedkar for the 1936 annual conference of the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal of Lahore but NOT DELIVERED owning to the cancellation of the conference by the reception committee on the ground that the views expressed in the speech would be unbearable to the conference” (36). He then arranged for the distribution of Annihilation, “to let the public know and also to dispose of the printed copies” (28).

Ambedkar refused to oblige, asked them to cancel the session of the conference that was to be addressed by him (35).

The Mandal wanted two passages to be removed: on the need to destroy the Hindu religion and Ambedkar’s intention to “walk out of the fold of the Hindus” (BAWS 1: 31). After the Mandal received Ambedkar’s text, there was a flurry of correspondence. As he said in one of his letters to the Mandal, their queries were partly responsible for Annihilation (BAWS 1: 33). The Mandal had earlier sent him a list of questions faced by it often in its anti-caste crusade, and Ambedkar dealt with these in his text.

An annihilation of caste