Right to Equality

When B.R. Ambedkar was asked why he was so passionate about the issue of temple entry for Dalits, he replied: “The issue is not the entry, but equality.” It did not matter to Ambedkar that he, himself, was indifferent towards religion, or that temple entry was hardly the solution to Dalit oppression. What did matter to him, however, was that one of the most powerful tools by which an unequal society expressed and reinforced its hierarchies — through the denial of equal access to religious and sacred spaces — had to be smashed.