By Anand Kumar, Edited by Farida Hasanali, President NetIP Houston. This article was published in the Voice of Asia.
Imagine being a lawyer defending a case in court and your bailiff throws your client’s file at you because he doesn’t want to touch you even by mistake because that would mean he had touched something impure. Has anyone every made you feel impure? “Impure” is exactly what people born in a Harijan family feel every single day of their lives.
We all want to believe that this atrocious practice has been ripped from its roots in India, but that would be wishful thinking. It is unfortunately still practiced avidly in the rural areas and in a modified form in urban educated cities. A CNN documentary shot recently called “Untouched India” shows the plight of the untouchables. Most of the atrocities on untouchables are customary and scarcely registered as crimes. Untouchables account for a 1/5th of India’s total population and they represent the inhuman existence of human beings. Their touch, shadows or even voices pollute high caste Hindus. They have no right to education, dignity, or respect and are assigned menial jobs with remuneration in the form of abuse or leftovers from chaste Hindu households. They have no access to public services such as clean drinking water, temples, schools etc.
Just like other injustices, the Harijan cause too had a leader. India is fortunate to be the motherland of leaders with unmatched fearlessness, unbelievable compassion and extra ordinary intellect. Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, popularly known as Babashaeb among his followers, was one of them. Born on April 14, 1891 in Maharashtra, India, Babasaheb was the fourteenth child of Subedar Ramji Skapal and Bhimabai, a Hindu untouchable family. Untouchability is a curse on India and though illegal under the constitution is still diligently practiced in villages and in a transformed form in cities.
Dr. Ambedkar was fortunate that his father worked for the British army where education was compulsory for all relations of military service men. He lost his mother at age six and was raised by his father and aunt in a very disciplined environment. His father, Subedar Ramji Sakpal, although headmaster of a military school and a very well respected personality, could not prevent his own children from the oppression faced by the members of untouchable community. Early in life Dr. Ambedkar learned the harsh reality of being born an untouchable. The repeated insults and maltreatments in the name of caste hardened him and his resolve which later culminated in his vow, “If I fail to do away with the abominable thralldom and inhuman injustice under which the class, in to which I was born, has been groaning, I will put an end to my life with a bullet”.
In 1915 after finishing his Masters, Dr. Ambedkar presented a paper on May 9, 1916 “CASTES IN INDIA: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development”. He presented an exhaustive study of castes and concluded that absence of inter-marriage or endogamy is the only characteristic that is peculiar to caste and is a conscious creation of a community of crooked minds for selfish ends. A year later finished his Ph. D. with a dissertation titled “The National Dividend of India – A Historical and Analytical Study”. His academic success was honored by students and professors of Faculty of Arts at Columbia University. The extension of his thesis was later published as a book titled “The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India” in London by Messrs. P. S. King & Son, Ltd.
Dr. Ambedkar’s passion for education took him to London but he had to return to India due to lack of funds and began to serve as the Military Secretary to the Maharaja. Unfortunately in spite of his academic achievements and recognition abroad he was still an untouchable who could not drink water from a common pitcher kept for his underlings, who would not place file at his table but throw it from a distance so as not to get polluted, Some of these events have been depicted in the movie “Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar”, by Jabbar Patel. Even the Maharaja showed his helplessness to change the caste practices. Frustrated he left and was out of work till his appointment as Professor in Sydnham College of Commerce and Economics. His untouchability followed him wherever he went in India and high caste Hindus as students or colleagues did not like the presence of an untouchable among them.
Later, Dr. Ambedkar started his first fortnightly paper “Mook Nayak”, (Leader of the Dumb), and the “Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha” a community organization to represent before the Government the grievances of untouchables.
He was member of the Flag Committee of the Constituent Assembly that adopted the Tri-color flag of India with Ashok Chakra. Drafting a constitution for a country so diversified as India as Chairman of the Drafting Committee was an exceptional challenge which only he could take on as he saw in it an opportunity to mould an India of his dreams.
Frustrated with politics Dr. Ambedkar resigned from active politics to focus on social reform. His two books “Who were the Shudras” and “Untouchables” provide an explanation for the untouchables’ existence. Shudras were the Kshatriyas who were degraded as a result of a conflict with the Brahmins and the Brahmins refused to perform the thread ceremony for them resulting in the fourth Varna. He traced the origin of the untouchables to 400 A.D.; they were born out of struggle between Buddhism and Brahminism. Untouchables were Buddhists who had refused to join the renaissance of Hinduism.
“Man must eat to live and live to work for the well-being of society”, he said. He regarded that an educated man without character is a curse to the society. Character is more important than education and it comes through religion. He argued that the very basis of Hinduism is inequality and the depressed classes will never attain their development under the Hindu fold. Two personalities that captivated him were the Buddha and Christ. In his thoughts on religion he wrote that:
(1) The society must have either sanction of law or morality to hold it together
(2) Religion must be in accord with reason which is another name of science
(3) It is not enough for religion to have moral code but the moral code must be based on liberty, equality and fraternity
(4) Religion must not sanctify or ennoble poverty
According to him Buddhism satisfied all the requirements and he formally adopted it on October 14, 1956. Just before his death on December 6, 1956 he completed his famous book entitled, “The Buddha and his Dhamma” one of the best books in Buddhism that he wrote after years of research to bring to the followers of Buddhism on what the Buddha said. His life dealt a shattering blow to the arrogance of those who held that individual elevation and attainment were the monopoly of the privileged few. He was conferred the honor of Bodhistava a level close to the fully enlightened one.
There are many lessons we can learn from Dr. Ambedkar’s life. Perseverance and passion come to mindimmediately. One person, one passionate person can make a change in another person’s life, in a country or even in the world. What are you passionate about today?
The opinions expressed in this article are solely that of the author and not of NetIP National or NetIP Houston. For information on upcoming Houston events please click on Events Calendar at http://www.netiphouston.org.
