What Babasaheb Ambedkar Means to Me

173 Pages·2017·2.29 MB·Indonesian

by  Ambedkar Age Collective

What Babasaheb Ambedkar
Means to Me
~ Ambedkar Age Collective

Published by
The Shared Mirror Publishing House shall endeavour to promote Dalit
Bahujan literature and writers. It takes inspiration from the publishing
efforts of anti-caste visionaries like Phule, Iyothee Thass, Babasaheb
Ambedkar, Periyar and others.
It aims to further the anti-caste discourse, following the course set
by Round Table India, the Dalit Bahujan information portal, through
publishing poetry, fiction and non-fiction. It is driven by a sincere desire to
radically expand the horizons of Indian writing in English and other
languages by providing a platform to a wide range of marginalized voices
across the sub-continent.
For more: www.thesharedmirror.org

eBook edition 2017: ISBN 9788192993027
Published in India by The Shared Mirror Publishing House, Hyderabad
Copyright © 2017, The Shared Mirror Publishing House (of the collection)
Copyright © of each work belongs to the respective author or artist.
Cover Design: Nidhin Shobhana, K. Sarat Chandra
We would like to thank:

All our authors who enthusiastically responded to the call for articles on
Round Table India and Savari.
Kanika Sori, Pinak Banik, and Akshay Pathak for translating articles and
poetry.
Anu Ramdas, Naren Bedide (Kuffir), Akshay Pathak, Sithanthi Alfred
and Gaurav Somwanshi, who went through these articles several times
and copy edited the book.
Nidhin Shobhana, Syama Sundar, and Saurav Arya – artists who
contributed to this book.
Noel Didla, Arvind Bouddh, for being constant sources of energy and
inspiration. Sundeep Pattem for supporting our publishing efforts.
Kankipati Sarat Chandra for designing the cover.
All our friends, families, readers and activists who keep us constantly
engaged and encouraged about anti-caste work.
Contents
Preface
~ Sruthi Herbert, Chetana Sawai and Gurinder Azad ............................................. 1
Call for articles: What Babasaheb Ambedkar Means To Me
~ Round Table India ................................................................................................. 3

Ambedkar Jayanti: Celebrations and Resistance ................................. 5
I dare say ‘I am Ambedkar.’
~ Swati Kamble ....................................................................................................... 6
Why a Village Decided to Not Celebrate Ambedkar Jayanti
~ Rahi Gaikwad................................................................................................... 14
Surviving boycott for Ambedkar’s sake
~ Rahi Gaikwad................................................................................................... 18
Babasaheb is for All of Us
~ Ravindra Kumar Goliya ................................................................................... 22
Ambedkarite Movement in Kalahandi, Odisha: Some Reflections
~ Bansidhar Deep ................................................................................................. 26
Celebrating Ambedkar, Challenging Hegemony
~ Rahul Sonpimple ............................................................................................... 36

Ambedkarism: The Idea, its Spread and Meaning ............................ 43
Bhima’s force shall keep growing
~ Pradnya Jadhav… ............................................................................................. 44
A Tribute to My Teachers
~ Gouri Patwardhan ............................................................................................... 48
The Apatheism of Buddha and Babasaheb's Conversion to Buddhism
~ Suresh RV ......................................................................................................... 55
The Lasting Relevance of Dr Ambedkar and his Philosophy
~Sirra Gagarin ..................................................................................................... 72
We Don’t Worship, We thank, We Salute Babasaheb!
~ Arvind Boudhh .................................................................................................. 78
Ambedkarism is Human Rights
~ Nilesh Kumar .................................................................................................... 82

Growing Up with Babasaheb: History and Memory ......................... 84
Babasaheb, Knowing You as Babasaheb!
~ Pradnya Jadhav.................................................................................................. 85
Babasaheb: A Symbol of My Existence
~ Pragya Chouhan ................................................................................................ 92
Mahaparinirvan Din, 6th of December
~ Pradnya Mangala .............................................................................................. 95
Empowered by Babasaheb’s Words
~ Ruia Prasad ....................................................................................................... 99
Babasaheb Makes Me Strong and Purposeful
~ Vinay Shende .................................................................................................. 103

Discovering Babasaheb Outside the System...................................... 107
Ambedkar Helped Me Embrace the ‘Emotional’ within the Rational
~ Akhil Kang ...................................................................................................... 108
Babasaheb: Unravelling and Rebuilding My World
~ Sruthi Herbert ................................................................................................. 113
Reaching Babasaheb through the Ambedkarite Community
~ Chandana Chandragiri ................................................................................... 116
Babasaheb Set the Bar High!
~ Lakshmi Parvathy........................................................................................... 120
Towards Ambedkar’s Ideas, A Journey of Self-transformation
~ Suravee Nayak ................................................................................................ 125
The Joy in Teaching about Babasaheb
~ Sanam Roohi Reddy ........................................................................................ 129
Babasaheb for me is like an Inner Voice
~ Madhura Raut ................................................................................................ 133

Anti- Caste Assertions and Ambedkarite Thought .......................... 136
Babasaheb Ambedkar: A Thunderbolt Striking the System
~ Dr Mudnakudu Chinnaswamy .......................................................................... 137
Ambedkar the Thinker: A Class Apart
~ Mahitosh Mandal ............................................................................................ 144
Forgotten History of Ambedkar’s Political School
~ Dr Shiv Shankar Nayak ............................................................................... 150
Babasaheb, You, have been Betrayed
~ Kurukhetra Dip .............................................................................................. 154
Thank You, Babasaheb
~ Gurinder Azad................................................................................................ 158
Authors, Translators, Artists, Editors ............................................................. 160
Art
The name is Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
~ Syama Sundar ………………………….…………......…………….13
Our History is Important
~ Nidhin Shobhana ………………………………………...…………35
Did You Know? – Infographic series
~ Saurav Arya …………………………………......77, 81, 102, 112, 128
Thus Ekalavya Shot One More Arrow
~ Syama Sundar …...……………………………………………...…119
Remembering Those Who Taught How to Remember
~ Nidhin Shobhana …………………………………………….……143
Preface

In April 2016, to celebrate the 125th Birthday of Babasaheb Ambedkar,
Round Table India and Savari asked readers to share with us what he
meant to them. Several people responded in what can only be a
testament to the relevance of his thoughts, a good sixty years after his
passing away. To be able to compile the views of individuals at various
stations of life inspired by Babasaheb is a matter of joy and pride.
This is our purposeful and responsive pursuit to articulate and place
truths, struggles and express our creative spirit in autonomous spaces
such as Round Table India, Savari and The Shared Mirror during this
time in history. We remind ourselves that these works of knowledge
production are firmly rooted in our collective efforts at learning,
educating, motivating and agitating our communities. We know that we
will continue to find the courage to face the necessary tensions that
come our way in our pursuit of liberatory paths. We will continue to
critically engage and invest in examining, owning and developing
personal, as well as collective narratives that interrogate the anti-social
system of caste and its informing of graded social conditioning,
inequalities and divides. Babasaheb’s writings will continue to uplift and
empower us to work towards annihilating caste and bringing about
social equality.
Babasaheb is among the very few individuals in history who can claim
to have inspired masses and generations of oppressed people to devote
themselves to redefining who they are. He has provided language,
definitions, righteously disruptive truths, passion and shared purpose to
examine, counter and obliterate caste and religious hegemony - and the
authors in this book draw from him. This book is divided into five
sections, by no means rigid compartments, but sections with significant
overlap of thoughts and ideas. The authors come from various locations
and as such, what Babasaheb means to them takes on uniquely personal
tones. The writings showcase him as an inspiration, thinker,
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revolutionary, guide, mentor, loving parent and more. The authors
examine myriad aspects of his work as a lawmaker, champion of rights
and an advocate for equality of all people. Individuals who advance his
work are fondly remembered and appear in these pages. Events that
reveal attempts at appropriating Babasaheb are clearly discussed. This
book is also an audacious statement that anti-caste thought is
flourishing and our leaders stand tall as we unapologetically declare the
accuracies of our histories and now.
The richness of the articles validates that when Babasaheb Ambedkar
put his genius to the service of the oppressed, the oppressed
reciprocated by disallowing his deliberate erasure by the state
apparatuses. The genius of the oppressed is in venerating him and
acclaiming that his vision of humanity reverberates with them. This
book is a responsible affirmation and cognizant memorialization that
unflinchingly resists both elision and appropriation of Babasaheb.
In the end, this book is about universal values, seen through
Babasaheb’s wisdom and its resonance in ordinary people’s lives. The
cultural grounding for this book has a fundamental provenance to the
sub continental land mass, but this is not just about the caste society or
an Asian experience. It is relevant to everyone.
Jai Bhim!
Sruthi Herbert, Chetana Sawai, Gurinder Azad
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