Ambedkar’s Critique of Sacred Testimonies and Liberatory Practices

Abstract

Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956), a contemporary Indianthinker and the chief architect of the Constitution of India, has significantly im-pacted the socio-religious landscape of India. His vision of social change derivesfromthesubversionofthe“grandnarrative”rootedintheHindureligiousscriptureswhich govern the religious-cultural predicament of Indian society. Ambedkar’smethod can be regarded as critical,hermeneutic,inter-textual and historical in na-ture.Itisthroughthesemethodologicalstances,hevehementlyquestionstheroleofVedic testimony for committing violence of social injustice,particularly,in shapingthe destiny of the Untouchables1and women. In intertwining social injustice andknowledge-question, Ambedkar can be aligned with the contemporary Westerndiscourseonepistemicinjusticethathasevolvedinterestincriticallyevaluatingthetestimonial aspect of knowledge. As a valid epistemic practice, testimony, in theordinary sense, is recognition of the cognitive labour and epistemic contributionof people in terms of their beliefs and justifications.Articulation of testimony,par-ticularly, in creating and fostering social identity which is exclusionary in nature,nonetheless, is the site of epistemic, ethical and social injustices. Besides the ideaof personal testimony, there is another conception of testimony, where certaintexts are granted insurmountable authority