Ambedkar and Annihilation of Caste

Q1. The passage describes Annihilation of Caste as 'uncomfortable' primarily because:

1. It makes claims about caste that are historically inaccurate
2. It refuses the consolations of other critiques — neither treating caste as a perversion of something redeemable nor as a derivative of economic class
3. It was prepared as a presidential address and was therefore constrained in its arguments
4. It advocates violence as a means of annihilating caste

Q2. According to the passage, Ambedkar's critique of the Gandhian position was that:

1. Gandhi had no genuine commitment to the uplift of untouchables
2. Varna, to which Gandhi sought to return, was itself a structure of hierarchy and not a redeemable original form
3. Caste was not a perversion of varna but was itself the foundational structure of Hindu social order
4. The Gandhian programme of village self-reliance depended on the continuation of caste divisions

Q3. The passage says Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism was 'not a departure from his political project but its logical conclusion.' This is best understood to mean:

1. Buddhism provided a more effective organisational structure for political mobilisation than Hinduism
2. Since caste was grounded in religious authority, the annihilation of caste required rejecting that religious authority — which conversion enacted
3. Buddhism's philosophical tradition was more compatible with modern democracy than Hinduism's
4. Conversion was the only legally available instrument to escape caste discrimination under colonial law

Q4. What critical gap does the passage identify in Annihilation of Caste?

1. It does not address the situation of women within the caste system
2. It does not distinguish between different forms of caste discrimination across Indian regions
3. It provides a diagnosis of caste but does not offer a programme for how its annihilation is to be achieved
4. It does not engage with the economic dimensions of caste exploitation

Q5. The Marxist position on caste, as characterised in the passage, held that:

1. Caste was a system of economic exploitation that served the interests of the propertied class
2. Caste was a superstructure that would dissolve with the dissolution of economic class
3. Caste could be abolished by organising the working class across caste lines
4. Caste was less important than class as a determinant of political consciousness

Q6. The question posed at the end of the passage — 'what is the political path?' — is presented as a question that:

1. Ambedkar himself answered in his later writings on constitutional democracy
2. The text deliberately leaves open, and which Ambedkar's critics on the left have pressed
3. Can be answered by combining the Gandhian and Marxist positions that Ambedkar rejected
4. Is answered implicitly by Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism