Abhay Nanda

“There is among Indians no passion for unity, no desire for fusion. There is no desire to have a common language. There is no will to give up what is local and particular for something which is common and national. A Gujarati takes pride in being a Gujarati, a Maharashtrian in being a Maharashtrian, a Punjabi in being a Punjabi, a Madrasi in being a Madrasi and a Bengali in being a Bengali. Such is the mentality of Hindus, who accuse the Musalman of want of national feeling when he says “I am a Musalman first and Indian afterwards”. Can any one suggest that there exists anywhere in India even among the Hindus an instinct or a passion that would put any semblance of emotion behind their declaration “Civis Indianus sum”, or the smallest consciousness of a moral and social unity, which desires to give expression by sacrificing whatever is particular and local in favour of what is common and unifying ? There is no such consciousness and no such desire. Without such consciousness and no such desire, to depend upon Government to bring about unification is to deceive oneself.”
― B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or Partition of India

“It is better to be ridiculed for too great a credulity than to be ruined by too confident a sense of security.”
― B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or Partition of India

“If in any state there is a body of men who possess unlimited political power, those over whom they rule can never be free.For, the one assured result of historical investigation is the lesson that uncontrolled power is invariably poisonous to those who possess it. They are always tempted to impose their canon of good upon others, and in the end, they assume that the good of the community depends upon the continuance of their power. Liberty always demands a limitation of political authority.”
― B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or Partition of India

“Nationalism is an irrational instinct, if not a positive hallucination, and the sooner humanity got rid of it the better for all.”
― B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or Partition of India