ON 135TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY
OF BABA SAHEB
Will Dr. Ambedkar survive if he
appears now in India?
If we trust the glorification of Dr.
BR Ambedkar by the RSS-BJP rulers on his birth anniversary, it will seem as if
there have not been ever more loyal followers of him than them. According to PM
Modi he was ‘architect of the constitution of India’ and ‘Messiha of Schedule
Castes’. The UP government has announced a grand celebration of ‘Ambedkar
Jayanti’ beginning with a series of programmes from morning of April 13 (2025),
leading up to the main celebrations on April 14 at Lucknow which will be
attended by Hindutva icon CM Adityanath. These programmes “aim to acquaint the
younger generation with Dr Ambedkar’s remarkable life, visionary leadership,
and his unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and social reform”. [https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/lucknow/up-govt-to-hold-grand-ambedkar-jayanti-celebrations-across-state-9941185/]
Dr.
Ambedkar is receiving full-some praise when he is not alive. When he was alive
RSS and its bandwagon which included VD Savarkar led Hindu Mahasabha never
missed an opportunity to denigrate him, often resorted to his effigy burning. If
Dr. Ambedkar appears now when India is ruled by BJP-RSS cadres it is sure that
he would be lynched or put in jail under terror laws for opposing Casteism,
denigration of Sudras, women, High Caste hegemony and Hindutva.
1.
Dr. Ambedkar supported the burning of
Manusmriti
RSS wants Indian
constitution to be replaced by Manusmriti or Manu Code or laws of Manu
which is known for its derogatory and inhuman references to Sudras,
Untouchables and women. The Constituent Assembly of India finalized the
Constitution of India on November 26, 1949, RSS was not happy. Its organ, Organiser
in an editorial on November 30, 1949, complained:
“But in
our Constitution, there is no mention of the unique constitutional development
in ancient Bharat. Manu’s Laws were written long before Lycurgus of
Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti
excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and
conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing.”
By demanding promulgation of laws of Manu in an Independent
India RSS was simply following its mentor, philosopher and guide VD Savarkar
who declared that,
“Manusmriti
is that scripture which is most worship-able after Vedas for our Hindu Nation
and which from ancient times has become the basis of our culture-customs,
thought and practice. This book for centuries has codified the spiritual and
divine march of our nation. Even today the rules which are followed by the
crores of Hindus in their lives and practice are based on Manusmriti. Today
Manusmriti is Hindu Law.”
It is to be noted here that a copy of
Manusmriti was burnt as a protest in the presence of Dr. BR Ambedkar during
historic Mahad agitation on December 25, 1927. He also called for burning
Manusmriti on December 25 each year.
2. DR. Ambedkar held High
Caste Hindus which control Hindutva politics responsible for miserable life of
Hindus and hatred for Muslims
He was crystal clear that,
"[The] high caste Hindus are bad as leaders. They have a trait of character which often leads
the Hindus to disaster. This trait is formed by
their acquisitive instinct and aversion to share
with others the good things of life. They have a monopoly of education and
wealth, and with wealth and education they have captured the State. To keep this
monopoly to themselves has been the ambition and goal of their life. Charged
with this selfish idea of class domination, they take every move to exclude the
lower classes of Hindus from wealth, education and power, the surest and the
most effective being the preparation of scriptures, inculcating upon the minds
of the lower classes of Hindus the teaching that their duty in life is only to
serve the higher classes. In keeping this monopoly in their own hands and
excluding the lower classes from any share in it, the high caste Hindus have
succeeded for a long time and beyond measure…
“This attitude of. keeping
education, wealth and power as a close preserve
for themselves and refusing to share it, which the high caste Hindus have
developed in their relation with the lower classes of Hindus, is sought to be
extended by them to the Muslims. They want to exclude the Muslims from place
and power, as they have done to the lower-class Hindus. This trait of the high
caste Hindus is the key to the understanding of their politics."
[B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or the Partition of India (Bombay: Government of
Maharashtra, 1990), p. 123, first Published
December 1940, Thackers Publishers, Bombay.]
2. Dr.
Ambedkar renounced Hinduism
Ambedkar,
in his historic speech in Nagpur on October 15, 1956, a day after he had
embraced Buddhism, said,
“The
movement to leave the Hindu religion was taken in hand by us in 1935, when a
resolution was made in Yeola. Even though I was born in the Hindu religion, I
will not die in the Hindu religion. This oath I made earlier; yesterday, I
proved it true. I am happy; I am ecstatic! I have left hell — this is how I
feel. I do not want any blind followers. Those who come into the Buddhist
religion should come with an understanding; they should consciously accept that
religion.”
[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/indus-calling/an-ambedkar-speech-every-hindu-must-not-forget/]
If
he tries to convert now we can imagine what terrible fate he will meet!
3. Dr. Ambedkar fought for equal rights for women
For RSS Hindu women are
inferior in every respect. It demands promulgation of Manusmriti as
constitution of India which shockingly denigrates women as we will see in the
following [few out of dozens]:
a. Day
and night woman must be kept in dependence by the males (of) their (families),
and, if they attach themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under
one’s control.
b. Her
father protects (her) in childhood, her husband protects (her) in youth, and
her sons protect (her) in old age; a woman is never fit for independence.
c. Women do not care for beauty, nor is their
attention fixed on age; (thinking), ‘(It is enough that) he is a man,’ they
give themselves to the handsome and to the ugly.
d.
Through their passion for men, through their mutable temper, through their
natural heartlessness, they become disloyal towards their husbands, however
carefully they may be guarded in this (world).
e. (When
creating them) Manu allotted to women (a love of their) bed, (of their) seat
and (of) ornament, impure desires, wrath, dishonesty, malice, and bad conduct.
f. For
women no (sacramental) rite (is performed) with sacred texts, thus the law is
settled; women (who are) destitute of strength and destitute of (the knowledge
of) Vedic texts, (are as impure as) falsehood (itself), that is a fixed rule.
On the contrary, Dr. Ambedkar believed in equality for
women. He was clear that, "We shall see better days soon and our progress
will be greatly accelerated if male education is persuaded side by side with
female education…" He went on to stress that “I measure the progress of
community by the degree of progress which women had achieved”. He advised Dalit
women, "Never regard yourself as Untouchables, live a clean life. Dress
yourselves as touchable ladies. Never mind, if your dress is full of patches,
but see that it is clean. None can restrict your freedom in the choice of your
garments. Attend more to the cultivation of the mind and spirit of
self-Help." Liquor was a bane in Dalit families and in order remedy it he
asked women “do not feed in any case your spouse and sons if they are
drunkards. Send your children to schools. Education is as necessary for females
as it is for males. If you know how to read and write, there would be much
progress. As you are, so your children will be."
4.
Dr. Ambedkar did not subscribe to the idea of Hindu nation and decried
Hindutva
Dr. Ambedkar, a keen researcher of
the communal politics in pre-independence India, while underlying the affinity
and camaraderie between Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League on the issue of
Two-Nation Theory wrote:
“Strange it may
appear, Mr. Savarkar and Mr. Jinnah instead of being opposed to each other on
the one nation versus two nations issue are in complete agreement about it.
Both agree, not only agree but insist that there are two nations in India—one
the Muslim nation and the other Hindu nation.”
According to him, the idea of
"Hindustan for Hindus...is not merely arrogant but is arrant
nonsense". He was emphatic in warning that,
"If
Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt, be the greatest calamity for
this country… [It] is a menace to liberty, equality and fraternity. On that
account it is incompatible with democracy. Hindu Raj must be prevented at any
cost."
5. Dr.
Ambedkar believed in Socialism
Jawaharlal Nehru
introduced the Objective Resolution
[OR] on December 13, 1946. Dr. Ambedkar’s turn to respond to
OR came on 17 December 1946. He stated:
“If this resolution has
a reality behind it and a sincerity, of which I have not the least doubt,
coming as it does from the mover of the resolution [Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru], I
should have expected some provision whereby it would have been possible for the
state to make economic, social and political justice a reality and i should
have from that point of view expected the resolution to state in most explicit
terms that in order that there may be social and economic justice in the
country, that there would be nationalisation of industry and nationalisation of
land, i do not understand how it could be possible for any future government
which believes in doing justice socially, economically and politically, unless
its economy is a socialistic economy.”
6.
Dr. Ambedkar Hated Bigoted Hindutva
'Nationalists' & 'Patriots'
Dr
Ambedkar as early as 1931 said that whenever he demanded equality for lower
Castes, marginalized sections and Depressed classes he would be called a
communalist and anti-national. He was forthright in telling the 'nationalists'
& 'patriots':
"India
is a peculiar country, and her nationalists and patriots are a peculiar people.
A patriot and a nationalist in India is one who sees with open eyes his fellowmen treated as being less than men. But his
humanity does not rise in protest. He knows that men and women for no cause are
denied their human rights. But it does not prick his civic sense to helpful
action. He finds whole class of people shut out from public employment. But it
does not rouse his sense of justice and fair play. Hundreds of evil practices
that injure man and society are perceived by him. But they do not sicken him
with disgust. The patriot's one cry is power and more power for him and for his
class. I am glad I do not belong to that class of patriots. I belong to that
class which takes its stand on democracy, and which seeks to destroy monopoly
in a very shape and form. Our aim is to realise in practice our ideal of one
man one value in all walks of life, political, economic and social."
[Dr BR
Ambedkar in the Plenary Session of Round Table Conference, London, 8th
Sitting, January 19, 1931.]
Shamsul
Islam
April
14, 2025
http://du-in.academia.edu/ShamsulIslam
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https://facebook.com/shamsul.islam.332
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@shamsforjustice
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