Black Leadership Analysis

Caste

Manu and the Shudra

The Origins of Caste (Caste in India)

Who were the Shudras?

Who Were the Untouchables?

Essay on Untouchability II: Social Undergirding of Caste

The Annihilation of Caste

Gandhi and Ambedkar Debate Caste

Politics and Society

Buddha or Karl Marx

Ranade, Gandhi, and Jinnah

Mr. Gandhi and the Emancipation of the Untouchables

Which is Worse?

The Untouchables and the Pax Britannica

Indian Census & Chawdar Reservior

The Conflict Between Ambedkar and Gandhi

Maharashtra as a Linguistic Province

India and the Pre-Requistes of Communism

Religion

Essay on the Untouchables: Dalit and Christianity

Philosophy of Hinduism

The Buddha and His Dharma

Pakistan or the Partition of India

Autobiographical / Historical

Waiting on a Visa

Revolution and Counter Revolution in Ancient India

Notes on History of India

Economics

Ancient Indian Commerce

Commercial Relations of India in the Middle Ages

Evidence Before The Royal Commission

The Present Problem with Indian Currency

Ancient Indian Commerce

What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables

The Round Table Conferences 

How Ambedkar Saved Gandhi’s Life

Indian National Congress and Gandhi on Dalit Issues 

Why Dalits Asked For and Needed Reservation

How Gandhism hurts Dalits

Why Equality is Necessary for Democracy

Ambedkar’s View of the Civil War and Reconstruction

Written 1943

20 pages

Ranade, Gandhi, and Jinnah is a transcript of a speech given on the 101 birthday of the deceased Justice Mahadev Ranade. Justice Ranade was a social reformer of the previous generation that focused on women’s rights. Widows won the right to remarry due to Ranade’s work.

Ambedkar praises Ranade as a fearless social reformer. Social reformers face far more significant risks than political reformers. The belief that the social structure was determined by their extremely moral ancestors or the gods underpinned Hindu society. Calling core beliefs into question makes people far more uncomfortable than questioning an external authority. Whereas a government can jail an agitator, a society can excommunicate him. Being alone is a far worse punishment.

Social change must precede political change for it to be effective. The nature of the justice system is to punish individual bad actors. If everyone defies a law, nothing can be done. He uses for an example black Americans having constitutional rights. No one disagrees that they have them. However, no one respects these rights. From an Integral perspective, Ambedkar and Ranade understood how internal change proceeds and affects external change.

Progress also needs congruence in political and social/spiritual philosophy. Democracy the idea that a free and educated people can rule themselves is incompatible with the caste system. The caste system says only on caste of people will serve, another become educated, and yet another fight. Ambedkar points out how impractical it would be to hold on to a caste system during an invasion. If only ten percent of the population that comprises the warrior class could join the army, the country would be taken over in very little time.

Ranade’s pragmatism impressed Ambedkar. Ranade would have realistic goals in mind before negotiations would start and when a settlement could be reached that was advantageous, he would move to conclude the negotiation. Ranade did not make unreasonable ideological demands that the other party would not be able to accept.

He compares the two most prominent Indian leaders at the time Jinnah and Gandhi to Ranade. Jinnah controlled Muslim politics, and Gandhi controlled Hindu politics. Both take on ideologically conservative positions to stay in constant tension. Both men make spectacles of their beliefs to garner support. Gandhi goes further by claiming he is an enlightened soul, Mahatma. He claims to be guided by divine forces. Ranade, in contrast, justified his positions with rationality and worked toward a compromise.

Ambedkar also corrects the misconception that Ranade was against Indian independence. Ranade often talked about how British rule and military protection would facilitate Indian progress. Because the British are handling the main engines of government, the Indians could concentrate on social development. Ranade did not believe Indians were ready for Democracy. Indian society needed to be more equitable and egalitarian or another tyrannical regime could be installed. The Indian people should avoid tyranny both foreign and domestic.

Most analysts consider this transcript and treatise on hero-worship. Although the treatise does cover hero-worship, it has so much more. In twenty pages Ambedkar covers a wide range of topics and gives a detailed description of his own and Ranade’s philosophy.

A copy can be found here

Ranade, Gandhi, and Jinnah

What Ayittey has right?

Ayittey has an unstoppable faith in the ability of African people. He uses indigenous African culture to build modern-day programs. He sees value in Africans and their natural skills. Often leaders take it as given that Africans must conform to some external standard.

Many of Ayitey’s critics say he should not criticize African leaders in forums of non-Africans. In reality, most people already hear about the problems of Africa outside of context and without any proposed solutions. Ayittey can talk about issues most people have already heard about and prove they are not proof of inherent flaws in the African people. He also shows individuals what they can do to help. Usually, economists portray Africa as a lost cause.

He is careful to not to talk about conspiracies by Western governments to prop up dictators and remove revolutionary leaders. He doesn’t explicitly explain why he does this. However, it is reasonable to assume he wants to concentrate on economic solutions. Talking about challenging to prove conspiracy theories will only alienate people not familiar with the struggles of Africa. His goal is to bring people together to create solutions to problems. Pointing the finger at clandestine government organizations will not change anything. In fact, the best way to expose or stop government plots against Africa would be to build a large grassroots voter base interested in the wellbeing of Africa. Once voters are paying close attention to the continent, the government will have to create mutually beneficial relationships with Africans. As it is now, few even pay attention to the continent so that the first world nations can act with no political consequences.

He also talks about the importance for Africans and American black people to call out injustice done by African leaders. Living in a world in which black people are often viewed stereotypically, causes blacks always to counter anything that could fuel a stereotype. Knowing we are unfairly judged causes black people to default to extending the benefit of the doubt when talking about our brothers. However, the development of our people requires critical analysis. The common retorts of “white people do that too” or “this was caused by slavery” only continues our stagnation.

Aiyttey’s criticisms of Africa are different than most black conservatives in that he is clear that issues are not proof of inherent flaws in black people and has viable solutions when speaking on a problem. He knows that pointing out issues could fuel racist stereotypes so he explains how the issue did not exist in pre-colonial Africa and how we can modify the environment to facilitate better behavior. He understands he nor his audience has a direct and immediate influence on government policies, so his solutions can be implemented on a grassroots level.

What Ayittey has wrong?

Ayittey overestimates the amount of agency African nations had in developing their political identity. Under colonialism, the Western powers had no incentive to integrate the native population into the economic structure. The Africans would always be reduced to servant roles or segregated into indigenous economies. If an African created a successful venture Western powers would destroy it, as they did with African enterprises in Western Cape. The Western powers had to be overthrown, to allow for Africans to control the resources in their countries and become part of the world economy.

The only way to get the modern weapons, military training, and money was to build an alliance with the USSR. Once the countries liberated themselves, they needed to integrate into the world economy. In the 1960’s and 1970’s the only way to do that was to be a capitalist economy or a socialist economy. Many of the western powers embargoed the emerging African countries because they did not want to see them free. To work with the USSR, they needed government systems similar to the USSR. The need to build a relationship with the USSR led to many socialist governments in Africa.

Soviet or Western economies would have isolated the African countries if they created brand new economic system incompatible with Western capitalism or Eastern socialism. The African countries owed the Soviets a war debt, so the Soviets had influence. These countries needed to be recognized by the world to have diplomatic relations. Ultimately, they had to align themselves with the Soviets.

Socialism in Africa failed as it did in Eastern Europe. So the system in itself was flawed, and its failure was not caused by it not being an indigenous system. The other system attempted on a large scale in Africa is the military dictatorship, and it fails as it has in South America. So there are systems that work and systems that do not. It is irrelevant where the economic or political system has its origin.

The need to integrate into a world economy leads people to doubt Ayittey’s indigenous economic plan. The indigenous economies did not have to receive foreign investment or sell minerals on a large scale to foreign governments. They also did not have to fund large-scale civil projects or fund public services. The number of solutions that can be garnered or developed from pre-colonial Africa is limited. Developing and adapting systems that have been proven to work in other countries is only logical.

When he describes African precolonial culture, he describes aspects that conform to capitalism. When African socialist describe precolonial culture, they illustrate the conditions that conform to socialism. In reality the culture and economy were not capitalist or socialist, it had elements that could develop into both systems, but the culture did not fit either definition of the time. It was, to use Gravesian terms a BO local, agricultural, economy.

Now Africa must conform to an ER/FS information based world economy. Isolation is not an option because the world needs Africa’s minerals and manpower. Since no other region is fighting the lasting effects of colonialism, slavery, civil war, and miseducation no one can frame Africa as a success or failure. In the same vein, no solution is un-African. Africa had elements of all philosophies and methodologies in its culture. All life comes from Africa, so nothing is foreign to her.

In Graham Linscott’s Uhuru and Renaissance the story of Zulu chief Dabulamanzi. Dabulamanzi was able to take weapons and clothes from slain British soldiers and outfit his army. Once his army was entirely equipped, they copied British tactics and attacked British strongholds. The enemy was amazed at the discipline and execution of maneuvers the Zulu saw only a few weeks earlier. As Dabulamanzi was not afraid to take on “foreign” battle tactics, the rest of us should not be afraid to use solutions that work from other places.

Where is Ayittey on the Spiral?

Ayittey’s work is centered on the Orange Meme. He functions as an economist, so he concentrates on the material uplift of Africa. However, his most recent book Defeating Dictators he can connect the struggles of Africa with other developing nations. The ability to connect the efforts of Africa to the rest of the world regardless of race is a Green Meme trait. However, the majority of his work is in the Orange Meme.

In Ayittey’s work, he supports both First and Second Order change depending on circumstance. He concentrates on “IT Space Solutions.”

Read Entire Series HERE