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Dr Ambedkar’s Bharatiyatha or Dr Ambedkar, the True Bharatiya

Dt:  11/3/15

 

Dr Ambedkar’s Bharatiyatha

or

Dr Ambedkar, the True Bharatiya

 

 ( b. 14th  April 1891          d. 6th  Dec 1956)

 

Dr T.H.Chowdary*

 

There were   four  towering and  active social reformers  during the first three decades  of the  20th century.  These were  Sri Narayan Guru in Kerala, Ramaswami Naicker in Tamilnadu, Tripuraneni  Ramaswamy Chowdary in Andhra Pradesh and Dr Ambedkar (first in Maharashtra and then throughout India). Of these four, Ambedkar was the most towering activist and intellectual  whose impact on the Indian society is the greatest and is  most intensely  manifesting  now. 

 

 Narayan Guru emphasised  improvement by self effort. He energise the entire  dalit community   of Kerala  harmoniously and without  conflict with the upper castes lift themselves up morally, socially, educationally  and economically.

 

Ramaswamy Naicker’s legacy is one of hatred against the so called upper castes and  the spawning of  several Dravidian parties  each rooted in a combination of casteist  groups. Tamilnadu is now  the play -ground  for  mutually  hostile caste groups all playing into the   hands of  Christian missionaries  in their blind  hatred of what they  call Brahminical Hinduism .

 

 Ramaswamy Chowdary’s was a reformists movement largely embracing  a particular  community in some districts of   Andhra Pradesh  but that paved for  the rise of reformist and self-help movements  especially for education among other  castes also. Dr Ambedkar’s is the most valuable and the nation embracing   activist reformist  intellectual movement.  His opposition to Gandhi  was very well reasoned. His determined stand  against the caste- induced inequality  and servitude  for the untouchables had  moved Mahatma  Gandhi to take up  Harijan Seva and anti-untouchability  campaigns. Gandhiji’s and Congress’ efforts of value to the upliftment  of  Harijas and the  abolition of untouchability. 

 

As  Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the  Constitution and  through his numerous  memoranda Dr.Ambedkar  was able to   put much of his vision for social justice in 

 

 

 

the Constitution .  He was  not entirely   satisfied with the  Constitution which is commonly attribute to him. In fact, in 1953 speech in the  Rajya  Sabha he even  said  he would be prepared to burn the  Constitution as it has  not  gone far enough to remove the   casteist inequality deriving from the  Hindu Sastras. He believed that unless the Sastraik injunctions and rules and practices are repudiated and given up, casteism would not  disappear any soon.

 

2. It is unfortunate that  one of India’s greatest scholar, statesman, patriot and social reformer Dr B.R.  Ambedkar is portrayed by vested interest’s as a dalit leader who rebelled against Hinduism  while  Dr. Ambedkar contribution for building up modern India ranks equal to those of our great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr Rajendra Prasad and others . Dr. Ambedkar is an example  of  the fulfilment of the message that Lord Krishna  gave in the  Bhagawad Gita --uddharet athmana  ---

Udharet aatmanaa aatmanam na aatmaanamavasadayet

Aatma yeva hi aatmano bandhuh aatma eva ripuratmanah –B.G 6.5

 

 One  should  lift oneself  up by one’s own efforts. One should not  degrade himself  (by not putting any effort )

 

3. Against heavy odds Dr. Ambedkar, born into the lowest of our society rose to the  pinnacle as  a great statesman , scholar,  legal luminary  and   our constitution writer.  It is absolutely unjust and unbecoming for any section of the  people to describe him or hold  him as a leader merely  of a particular r section.  It would be appropriate to recall some of his  unique contributions to the Indian  society and nation.

 

4. Ramsay McDonald, the Labour  Prime Minister of UK gave the communal award (Aug 1932) according to which the Sheduled Castes were to be given a separate electorate and reserved  seats in legislatures.  Mahatma  Gandhi went on a fast unto death denouncing this award as he held the separation of   the SCs whom he called Harijans, from the main stream  of Hindus  would be  the  death knell of this nation. Dr. Ambedkar fervently held  that people elected by that particular section of people only could be   true representatives. When  Gandhiji’s death was thought to be imminent, Dr. Ambedkar relented and said he would not  be  the cause of Ghandhiji’s  death. He therefore agreed for a common electorate but with a certain number  of seats reserved for  the Harijans. This was a win -win situation both for Dr. Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi. But for  his great  regard for human life he would not have compromised.    That speaks  of  the innate dharmic  quality that  motivated  Dr. Ambedkar throughout his life.

 

5. It may be  noted that when he wanted separate  electorate and reserved seats as per  the Communal  Award  pronounced by Ramsay McDonald the labour Prime Minister of  UK, Dr Ambedkar  wanted that provision  only for 10 years.   Similarly, the  reservations that are  provided for STs & SCs in India’s Constitution were also  only for 10 years as Dr. Abmedkar desired.

 

An interesting  point is that when  Prof K.T.Shah proposed the inclusion of the words secular and  socialist in the   Preamble of the Constitution, Dr. Ambedkar   opposed that   as  even without those phrases the Constitution as drafted was enough socialistic and secular. Dr Ambedkar  never believed  in the  sincerity of Congress. He expressed this clearly  in his  assay, “What Gandhi and  Congress have done for the  Dalits”.  It is only to cover  up the  communalism and  minorityism and seductive love for  garibs that Indira Gandhi smuggled the words secularism  and  socialism  into the Preamble during her dictatorial Emergency rule  in 1975-77.   The Congress, during Jawaharlal Nehru’s time itself vengefully got Dr Ambedkar defeated by Congress S.C candidates in Mumbai in the  1952 General Elections to the Lok Sabha and in a subsequent bye-election in  Vidarbha too by non-descript S.C candidates of Congress, of course with caste Hindu votes  against Dr.Ambedkar who contested on behalf of the  Scheduled  Castes Federation of India .

 

 

Dr. Ambedkar on Congress men

 

"Mr. Gandhi had become a positive danger to his country.  He had choked all the thoughts.  He was holding together the Congress which is a combination of all the bad and self-seeking elements in society who agreed on no social or moral principle governing the life of society except the one of praising and  flattering Mr Gandhi.  Such a body is unfit to govern the country". And the Bible says that something good comes  out of evil, so also I think that good will come out of the  death of Mr. Gandhi.  He will release  people from bondage to superman, It will make them think for themselves and it will compel them to stand on their own merits. And to that, he added: “My real enemy has gone, thank goodness, the eclipse is over”

Source: A Reporter At Large ( page 238/239) by M V Kamat

 

 

6. In his (undelivered but printed) address  Annihilation of  Caste” to the  Jat Pat Todak Sangh of Lahore in 1936 Dr.Ambedkar advised Hindus that unless the  tribals ( 7.5% of India’s population) are dealt with fairly and  integrated into the  Hindu  fold, Christian missionaries would get at them and  that  would be a problem [It is interesting to note that  Dr Ambedkar  refers  to the  aborigines  being in the  savage state. In his speech , “Annihilation of Caste” he observed, “ The Hindu has not realised that these aborigines are a source of potential danger.  If these  savages  remain savages, they may not   do any harm to the Hindus.  But if they are reclaimed  by non-Hindus  ( Christians and  Muslims )  and converted to their  faiths ,  they will swell the ranks of the enemies of the  Hindus . If this  happens, the Hindu will have to thank himself and his caste system.  (p. 250, 251 – Annihilation of Caste  by  Dr. Ambedkar, Navayana Publications].  How prophetic he was! Following the  Niyogi Commission Report on missionaries’ activities  among tribals, states like MP and  Orissa enacted  laws dealing with  religious conversions. Some other states enacted similar  laws later .  The enforcement of the  laws  however is almost nil with the  result that tribals and others are  being  converted; conversions are  resisted Hindu-Christian riots are  beginning .

 

7.  Dr. Ambedkar was not fascinated  by  India’s  communists and their  party although he was quite  appreciative of the Marxist economic  analysis . He held that  history and progress of people  and societies  is not entirely  determined by  economics  as  Marxist believe.  He  distanced himself from Indian communists because  their  struggles he said were motivated more by political considerations than by economic issues and more importantly,  social and human rights for the dalit untouchables and  workers. As distinct from the  All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) he formed the Independent  Labur  Party (ILP) in 1936. Earlier  in the   various  strikes that the communist  controlled  Gurni Kamgar Union (GKU)  of Bombay launched in 1924 ,25,28 & 29,   he dissuaded the dalit untouchable textile workers from participating in the  strikes.  In fact, he called upon them to disassociate from communists.   The communists branded  Dr Ambedkar as enemy of labour.  Com. EMS Namboodiripal   in  his book, “The History of the  Indian Freedom Struggle” wrote, that Ambedkar’s concern for the issue of caste and untouchability “ was a great  blow to the  freedom movement, for this lead to be diversion of the people’s attention from the objective of  full independence to the   mundane  cause of the upliftment of the  Harijans” .  Dr.  Ambedkar attributed the hostility of the communists  to him to the upper caste leadership of the communist party in India.  Dr Ambedkar placed social  justice and equality and freedom of change of profession which can come through education, above electoral political  democracy  and the   political equality of different  sections of people. He was for social justice and not the  communist brand of socialism  he believed that state must provide the  capital for industrial development  and  for agriculture.   He also believed that state has an   important role in mobilising resources   through for example :  nationalised insurance for the development of  industries and  agriculture.

 

An untouchable Hindu was untouchable to all:

 

In 1917, Dr Ambedkar   returned to Baroda with a Doctorate from Columbia University, New York to serve  the Maharaja of  Baroda, Sayojirao Gaekawad as per the terms  of his  scholarship that the Maharaja gave to  Dr. Ambedkar.  He searched   for  some accommodation. As soon as  he  disclosed his  caste, no Hindu, no Christian, no Muslim was prepared to give him any room  because he was an  untouchable!   He disguised himself as a Parsi  and  got admission to a Parsi quarter.  As soon  as the Parsi discovered that Dr.Ambedkar was an untouchable  he was thrown out of the house  by armed persons

 

 

8. In March  1940  the Muslim League passed the Pakistan  Resolution at  its  annual session in Lahore. Dr. Ambedkar studied the Muslim problem of India   for the  previous  centuries and  came to the conclusion  that    peaceful coexistence as one nation  of Muslims  and  Hindus was impossible by the very nature  of Islam which divides people into believers and non-believers,  the latter condemned to hell.  He wrote a tome, “Pakistan  or India  Divided” in September 1940  in which  he showed  what a blunder Hindus and the  Congress were  committing in opposing the partition of India.  India would be a stronger and more  unified and homogeneous nation –state  after Pakistan  was given  away as Muslims  have been demanding  and rioting for it. The final, final solution for the centuries - long Muslim problem in India  was division and  most  importantly   total exchange of minority populations between  Pakistan &Hindustan.  He correctly predicted that non-Muslims, that is Hindus, Christians,  Buddhists  and  Sikhs would be  expelled  from Pakistan  as it indeed happened.  He advocated the sending away of all Muslims from Hindustan to Pakistan as  that alone would conduce to a Muslim problem -free India. He cited the example of what happened  in Turkey after  the Ottomon  Empire  was dissolved at the end of the World War in 1919. The Muslims  in Turkey -ruled Bulgaria and Hungary and the  Balkan  provinces  were brought to Turkey and all  Christians  in Turkey were sent away to Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece and  other Balkan states under the  auspices  of  the League of Nations (the precursor to the  United Nations) in a very peaceful and  planned manner.  It is unfortunate that  inspite of Md.Ali Jinnah and  the top Muslim League leaders wanting the exchange of populations Gandhi and Nehru did not  agree and India is left with the  perpetually unsolvable Muslim problem,  which now is  reverting to the character and dimensions of pre-1947.

 

9. In the  book, “Pakistan or  the Partition of India” Dr. Ambedkar wrote, “I do not  think the  demand  for Pakistan is  the  result of mere  political distemper, which will pass away with the  efflux of time.  As I read the  situation, it seems to me that it is a characteristic in the  biological sense of the  term which  the  Muslim body politic has developed in the   same  manner as an  organism develops a characteristic. Whether it will survive or not, in the  process of natural  selection, must  depend upon the  forces that may become  operative in the  struggle for  existence  between Hindus and Musalmans”.  The characteristic Dr Ambedkar discerned may called Pakistaniat, like Kashmiriat or Hindutva .  In the   Muslims’ struggle for partition and  Hindus’ opposition to it, the first triumph  of Musalmans created Pakistan.  The Pakistaniat that became the  DNA of Muslims then, has incubated well in the Musalmans who created Pakistan but stayed on, in India.  The  operative forces post-partition are the Pakistaniat-infected Muslims  and the Muslim-vote soliciting  self-styled “secular” parties (Congress and the  regional excepts Shiva Sena) on the  one hand  and the  BJP which  is not shy of Hindutva, on the  other.  Pakistaniat in sections of Muslim Indians is no longer  in the incubation stage; it is  manifesting among intellectuals like Prof. Amar Abbas who  advocated (Economic and Political Weekly Dec 2000) one more  partition of India to create  Mogulistan ( a belt of territory straddling across northern areas of  Bengal, Behar and UP upto Pakistan ) and the  Oweisis of Hyderabad  who are, as before partition demanding reservations for Muslims and the “secular” parties  carving out Muslim- majority districts like  Malappuram and  Kasargode in Kerala and Mewat in Haryana and  launching “Muslim First” programs of development in 92 districts ( identified by Sachar Committee Report on Muslims).  Not heeding to Dr. Ambedkar’s advocacy of exchange  of minority populations,  is now leading to  virulent manifestation of  Pakistaniat DNA in what remains as India.            

 

10. At the time of  writing the Constitution Jawaharlal  Nehru wanted an extraordinary special  status to be given  to  J&K.  On  advice from Nehru, Shaikh Abdullah met with  Dr Ambedkar  giving all the specious reasons  for  the greatest autonomy to J&K.  Dr.Ambedkar patiently listened  to  him and  said to the effect : India should defend  Kashmir with life and blood of India’s soldiers and money; Kashmiries can acquire property and be represented in India’s Parliament but non-Kashmiri  Indians  cannot acquire property or be  represented in your legislature.  You will have a separate flag; separate constitution, separate Prime Minister!  I am  a Minister  swearing loyalty to India I cannot let down my country by agreeing to your  peculiar  terms. Unfortunately,  Jawaharlal  Nehru  prevailed upon the  servile  Congressmen to give  special  status to J&K in terms of  Art-370, much against the wish and argument of  Dr. Ambedkar.

 

11.  Dr. Ambedkar tried to  eliminate the caste order among  Hindus.  All his  efforts  did not  bring the required degree of change. He said that he was born a Hindu but would not like to die a Hindu. The Nizam of  Hyderabad  offered  Rs. 7.5 cr if he converted to Islam;  dozens of Christian missionaries from all over the world came requesting him and his people to convert to    Christianity. Dr. Ambedkar  refused to convert either himself or his people to Islam  saying that the  brotherhood in Islam is confined to  only  “believers” and in Christianity the  lot of the dalits who  already embraced that religion has not at all improved . He was aware of the plight of the Blacks’ slavery in the  US even after conversion to    Christianity and also the untouchability and  ghettos  imposed upon the Blacks, natives of  South Africa  even  after  conversion to Christianity.  He believed that conversion to either Islam or  Christianity would  lead to  denationalisation of Dalits. In 1956 he advised India’s Harijans at a mammoth rally in Nagpur on the. 2500th  anniversary  of  Buddha’s nirvana that  they should embrace  one of India’s dharmas, Buddhism which is universal in its outlook and is the best of the dharmas  that arose  in Bharat.

 

Muslims too....

 

In 1934  Dr Ambedkar and some of his followers  were going to  Daulathabad in the   Nizam’s Hyderabad dominion.  It was mid evening.  They were walking. They felt  thirsty. They  wanted to  drink  water from a pond on the  way. Immediately some  Muslims obstructed him and his  friends, saying  that untouchables would  not  be allowed  to drink water from that pond !

 

 

12. A scholarly  and bold vigorous  assertion of Dr Ambedkar was  that  the  theory of  Aryan invasion  was a myth propagated  by the  racist colonists. He held that the  untouchables  were former  Buddhists  who were overwhelmed by the  onslaught of Sanatan dharma on  Buddhism  and the  defeated and  depressed Buddhists were  ostracised  and treated as   untouchables and dispossessed persons.  His finding  was in contradiction  of the orientalists of  Europe and the Marxist historians of India . 

 

13. The Christian missionaries and their duped dalits are  studiously  describing  Dr.Ambedkar  as an enemy of Hindus  while   the fact is  that Dr Ambedkar decisively rejected the superiority of  Islam and  Christianity over  the Indic dharmas and  exhorted his men to embrace the  Indic religion Buddhism and reject  the de-nationalising Islam and  Christianity. The Rashtriya Svayam Sevak (RSS) is doing great  justice to Dr Ambedkar than all the  dalits   by including   his name among the  prathah smaraneeyas  (those who are to be rendered obeisance with  sunrise)    in their daily hymn,   ekathmatha stotram ( the  hymn  to the  fundamental unity of India ).  He is saluted  along with  Shankara, Shivaji, Rana Pratap, Gugru Govind Singh and  Kesav Bhaliram Hegdewar......

 

14. When he was the  Law Minister in independent  India’s  government, apart from  drafting the Constitution,  he  also    piloted   the Hindu Code Bills reforming   and bringing uniformity among Hindus  in respect of   marriage and succession.  He liked to   bring in  Uniform Civil  Code  as enjoined by Article - 44 but Jawaharlal Nehru came in the  way saying  the Muslims were not prepared for  it  then  (and never will they  agree  in India  while  Muslims in the  European and American  countries and even in Goa are subjected to   a Uniform Civil  Code).


 

 

Jogindranath Mondal had to  flee from  Pakistan :

 

 Jogindranath Mondal was a ranking leader of Schedule Caste in East Pakistan . The Muslim League has nominated him as Minister in the Interim Cabinet  of the Vice Roy (1946-47) in Delhi . After partition he became the Law  Minister of Pakistan in Karachi.  He noticed with  horror the forced conversions , rape and  loot of the Dalits in East Pakistan .  His complaints to Liakat Ali Khan, the Prime Minister  of Pakistan  was dismissed by the latter as, “Islam does not allow such things, your complaints are false “. He was so mistreated that he fled  Pakistan and took refuge in Calcutta where he died unnoticed and unwept.  The Muslim League’s  love for the  Dalits was like the bear’s hug.

 

15. Dr. Ambedkar held that if the congenital  inequality  in the Indian society is to be   ended,  it could only be through education. That is why  unlike in any other Constitution of any nation  in the world,   he provided Article 21A for  compulsory free education   for every child for  8 years.  Unfortunately,   no government   sincerely implemented this either before or now. That  is why  the congenital  inequality  is still persisting.

 

16. Dr. Ambedkar is one of the   greatest sons of India. It is no wonder that  there are many more statues to him than even to  Mahatma Gandhi but  those who are engaged   in anti-Hindu activities,  especially conversion activists are studiously and  deliberately not referring to his prescriptive advice to dalits of this country not to convert to Islam or to Christianity but only to one of the  dharmas of Bharat, namely Buddhism. (3,352 words)

END