Dr. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR, A GENIUS AND A NATIONALIST- A HUMBLE TRIBUTE

 

 

Dr. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR, A GENIUS AND A NATIONALIST

- A HUMBLE TRIBUTE

Humble Salute to the greatest humanist, the Architect of Indian Constitution, an economist par excellence, the epitome of equity, an eternal flag- bearer of fraternity and arguably one of the greatest geniuses to walk the earth-Dr Babasaheb Ramji Ambedkar on his 131st birth anniversary today.

2.       Babasaheb, himself a victim of social injustice in his childhood, rose above everything and educated himself in its truest sense to fight against such prevailing evil and drew the road map which is universally known as “ Indian Constitution”-a document so unique and based on equity and justice for all. All his life he fought against injustice and oppression caused to the downtrodden with a singular view to bring them to the main stream. A champion nationalist Babasaheb dedicated his life for upliftment of the society and take the country forward.

3.       Today, as the entire world is fighting against a deadly Pandemic and as the Hon. Prime Minister had said in his  address  to countrymen last year that India has gathered its strength from the phrase ”We the people of India” again from the Constitution of which Babasaheb was the Architect. Paying tributes to Babasaheb the Prime Minister in 2021  had also urged all eligible citizens to get vaccinated during the period 11th April to 14th April 2021 calling it Tika-Utsav.

4.       Friends-The Indian Constitution has stood tall for more than seven decades now weathering every storm that has come its way. This is because of its strong and resolute fundamentals.Babasaheb noted:

“An ideal society should be mobile, should be full of channels for conveying a change taking place in one part to other parts. In an ideal society there should be many interests consciously communicated and shared. There should be varied and free points of contact with other modes of association. In other words there should be social endosmosis. This is fraternity, which is only another name for democracy. Democracy is not merely a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow men.”

5.       Having said as above the point to ponder is whether we have really understood Babasaheb, his values and his thought process over the years! Alas, the answer should be an emphatic NO.  It  calls for severe soul-searching that even after 75 years of independence and 72 years after India adopted its Constitution, arguably the greatest such document ever to be drafted under the sun, a larger section of populace is still being victimised and terrified under the garb of casteism. It is common knowledge that the greatest takeaway from our Constitution is equality-of gender, religion, caste, creed and sex. Simply put all citizens are equal before society, be it  in work places, places of worship and before the  eyes of  law. There cannot be any discrimination based on these aspects. But what is agonising is that even after seven decades the thought process of people have not evolved that way fully to embrace the dictum. A multilingual and multi dimensional country like ours  can ill afford a divide based on caste or  creed. While such discrimination based on caste is widespread the manifestation has been more profound in specific parts of the country. No human has any control on where and in which family (s)he will be born. Unfortunately, casteism which is so deep rooted that it often opens its fangs wide and swallows its victims.

6.       Those who practise this ill- gotten scourge and differentiate another on the basis of caste perhaps do not want to remember that no human can choose his/her parents. Then why this “savarna” vs “Harijan” divide? The answer lies in our thought process. Generation one after another has been taught to identify who is superior. Through centuries innumerable leaders, saints and sages have taught us that a human being becomes superior through his deeds and  not by birth. Hopelessly, these have none or have miniscule effect on a sizeable portion of our population.

7.       No. The governments are not to be blamed. Ever since there has been a change in governance at the center, ‘Sabka Sath Sabka Vishwas’ has been the mantra. The governments have not made any discrimination in any way. The blame should entirely lie on us. It is we who pass on our thoughts to our next generation. It is so ironic and almost ridiculous that a country which has made developments in so many fields; which is the fifth largest economy and a nuclear power, has failed to shield itself from the scourge called ‘casteism’. Come on India!! Let’s throw all these inhibitions out of window. The world does not bother which family we are born into; the world bothers about how much development we make or contribute to such developmental process. Let us make a new beginning and break the shackle and embrace everyone as being equal to herald a new india . It’s time we remembered Gurudev’s famous lines:

          “Where the clear stream of reasons has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit...”.

8.       On such an auspicious day let us all take oath not to be fragmented on the basis of caste, color, creed or religion. India, despite all its differences in ideologies, is united and shall remain such. If we could achieve that it will be a true reverence to the genius called Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar🙏🏼