PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Indian Political Thought

Discuss Ambedkar’s ideas on ‘annihilation of caste’.

How the answer moves

The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.

Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes

Route 1 1936 undelivered speech radical attack on Hindu social order caste cannot be reformed, only destroyed

Route 2 social reform must precede political reform annihilation, not mending, of caste

Body flow

caste = “division of labourers” (occupation by birth, denies choice/dignity) rests on endogamy + purity-pollution + scriptural sanction (Vedas/Shastras/Manusmriti) graded inequality blocks united resistance, weakens nation destroys public spirit/opinion/fraternity (“virtue caste-ridden, morality caste-bound”) democracy impossible on such soil inter-dining/inter-caste marriage useful but insufficient socialists wrong to treat caste as secondary to class cure: destroy religious sanction “religion of rules” to “religion of principles” law as disinfectant casteless order on liberty–equality–fraternity

Counter-view

partial reform (inter-dining, inter-caste marriage) vs root destruction of religion; class-only socialist view vs caste-centred analysis

Conclusion routes

Route 1 annihilation = ending the religious-ideological basis of caste, not softening it

Route 2 replacement by casteless democratic order, “one man, one value” Limaye’s Communist Manifesto parallel

Model answer

Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.

Handwritten model answer — UPSC PSIR 2013, Indian Political Thought