Democracy,Not Majoritarianism: Relevance of B. R. Ambedkar’s Ideas on Minorities and Their Political Representation

Abstract

In this article, I first narrate the key features of democracy and the three types of democracy as conceptualised by Dr Ambedkar: political, social and economic. These three types of democracy depend upon each other, and if one is damaged, the rest cannot function properly. Equality and fraternity are two key themes that inform his concepts of social and economic democracies. In the next section of the article, I move on to discuss minority rights in British India and how they viewed the political representation of religious minorities. It was in this context that Dr Ambedkar started arguing that dalits should also receive the same safeguards as were being given to all other religious minorities. He argued that dalits are also a minority as they face substantial discrimination from the Hindu society. While doing this, Dr Ambedkar redefined the concept of minority and brought to the fore the importance of discrimination. To check this, he proposed effective political representation of dalits and all other minorities. He was against nominal representation, as was done via the Poona Pact in 1932. Only leaders from the discriminated groups can represent their community genuinely. He proposed various ingenious methods so that minorities are not overtaken by a majority, such as concepts of communal majority, political majority, real representation and nominal representation. All these together tell us that he was very clear on how to check a democracy falling into the trap of majoritarianism. My article posits that the safeguards for minorities as proposed by B. R. Ambedkar remain relevant till today.