Babasaheb, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar

I pay tribute to Bharat Ratna Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, on his birth anniversary.

Abraham Lincoln was elected as president of America in 1860. Hardly had he been in office for six weeks before eleven southern states seceded from the Union, collectively turning their back on the idea of a single American nation. Lincoln said that he could tolerate slavery as a means of controlling what nearly everyone saw to be an exotic and alien population but what he could not tolerate was dissolution of the Union and asked Congress for 5 lakh soldiers to crush the white rebellion. Large sections of the South were ravaged by violent battles; and the Union nearly collapsed under determined Confederate forces. Lincoln wanted to abolish slavery, but what he really wanted more was to bring whites and blacks together, for he knew that the status of blacks could not be raised until they lived together. Lincoln, however, never meant to invite racial hatred or to separate blacks from whites by asking them to embrace some other religion.

Now the same situation arose in India, too, when, with the British declaring the gradual transfer of power to Indians in 1917, the politics became competitive. The process of transferring power was really a question of how it be shared between the three claimants: Indian National Congress led by Nehru and Gandhi, Muslim League by Jinnah and Independent Labour Party formed under the leadership of Dr B. R. Ambedkar in August 1936 against the system dominated by Brahmans and the capitalists. Jinnah was adamant about the partition of India; Nehru had the ambition to rule India as a whole; but B. R. Ambedkar, though had a great hatred for the upper castes, did not want to demand for a separate country because he knew that the group of people he was leading will not be able to raise their status without the upper caste people living with them. He chose the third way of reservation to the scheduled caste which was later used as a tool to divide people and ultimately to gain power instead of using it for the real purpose of achieving social justice and equality. However, unlike Lincoln he asked his followers to change their religion and beliefs and preferred to be converted to Buddhism. He thus gave the scheduled caste a new identity and ideology, instilling hatred of the upper caste people in them. Now this community hates Muslims and Kshatriya but they avoid expressing it because they fear they will not tolerate it. Now as far as Brahmins and Baniya are concerned, they are tolerant people, so they target them more blatantly and wage a hate campaign against them quite unknown of the fact that it is they who make India a different country or that without them it would be going like Pakistan or some African country.

Gandhi ji, Nehru and Sardar Patel tried to convince Babasaheb to withdraw the reservation clause arguing that it would one day cause another division of the country. But when Babasaheb refused to do so, they decided to retain a small percentage of Muslim population against which, they thought, the majority would stay united. Finally nothing happened as expected and now India is divided into four main groups of people. Thus the disagreement among them has messed up the entire country.

Anyway, Baba Saheb actually aimed to raise the social status of the lower caste people and not to hurt the people of any other caste in return. Ironically, the SC & ST literature on the internet is coloured with hostility towards Brahmins who are completely unable to play any role in forming a government today. They are now deprived of their dues in India; their children migrate to some other country in search of life by selling their talents and never like to turn back; India is no more their own country, for every group of people hates none but them; everyone is envious of them because they are more proficient than others. Jews were massacred all over the world because they were gifted, adept and others always envied their ability. Now the same thing is happening to Brahmins in India. Germany neglected Einstein, the Jew, but it was America that estimated the might of his mind that ultimately shook the world and made it the super power. Would that they could follow the true path shown by Babasaheb and realize that hatred is not a correct reply!

Let’s remember Baba Saheb on his Birth Anniversary for his great contribution to the country in the form of constructing Indian Constitution, of his efforts for social equality, liberty and stability and of his dreams for a united India. I pay tribute to this towering father! He wanted India to grow not a few to prosper; he wanted to abolish exploitation and atrocity against all of the countrymen and not against a few; he wanted to have a schooled India and not children living on midday meal; he wanted Jammu and Kashmir free of 370; he wanted a safe atmosphere for women, job guarantee to every young man from any caste and community. So today I would not hesitate to condemn the British Agents who did not let his dreams come true and ruled India for a long time by changing his ideals into a tool with which to divide the majority and rule. I also condemn the hate mongering regional parties that have been misusing his ideologies for the sake of acquiring money and power.