The Essential Ambedkar

410 Pages·2016·1.58 MB·English

by  Bhalchandra Mungekar

THE ESSENTIAL
AMBEDKAR
THE ESSENTIAL
AMBEDKAR
EDITED BY
Bhalchandra Mungekar
Published by
Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd 2017
7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj New Delhi 110002
Selection and Introduction Copyright © Bhalchandra Mungekar 2017
Passages quoted on pp. 111–112, 118–120, 123–124 and 177–178 from Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar by
Changdeo Bhagwanrao Khairmode are reprinted by permission of Sugava Prakashan Ltd.
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the Government of Maharashtra for permission to reprint copyright
material from Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Vols. 1–17.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of
the publisher.
The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author’s own and the facts are as reported by him/her
which have been verified to the extent possible, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same.
ISBN: 978-81-291-3507-0
First impression 2017
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Typeset by SÜRYA, New Delhi This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade
or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any
form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.
To Babasaheb
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
1. CASTE AND UNTOUCHABILITY
2. ECONOMICS OF CASTE AND HINDU SOCIAL ORDER
3. PHILOSOPHY OF THE HINDU RELIGION
4. STRUGGLE FOR EQUAL HUMAN RIGHTS
5. SWARAJ AND POLITICAL SAFEGUARDS FOR THE DEPRESSED CLASSES
6. CONVERSION IS THE ONLY WAY FOR THE LIBERATION OF THE UNTOUCHABLES
7. VIEWS ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND LABOUR WELFARE
8. ON THE MAKING OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION
9. THE CHALLENGES BEFORE THE PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY IN INDIA AND
THEIR REMEDIES
10. THOUGHTS ON LINGUISTIC STATES
11. BUDDHA OR KARL MARX
12. THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN
13. THOUGHTS ON PAKISTAN, OR THE PARTITION OF INDIA
14. OTHER THOUGHTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION
Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the tempo of the world has been
accelerating forward at a breathtaking speed. However, in India, an indigenously
created caste-based segregation, our version of racism, a minute and
comprehensive form of discrimination and oppression that has existed for
millennia, has been at work with the same speed, but unfortunately in the
opposite direction. For the section classified as the Depressed Classes, day-to-
day life is in itself a grave struggle, a manifold fight for survival.
In every modern, democratic nation, people want to feel fully alive rather
than merely survive. In order to for them to do so, the polity is required to
imbibe a sense of socio-economic and political equality, as well as liberty.
However, in India, this is not, and has never been, the case, and there is no way
to know how long, in the ongoing civilizational process, this human greed for
adoring and enjoying certain privileges over others is going to last. But as long
as inequality and discrimination exist, a struggle to get rid of this yoke by the
deprived masses will certainly continue to be part of the socio-political fight for
generations to come.
The nature of the struggle by the sieged population fighting to annihilate
these caste fortifications has always been defensive rather than offensive. The
credit for this civility goes to Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, one of the tallest,
yet most neglected and often misunderstood intellectual-political leaders in the
mainstream socio-political discourse of modern India. Perhaps because he
fundamentally challenges the iniquitous Hindu social order, he has been
rendered the most controversial of the mass political leaders in India. However,
the fact remains that his key text, The Annihilation of Caste, contains persuasive
arguments, heavily supported with solid facts, as well as a sophisticated, logical
tone. This seminal book on the one hand depicts a rebellion against caste and
untouchability and wants to destroy it; and on the other, it advocates non-enmity
with coercion towards the tormentor, implicitly advising that there are always
other practices available to push forward a struggle for justice responsibly rather
than indulging in punitive violent measures. So the epoch-making approach
Ambedkar adopts, though corrective and hence confrontational, is both a
peacemaking as well as peacekeeping one.
Ambedkar and Gandhi
Ambedkar was the pioneer intellectual in the study of caste and untouchability.
He delved into such details that with all their possible and conceivable
dimensions, he fought caste discrimination at all given levels: social, political,
economic and educational. His Annihilation of Caste is both an illuminative as
well as a redemptive text. Ambedkar used his writings and lectures to confront a
world of indifference and betrayal in order to pursue his reformative agenda,
equal in dimension to that of Gandhi’s. The power of his reason was such that
Gandhi described him as a ‘challenge to Hinduism’. But unfortunately he did not
receive the attention, the critical acclaim, or the adulation he deserves, the way
Gandhi did. Ambedkar was of the view that political safeguards for
Untouchables were necessary as the Untouchables constituted the largest
minority, and that without these safeguards they would not be able to enjoy
political and social freedom. This was viewed as a direct challenge to Gandhi’s
unchallenged leadership and therefore the conflict between the two was
inevitable.
Being a multifaceted personality—an economist, a sociologist, a barrister, an
editor, a constitutionalist of the first rank, a professor, an able parliamentarian,
an educationist and a commentator on Buddhism—Ambedkar was predestined to
engage himself beyond personality conflicts and look into the problems of India
from both a macro as well as micro perspective.
Ambedkar’s Legacy
Ambedkar’s views and efforts towards the abolition of caste and untouchability
necessarily differed from those of his predecessors because he was born an
Untouchable himself, who had suffered indignities and humiliations while
growing up and also in his preliminary professional career.
His struggle was meant to raise a whole community, which until then had
been condemned to endure abandonment, betrayal and social invisibility
resulting in imposed poverty, though by virtue of their resolve they had always
managed to survive even under such inhuman circumstances. His writings
became the manifesto of social emancipation for the supressed masses.
Throughout his argumentative and active life he had always dreamt of a
casteless, democratic and fraternal Indian society which would be prosperous
enough to be responsible for their individual as well as social well-being.
Ambedkar’s basic arguments were against the institutionalization of the
caste-based isolation and discrimination prevalent in the Hindu mind.
Regretfully, in the course of time, this evil mindset had conquered many of the
other religious communities in India. Hence, in view of the Hindus’
unwillingness to lay aside the yoke of casteism, he felt compelled to find kinship
in Buddhism, a religion free from the inhuman practice of segregation.
His intellectual integrity, showing his uncompromising commitment to his
cause, was so strong that when he was asked to remove parts of his planned
lecture in Lahore on ‘The Annihilation of Caste’, he promptly wrote back: ‘I
shall not change even a comma in the text of the lecture.’ As a result, the
organizers cancelled the lecture and it remained undelivered. Ambedkar
thereafter published it in a personal capacity.
Besides being a social revolutionary, Ambedkar was a devoted patriot and a
great nation builder. For all the disappointment he suffered thanks to the Indian
socio-political system, he remains one of the greatest thinkers of renewal
worldwide. He dealt with all the burning problems facing the country and
provided lasting solutions. Not a single issue that related to India remained
untouched by him. As an active intellectual politician, whose carefully evolved
ideas are still valid today, Ambedkar had prominently participated in the making
of the Indian Constitution as its chief architect. The prime aim and mission of his
life was the abolition of caste discrimination from the fabric of India. He wanted
to bring the downtrodden and oppressed people freedom from caste-based
oppression and untouchability. To this end he challenged the system and fought
for structural reforms in the way Indian polity and society was organized.
To select a mere 500 pages and leave out the remaining about 17,500 pages
of the corpus of Dr Ambedkar’s forward-looking and thought-provoking
writings and speeches, of which each page is worth reading and reflecting upon,
appeared to be a herculean task for me. But then I remembered that this selection
is meant to act as a trailer to the edifice of his writings, and as a stepping stone to
a better understanding of Ambedkar. So please treat it as a token of my lifelong
commitment to the legacy of that great thinker and even greater human being. It
is also gratifying to me that this book is being published around the time of the
125th birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar.
Before I end, please allow me to gratefully acknowledge the encouragement
and cooperation that was extended to me by a number of scholars and friends.
But first and foremost, I want to express my gratitude to the Government of
Maharashtra for publishing the collected writings and speeches of Dr Ambedkar
(under Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches) since 1978 and making
them available to the larger public at one place. I also pay tribute to the late Shri
Vasant Moon for his pioneering and painstaking efforts to collect, compile and
edit the first fifteen volumes in the series.
I am especially grateful to R.K. Mehra and his entire team at Rupa
Publications that gave due priority to the publication of this anthology in a
befitting manner and at an appropriate time. I must make a special mention of
the cooperation rendered by Ritu Vajpeyi-Mohan and Amrita Mukerji during the
process of publishing the book. I thank Shri Rajvinder Singh, my very close
friend, who has had tremendous involvement in the completion of this work. I
am thankful to Kapish Mehra and Elina Majumdar for impressing upon me the
urgency to bring this book out as early as possible. Dr Sanjay Das, Jitendra
Mungekar and Pravin Kadam also need a special mention for their invaluable
help in preparing the manuscript.
I express my heartiest sentiments towards my wife, Leena, and to my
children, Kranti, Sushil and Purva, who have always been a constant source of
encouragement and inspiration in all my academic endeavours.
Last but not least, I thank the readers, who, I am sure, will appreciate my
humble effort to cull out the essence of Ambedkar’s lone and epoch-making
battle to seek justice for the millions of downtrodden people in India,
particularly the so-called Untouchables, while at the same time remaining
continuously engaged in the building of a modern India.
PROFESSOR BHALACHANDRA MUNGEKAR
201, Brahmaputra, Dr B.D. Marg