OMKAR DATTATRAY
The grateful nation is celebrating the birth anniversary of the Dr B.R. Ambedkar today on 14th April 2024 and the best way of paying tribute to this great man is to remember him and make serious and honest efforts to make India of his dreams which is free from the untouchability .Dr Bhimrao Ambedker was the embodiment and epitome of multifaceted personality and will be remembered for his unmatched and unparallel taints of head and heart .He was the doyen of social change ,harbinger and advocate of classless and casteless Indian society where people belonging to various castes will get equal opportunity for development .He is remembered for his selfless crusade for social change ,social reform and unity in the society .The contribution of Ambedker in the social and political life of India cannot be exaggerated .He had done much for the cause of the Dalits ,under privileged and downtrodden sections of the society .He was born as Hindu but he embraced Buddhism because he felt uneasy with the caste division of Hindu religion and worked hard throughout his life for doing away with casteism in the caste ridden society and worked tirelessly for the cause of abolishing caste division in society .His contribution towards the social and political emancipation of India cannot be overlooked .His life and contribution was immense to social and political field and will remain to inspire future generations .Ambedker was highly educated and had a doctorate to his credit .He gave much importance to the education of the Dalits ,underprivileged and downtrodden sections of the society .He was of the view that weaker sections and those at the bottom of the society cannot develop without education and he thus gave much emphasis on their education .Ambedkar was the architect of the India’s constitution and he was the chairman of the drafting committee of the constitution .His contribution towards the framing of the constitution cannot be under looked .Dr Ambedkar was a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional personality .Popularly known as Babasaheb ,Dr B.R.Ambedkar was an eminent educationist ,a great economist ,an able administrator and a radical political and social thinker of his time .He was a versatile personality wrote on such diverse subjects as anthropology,sociology,economics,philosophy,religion,law,history and politics .He had good command over all these varied and diverse subjects .He is also known as the father of Indian constitution .Ambedkar was born in the community of Mahars in the present Madhya Pradesh state .Throughout his childhood he faced the stigma of caste discrimination .Hailing from Hindu Mahar caste ,his family was viewed as untouchable by the upper castes .He faced worst kind of discrimination and humiliation in his school and then in his future life as well .Ambedkar raised strong voice against this discrimination . .After completing higher education and coming back from USA ,Ambedkar was appointed as the defense secretary to king of Baroda ,but here also he faced discrimination and thus humiliation being an untouchable .He fought against the two principal inhuman social evils prevalent in Hindu society- untouchability and casteism .His social thinking was the outcome of total discrimination and humiliation meted to his community by the upper caste Hindus and thus he raised strong voice against these social evils .This made him the savior and darling of the lower castes .He fought throughout his life for the cause of the lower castes which made him so dear to the lower castes .So his philosophy was the political emancipation and education of lower castes and also their role in participation in the politics. .He also worked for political enlightenment as well as and spiritual awakening of his community .He was of the view that political democracy will be fragile without the social democracy at its base .Ambedkar sought to eliminate the contradictions resulting from equality in politics and inequity in social and economic life .Institution set up by him became vehicles of change such as Hitkarani Sabha and the Independent Labour Party of India .He stressed upon constitutional methods and means to achieve social justice .He believed in the path of non -violence and peace to attain social , economic and political freedom of the lower castes .Ambedkar was of the firm view that political freedom is meaningless without social emancipation and therefore all of us including those sitting at the top executive positions should work towards the social change and he also believed that regeneration of the country and its politics is not possible without social and economic freedom and therefore social and economic equality is of paramount for the country’s development and for attaining social and economic freedom and for this all of us should work in cooperation to achieve social and economic liberty in the country .His plea for adoption of non -violent means is an important component of not only of his political philosophy but his moral and ethical view .He emphasized the need for economic and social emancipation of the underprivileged people .He floated the Bahishkrit Hitkarni Sabha in July 1924 .He became founder of Samaj Samata Sangh which was based on the principle of social equality .He is the architect of the constitution and while drafting the constitution ,he incorporated the principal of socio-economic justice along with political and civil rights .He sought to make the Indian constitution as an effective means for social change .According to him attainment of political freedom was not the sufficient condition for social change and social regeneration .He stressed for the economic emancipation of the under privileged sections of the society .Thus it was the firm view of Ambedkar that political independence has little meaning and significance without social freedom and social regeneration He laid foundations of two political organizations namely the Independent Labor Party of India in 1936 and Scheduled Caste Federation in 1942 which later on turned into Republic Party of India .He included principles of socio-economic justice along with political and civil rights in the constitution .Ambedkar sought to make the constitution of India as an effective means of social change . He gave immense importance to fundamental rights and incorporated these in the constitution to give the citizens these civil rights for their social and economic development and for making Indian society an egalitarian one having liberty and fraternity .Ambedkar wanted to make fundamental rights effective and for this it was thought necessary that every citizen should be in a position to claim and demand the fundamental rights .He wanted fundamental rights binding upon all the institutions of the government and private institutions also .He considered fundamental rights of paramount importance for the development of human personality .According to him ,these fundamental rights should not be absolute but should be checkmated by fundamental duties and these are interdependent on each other but the original constitution did not had the fundamental duties of the citizens in it and it was in year 1976 that fundamental duties were incorporated in the constitution .He did not thought the need to incorporate secularism in the constitution and the word secular was added to the preamble of constitution of India in 1976 by way of 42nd amendment to the constitution. Ambedkar was appointed the chairman of the drafting committee of the constituent assembly .Being a social revolutionary he championed the cause of the Dalits and other lower castes throughout his life and to the some extent he was successful in this regards as well .He was in fact the messiah of the downtrodden and weaker sections of the society and for their political ,social upliftment he worked very hard .day and night and got much for these classes of the society .Ambedkar championed the cause of Dalits and other untouchables who were oppressed from centuries and worked for their equality in social ,economic and political life .He wanted to create a new social, economic and political order in which every citizen will feel equal and there will be no discrimination against any one on the basis of his caste ,creed ,color and faith .He asked the untouchables to organize, educate and agitate as this as per him will free these weaker sections from the chain and shackles of untouchability. Ramchandra Guha considered Ambedkar as a unique example of success and inspiration .His journey from being an untouchable to India’s first Law Minister is not less than extra -ordinary and no mean development. Gail Omvedit calls Ambedkarism as a living force in India. Ambedkar’s philosophy will continue to inspire Indian’s for generations. The best tribute to Ambedkar on his birth anniversary today on 14 the April is to make India of his dreams. In brief his was a multifaceted personality which cannot be penned down in a small page.
(The author is a columnist, social and KP activist).
