Bharat Bhushan Babasaheb Ambedkar

                                                    Bharat Bhushan Babasaheb Ambedkar

Excerpts from the biography of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar by the author

DHANANJAY KEER

AMBEDKAR found a peculiar charm and magnetism in the appellation Bharat. He had named one of his weeklies Bahishkrit Bharat. The name of his printing press was Bharat Bhushan Printing Press. His fight for temple entry and his battle for codifying the Hindu laws speak volumes for his inner struggle. You might believe the conversion of Lord Halifax, but not of Ambedkar, if conversion implies embracing a foreign faith. Ambedkar had insisted at the Round Table Conference that the depressed classes should be styled protestant Hindus or non-Conformist Hindus. For one must not forget his memorable words which echoed the feelings of the innermost recesses of his heart :

 " Had my mind been seized with hatred and revenge, I would have brought. disaster upon this land in less than five years." His. anxiety to live in Hindu culture, his avowal of embracing a religion that would neither denationalise the depressed classes nor harm the ancient culture  of this land, all point to the fact that his religion had something to do with the culture, history and tradition of this land. His religion and politics went hand in hand. This is why Buddhist critics say, that the Dhamma preached by Ambedkar is not Buddhism but Ambedkarism. And rightly so, His Dhamma preaches the necessity to kill if there is need to do so, and his message to India is that  Indians should be determined to defend the independence of this land to last drop of their blood.

Champion Of Human Rights

The story of the life of Dr. Ambedkar was thus the struggle of a champion of human right.  It passed before the eyes of the people as the condolence meetings were being held all over the country. All agreed that he was a fighter for the dignity of man and the saviour of a suppressed people. No man in this country, or perhaps in any other country, could equal Ambedkar in his career which was exciting, varying, romantic and wonderful. To be born on a dunghill, to begin life as an untouchable, to be treated in one's boyhood as a leper, and to have passed one's youth barred and bolted from society, which showed one out of hair-dressing saloons, hotels, hostels, cars, temples and offices, is a shocking experience in life.

To have acted as a tiffin-carrier boy, to study while starving to obtain the highest degrees of world famous universities, to devote one's time to study, to have made one's way fighting every step forward, now with a surgical scalpel, now with a bludgeon, favoured neither by a family fortune, nor by political adoption, and to have faced perils and bitter political opposition, is creditable. courageous, and remarkable enough. And yet to have grown in name, fame and national prominence without being lifted by a party press or party caucuses, to have served on important committees relating to the development of franchise. economics and constitution of a nation, to have been labour member of the Executive Council of a Government, to have been the first Law Minister of a free nation, to have been the chief architect  of the Constitution of a nation that trampled one in one's boyhood,  and to have released a suppressed people from the stigma, shackles and slavery under which they had groaned for ages, is surely an unequaled achievement in the whole experience of mankind ! And so this son of an untouchable Hindu  stands out in the story at this ancient land as an educationist, economist, author, professor, lawyer, lighter, law-giver, law-maker, leveler and liberator.

Mass Leader

 Ambedkar edited papers. He wrote books on economics and sociology, history and politics. He conducted hostels and reading rooms. He was Principal of a Law College. He presided over hundreds of political and social conferences. A mass leader, he led social, political and labour movements. He founded political parties and colleges. He displayed the wisdom of a statesman, the qualities of a leader, the courage of a hero, the endurance of a martyr and the erudition of a savant. He adorned high public offices enriching them with his wisdom, democratic wind and love of human dignity. That in such a span of life the son of an untouchable could crowd such varied interests, abstentions and scholarship is unparalleled achievement in modern world.

Great men have sprung from palaces as well from cottages.  They have sprung from the homes of shoe-makers, tailors, butchers, brick-layers, and blacksmiths. But Ambedkar had the unique distinction of springing from the dust. He came of a family whose hundred forefathers were treated in this land worse than dogs, whose touch was regarded as a pollution and whose shadow a sacrilege.

 Ambedkar's name, therefore, will be imperishably linked with the history of India. Most of his ideals have been incorporated into the Constitution. He rebelled against Manu and dethroned him from his high pedestal This was a victory unequaled in the history of this ancient land. Ambedkar thus achieved what was above the ambition and attainment and beyond the dream of men of his community. He belongs to the men of first eminence of our age. He belongs to the line of those who have been saviours of the suppressed and oppressed. He shaped the life of sixty million people. He made his mark on the times. He wrote his name on the future of this country and in the history of human freedom. Ambedkar's life constituted a proof that the strength in the seed to rise is not dead among the suppressed castes in India. It is a solid evidence of the survival of their manhood, virility and virtues. His life provides an example and an aspiration to the downtrodden, masses of humanity that no bar of class, no bar of caste, no bar of privilege, no bar of riches, can prevent the full attainment and growth of an individual who is determined to build his personality, on patient labour, burning sincerity, supreme courage, and selfless sacrifice. He dealt a shattering blow to the arrogance of those who held that individual elevation and attainment were the monopoly of the privileged few. We will not see the like of Ambedkar. Nature breaks, Emerson observes, the mould of a Great Man as soon as he is born.

 He Did It

 " If I fail to do away with the abominable thraldom and inhuman injustice under which the class, into which I was born, has been groaning, I will put an end to my life with a bullet." This was the glorious vow taken by Ambedkar. Untouchability was abolished under the Constitution of free Bharat. The vow was fulfilled, the dream realized, and the ambition materialized. The bondage ended. He said it. He did it.

Thus, the unique life of Bharat Bhushan Ambedkar has become a new source of inspiration for devotees. From it has emerged a new deity and the lamp that will be burning in its temple in this land of temples will be seen from all sides of the nation and from distant corners of the world. A new academy of knowledge, a new inspiration for poetry, a new place of pilgrimage and a new opportunity for literature have sprung up!

 

https://araingang.medium.com/dalit-conversion-in-british-punjab-7d916e6315e9

Dalit Conversion in British Punjab

ArainGang

Apr 9·4 min read

British Punjab was perhaps the most religiously dynamic region in all of South Asia during the colonial period. Christian missionaries, Dalit activists, Hindu reformers, Sikh preachers, and Muslim revivalists all jockeyed for position in a region traditionally not monopolized by any one faith. Local efforts, coupled with broader global trends sweeping through India, led to a number of religious changes among Punjabis during this period.

Thanks to British census records¹ we have the ability analyze the religious changes that occurred at both a tribal and regional level. The first group I’d like to discuss are the “Untouchables”, known in the modern period as Dalits. These tribes were traditionally found at the bottom of the Caste hierarchy, thought fit for only the most menial and degrading of tasks, and generally existed at the periphery of mainstream society.

The Chuhras and Chamars, comprising 35 and 65 percent of the Punjabi Dalit population respectively, will be the two tribes analyzed in this piece. Pictured below are graphs depicting their change in religious affiliation between 1881 and 1931.

As depicted above, while the Chuhra population was almost perfectly divided between Muslims and Hindus in 1881, by 1931 that was no longer the case. 40% of Hindu Chuhras and 27% of Muslim Chuhras appear to have converted to Sikhism, Ad Dharmi, and Christianity. This isn’t suprising, given that Ad Dharmi was a religion founded by and for Dalits, while Christian missionaries specifically targeted Dalits due to the latter’s disenchantment with the existing hierarchies. Sikhism also could have offered hopes of more egalitarian treatment, though its also likely that many Chuhras had in fact been Sikhs all along, but were recorded as Hindus due to the British census protocols² in place before 1911.

Here we see another movement out of Hinduism, with nearly 80% of Hindu Chamars converting to either Ad Dharmi or Sikhism. The Muslim share of Chamars appears to have largely held steady. The lack of converts to Christianity is interesting, and according to Sara Singha can be explained by the Chamars holding Chuhras in such low regard, that when the latter began to take an interest in the new faith, the former decided it simply was not for them.

Present Circumstances

While most of these religious communities above are still going strong today, the Ad Dharmis are notably absent. This unfortunately is by design. The young faith started by Dalits as a means of emancipation from the Brahmanical Caste System had drawn the ire of Hindus, who by the late British period, were growing increasingly insecure as their numbers in Punjab dwindled.

Following India’s independence the Hindu government refused to recognize Ad Dharmi as a religion, and going a step further, refused to provide the agreed upon affirmative action to any Dalit who did not register as a Hindu³. This effectively killed the Ad Darhmi movement, and while attempts have been made to revive it, a combination of government pressure and caste-infighting has rendered the movement impotent.

Notes
1) Data from 1881 and 1931 Punjab Census, excluding Princely States and those districts falling outside of traditional Punjab (Haryana and Himachal regions).

2) Prior to the 1911 census the British would automatically classify many Punjabis as Hindus if they did not appear to be sufficiently orthodox with respect to Islamic, Christian, or Sikh practice. As religious lines began to harden and it became important to identify oneself with a specific faith tradition, many Punjabis, previously content with the broad label of Hindu, began to agitate against such a policy, and the British eventually relented.

3.) This “affirmative action” is known as the Reservation System in India, providing education, career, and in some cases political subsidies to those minorities traditionally exploited by the Hindu Caste System. This initiative was first started by the British, against heavy protest by upper-caste Hindus, and carried forward in post-independence India on the condition that communities must continue identifying as Hindu to receive benefits. Over the years some communities like Sikhs and Buddhists were granted recognition as separate religions deserving of Reservations, but other religions like Islam and Christianity, which upper-caste Hindus regard as threats for Dalit conversion, continue to be denied.

Dalit politics should learn from Dr. Ambedkar

 

Dalit politics should learn from Dr. Ambedkar

-    S. R. Darapuri, National Spokesperson, All India Peoples Front

 

Dr. Ambedkar had said, “Political power is the key to all problems and Dalits can get their emancipation by uniting and seizing power. Political power should be used for the development of the society.” Therefore, he also called upon the Dalits to win political power. That is why Dr. Ambedkar raised the demand for minority status for Dalits and political rights like other minorities in the Round Table Conferences and also received them in the form of Communal Award. On this, Gandhiji had threatened to fast unto death, saying that it would break Hindu society, while he had no objection to giving this right to other minorities. Finally, under undue pressure, Dr. Ambedkar had to do "Poona Packet" to save Gandhi's life and sacrifice the right of Dalits to political freedom and accept joint constituencies and reserved seats.

 Dr. Ambedkar is considered to be the father of Dalit politics. To participate in the elections in 1937, Dr. Ambedkar founded the Independent Labour Party in August 1936 and contested 17 seats in Bombay Presidency and won 15 seats out of which 3 seats were general. After this, he formed the All India Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) on July 19, 1942. Under this party, he contested elections in 1946 and 1952, but he did not get any significant  success due to the ill-effects of Poona Packet. As a result, in the elections of 1952 and 1954, Dr. Ambedkar himself lost the election. Finally, on October 14, 1956, in Nagpur, he announced the dissolution of the All India Scheduled Castes Federation and the formation of a new party named Republican Party of India (RPI). For this he also made the constitution of this party. In fact, this party came into existence on October 3, 1957 after his Parinirvan. According to this description, Babasaheb formed three political parties during his lifetime. Of these, currently the RPI exists in the form of separate factions.

In the present context, it is necessary to see whether the political parties through which Babasaheb did politics were caste politics or politics of issues of different classes. For this it is necessary to analyse the agenda of the parties established by him.

Let us first look at Babasaheb's Swatantra Mazdoor Party. Dr. Ambedkar, in his statement, while explaining the reasons for the formation of the party and its work, had said- “Keeping in view that today is not the time to organize parties on the basis of sectarianism, I have by agreeing with the wishes of my friends, the name of the party and its program have been made wide so that political cooperation with other sections of the people becomes possible. The main focus of the party will remain only 15 members of the Dalit castes, but people from other classes will also be able to join the party. The party's manifesto included redressal of the needs and problems of the landless, poor peasants and tenants and laborers, restoration of old industries and establishment of new industries, consolidation of small holdings, expansion of technical education, state control over industries, exploitation and eviction of land tenants by the zamindars, laws for protection of industrial workers etc.

The party mainly laid emphasis on the welfare of farmers and poor labourers. The party's effort was to educate the people in the ways of democracy, to put the right ideology in front of them and to organize them for political action under law etc. It is clear from this that the politics of this party was not casteist but class and issue based and mainly Dalits were at its centre. This party was the opposition party of the ruling Congress in the Bombay Legislative Assembly. This party had got made many public utility laws during its tenure. Due to the opposition of this party, the Industrial Disputes Bill to ban the strike in factories could not be passed.

Now let's see the purpose and agenda of All India Scheduled Castes Federation established by Babasaheb in 1942. Some of the main issues in the party's manifesto were: all Indians deserve equality, religious, economic and political equality. It is the responsibility of the state to keep all Indians free from deprivation and fear, to preserve liberty, equality and fraternity; freedom from oppression and exploitation of man by man, class by class and nation by nation, and protection of parliamentary system of government, nationalization of insurance under economic program and compulsory insurance scheme for all government employees and prohibition. Although this party could not achieve any special success in the elections in front of the powerful Congress due to the Poona Pact, but due to the party's agenda and mass movement like land movement etc., the untouchables started gathering under a political flag, which increased their confidence. It is clear from the program of the Federation that although Dalits were at the centre of this party, the party used to do politics on issues instead of caste politics and its coverage was wide.

As it has been written above that Babasaheb had announced the establishment of a new political party "Republican Party of India" (RPI) on October 14, 1956, keeping in mind the changing circumstances and the need of the people, and its constitution which he made. His main objective behind forming this party was to create such a party which is according to the promises made in the constitution and its purpose is to fulfil them. He did not want to make it a party of untouchables only because a party formed in the name of one caste or class cannot come into power. It can only become a pressure group. The main objectives behind the establishment of the RPI were: (1) To remove inequalities from the society so that no privileged and deprived sections remain, (2) There should be a two-party system: one in power the other opposition party, (3) Equality before the law and there should be equal law for all, (4) establishment of moral values ​​in the society, (5) equal treatment to minority people, (6) the spirit of humanity which has been lacking in Indian society.

The main goal and objective of the party in the preamble of the party's constitution was to achieve "Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity". The program of the party was very wide. Babasaheb's objective behind the establishment of the party was that minority people, poor Muslims, poor Christians, poor and lower caste Sikhs and untouchables of weaker sections, people of backward castes, people of primitive castes, end of exploitation, seeking justice and progress, all such people could be united under one flag and stand against the capitalists and defend the constitution and their rights. (Dalit Politics and Organization - Bhagwan Das)

RPI was duly established in 1957 after Babasaheb's Parinirvan and the party fought the elections of 1957, 1962 and 1967 with a new agenda. Apart from Maharashtra, the party got good success in other parts of the country as well. In 1957 this party won 12 MPs and 29 MLAs seats. In 1962, the party had 3 MPs all from Uttar Pradesh and 20 MLAs out of which 10 MLAs were from Uttar Pradesh. In 1967, 1 MP who was from Uttar Pradesh and 22 MLAs out of which 8 were from Uttar Pradesh. Initially, the party struggled for the distribution of land, reservation in jobs, minimum wages, reservation for Dalits who converted from Hinduism to Buddhism, etc. People of religions like Muslims, Sikhs and Jains participated in the party.

On 6 December 1964, the RPI organized a nationwide Satyagraha for the land. In these more than 370,000 satyagrahis were arrested by the government and 13 died. As a result, the Congress government was forced to distribute 2,00,000 acres of land to the landless people. In 1972, RPI MP barrister Raja Bhau Khobragade demanded distribution of land to the landless by imposing a ceiling of 20 acres on agricultural land in the Lok Sabha. As a result, Indira Gandhi passed the Land Ceiling Act in Parliament and landless were distributed surplus land.

During this period RPI emerged as a strong party of Dalits, Backwards and Minorities. But after 1962 this party started breaking up. The main reason for this was that this party was a threat to the strongest political party of that time, Congress in Maharashtra. A major weakness of this party was that its membership was limited mostly to Mahars only. Congress leaders took advantage of the weaknesses of the leaders of this party and started sabotaging the party. First of all, it solicited the most powerful leader of the party Dadasaheb Gaikwad and made him a member of the Rajya Sabha. On this the party split into two factions: one faction of Gaikwad with Congress and the other with B.D. Khobragade faction in protest. After this, separate factions were formed in the name of different leaders and at present it has become ineffective due to division into many factions. The leaders of these groups use the name Republican, but they have nothing to do with the basic agenda of this party. They make compromises with different parties for their own benefit and sometimes take personal advantage as well. (Dalit Politics and Organization - Bhagwan Das)                  

After the fall of RPI, a party emerged in North India by the name of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984 which promised to fulfil Babasaheb's mission. Initially this party did not get much success. Later in 1993, by contesting elections in Uttar Pradesh in collaboration with the backward castes Samajwadi Party (SP), this party got good seats (67) and a united government was formed. But it soon collapsed due to some personal interests. The leader of this party, Kanshi Ram, in the greed of getting power, grabbed the chief minister's chair by compromising with the BJP, the fiercest enemy of Dalits, but completely abandoned the mission and principles of Babasaheb. After this, the party formed an alliance with the BJP twice and enjoyed power and is now headed for its downfall. This party disappointed the Dalits by including opportunistic, Brahminical, mafia and capitalist elements in the party. The personal corruption, dictatorship and short-sightedness and opportunism of its leadership has shattered the unity of Dalits, backwards and minorities. Today, a large section of Dalits has broken away from this party and gone with the Hindutva BJP. Barring Chamar/Jatav, a major caste of Dalits, the remaining sub-castes of Dalits have mostly migrated to the BJP. The BJP is using these castes to create a conflict between Dalits and Muslims. Due to this Hindutva is getting stronger and majoritarianism is becoming violent.

One thing is very clear from the above discussion that Dr. Ambedkar was not in favour of caste politics because it strengthens the caste system. This strengthens Hindutva which is a product of caste system. Dr. Ambedkar's goal was to destroy caste and establish a casteless and classless society in India. The political parties that Dr. Ambedkar formed were not caste parties because their goals and objectives were broad. It is true that Dalits were at their centre but their programs were broad and caste-neutral. They were all for the upliftment of the weaker sections. That is why as long as RPI founded by him worked on his principles and agenda, it was successful in uniting the Dalits, workers and minorities. As long as there was internal democracy and it struggled for public issues, it continued to flourish. It collapsed as soon as it fell in the clutches of individualistic, opportunistic and casteist politics.

Therefore, if the current fragmented Dalit politics is to be revived, then the Dalits will have to move out of caste politics and adopt the politics of wider issues. They have to free themselves from politicians who indulge in caste politics for personal gain. They should know that caste politics promotes hero worship of caste leaders and encourages dictatorship. In caste politics, leaders become dominant and issues secondary. It has been proved from the experience so far that caste politics leads to caste conflict and caste competition which is a hindrance in the unity of castes. As a result of this many small sub-castes of Dalits have joined their enemy Hindutva Party in reaction to big sub-castes, which is a great threat to Dalit unity. Therefore, in the face of this danger, it is necessary that the Depressed Classes re-evaluate their political parties and politicians and reject the disruptive politics of caste and follow the democratic, progressive and issue-based politics as expected by Dr. Ambedkar. In fact, now the country does not need casteist parties, but an anti-caste front with the cooperation of all, otherwise the castes will keep getting stronger, which will continue to nourish the politics of caste and religion, which is the biggest threat to democracy at present.

Keeping this need of Dalit politics in view, we formed the All-India People's Front in 2013. In the leadership of this party, preference has been given to Dalits, Adivasis, minorities, most backward and women. Its main goal is to give a concrete shape to the concept of Begumpura of Saint Ravidas. This party is in favour of secularism and democracy. Our effort is to create a multi-class party so that intellectuals, social workers and parties of different ideologies can be included in it and counter the present threat of totalitarianism of BJP/RSS being carried out with the help of Hindutva and corporate, and finance capital.