Who Is Afraid Of Ambedkar’s Legacy?

After much hype and media blitz a television channel was compelled to declare Baba Saheb Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar as the ‘greatest’ Indian after Gandhi. While people like us have already spoken about the futility of such debates as these are market gimmicks to create a few brands and justify their rabid and unquestioned money minting. 

It needs to be questioned how Sachin Tendulkar or brand Amitabh Bachchan or JRD Tata could be put in the categories of Ambedkar, Nehru, Sardar Patel or Mother Teresa. I have problems with ideologies of these political icons but at least they were not commercial and have devoted their time and life for the society in whatever way was possible.

Of course, in reality, this exercise was meant to create new brands and may renew the old brands for political and business purposes. There were attempt to project former president Abdul Kalam as the ‘voice of the nation’; it suited the agenda of the BJP and Sangh Parivar who want Indian Muslims to be like him.

The programme broadcasted by CNN-IBN, and anchored by Rajdeep Sardesai and Mandira Bedi reflected the gloomy minds of the high-caste Hindus who were feeling uncomfortable in accepting that Ambedkar was the greatest Indian surpassing all the other contenders. In votes, Ambedkar polled over 19 lakh votes which were way ahead of the second best in public opinion (former president Abdul Kalam). It has also come to the notice that 20 member jury was vehemently opposed to Ambedkar being declared as the ‘greatest’ Indian after Gandhi as they wanted to anoint Gandhi’s political heir Jawahar Lal Nehru for the same but Nehru could only poll around 10,000 votes and remained among the last 10 in people’s choice.

The one-hour programme was well-choreographed but there was no hype in it and Amitabh Bachchan was made an ‘expert’ on the subject in spite of his love-hate relationship with the Nehru. Rajdeep Sardesai and his upper-caste team had lot of people speaking about greatness of the 10 participants with Amitabh giving his ‘expert’ opinion on everything under the sun – how Atal Bihari Vajpayee was one of the ‘finest’ speakers who won first prize in a debate at Allahabad University, which was conducted by Harivansh Rai Bachchan; how Amitabh Bachchan was there at the stage when Lata Mangeshkar brought tears to the eyes of JawaharLal Nehru when she sang, “Aye mere watan ke logo, zara aankh me bhar lo paani.” So enamored were the anchors with this that Lataji was floored with flattering by Amitabh that Pakistanis say that India has two unique things which they want: one being Taj Mahal and the other Lata Mangeshkar.

We had Sachin Tendulakar and building up of his greatness to Indian masses, and again Harsha Bhogle spoke about his humility and ‘India first’ approach, and how Sachin considers winning the ‘world cup’ as the greatest achievement of his life. Lal Krishna Advani spoke about Atal Bihari Vajpayee and how they both used to eat golgappas at Connaught place.

Then came the announcement of the greatest Indian and Mandira Bedi jumped and said, the greatest Indian elected by people of India is “Baba Saheb Ambedkar”. Rajdeep asked Amitabh, was he surprised at Ambedkar’s election to which Amitabh said no and that he felt that people have different yardsticks to judge who is the greatest.

He was not very comfortable with the idea. In fact, the entire audience was perhaps shocked to hear how Ambedkar could surpass everyone. There was not a single expert, not a single clip of what Ambedkar meant to people of India. Ambedkar was relegated to be a constitutionalist and nothing more. Is importance of Ambedkar in life just as the maker of India’s constitution or is he a much bigger influence on our lives? When the announcement was being made everyone were perhaps shocked. The fake smiles on their faces reflected how they had taken the issue. The programme finished abruptly with the announcement and each one of them had a grudge which definitely is now coming in open.

The reactions to the greatest Indian result were also on the expected lines. Shashi Tharoor, the great ‘Sai baba’ devotee from Kerala is a Nehru fan and he matches Nehru in his aristocracy, but Tharoor had some good words about Dr Ambedkar and the best point he mentioned was Ambedkar’s contribution to democracy, rule of law and freethinking traditions in India. Yet, he felt that it was Nehru whose contribution to India was enormous in terms of building of democratic India, secular values, industrialization and non-alignment. KanchaI llaiah pointed out and quite correctly that even if you organize a survey after 50 years and put Gandhi also in the fray, he would be defeated as Ambedkar’s legacy has gone deeply into people’s mind and heart. Mridula Mukherjee, a known basher of social justice and reservation movement, was obviously not impressed with the voting pattern and wanted to study further as why has it happened but she blamed the ‘mobilization’ through social networking sites and twitter. It is not that Nehru does not have followers but the Dalits have asserted strongly and the result is that Ambedkar surpassed every one.

The biggest Brahmin bhai-chara came with the comments of Sudheendra Kulkarni, who reiterated that though he is a ‘BJP’ member but today was speaking in his ‘personal’ capacity. Kulkarni’s argument on Ambedkar was very similar to what Arun Shourie has written in his pamphlet ‘Worshipping the false God’. One of the criteria for Nehru’s greatness according to Kulkarni was that Ambedkar never went to Jail while Nehru went 9 times to Jail for the freedom of the country. Kulkarni went on to say that the mistake made by Nehru were miniscule in comparison to mistakes made by Ambedkar including his joining the Viceroy’s Council, as Labour Minister. Kulkarni attributed this as Ambedkar’s hobnobbing with British.

Before, we move head, we must clarify that Ambedkar was never apologetic about his negotiations with British or for that anyone who he felt would help Dalit gain their freedom and liberty. He wanted to ensure and protect Dalit rights in the legal framework in India and did everything to attain that objective. One can only laugh at the argument of his British hobnobbing when the entire Congress party itself was founded by a British in 1885 and the initial manifesto of the Congress Party was not exactly the freedom of the country but seeking more job reservation for caste Hindus in administrative services and the British obliged them happily by deliberately sidelining the Muslims whose representation in Indian services continued to deteriorate sharply after 1857.

There is no doubt that Nehru was an iconic leader of his time and was much better than his peers like Sardar Patel and others with a casteist mindset with in Congress Party. In fact, I had asked this question to veteran Ambedkarite Mr Bhagwan Das as what was the relationship between Ambedkar and Nehru and to this Bhagwan Dasji told me that Ambedkar had lot of respect for Nehru and his modern ideas, which was quite an antithesis of Gandhi’s village economy and over-emphasis on religion. Actually, modern ideas put Nehru more in close league with Ambedkar than Gandhi. Nehru remained a staunch secular and democrat till his end but had perhaps no understanding and respect for the issue of social justice. That is why Nehru’s respect among the most marginalized has not grown despite his thoroughly secular credentials.

There is also a fact that Baba Saheb Ambedkar has grown in stature particularly for the Dalits enormously. There is nothing in Ambedkar that is not useful for a non-Dalit or other communities as the brand Ambedkar stands for human rights, individual liberty, freedom, democracy and social justice. If Indian women have certain rights today, they must be thankful to Dr Ambedkar for his crusade for their rights through well-drafted Hindu Code Bill which was thwarted by right wing nationalists like Rajendra Prasad and Shayama Prasad Mukherjee in the parliament and Nehru could not protect his colleague from the unfair criticism of the Brahminical leadership of India. Dr Ambedkar’s resignation from Nehru’s cabinet was an example of his integrity and probity in public life.

Today, we remember Baba Saheb Ambedkar because we relate to him. We feel liberated by reading him and watching him speaking to us. We feel that this man changed our life and created a whole mass-movement, which is unique and unparalleled in the world. It was a movement without any threat of violence. It was a movement for self-change. The Ambedkarites who followed Ambedkar changed their perception of life and moved ahead. Ambedkarism is not constitutionalism but much beyond. Ambedkarism is a new way of life which is democratic-socialistic and republican, based on the ideals of Equality, liberty and Fraternity, and there is only so much space for everyone who believes in these principles. At the end of the day, freedom of India was nothing for millions of Dalits since they were not freed from the clutches of caste-based discrimination. We were strong enough to fight against our so called enemies but then friends sitting at homes were more dangerous.

During the past sixty years, government and intellectuals made everything to deny Ambedkar his due in making of our nation. A nation is not just a political structure but our society too and Ambedkar not just awakened them but changed the whole perception. 17 per cent of Dalits would have challenged the Brahminical hegemony through guns and violence when their rights were violated, yet it is Ambedkar and his legacy that keeps people having faith in the rule of law, Constitution and democracy. Today, it is the Dalit Bahujan who carries the torch of our democracy as they participate in it in the largest number.

It is not correct to bring people from divergent background for deciding about so called greatest. Even if Ambedkar had not won through popular votes, his value for Dalits, marginalized and all freedom lovers would have been the same which existed for so many years. Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s legacy is clearly a legacy of people and it proves that an imposition of thought or leadership on people will not work. With this, it has also been proved that Dalits will use every instrument of modernity, social networking sites, internet, science and technology to spread the message of Ambedkarism. Ambedkar’s legacy is making them rational, humanist, and believing in modernism and scientific thought. Today, they have proved that market will also speak your language once you show your strength to them. Indian elites were always afraid of Dr Ambedkar and more from his ideas, but they cannot escape from him as Ambedkarism is here to stay and Rajdeep and likes of him will have to speak, read and write about Ambedkar despite their abhorrence. They would do well to read and understand Dr Ambedkar well as his thoughts are the guarantee of a secular, democratic, socialist republic of India which can fight against forces of religious fanaticism and hatred.

The marketers have faced the wrath of the people. The experts would never have imagined that Ambedkar would emerge victorious in this market show and that is why their faces were looking grim as they never wanted him. Most of the guests who were there cannot digest Dr Ambedkar’s work on caste system and how to annihilate castes. That remarkable work should be the part of our curriculum and one is sure if they want to respect Ambedkar, let Rajdeep Sardesai and Amitabh Bachchan discuss ‘annihilation of caste’ on their prime time programme for two hours. Let India discuss how caste can be eliminated in a serious way as a tribute to Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Then question is will they ever do it and my answer is never.

Caste is a castle and once it collapses the Hindu Varna system will disappear and nobody is interested in its destruction. Ambedkar’s legacy is stronger than ever as the movement has generated ‘prabuddha’ i.e. enlightened people who can question wrongs in the name of divinity. Ambedkar’s legacy is more important for those who believe in freedom of expression and right to challenge religious scriptures as well as Gods who were responsible for discrimination of majority of the working masses in our society.

Unfortunately, neither Gandhi nor Nehru had even half of the courage, conviction and intellectual honesty that Ambedkar possessed in challenging those discriminatory notions of Varna Vyavastha, which is the biggest curse for India and which hampers our growth.

In the 21^st century, India will gain more from the modern, humanist ideas of Dr Ambedkar which strengthen democracy, individual freedom and free-thoughts rather than the redundant, primitive and superfluous ideas of religion and village republics of dominant castes as propagated by Gandhi.  

Related articles

• In need of a makeover (thehindu.com)