A humanist par excellence

Today is Dr B R Ambedkar’s death anniversary

It is unfortunate that one of India’s greatest scholars, statesmans, patriots and social reformers, Dr B R Ambedkar, is portrayed by vested interests as a Dalit leader who rebelled against Hinduism while his contribution to building of 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 –

“Udharat aatmanaa aatmanam no aatmaanamavasadayet

Aatma yeva hi aatmano bandhuh aatma eva ripuratmanah.” One should lift oneself up by one’s own efforts. One should not degrade himself (by not putting any effort ) Against heavy odds, Dr Ambedkar, born into the lowest of our society, rose to the pinnacle of a great statesman , scholar, legal luminary and our Constitution writer.

Ramsay McDonald, the Labour Prime Minister of UK, gave the Communal Award (August 1932) according to which the Scheduled 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 health was deteriorating, 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.

In March 1940, the Muslim League passed the Pakistan Resolution at its annual session in Lahore. Dr Ambedkar studied the Muslim problem of India in the previous century 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. 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 had been demanding and rioting for it.

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 greater autonomy to J&K. Dr Ambedkar patiently listened 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, Nehru prevailed upon the servile Congressmen to give the special status to J&K in terms of Article 370.

Dr Ambedkar tried to eliminate the caste order among Hindus. He said that he was born a Hindu but would not like to die a Hindu. The Nizam of Hyderabad offered Rs 7.5 crore if he converted to Islam. Dozens of Christian missionaries from all over the world came, requesting him and his people to convert to Christianity. In 1956, he advised India’s Harijans 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.

When he was the Law Minister in the independent India, apart from drafting the Constitution, he piloted the Hindu Code Bills reforming and bringing uniformity among Hindus in respect of marriage and succession. He wanted to bring in the Uniform Civil Code as enjoined by Article 44 but Nehru came in the way.

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 eight years. Unfortunately, no governments sincerely implemented this. That is why the congenital inequality is still persisting.

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.

By: Dr T H Chowdary