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Dr. Ambedkar: A Brave Fighter - Lord Mountbatten
Dr.
Ambedkar: A Brave Fighter
-
Lord Mountbatten
I became interested in
Dr. Ambedkar in 1943 when I was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, South East
Asia, and setup my operational Headquarters in Delhi. He was the Labour Member
of Viceroy’s Council. He was fighting for Liberty, Equality and Fraternity and
fair conditions of life. He clearly understood that this new order could never
be established if the Nazis and the Fascists won the war, he and the Indian
Labour had been actively cooperating in the prosecution of the war.
At a time when so many
Indian leaders opposed war, the knowledge of his support was greatly heartening
to me, since India was my base and a million Indian Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen
were fighting under my control in Burma.
When I became the last
Viceroy of India in March 1947 I had extremely interesting and valuable talks
with him, and strongly backed my Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru’s proposal to appoint him as Minister for Law
in the first Independent Cabinet.
I was even more pleased
to agree to his appointment as Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee,
and watched with admiration the very efficient way in which he piloted the new
constitution of India through the Constituent Assembly. That was a magnificent
achievement.
But his continuous
championing of the Untouchable Scheduled Castes is what remains the strongest
in my mind. At the time of the transfer of power there were sixty millions of
them, far more than the population of the British Isles. Babasaheb, as they
affectionately called their leader, had personal experience of the fearful
disabilities under which his people suffered. He stood up for them against all
opponents. He disagreed violently with Mahatma Gandhi’s solution for their
representation in the Assembly in the Poona Pact which he felt tied them to the
Congress Party. He had the courage, and it required tremendous courage in the
climate of India, to stand up to him.
All in all, it was a
refreshing experience to know this clear seeing brave fighter who has an
immortal niche in the history of India .
(Extracted from Bheem
Patrika, edited by Bhagwan Das, Vol 3, No. 21, July 1974.)
Sunday, 15 September 2019
Dr. Ambedkar’s Contribution to Water Resources Development
Dr. Ambedkar’s Contribution
to Water Resources Development
CHAPTER 1
THE MAN AND HIS CONTRIBUTIONS
National
Reconstruction
The first quarter of
the present century brought forth an impressive crop of eminent personages who
contributed tremendously to the making of modern India. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji
Ambedkar (1891-1956) among them merits a special place. By
sheer dint of industry and perseverance, he rose to the eminence of a great
scholar, statesman, and the main architect of the nation's Constitution and
above all, the leader of the oppressed. In many respects, he stood apart from
his eminent contemporaries. He combined in himself the distinction of being a
great scholar, social revolutionary and statesman, a combination that is rarely
come across. An intellectual giant and a prolific writer, he had imbibed
knowledge that was truly encyclopaedic. His erudition and experience covered such
diverse fields as law, constitution, economics, sociology, politics, and
comparative religion. His range of topics, width of vision, depth of analysis,
rationality of outlook and essential humanity of argument marked him out as a
man of destiny. Ambedkar hardly ever
wrote for literacy fame1. Rather, in his scholarly
pursuits as in his political
1 See Appendix 1.1 for a
list of Ambedkar's wiriting. See, for complete writings in English of Dr.
Ambedkar, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Vasant Moon (ed.) Vol.
I (1979), Vol. II (1982), Vol. III(1987), Vol. IV (1988), Vol. V (1989), Vol. VI (1989), Vol. VII(1990), Vol. VIII (1990), Vol. IX (1990), Vol. X (1991), Vol. XI (1992). Bombay: Education Department, Government of Maharashtra.
2
AMBEDKAR´S CONTRIBUTION TO WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
activities, he was
driven by a desire to understand the vital issues of his times and to find
solutions to the problems troubling the people. With this motivation, he helped
decisively in shaping the social, economic and political development of the
nation during a crucial period of its history. There was hardly any issue which
arose between the early 1920s and the mid1950s
to which Ambedkar did not apply his razor sharp analysis, whether it was the
problem of minorities, reorganisation of states, partition, or the political
and economic framework for an independent India.2 He did
not rest content with making scholarly expositions on these issues. He attended
to the problems if they came within his authority; where they did not, he
helped those in authority to find appropriate solutions. Most memorable of
Ambedkar's contributions, of course, was his intellectual contribution to the
making of the Indian Constitution, his social and political efforts for the
uplift of the socially deprived classes and his revival of Buddhism. Close to
his heart was the cause of the downtrodden, to which he devoted much of his
academic and political efforts since 1917.3 It goes to his
eternal credit that he was successful in placing this “invisible” segment of
Hindu society on the social and political map of India. Ambedkar articulated
their problems, brought about a deserved recognition of these problems, and
2 See "States and Minorities" (1947), "Communal Deadlock and the Way to solve it" (1945), "Evidence before the Southborough Committee on
Franchise" (1919), in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar:
Writings And Speeches, op. cit., Vol. 1, 1979.
3 Among Ambedkar's writings on
the problem of caste are: (a) "Castes in India: Their Genesis, Mechanism
and Development" (1917), (b) "Annihilation of
Castes" (1935), (c) "The Untouchables: Who are
they and why they Become Untouchable” (1948), (d)
"Who were the Shudras? How they Became the Fourth Varna in Indo-Aryan
Society" (1946), in ibid., Vols. I, V and VII.
THE MAN AND HIS
CONTRIBUTIONS 3
was successful in
providing safe-guards in the Constitution and in the legal system of India
against social and economic discrimination. With untiring zeal, he generated
among the depressed classes an intense awakening about their rights. He left
behind him a legacy of an apparatus of social, religious and political
organisations, a network of educational institutions, a revived Buddhist
religion, and an ideology supported by a prodigious literary output which forms
an enduring base for the perennial awakening of the masses in India for years
to come.4 In the area of Constitution making, Ambedkar was
involved in all the deliberations, even preceding the Montagu-Chelmsford
Reforms of 1919. Prior to these reforms, a Franchise
Committee was appointed under the Chairmanship of Lord Southborough to deal
with the issue of franchise. Ambedkar, who gave extensive evidence before this
committee, argued forcefully for political representation for depressed classes
on the basis of population. The committee recognized representation to the
depressed classes by nomination, though to a lesser extent than Ambedkar had
envisaged. Ambedkar also presented a printed memorandum to the Indian Statutory
Commission under the Chairmanship of Sir John Simon in May 1928,
which revised the Government of India Act of 1919. He also
played a crucial role in the Round Table Conferences which were convened in
London in the 1930s to frame a Constitution for India, and
served on the Minority sub-committee, the Provincial sub-committee and the
Service subcommittee. In a scheme of political safeguards for depressed classes
in a self-governing India that he submitted to the Minority sub-committee, he
argued for common citizenship, free use of rights, and adequate representation
in legislation and
4
Eleanor Zelliot (1992), From Untouchable to Dalit,
Delhi: Manohar, pp. 54-78.
4
AMBEDKAR´S CONTRIBUTION TO WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
government services to
the depressed classes. The emergence of the depressed classes as a force to
reckon with in the political map of India was mainly the achievement of
Ambedkar's eloquence in the Round Table Conferences in the 1930s.5 When a Constitutent Assembly was to be constituted to frame
the Constitution of India, Ambedkar submitted a memorandum to it, entitled
"State and Minorities,”6 probably the only person to
have done so. The memorandum outlined his view on the form of the envisaged
Constitution and it was much more than a charter of provisions for minorities
in the country's constitution. On account of his profound knowledge of constitutional
matters, Ambedkar was appointed a member of the drafting committee of the
Constituent Assembly and finally its Chairman, a trust that he vindicated in
full measure. Working with incredible speed and energy, he almost
single-handedly produced the draft within two years of the first meeting of the
Constituent Assembly, and a little over a year later, the final Constitution.
Recalling his contribution to this stupendous achievement, T.T. Krishnamachari,
who was a member of the Drafting Committee, said in the Constituent Assembly on
November 5, 1948:
The House is perhaps
aware that of the seven members nominated by you one resigned from the house
and was replaced. One died and was not replaced. One was away in America and
his place was not filled up and another person was engaged in state affairs and
there was void to the extent. One or two people were far away from Delhi and
perhaps reason of health did not permit them to attend. So it happened
5 See W.N. Kuber (1991),
Ambedkar: A Critical Study, New Delhi: People's Publishing House. 6 Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (1947), State and Minorities, Bombay: Thacker & Co.
THE MAN AND HIS
CONTRIBUTIONS 5
ultimately that the
burden of drafting the Constitution fell on Dr. Ambedkar and I have no
hesitation in saying that we are grateful to him for having achieved this task
in a manner which is undoubtedly commendable.7
Pylee writes:
Ambedkar brought to
bear on his task a vast area of qualities, erudition, scholarship, imagination,
logic and eloquence and experience. Whenever he spoke in the house usually to
reply to the criticisms advanced against provisions of Draft Constitution there
emerged a clear and lucid exposition of provisions of the Constitution. As he
sat down, the mist of doubts vanished as also the clouds of confusion and
vagueness. Indeed, he was a modern Manu and deserves to be called the Father or
the Chief Architect of the Constitution of India.8
In his concluding
speech Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the President of the Constituent Assembly
said:
Sitting in the chair
and watching the proceedings from day to day, I have realised as nobody else
could have, with what zeal and devotion the members of the Drafting Committee
and especially its Chairman Dr. Ambedkar, in spite of his indifferent health
have worked. We would have never made a decision which was or could be ever so
right as when we put him on the Drafting Committee and made him its Chairman.
He has not only justified his selection but has added lustre to the work which
he has done.
Among the more
noteworthy of Ambedkar's contibutions are his views on the reorganisation of
states, which posed considerable difficulty to the Constituent Assembly. He
dealt with the issue in its
7 Dananjay Keer (1954),
Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission, Bombay: Popular Prakashan. 8 Kuber, op.cit.,147-8.
6
AMBEDKAR´S CONTRIBUTION TO WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
entirety in
"Thoughts on Linguistic States", in which he stated his position. 9 His views were new and differed from those of the State
Reorganisation Commission. According to him, "the one state, one language
theory may be put up by any two ways: (1) one state, one
language or (2) one language, many states." While in
principle he agreed that language should form the base for the creation of
states, since a linguistic province produces what democracy needs, namely
social homogeneity, and makes democracy work better than it would in a mixed province,
he favoured the second option of people speaking one language organised into
many states, his preference being for small states.10 He
laid down five principles for the formation of the individual states: (a)
efficient administration, (b) needs of the different areas, (c) Sentiments of
different areas, (d) proportion between the majority and minority, and (e) the
size of the state. Regarding religious minorities, an issue which was uppermost
in the minds of many at that time, Ambedkar expressed his views in a book
titled Thoughts on Pakistan, which was a provocative and helpful analysis of
the basis of nationalism.11
Water Policy and
Planning
No less important, but
less well known among Ambedkar's contributions to the nation are his direct
participation and role in the formulation of certain development policies and
planning. At least on two occasions, Ambedkar was directly involved in policy making:
once as Law Minister in the Central Cabinet of independent India during 1947-51 and, earlier, as
9 See Ambedkar's “Thoughts on Linguistic
States” (1955), “Maharashtra as a Linguistic Province” (1954), "Need for Check and Balance" (1953)
in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar:
Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, op. cit. 10 Kuber, op.cit. 234. 11 "Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: Thoughts on
Pakistan" First Edition (1940), Pakistan or the
Partition of India, Bombay: Thacker (1946), third edition.
THE MAN AND HIS
CONTRIBUTIONS 7
a member of the
Viceroy's Executive Council, in charge of the Labour, Irrigation and Power
portfolio during 1942-46. Though he made a substantial
contribution to the nation's development in this position, surprisingly, this
aspect of his life has hardly been studied.12 An
Independent Department of Labour had been created in November 1937,
the Department of Industry, which was a part of a combined Department of
Industry and Labour, going to the Commerce Department. Subjects like
"irrigation", "electricity" and others related to public
works were also transferred to the newly created Department of Labour. The
policy formulation and planning for the development of "irrigation and
electric power" including "hydro-electric power" thus became the
major concern of the labour portfolio in July 1942.13 The
early 1940s, when Ambedkar took charge of irrigation and
electricity, were a crucial period for the evolution and adoption of the
concept of economic planning at an all-India level. The post-war plan for the
reconstruction and economic development for India was then taking shape. The
Government took a very ambitious initiative to develop a framework within which
positive alternative policies were centrally formulated. It was to be an action
plan. The policy regarding water resources and electric power development was
conceived, initiated and was given a definite shape as part of this programme.
The Labour Department began all-India planning for the development of
irrigation, waterways and navigation virtually from scratch. Sporadic local
12
Bhagwan Das (1979) "Introductory note on the River
Valley Project", Thus Spoke Ambedkar, Vol 3, Bhagwan
Das (ed.), In this short essay Bhagwan Das highlights the role of Dr Ambedkar
in the development of river valley projects. 13 National Archive
of India (1987), International Council on Archives, Guide
to sources of Asian History: India 3.1, New Delhi, 105-12.
8
AMBEDKAR´S CONTRIBUTION TO WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
enquiries and
investigations in these matters had been made by the Centre from time to time,
but planning efforts had been undertaken exclusively on a local basis. It was
the first time that the Centre began to consider planning as a fundamental
subject for water, power, mineral resource etc., on a comprehensive all-India
scale and against an all India background. 14 A Central
Government policy with regard to water resources and hydro-electric power
development was accordingly evolved and given a definite shape. Among the
consequences of these efforts were: (a)
the emergence of a definite all-India policy with regard to the development of
"water and electric power resources" of the country;
(b) the creation of an
administrative apparatus and technical bodies at the Centre to assist the
states in the development of irrigation and electric power resources such as
the present-day Central Water Commission and Central Electricity Authority;
(c) the adoption of the
concept of River Valley Authority or Corporation to overcome constitutional
problems regarding the jurisdiction of Central-State Governments and to develop
irrigation and hydro-electric power of interstate rivers;
(d) the introduction of the
concept of regional and multipurpose development of river valley basin for the first time in
India; and
(e) the initiation of
some important present day river valley projects, major and minor, which
include
14 File No. DW-1-25 CWINC/47, Labour Department, "Setting up of the Central Water,
Irrigation and Navigation Commission on Permanent Basis", National
Archive, New Delhi.
9
THE
MAN AND HIS CONTRIBUTIONS
the Damodar River
Valley, Sone River Valley, Orissa river Schemes including the Mahanadi, the
Chambal River Scheme and the schemes for the river of the Deccan.
Dr. Ambedkar, being at
the helm of affairs of the Labour Department was instrumental in initiating
these steps. With his deep knowledge in the area of economics, politics and
constitutional law, he helped the Central Government and his Department in the
articulation of water and power policy and planning. What follows is an attempt
to understand and highlight the role and contribution made by Ambedkar and his
department during 1942-46 to this aspect of India's
development. Their achievements were in terms of policy formulation, creation
of an administrative apparatus and technical bodies at the Centre that provided
an alternative solution to state-Central problems, and setting in motion
several present-day major and medium river valley projects.
An extract from the
book “Ambedkar’s Contribution to Water Resources Development” A Research
Project by Central Water Commission , Ministry of Water Resources, River Development
and Ganga Rejuvenation, CENTRAL WATER COMMISSION NEW DELHI. First published in
1993
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