The idea of Ambedkarism and the dirty politics behind the veil

-Shwetlana Sinha

At this time when we think of Sh. Babasaheb Ambedkar we only know him as an
emancipator of Dalit rather than a theorist of democracy, but in this article we will try to
understand him more as a founding father of the Constitution of India, someone who stood
for equality and against oppression in the erstwhile era. Recalling his speech in the
Constituent Assembly in 1946, when he talked about the ultimate goal and his fear as to India
as a nation and the unity. He said that the ultimate goal of everybody is the development of
India which can only be achieved by unity among the people, collective integration of people
rather than working individually. When I think of his speech I can so understand and even
relate this to the present era when India is trying hard and moving towards development and
modernization but still there is something lacking that is unity among the people, still India is
divided into various caste, communities language and what not, all this thing had made we
Indian the most intolerant one, we are so indulged in “I” that we never think about” WE”,
there is not any collective goal or collective step. In his speech on 26th November 1946 in the
assembly he made a distinction between political and social inequality, Ambedkar remarked
“on the social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of graded inequality
which means elevation for some and degradation for others. On the economic plane, we have
a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in
abject poverty”. The political equality is somehow achieved by providing right to vote to
every adult citizen of India and the rest gap is filled up by the Constitution of India, what is
left to do is the make the people aware of their rights, but talking about the social equality
there is log way to walk. India is society of based on graded inequality which means
elevation for some class and degradation for others, a society based on Varna system. Against
which Ambedkar stood and worked in every possible way to abolish the caste division in
India. As we think of abolishing the caste system not only Ambedkar but Gandhi also wanted
to abolish untouchability but the concept and way of both of them was different, Gandhi
wanted the Varna system to be present and the thought of it as division of labours but
according to Ambedkar theory it was division or labourers, Gandhi wanted this to be at the
mercy or will of the upper caste but Ambedkar wanted the Dalits to come forward and seek
their rights, ask for it and if not given then fight. But the sad reality is that even after 70 years
of independence we are not able to overcome the caste division. The biggest feat which he
had was that of hero-worshiping, blindly and uncritically following one person, which we can
see at this point of time. Everyone is following one or the other leader making him idle, a
hero and denying the existence of others hero trying to force their belief and thought rather
than accepting it and giving it a space the possibility that the other person might be right or
wrong.

“The politicization of Ambedkarism”

Certain political demarcations have been made in the post-independent era in the name of
“Ambedkarism” and a specific set or group has been identified as if only they are the true
followers of Babasaheb. These divisions or demarcations have also been done on the basis of
the colour of flags, for eg: a blue flag is always used in Indian Political arena to denote the
sentiments of the pro- Dalit issues. But the worst of worst thing is that each division in India
had someone to idealise i.e. BJP-RSS have Hindutva or Hinduism, Pro-Islamic parties have
the political agenda to mobilize Muslims in the name of quran and Dalits have made
Babasaheb as an ideal, there are uncountable number of statutes of Babasaheb than any other
political leader and he is the whose thoughts are wildly misinterpreted. We can see that in the
Indian Political slogans as well. Who can forget the famous slogan given by the Mayawati-
Mulayam Singh’s coalition in Uttar Pradesh in 1990s- “Mile Mulayam –Kanshiram, Hawa
mein Udd gaye Jai shree Ram”. So, in this slogan it has been shown that the followers of a
specific Hindu agenda party are not well wishers of the Dalits and so, the Dalits should also
unite and not vote for it.

The recent case of controversy over the statement of UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s that
Hanuman was a Dalit is the best example to understand that how the concept of equality
coined by Babasaheb has been severely misinterpreted and how the Indian Gods are being
used as a tool to gather votes. Talking about the concept in a detailed way, one cannot forget
the case of the village Bhima Koregaon better known as “The Great Chamar case”, where a
studious law graduate Chandrashekar Ravana allegedly uproar the violent activities in the
name of Ambedkar’s dalit friendly ideology. So, an inference can be drawn that certain
differences has arisen on the part of Ambedkarism- the Bookish as well as the Practical
approach towards the Dalit uprisings in India. A whole new debate also began when Rohith
Vemula, a research scholar from Hyderabad Central University was found dead in mysterious
circumstances. A notion that just because Vemula was a dalit, he was killed or was instigated
for suicide. In this case the popular concept that if dalits are well educated and economically
sustained, they can’t be harassed and instigated for such killings was challenged and the
Ambedkar’s idea of equality somehow seemed to be inefficient in fulfilling the desires of a
nation with so much diversity.

Ambedkar’s idea was not a caste/creed based idea; we have to understand that his idea was to
eliminate the caste system from the roots of Indian society. Babasaheb never said that the
demands of Dalits or SC/ST community shall be kept before the people of this country in a
violent way as we have witnessed in the case of SC/ST reservation in which the Bharat
Bandhs were done both in favour and against of certain proposed amendments. These are the
false notions of Ambedkarism which we have to falsify and accept the true notion that
Babasaheb always wanted to make India a democracy of the most able and efficient citizens
and workforce in the world. Imagine of a situation when we the people of India, will forget
the constitution that was drafted under the guidance of Babasaheb and start believing in the
false beliefs of caste based politics. Babasaheb was not merely a man of Law but also a great
visionary who believed in the potential of the citizens and the younger generations of this
country. Our ideal cannot be a RSS/BJP leader nor we can rely on the Bhima Koregaon
conspirators like Chandrashekar Ravana. In such a situation we will have to act wisely and
with this state of mind we have to believe that the idea of Ambedkarism can be interpreted
but the trueness of Ambedkar’s dream lies there in the pious and pure soul of the Constitution
of India.

We the people of India, will have to understand that Babasaheb never dreamt of a Bharat
Bandh, instead he always dreamt of India as a vibrant democratic nation which never stops
to aspire the zenith.