Abstract
This paper will appropriate certain insights from Hegel's classic philosophical work-Phenomenology of Spirit (1807) - to expand on his critique of Hinduism in his 1830 lectures titled the Philosophy of History. The idea is to creatively add to his dialectical critiques of the master-slave dialectic and the failures of the eighteenth century European Enlightenment and nascent liberal, secular democracies to guarantee the absolute expansion of individual freedom and self-consciousness of that freedom as recognized in society embodied in a state. His critique of the late eighteenth century European context of the French Revolution and Enlightenment (that led to the birth of Western liberal, secular democracies) can be collated with his critique of Hinduism in the Philosophy of History. In those famous lectures of their time shortly before his death, Hegel argues that caste is fundamentally incompatible with the expansion of individual freedom in which all dialectical contradictions can be resolved: individual vs. society, individual vs state, society vs. state, etc., and their interrelations. This paper will deconstruct and reform some of Hegel's deep insights, expand on them, and then apply them in a critical analysis of Ambedkar's lifelong exploration, critique, and ultimately, various attempts to overcome the caste system embodied in the historical system of Hindu thought.