Ambedkar and Indian Nationalism

The Indian national struggle of the first half of this century was not merely a struggle to wrest political power from foreign rule but also a struggle to lay the foundation of modern India by purging society of outmoded social institutions, practices, beliefs and attitudes, Ambedkar's struggle constituted a part of the internal struggle of a nation-in-the-making, one of the divergent and sometimes conflicting currents all of which helped to secure freedom' - from external and internal oppression and enslavement Without Ambedkar's opposition to mainstream nationalism, the process of internal consolidation of the nation would not have been carried out sufficiently enough to strengthen and broaden the social base of Indian nationalism.