Meandering through the pre-2014 JNU Students’ Union (JNUS) election juloos on the busy ring road of Jawaharlal Nehru University, what got me thinking was a Left progressive party poster, condemning atrocities against a Dalit boy in a school in Tamil Nadu, sloganeering Baba tera mission adhoora, humsab milke karenge poora, juxtaposed with a poster captioned Jai Hind with Babasaheb on it by the radical Right-wing student wing of the University. This propels me to delve into two strings of thought: one that Arundhati Roy points out in her essay ‘The Doctor and the Saint’ where she mocks Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi for never giving Dr. B.R. Ambedkar even a walk-on part in the film although it was funded by the Indian government, except for the major role he had played in the making of the Indian Constitution, plus, Kancha Ilaiah’s potent question in his essay, ‘The Ethereal Realist’.
How and why did Ambedkar cross the stage of a mere leader and intellectual in the mind of Dalits? How did he acquire the status and stature of a prophet?
The aftermath of their critical inputs have been something like this: Arundhati Roy, being a Radical Left Maoist cannot speak in favour of Babasaheb and Kancha Ilaiah’s roots quite obviously allows him to attack upper-caste intellectuals. It seems that Ambedkar has only been reduced to a mere Constitution-maker by the Hindu intellectuals and a preacher by the Dalits without trying to find a balance in thoughts and ideas. This will surely pose a grave threat to the importance of a public intellectual like Babasaheb in today’s times in a pluralistic country like India, currently under siege by one-dimensional fascist ruling structures. So plural, that while Ambedkar’s struggle marks pre-independent India, post-independent modern India stinks of shameless opportunism from the new Dalit leadership that has emerged. As academic Ajay Gudavarthy of JNU has elucidated in his article titled ‘A Rightward Shift in Dalit Poltics’: “Dalits seem to have come a full circle from the agenda of ‘annihilation of caste’ to ‘secularisation of caste’, and conversion from Hinduism to actively claiming the Hindu identity.”
The Indian Constitution that abolished untouchability in 1950 had roots in ancient India where caste was prevalent and practiced rigorously. The society was hierarchical along the lines of caste stratification. Besides Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, the lowest caste was categorised as untouchables and they too were divided into three categories — untouchables, unapproachable and unseenable. As Ambedkar elucidates in Volume 5 of his Writings and Speech, “They had different names in different parts of the country – Pariahs, Atishudras and Namashudras, whose touch and even voice were deemed by the caste Hindus to be polluting and against the so-called purified Brahminical tradition.”
The origin of untouchability dates back to the inception of Hindu civilisation when every attempt of diabolical contrivance was made to suppress and enslave humanity. It is said that when chaturvarna came to be recognised as a law during the late Vedic period, instead of bringing a change in the methods and structures of slavery, it only reorganised the slavery system, in the sense that a Brahmin could be enslaved only by a Brahmin, a Kshatriya by both Brahmins and Kshatriyas, a Vaishya by Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, and a Shudra by all.
During the pre-independence era, the term ‘Depressed Classes’ was used to denote the untouchables. This was replaced by the term ‘Scheduled Castes’ in 1935 when these castes were placed in a schedule as privy to special rights. And, Mahatma Gandhi termed untouchables as Harijans to deliberately deprive the untouchable community of these special privileges that were vehemently opposed by Ambedkar later on. He rejected the term ‘Harijan’ on the grounds of the word itself that had a Brahminical lineage attributed to it to further denigrate the untouchables.
The machinations of Vedic law centuries before, and Gandhi during the freedom movement, and the machinations of RSS pracharak and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, centuries after, show the reassertion of the unjustified social order out of vested interests through the garb of sympathy by amending laws and tagging names to them, while writing books on them. Modi in his book Karma Yoga wrote, “I do not believe that they (Valmikis) have been doing this job just to sustain their livelihood. Had this been so, they would not have continued with this type of job generation after generation… At some point of time, somebody must have got the enlightenment that it is their (Valmikis’) duty to work for the happiness of the entire society and the Gods; that they have to do this job bestowed upon them by Gods; and that this job of cleaning up should continue as an internal spiritual activity for centuries. This should have continued generation after generation. It is impossible to believe that their ancestors did not have the choice of adopting any other work or business.”
John Dewey, whose philosophical underpinnings influenced Ambedkar’s thoughts and writings, was a Fabian socialist. Ambedkar, too, like most Fabian socialists, believed that reform could be brought about through a gradual process, not a revolution. This is debatable, considering that the movement of the untouchables against the injustices of the Hindu social order has a long history, especially in Maharashtra, that, although, began with petitions and protests during the first stage, was later followed by an open revolt. The untouchables of Bombay had launched their Satyagraha at Mahad for establishing their right to take water from Choudar, a public tank, and to gain entry into Parvati temple; for the latter the Satyagraha was organised at Poona. Later on, when Gandhi started the Satyagraha movement, Ambedkar opposed it and extended his support to the Vaikom Satyagraha movement that was the first systematically organised agitation in Kerala against orthodoxy to secure the rights of the depressed classes.
It also remains debatable whether Ambedkar did this to gain an entry point into politics or it was used as a springboard for further emancipation of the ‘untouchables’. This was Ambedkar’s major ideological departure whose importance is overshadowed by the fact that he chose Buddhism over Islam and Christianity when he converted in 1956. It is often argued that Buddhism was not an easy choice over Islam and Christianity because it offended Hindus and Hinduism more than Islam or Christianity.
In the article titled ‘Along the Mystic River’ in the Kindle magazine, Amit Sengupta writes, “You enter the terrain near Wardha, where both Mahatma Gandhi and Vinobha Bhave made sprawling ashrams and next to which, in Nagpur, thousands of Dalits became Neo-Buddhists led by Babasaheb Ambedkar.” The key tenet of Buddhism was non-theistic and it rejects the concepts of a permanent self or an unchanging, eternal soul as it is called in Hinduism and Christianity. The Brahminic doctrine of Karma, on the other hand, produces two-fold results — affecting the doer and producing an impression upon his soul. In a concept like this, there is very little room for human effort, everything is pre-determined.
As pre-determined as the ‘homecoming ceremony’ (of the many others being openly flaunted since the Modi regime has come to power) that was arranged by the ‘Dharma Jagran Vibhag’ of RSS for the youth, who had converted in Western Uttar Pradesh to Christianity to rid themselves of the ominous caste system. RSS’s Khem Chandra who was quoted ,”This is called ghar wapasi, not conversion. They left by choice and today they have realised their mistake and want to come back. We welcome them. We can’t let our samaj scatter; we have to hold it tight. I have told them that honour comes from within the community and not from outside.”
Ambedkar’s fight was both at a religious and political level. In 1930s, he was in his radical best and had formed the Mumbai Kamgar Sangh in 1935 that anticipated the merger of class and caste. The communists had relegated caste to a ‘superstructure’ and at the ground level there were reports of discrimination against Dalits who came from Bombay’s textile mills and who were being denied better payment. In fact, the Cripps Report in 1942 asked Ambedkar to dissolve his Independent Labour Party because it was alleged that the party did not represent any community.
Throughout his life, Ambedkar never yielded to romantic conceptions of India’s past or the so-called magnificent structure of Hindu culture and of its glorious tradition. In that sense, he was a dynamic statesman. While Gandhi along with other nationalists were singing praises of the caste-ridden village structure, aspiring for a mythical Ram Rajya, Ambedkar was looking at it as a site of localism, full of infinite ignorance, entrenched roots of feudalism, oppressive casteism and narrow-mindedness.
It is said that the Mahars under Ambedkar, who were at the forefront of the anti-caste movement, are considered as the most upwardly mobile, and as their traditional occupation was not land-based but crafts-based, they felt easily alienated from the village and needed the open space of urban India to mobilise. They felt that their conditions needed a distance from the village and an immersion into the tenets of modernity. This modernist approach of Dr. Ambedkar came to the forefront when he was drafting the Constitution. He was resolutely in favour of a uniform civil code and for greater rights of women in the Hindu Code Bill. But, when the Hindu Code Bill was rejected by Nehru’s Cabinet in 1951, he had no other option but to resign.
The mobilisation of Dalits today has taken a different turn and so has the relevance of Ambedkar. As rightly pointed out by Ajay Gudavarthy in his article titled, ‘A Rightward Shift in Dalit Politics’, the emergent Dalit groups seem to be challenging the dominance of the upper castes by finding acceptance in the circle. Gudavarthy goes on to explain how fractured the identity of the Dalits have become, how they have been sub-categorised into Extremely Backward Classes and Most Backward Classes, and appropriated by political parties such as the Congress and BJP alike. In fact, he says, “The coming together of Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar is precisely to put brakes on the BJP’s efforts in weaning away the less privileged OBCs from their fold.”
This kind of caste-practice has led to the emergence of a new middle class who want to be part of the aspirational story of the traditional upper classes; hence, the 2014 General Election poll results have shown ‘middle class’ Dalits coming out in large numbers in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to vote for Narendra Modi. It then becomes no hard task to fathom why opportunistic Dalit figures like: Lok Janshakti party chief Ramvilas Paswan has joined NDA, Dalit leader Ramdas Athwale has joined hands with a reactionary Right-wing Shiv Sena along with Maharashtra or former JNU SFI Leftist and anti-Hindutva leader Udit Raj’s Indian Justice Party chose to shamelessly join BJP looking for a seat in Parliament.
It only becomes shockingly paradoxical to fathom that the key party of NDA, that is, the BJP, an upgraded form of Jansangh with its communal and xenophobic agenda, which was an upper caste bania party and instrumental in humiliating and degrading Dalits, are being trusted today by Dalit leaders. It creates a doubt and a sense of fear amongst the true Ambedkarites as to how far these leaders are dedicated to the paths and agendas shown and set by Babasaheb Ambedkar, I quote him from the revised edition of his book Partition of India, “If Hindu Raj becomes a reality, it would be the greatest menace to this country. Whatever Hindus may say does not make a difference because Hinduism is a danger to independence, equality, brotherhood. It is an enemy of democracy and we must make all efforts to stop it from becoming a reality.”
Post-Ambedkarite Dalits have moved on from social to economic mobility, finding comfort in the latter to perpetuate the dominance of the exploitative caste system in India. In turbulent times such as this, it is important that we take great care in not compartmentalising Ambedkar. If the vision of Babasaheb is to be parochialised by a sect to reduce him to a militant Dalit, and his contributions restricted to subaltern castes, we might nullify his importance as a wise democrat, who, if were alive today, would have condemned fellow Maharashtrian Uddhav/Raj Thackeray as much as he would have the Maoists who claim to speak on behalf of the disadvantaged to abandon the gun and join the democratic process that the Constitution had legitimised.
fdertol mrtokev
Throughout this grand pattern of things you actually secure an A just for hard work. Where exactly you confused everybody was on the specifics. You know, they say, details make or break the argument.. And that could not be much more true here. Having said that, permit me tell you just what exactly did give good results. Your writing is highly persuasive and this is most likely the reason why I am taking an effort in order to opine. I do not make it a regular habit of doing that. Next, despite the fact that I can certainly see a leaps in reasoning you make, I am not convinced of how you appear to connect the points that help to make the actual conclusion. For the moment I will yield to your point however trust in the near future you actually connect your facts better.
gelatin trick
I’ve been absent for some time, but now I remember why I used to love this website. Thank you, I’ll try and check back more often. How frequently you update your site?
vavada обзор
Hello this is kind of of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding expertise so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be enormously appreciated!
legal translation London
I believe you have mentioned some very interesting points, regards for the post.
slot gacor
I got what you intend, appreciate it for posting.Woh I am lucky to find this website through google.
iblbet daftar
Yeah bookmaking this wasn’t a bad determination outstanding post! .
ice gelatin trick
This is the precise blog for anybody who desires to search out out about this topic. You realize so much its virtually onerous to argue with you (not that I really would want…HaHa). You undoubtedly put a new spin on a topic thats been written about for years. Great stuff, just great!
Aparelho de localizar vazamento de água
There is evidently a bunch to identify about this. I believe you made certain good points in features also.
gelatin trick recipe
Can I just say what a relief to find somebody who really knows what theyre speaking about on the internet. You positively know the way to deliver an issue to mild and make it important. More folks need to learn this and understand this facet of the story. I cant consider youre no more popular because you undoubtedly have the gift.
gelatin trick
Some genuinely nice and useful info on this website , as well I think the design holds good features.
gelatin trick
I do agree with all the ideas you have presented in your post. They’re very convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are very short for starters. Could you please extend them a little from next time? Thanks for the post.
link gacor
Woh I like your articles, saved to fav! .
hargatoto
Hi there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok. I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
hargatoto
I’d have to examine with you here. Which is not one thing I usually do! I take pleasure in reading a post that may make folks think. Additionally, thanks for permitting me to comment!
alquiler moto mallorca
I like what you guys are up too. Such clever work and reporting! Carry on the superb works guys I’ve incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it’ll improve the value of my site :).
ayuda PFG arquitectura
I conceive this web site has some rattling good info for everyone. “To be able to be caught up into the world of thought — that is being educated.” by Edith Hamilton.
omacuan
Fantastic goods from you, man. I’ve take into accout your stuff previous to and you’re just extremely excellent. I really like what you have got here, certainly like what you’re saying and the way in which by which you are saying it. You make it enjoyable and you still take care of to keep it wise. I can’t wait to learn much more from you. That is actually a great site.
gartenpool sets
I beloved as much as you’ll receive carried out proper here. The caricature is attractive, your authored material stylish. however, you command get got an nervousness over that you would like be turning in the following. ill certainly come further beforehand again as precisely the same just about very often inside of case you defend this hike.
ayuda PFG arquitectura
You can certainly see your enthusiasm within the paintings you write. The sector hopes for more passionate writers such as you who are not afraid to mention how they believe. All the time go after your heart. “Until you walk a mile in another man’s moccasins you can’t imagine the smell.” by Robert Byrne.
casas en José Ignacio
Real clear site, thankyou for this post.
guantes de gym mujer
I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post…
pink gelatin trick
Hello there! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a outstanding job!
the brain song reviews
Merely wanna comment on few general things, The website pattern is perfect, the content material is really good. “The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on.” by Joseph Heller.
fren 88
After study a few of the blog posts on your website now, and I truly like your way of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark website list and will be checking back soon. Pls check out my web site as well and let me know what you think.
soulmate sketch review
Thank you, I’ve recently been looking for information about this topic for a while and yours is the best I’ve found out so far. However, what in regards to the bottom line? Are you certain about the supply?
diamond painting john deere
I in addition to my pals were actually going through the excellent guides found on the website and then the sudden got a horrible feeling I had not expressed respect to you for them. These boys were definitely for this reason excited to read all of them and have in truth been using those things. We appreciate you really being really helpful and then for pick out varieties of helpful topics millions of individuals are really desirous to understand about. Our own sincere apologies for not saying thanks to you sooner.
orange peel trick for weight loss
Please let me know if you’re looking for a author for your site. You have some really great posts and I feel I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d love to write some articles for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please blast me an e-mail if interested. Cheers!
jasa basmi rayap bandung
I am commenting to make you understand what a incredible discovery my girl experienced reading through your webblog. She learned lots of details, most notably what it’s like to possess an ideal giving heart to have the rest effortlessly master a number of hard to do subject matter. You truly did more than readers’ expectations. Thank you for distributing those beneficial, dependable, informative and as well as fun guidance on the topic to Jane.
deposit 5000
Wonderful post however , I was wanting to know if you could write a litte more on this subject? I’d be very thankful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Thank you!
streamate men
I don’t even know how I ended up here, however I believed this put up used to be great. I do not realize who you might be but certainly you’re going to a famous blogger when you are not already ;) Cheers!
streamate alejandramartinezz
I really enjoy looking through on this web site, it holds superb blog posts.
streamate xxx
Thank you for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do a little research about this. We got a grab a book from our area library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such fantastic info being shared freely out there.
quiz4d terpercaya
Wohh exactly what I was searching for, appreciate it for putting up.
eva bloom soulmate sketch
There are some attention-grabbing points in time on this article but I don’t know if I see all of them middle to heart. There is some validity however I’ll take hold opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we want more! Added to FeedBurner as effectively
citrus burn
Hey there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay. I’m definitely enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
arialief
I simply couldn’t leave your website before suggesting that I actually enjoyed the standard information a person provide in your guests? Is gonna be back steadily to check out new posts.
eva bloom psychic reviews
Hi there, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam responses? If so how do you protect against it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me crazy so any help is very much appreciated.
prodentim
Hello, I think your site might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your blog in Opera, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, fantastic blog!
dubai wealth secret
This blog is definitely rather handy since I’m at the moment creating an internet floral website – although I am only starting out therefore it’s really fairly small, nothing like this site. Can link to a few of the posts here as they are quite. Thanks much. Zoey Olsen
presente com buque
It is appropriate time to make a few plans for the long run and it is time to be happy. I’ve learn this post and if I may just I want to suggest you some interesting issues or suggestions. Perhaps you can write next articles referring to this article. I wish to read even more things about it!
anti-aging stem cell clinic kl
Do you have a spam issue on this website; I also am a blogger, and I was wanting to know your situation; we have created some nice practices and we are looking to swap techniques with others, be sure to shoot me an email if interested.