Critique of exploitation

B. R. Ambedkar and Malcolm X stand out in human history because (a) they evolved a language of protest against exploitation and (b) they also mobilized adequate support for attaining the goal. Humanity is not free from exploitation. Nonetheless, their powerful voices enabled those challenging oppression of any kind in adverse circumstances. Those who enjoy life at the cost of others do not easily abdicate the benefits accrued because of peculiar socio-economic and political circumstances. Human history is a battlefield for the exploiters and the exploited. The struggle is generally agency-driven in the sense that there are exponents for the former and also their opponents who combat them as, in their perspective, it is contrary to humanism. There are many instances. In fact, it could be argued that the distinction between oppressors and oppressed is integrally connected with the growth of humanity. It is self-evident that those who are weak have always been victims, as the stronger elements instinctively exercise authority over them to gain what they would not have achieved otherwise. Physical force was a criterion in ancient human civilization; ownership of land separated some from those who sell their labour for production in the land; later, labourers were exploited by industrialists, who bettered their own lives at the cost of those who contributed to the generation of wealth.