June 15, 2016

Ambedkar is the pre-eminent political rationalist of modern India. Few had the range of intellect to grasp the enormous complexity of the Sub-Continent. Fewer still had the knowledge of law and jurisprudence to help draft what is surely one of the more just constitutions in history.

During the last year of his life Ambedkar embraced Buddhism. It is worth asking what might have prompted such a step. Was it merely something he did to offer his Dalit followers an alternative system of beliefs and practices to the one which was a source of oppression to them? Or was it, perhaps, a deeper realisation of the place of the spirit in the life of a culture, especially one as steeped in religion as India's?

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Essay by Raajaysh ChetwalFrom ‘Caste In Iron’

Annihilation Of DiscriminationQuest for a moral force to supplement legislation

June 15, 2016

This second possibility is addressed best if we consider what the impact of the Indian Constitution - by any yardstick, as egalitarian a document as exists anywhere - has been. During the last six decades, caste oppression and discrimination have not only 'not vanished', it is possible to argue that the fissures have, in fact, intensified in many places. Ambedkar himself was quite clear and modest about what constitutional guarantees could achieve. In his speech to the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949, he said:"We must begin by acknowledging the fact that there is complete absence of two things in Indian Society. One of these is equality. On the social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of graded inequality in which we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty.... On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognising the principle of 'one man one vote' and 'one vote one value'. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of 'one man one value'. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has so laboriously built up."

However, how was the "contradiction" to be removed at the "earliest"? Even Ambedkar, eminent jurist as he was, was not sure whether merely passing legislation would achieve the desired goal of social justice. When it is effective the law works through the mechanism of fear and deterrence. If well-conceived, the rationality of the system of justice can ensure that this 'works'.

But there is a serious problem. As Gandhi recognised, what is based on fear lasts only as long as the fear lasts. Human nature is much more than rational and human motivation is complex. When the heart takes over - especially groups of people - passions decide what happens. The question is which passions these are. They could range from love and compassion to revenge, hatred or violence.

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Ambedkar Statue Showing us the way

June 15, 2016

So the question of justice is deeper than that of political or legal rationality. Could it be that when he embraced Buddhism, towards the end of his life, Ambedkar began to recognise that something more than just such rationality was needed in India to bring justice to the exploited and the oppressed? Could it be that he understood what Gandhi had been trying to practice and preach all his life, that the human heart had to be moved towards justice, which could only be the result of a deeper moral change in people - both on the side of the oppressors and of the oppressed?

There is certainly some evidence in favour of this possibility- a rarely noticed passage from Ambedkar’s own ‘Annihilation of Caste’ where he is arguing that any significant political change is preceded by a ‘religious revolution’:

“The religious Reformation started by Luther (a German Theologian) was the precursor of the political emancipation of the European people. In England Puritanism led to the establishment of political liberty. Puritanism founded the new world. It was Puritanism which won the war of American Independence and Puritanism was a religious movement. The same is true of the Muslim Empire. Before the Arabs became a political power they had undergone a thorough religious revolution started by the Prophet Mohammad. Even Indian History supports the same conclusion. The political revolution led by Chandragupta was preceded by the religious and social revolution of Buddha. The political revolution led by Shivaji was preceded by the religious and social reform brought about by the saints of Maharashtra. The political revolution of the Sikhs was preceded by the religious and social revolution led by Guru Nanak. It is unnecessary to add more illustrations. These will suffice to show that the emancipation of the mind and the soul is a necessary preliminary for the political expansion of the people.”

The reasons for Ambedkar's eventual embrace of Buddhism must have been many and complex. But the possibility of realising the importance of a socio-religious awakening, cannot be ruled out. In fact, it may just have played the deciding role. And so I ponder, is it time for a Gandhi (or a Gandhian, like Vinoba Bhave), or for that matter a Nehru, who had universal acceptance across all sections of our society, to step in again and deploy the higher moral/spiritual force so that we can all be the change that we wish to see in our nation. And India can finally witness a complete 'Annihilation of Discrimination'.Author is a filmmaker and can be reached at raajaysh@gmail.com

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AMBEDKAR’S JEEVAN GEET CAN BE BOUGHT THROUGH

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