Politics in the name of Ambedkar- Does it really matter?
April 22, 2015
Much politics has been played in the past in the name of the great freedom fighter and iconic Dalit leader Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. And, the saga still continues. With his 125th birthday anniversary on April 14th, the latest announcement came from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s side on how they were going to commemorate the social reformer’s birthday.
The RSS contended that Ambedkar – the chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution – was much misunderstood. The RSS sought to draw similarities between him and its founder, Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. On the release of the “Collector’s Editions” of the RSS mouthpieces; namely, Panchjanya and Organiser, in New Delhi on Ambedkar’s birthday, RSS Sarkayavah Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said, “I don’t know whether they (Ambedkar and Dr. Hedgewar) met in their life, but the objectives of both were same – uplift the nation, eradication of social ills, awakening the society and restoring pristine glory of Bharat”.
Joshi though stirred a controversy saying that Mother Teresa’s getting Bharat Ratna 10 years before Ambedkar showed “our unfortunate indifference towards the great nationalist”. It seemed to be the second chance as RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat had already dragged Mother Teresa’s name into the issue of forced conversion. At a time when the hardline forces in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party are roistering the issue of “Ghar Wapasi” (homecoming of those Hindus who were converted to other religions), Joshi’s remark on Ambedkar and Mother Teresa does assume some political significance.
RSS’ drawing a similarity between Dr. Hedgewar and Ambedkar, and thereafter pitching Ambedkar against someone like Mother Teresa, is already being widely interpreted as a concerted political move to woo the scheduled caste voters in Bihar, where elections are due this year and the Dalits constitute a significant 15 percent of the voter population. The Sangh Pariwar may also be hoping to impact the Dalit voters in Uttar Pradesh and dent the support base of the popular Dalit leader Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party in the upcoming state assembly elections of 2017 by playing the Ambedkar card.
Much has also been read into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inauguration of the Rs. 200-crore research centre and library, which is dedicated to the life and thoughts of Dr. Ambedkar.
It is a fact that Ambedkar was harshly critical of Hinduism.
He had stated: “I started the movement of renouncing the Hindu religion in 1935 at Nasik and since then I have been continuing the struggle. A mammoth meeting was held a Yeola in 1935 in which through a resolution a decision was taken to the effect that we should renounce the Hindu religion. In the meeting I had said that though born as a Hindu because I could not help it, I would not die as a Hindu. This conversion has given me enormous satisfaction and pleasure unimaginable. I feel as if I have been liberated from hell…Unfortunately, Hinduism which is founded on the ideologies of inequality and injustice leaves no room for the development of enthusiasm. So long as the Untouchables continue to slave under the yoke of Hinduism, a diabolical creed—they can have no hope, no inspiration, no enthusiasm for better life…”
It is significant that Ambedkar chose Nagpur, which housed the RSS headquarters, to embrace Buddhism along with his 50,000 followers on October 14, 1956 – on the same day and at the same time – when Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh was holding a rally in Nagpur.
Though on the very next day of his initiation (Deeksha) ceremony, Ambedkar sought to clarify his decision of opting for Nagpur, stating: “Some people believe that I have purposely chosen this place because, this city is the centre of RSS activities and that I wanted to do something spectacular right in front of their eyes. Well, this is not true. I have no such motive. I have no desire to irritate or to provoke anybody by ‘scratching his nose’ nor do I have any time for this kind of childish pranks”.
Ambedkar added, “Why should we go out of our way to quarrel with the RSS? We have no time to do so, nor does it deserve that honour”.
His last sentence is significant as it did reflect his views on the RSS that the RSS did not “deserve that honour”. He in fact went on to claim that while selecting Nagpur, he did not even have "the remotest idea of the RSS in my mind".
His last sentence is significant as it did reflect his views on the RSS that the RSS did not “deserve that honour”. He in fact went on to claim that while selecting Nagpur, he did not even have "the remotest idea of the RSS in my mind".
Ambedkar had himself faced the discrimination on the basis of his birth. For him, Nagpur was important for a very “different reason”. As said by Ambedkar, “Those who have studied the Buddhist history of India know that the people who worked in the beginning for the propagation of the religion of Buddha were the ‘Nagas’… Nagas were non-Aryans and there existed fierce enmity between the Aryans and the Nagas…(who were) suppressed and oppressed by the Aryans…” According to him, Buddha saved the nagas, who were predominantly the inhabitants of Nagpur from “decay and extinction”. He had said, “It were the Nagas who spread the religion of the Buddha throughout the world”.
Since these Nagas lived on the banks of the Nag river that flowed in Nagpur, he chose Nagpur for this great occasion (of embracing Buddhism). And this was the only reason, and nothing else.
On the reason why he embraced Buddhism, Ambedkar had then said, “The fundamental principle of Buddhism is equality and it was the “only religion which does not recognise caste and affords full scope for progress”.
Ambedkar wanted economic emancipation of the Scheduled Castes and had once said that along with education and services, it was the “most important” thing to raise the status of the Scheduled Castes.
“Obviously the economic emancipation of the Scheduled Castes will depend upon the opportunity that they get for what might be called entry into gainful occupation. Unless and until doors are open to them where they can find gainful occupation, their economic emancipation is not going to take place”, he added.
What else other than Ambedkar’s 125th Birthday would be the best time for politicians and Hindu organisations such as RSS to strive to commit for the economic emancipation of the backwards! Well, it also made a good political sense, considering the Dalits constitute a good 16 percent of the voter population
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