Dr. B.R. Ambedkar as an aesthetic icon: Reclaiming Beauty from Brahminical Hegemony

Abstract

B.R. Ambedkar is widely recognized as a great jurist, political thinker, and social reformer, whose contributions to the Indian Constitution and his call for the annihilation of caste have been extensively studied. However, one dimension of his thought remains less explored, i.e., the essence of aesthetics. While numerous scholars have examined his writings on law, religion, and politics, very few have investigated how Ambedkar understood the role of beauty, art, and cultural expression in the struggle for liberation. This study argues that caste operates not only as a system of social and economic exclusion but also as an aesthetic order, regulating taste, perception, and cultural legitimacy by monopolizing the definition of beauty. Ambedkar recognized that exclusion from beauty was central to oppression and his project sought to dismantle the Brahminical monopoly over aesthetics by democratizing art and reimagining beauty through egalitarian and ethical systems of Buddhism. His strategies, from the burning of the Manusmriti to the creation of new cultural symbols and rituals, demonstrate that aesthetic reconstruction was essential to Dalit dignity. Furthermore, the flourishing of Dalit literature, theatre, visual arts, and performance in the post-Ambedkar era embodies his vision of cultural emancipation, where the voices, bodies, and imaginations of the oppressed reshape the very terms of beauty and culture. The article thus contends that Ambedkar’s project of aesthetic liberation is indispensable for completing the democratic triad of liberty, equality, and fraternity, since true emancipation requires not only rights and justice but also the freedom to create, experience, and share beauty collectively.