Kabir was a disciple of Ramananda, the              founder of the Bhakti movement. Kabir was a rebel who attacked the              caste system and religious divisions and preached a doctrine of              loving devotion to the One and Loving God. The influence of the              Ramananda-Kabir Bhakti marga (path) continued through much of              Ambedkar's life. If Bhakti attracted Ambedkar, so did the Sanskrit language. But              Brahmanical arrogance prevented him from learning the language then              regarded as the sole preserve of the Brahmans. All of this created              in him an uncompromising hostility to Hinduism. In 1948 he called              Hindu civilization an "infamy". For him what was defining in the              Hindu tradition was not the lofty metaphysics of the Vedanta which              identified the individual being with the Supreme but its social              doctrines enshrined in law codes such as the Manu Smriti which he              ceremonially torched in 1927.(11) Ambedkar had lost his patience              with faith in Hinduism for he doubted its ability to change its              social thinking and accord human dignity to millions who so              pathetically hovered at the fringes of Hindu society.              By the 1930's Ambedkar had begun to turn his back on Hinduism with              its chaturvarna (four "orders" which Gandhi accepted implicitly) as              a determinant in a system of division of social labour turning              millions of the panchamas (outcastes) into "invisible" humans.              Hinduism had not known genuine Reformation and its Renaissance was              much like a rediscovery of a long lost Brahmanical past. The ruling              caste hierarchies of the Brahman and intermediate castes (such as              the Maratha castes in Maharashtra and Yadavs in northern India) had              a vested economic and social interest in keeping the untouchables in              their "place". His Western experience had given him a taste for the              thrust and parry of rational thought and the power of ideas in              bringing about far-reaching social change. Hindu leaders, he felt,              were more interested in preserving their political and economic              power than in bringing about much-needed change in social thinking              and behaviour.(12)              The failure of the Hindu hierarchy in meaningfully helping the              submerged masses climb out of their state of degredation and despair              made Ambedkar pessimistic about the future of the untouchables in              Hindu society. At a conference at Yeola (Nasik distinct in              Maharashtra) he declared, more in sorrow that anger: "It is an              unfortunate fact that I have been born a Hindu; it was not in my              hands or change that. But I can say this with utmost gravity and              sincerity: I will not die a Hindu".(13) With this he put the Hindus              on notice that he was not a pity-mongering supplication of a Choka              Mela but a revolt against a faith and its social system that denied              human dignity to millions. He had begun a search for a faith that              would empower the untouchables to be human beings in their own              right.