This year marks the 125th birth anniversary of the architect of the Indian Constitution. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, born in 1891, spent a lifetime fighting for the political rights of Dalits and trying to eliminate social injustice. His struggle spurred many transformations, but the process continues still. And it will continue until Dalit research scholars like Rohith Vemula feel the need to take their lives under the burden of social prejudices.
In the 1940s, even while he was drawing up the Constitution, Ambedkar was aware that job reservations for Dalits and other oppressed classes alone wouldn't change the way Indian society looks at them. For him, equality demanded more. In the 1930s, in fact, he had favoured separate electorates for Dalits to exclusively vote for Dalit representatives, but he couldn’t get his way because of the opposition put up by MK Gandhi.
That legacy of Ambedkar – of clear-sighted pursuit of Dalit rights – has been distorted over the decades by parties of all hues. Political expediency has taken front seat, while the intentions behind his principled vision have been abandoned. Politicians call Ambedkar their hero, albeit without subscribing to his philosophy or his dreams. It is only when you go among his followers that the importance of his dreams can be fully seen.
They keep his picture in their wallets, wear his sketches as a badge, make mobile ringtones out of Ambedkarite songs, draw murals of him on their shops, and build his statues in their settlements despite paucity of space. They treat him as a saviour. His dedication and determination towards establishing equity and equal rights have given strength to the oppressed castes. They worship him as God.
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