Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was a veritable phenomenon of
the 20th century. There may scarcely be a parallel indeed in the
annals of human history to the saga of struggle that his life
represented. Born in the family of ‘untouchables’, he could
nonetheless scale the highest peak of scholarship, leadership and
statesmanship. When the Hindu caste system had ordained severe
punishment for his community for so much as thirsting for education and
knowledge, he had secured the highest academic honours from the most
prestigious universities of the world and thus conclusively refuted
the basic premise of intrinsic inferiority or superiority based on
one’s birth proffered by the caste system. For over two millennia, the
Hindu caste system had perfected itself into a self-sustaining
mechanism of exploitation that fossilised all the social relationship
into a caste cauldron and in process had completely robbed the
labouring masses like untouchables of their human identity. He had
reclaimed for them this identity, breathed political consciousness and
galvanised them into a vibrant movement that changed the course of
Indian politics. In the epic battle against the vile and complex caste
system, he had single-handedly performed the roles of a researcher, a
theoretician, an organiser, a journalist, a politician, a leader etc.
against all possible odds and still come out with outstanding
results. He was among few who dared the contemporary might of the then
Indian National Congress and Mahatma Gandhi and stood his grounds even
in the face of threats to his life. At symbolical plane, Manu who was
the evil enemy in this epic battle as the code giver for the caste
system, had to concede defeat and make place for Ambedkar code in the
form of the Constitution of India. Eventually, he enacted the biggest
religious conversion in the history that ensconced him with his
western attire at the place alongside Buddha as the spiritual deity
for his people.
During his lifetime Dr. Ambedkar had
consistently faced despise, ignominy and insults at the hand of caste
establishment. Even after his death, despite his outstanding
statesmanship and sterling contributions like drafting the
Constitution of India, Ambedkar continued to be despised and ignored by
the ungrateful mainstream till the emerging imperatives of electoral
politics needed him. Before that, the mainstream even did not concede
him so much as leadership of all the untouchables and preferred to
belittle him by projecting as a leader of his own community. It
systematically either blacked him out from the recorded history or
allowed him place in its margins. It strove to confine him to a small
community of Maharashtra in which he was born. So effective was this
establishment cunning that barring a few pockets outside Maharashtra,
where the movement had penetrated in his lifetime, he remained a
stranger for a long time to the very people for whom he lived and
died. His published writings were all out of print and were available
only in a few reputed libraries. A vast unpublished material was
embroiled in ownership disputes and hence was decomposing in the
custody of courts of law. A few biographies of Ambedkar, among them
notably one written by Dhanajay Keer in English (first published 1962)
and the other written by Mr. B.C. Khairmode in multiple volumes in
Marathi (first volume published in April 1952 and the last volume yet
to come), that constituted the earliest source material on Ambedkar
had significantly contributed to spread awareness and evoke curiosity
about him. However, in absence of an easy access to his original
writings he was not even known to the well-meaning intellectual
community beyond certain heresies and anecdotes. It is only as a
result of struggles of his people that claimed increasing space in
contemporary politics and partly influenced by the intrinsic need to woo
dalits that the State moved to undertake publication of his writings.
The Government of Maharashtra undertook to publish his writings and
speeches and came out with its first volume in April 1979. So far 16
volumes have been published which are being translated in Indian
languages of some States. Before this project, it needs to be noted
that many organisations and individuals claiming allegiance to
Ambedkar-thought had brought out reprints of his published writings,
compilation of his speeches scattered at many places, and secondary
material in his eulogy. It certainly did contribute to spread
awareness about the Ambedkar-thought, but due to their meagre
resources its reach remained acutely constrained. This constraint was
largely overcome when the Government of Maharashtra offered his
writings and speeches in well-edited volumes at reasonable prices.
Thanks to it, this publication, particularly the ones containing his
hitherto unpublished writings, for the first time provided
comprehensive introduction to the treatise of his thoughts and
expectedly gave impetus to discussions and research work on
Ambedkar-thought. The eruption of dalit militancy in the form of Dalit
Panthers movement in 70s and the spate of anti-reservation flare ups
in 80s, that shook the oppressors as well as oppressed, also
significantly motivated the study of Ambedkar-thought.
As the development process picked up momentum
in the post-independence period, the contradiction among the ruling
classes started growing which in turn manifested into many political
parties opening their shops in the electoral market of India. The heat
of competition impelled them to see the importance of the vast market
segment constituted by the dalit votes. The latter, being one-fourth
of the total market, was significant enough even in any electoral
constituency to tilt the scale. The broad strategic response possible
was either to fragment this segment, which was easy to do along the
existing sub-caste fissures, so as to reduce it to insignificance
level or to consolidate it and lure it onto ones side. However, with
the passage of time the trend of dalits transcending their sub-caste
boundaries and getting emotionally bonded around Ambedkar was
increasingly becoming visible. As such the former negative strategy
became less attractive and was ostensibly adopted by only the hard-core
fascist parties. The large-scale adoption of the latter positive
strategy meant competition in claiming Ambedkar’s legacy that
manifested in hijacking Ambedkar away to the camps of the ruling
classes. This cooptation of Ambedkar by the mainstream politics
essentially resulted in significant displacement of the genuine
Ambedkar by the deformed Ambedkar in the gullible dalit masses. The
universal eulogy reflected from the process of cooptation only helped
latent tendency towards deification and iconisation of Ambedkar and
that virtually made it impossible to review Ambedkar-thought as a
living body in the context of changing times and circumstances without
incurring the sin of sacrilege.
While the imperatives of electoral politics
has changed the attitude of State to the extent of cooptation of
Ambedkar, the civil society still reflects the casteist prejudice
against him. The process of globalisation driven by the imperialist
institutions like IMF and the World Bank since 1980s and which got
formally adopted by the Government of India in 1991, in the
crisis-ridden economic context unleashed new contradictions that
manifested among other, the resurgence of the Hindu fundamentalism.
These forces blatantly upheld everything that appeared conclusively
condemned by liberal ethos during the post-independence decades.
Ambedkar, as a symbol of these ethos naturally became the target for
their vicious attack. Currently these attacks could be seen in the
form of defilement of his statues and the pseudo-intellectual cunning
represented by some reactionary individuals. Both, the cooptation as
well as the vilification of Ambedkar are detrimental to the dalit
interests. However, the former is much more injurious than the latter.
While the latter represents open opposition to the ideology the
former would mean adulteration of the ideology itself to suit the
State interests. Unless, one is thorough about the ideological nuances
and vigilant about its operative manifestations, it becomes extremely
difficult to arrest or contain the damage done through the process of
cooptation. The ideological weakness in turn incapacitates the struggle
in the realm of the civil society and even its organisational
apparatus. The present state of fragmentation of the Dalit movement
may be largely attributable to this ideological weakness.
The problems of dalits are far from being
resolved. Despite the constitutional provision to the contrary, they
are being discriminated against day in and day out. This
discrimination ranges from the subtle prejudice exercised against them
in the modern sectors of economy in the urban areas to the stark
practice of untouchability in the rural areas. Another significant
constitutional influence on the dalits has been through the policy of
reservation in politics, education and services. While, this policy
implemented sincerely in political arena as it basically serves the
interests of the establishment and provides legitimacy to the system,
its implementation in other two spheres has been utterly pathetic.
Even over the five decades of its implementation, the unsatisfactory
representation of dalits particularly in the higher echelon of
services and consistent denial of their dues by the executive as well
as judiciary has amply bared the fangs of the State. The condition of
majority of dalits in rural areas is no better than it existed five
decades before. Pulverisation of dalit politics under the rollers of
electoral allurements has incapacitated the dalit movement. The dalits
masses today feel utterly cheated but they do not have wherewithal to
see by whom.
The typical responses to the empirical state
of the dalit masses and their movement are essentially of two types.
The first one tends to externalise the failure by accusing the savarnas
of cheating or of failing to implement the promises made in the
Indian Constitution. The second one tends to internalise it in terms
of failure of practice by dalits, particularly the dalit leaders and
intellectuals. It accuses the dalit intellectuals and politicians of
having snapped themselves off their roots and of betraying the dalit
movement. They have come to be a class for itself. Both represent
partial truth at some level. These very allegations however tend to
submerge the basic question about the efficacy of strategy of the
movement and in turn of its ideology that failed to firstly envisage
and thereafter arrest the undesired happenings. As for the leaders and
the dalit intellectuals (or more correctly the educated dalits), they
represent the output of the movement. Insofar as Ambedkar represents a
fountainhead of both the strategy as well as the ideology of the dalit
movement, his thoughts should constitute essential terrain to search
the causes of these failures.
The difficulty in this enterprise is immense
despite much of Ambedkar’s writings and speeches are available in
English language and a plethora of secondary and tertiary literature
having been published in recent times. Ambedkar lived through a
turbulent period of the Indian history, creating space for the dalit
movement within the interstices between the movements of the
contending classes with his meagre resources. His thoughts are therefore
heavily contextised by the dynamics of this contention. While
simultaneously trying to build the ideological foundation for the
movement, they tend to reflect expediency of survival and his anxiety
to maximise the short-term gains for dalits. While it may not be
difficult to discern the ideological strains in his writings, the task
of its precise definition (exaction) poses problematic on two counts.
First, many a familiar construct and concept in his usage do not bear
their familiar meanings as indicated by him. For instance, while he
adores the dictum of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ propounded by
Roussou that blazed the French Revolution, he faults it and finds its
perfection in Buddha; while he reflects western liberalism and admires
its proponents, he denies being a liberal; while he appears to accept
the ideal of socialism in Marxism, he does not seem to talk about the
scientific socialism in it and rather finds his dream world in
Buddhist Sangha; while he accepts the premise that there are classes in
society in contradiction with each other, he rejects the imperative of
class struggle and foresees the class conciliation through the
constitutional methods. One could easily go on listing the similar
problematic of language. Indeed when eventually, when he embraced
Budhhism, it was not to be the Buddhism familiar to the world but the
one he interpreted to be propounded by Buddha, the Dhamma of Buddha
essentially of his conception. Secondly, while he grants one freedom to
test him out on the principles of rationality and on the basis of
experience, he appears inaccessible for the purpose, well beyond the
impregnable fortification erected by the powerful vested interests.
The collapse of so called socialist regimes and
consequent emergence of the unipolar world order is casting its
savage shadow on the struggles of the oppressed people all over the
world. The ideology of neo-liberalism with the backing of modern media
and military might is fast marginalising the resistance and
transforming the world into a market where a person is granted a
hallowed identity of a customer. His claim to liberty, equality and
fraternity is conceded in proportion to his purchasing power in the
market where everything is a commodity. The impact of this ideology is
already visible in terms of gnawing inequality that is compounding
with every passing year. The odds for the oppressed people are indeed
mounting on every front. They face an unprecedented ideological crisis
today for effectively articulating their emancipatory struggles. They
need to objectively review the weapons in their ideological armoury,
to identify the ones that could be regenerated, the ones that could be
modified and the ones that need to be altogether replaced.
Ambedkar-thought that constituted weaponry of dalits and oppressed
people in India, has certain attributes that could be used to recreate
the new weapons. It has certain regenerative potential to be of
continued relevance provided it is used in the desired manner and not
monopolised by the vested and sectarian interests. The time has come
to consolidate the ideological armour of the have-nots of the world
and the study of Ambedkar-thought here is envisaged from that viewpoint.
It is imperative that it is made available to many people in the
world. It is necessary that it be subject to review from many
viewpoints. It is vital that it is evaluated on the basis of concrete
experience. One respects contributions of great people not in blind
allegiance but by serving the cause that he or she lived and died for.
As Ambedkar said of great people and demonstrated in relation to
Buddha whom he undoubtedly adored most, following him lies in not cold
storing his thoughts in a time vault but in constantly using it in the
struggle, constantly cleaning and honing it for its usage is bound to
dirty it and deform it, constantly review its effectiveness as with
the passage of time it might need supplement or replacement. Only the
concerted struggle of many committed people can restore true Ambedkar
to his people.
