• Tarun Sagar

On the 130th Birth Anniversary of Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, I want to share my views on how I perceive him in today’s India. But before beginning with my reflection, I first want to briefly tell you a few things about myself to assist you in relating with me and understanding my privileges and prejudices as I don’t want to impose my opinion on you (the reader).

I’m a 28-year-old heterosexual male with ancestral lineage to Uttar Pradesh but born and brought up in a middle-class Dalit family in Delhi. I’ve done my Master’s in Social Work from a central university and had worked with waste-pickers at various landfill sites all across Delhi, female sex-workers & truckers during my placement as a fieldwork supervisee with an environmental research and action organization and a NACO project, respectively. I’ve worked with a few civil society organizations, social activists, movements and networks. I’m a second-generation learner. My great-grandfather used to do manual labour to crush big stones, which were used to construct roads in Uttar Pradesh, the largest populated state in India. My grandfather used to earn his living by (baildaari) constructing statuesof Dr. BR Ambedkar and Hindu templesall-across India.

Dr. BR Ambedkar is one of the most important political thinker and social revolutionary of modern India. His thoughts and work to establish social democracy through an empowering constitution lead the way not only for Dalits, but for all the citizens of our country. But I believe that he has been narrowly restricted to the emancipation of Dalits and hasn’t been credited for ensuring equality and liberty of all individuals; regardless of their caste, class, race, gender, state, language etc. For example, he was a pioneer in his argumentation and actions for women’s rights, education, jobs and their representation in Indian society. He believed that “The progress of a community ought to be measured by the degree of progress which women had achieved”. He tried to understand the position of women in the Hindu caste structure and served for their empowerment and rights in India. It will be intellectual poverty if we associate him only with one particular caste or class. He worked for all and belongs to all. We presently need to understand the basic principles he believed in and dedicated his life to. He had said that “Men are mortal. So are ideas. An idea needs propagation as much as a plant needs watering. Otherwise both will wither and die.”

Young children in school, without making them understand, are asked to rote learn liberty, equality and fraternity as the core principles enshrined in our Constitution. Likewise, for me, it was later when I started reading some of Dr. Ambedkar’s writings and speeches, I got to know the history of these three words and their adaptation from the long-drawn French Revolution. I could always relate to the importance of liberty and equality due to my struggles with respect to my ascribed identity, but ‘fraternity’ was always taken granted for, until recently. The constant attacks on the secular fabric and pluralism in India have made me realize how fortunate I was to have been born and brought up in a time when the feeling of friendship and support between people was common. Now, witnessing the situation of the country and conditioned detestation of people has not only made me feel sorry for the younger generation but has also made me realize why Dr. Ambedkar stressed greatly on fraternity, alongside liberty and equality as a core valuein a diverse country like India while drafting the Indian Constitution.

Dr. Ambedkar’s dream for India was that equality should be established at all levels in society. But with the rising inequality (at a speed of a bullet train) among people and social groups, we have a consequential need to revisit Dr. Ambedkar’s writings to understand his political and social philosophy that offers solutions to the problems of our time. We can greatly learn from Dr. Ambedkar’s illustrious slogan, ‘Educate-Agitate-Organize’, that he first used in his 1942 speech to All-India Depressed Classes Conference to strategize a mass movement to upend caste oppression during that time. The connotations of these three words used by Dr. Ambedkar are -

Educate - We shall need all our intelligence. Agitate -We shall need all our enthusiasm. Organize - We shall need all our force.

Although, educate and organize are easier to understand, the word ‘Agitate’ is a bit tricky and has earned a negative undertone over time. When Dr. Ambedkar used this term, he talked about building a strategic alliance of all the people who were against the caste system. The word ‘Agitate’ is defined as - ‘to make other people feel very strongly about something so that they want to help you achieve it’. Dr. Ambedkar knew the importance of fraternity in achieving constitutional morality and eliminating the caste system in India. Similarly, today there is a need for all of us, who belong from different states, speak different languages, have different social status, identity and a lot of other differences, to come together and share knowledge, bring more people to join our cause and then organize them to again establish social democracy in India.

We are trying our best to safeguard the Constitution that ensures the rights and entitlements to all citizens, including the most marginalized sections, against those who are constantly disrespecting and altering it for their own advantage. Dr. BR Ambedkar had said that “Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realize that our people have yet to learn it. Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.” Those who are in power today do not have constitutional morality and their natural sentiment is of acquiring as much power as they can. In achieving this goal, they have compromised with the ethical principles that lay as the foundation of our democracy. Name any public institution, all have been taken over by the central government – be it the Election Commission, CAG, CBI and even courts &media houses can’t do anything according to their will. If Dr. Ambedkar would have been alive today to see this, he would have confronted this semi-fascist regime that has captured all the democratic institutions, resulting in capturing of democracy like a ‘Peacock in a Zoo cage’. He would have never allowed the right-wing extremists to appropriate his name. These goons of autocracy on one hand are trying to dilute Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, have shutdown budgetary allocations under Scheduled Caste Sub Plan & Tribal Sub Plan resulting in elimination of the targeted schemes for the welfare of SCs & STs, strategizing to make affirmative action policy ineffective in India by privatizing all major government higher education institutions and public sector employment opportunities, and on the other hand, declaring Ambedkar Jayanti as a public holiday. This is the best that our government can do right now to appease people who look up to Babasaheb Ambedkar, as it has failed to bring any new targeted schemes for the marginalized people, failed to utilize funds allocated for their welfare, diluted/stopped the previous targeted schemes and even failed to simply come out with caste atrocities and farmer suicide data in public domain. As a young individual who is still trying to cultivate his mind, but can see the status of depressed classes getting worse under the tyranny of this one-man government, I refuse to take a public holiday to relax at home on Ambedkar Jayanti. I can’tsit at home imagining everything that Dr. BR Ambedkar had stood for ‘has been achieved’ and we can celebrate Ambedkar Jayanti as a holiday now, because there is a need to do a lot to annihilate caste from our society. Being fully aware about our achievements till now and about the forces that are pushing all depressed classes again in the opposite direction, I will continue to agitate, making people realize very strongly about the increasing inequality on the basis of caste, class, race, gender, language and sexuality, expecting to seek your help in achieving an equitable, just and peaceful society envisioned by Dr. Ambedkar, as a tribute to him. This is the least I owe to the man who wrote the Constitution of India and dedicated his life to emancipate. envisioned by Dr. Ambedkar, as a tribute to him. This is the least I owe to the man who wrote the Constitution of India and dedicated his life to emancipate millions like me. Happy Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti to all of you!

The Author is an activist and Research Analyst in SC Department, AICC