Ambedkar- Messiah or False God? "Prime minister, permit me to make one thing clear. The depressed classes are not anxious, they are not clamorous, they have not started any movement for claiming that there shall be an immediate transfer of power from the British to the Indian people.... Their position, to put it plainly, is that we are not anxious for transfer of power from the British to the Indian people...."
It was a speech made by Ambedkar at the Round Table Conference; it was a speech which served the designs of the British rulers to the dot, and for which, they were ever so grateful to Ambedkar. The speech was used by the British as one of the principal devices for thwarting Gandhi. Throughout the twenty-five years of his public life before the British left India, Ambedkar took positions which were ever so convenient for the British, throughout these twenty-five years he hurled pejoratives at the Congress, in particular Gandhi. At every turn he put forward formulae and demands which enabled the British to counter the national movement for freedom. There was not one single, solitary instance in which Ambedkar participated in any activity connected with that struggle to free the country. Quite the contrary--at every possible turn he opposed the campaigns of the National Movement, and at every setback to the Movement he was among those cheering the failure. Thus, while the years culminated in the country's Independence, in Ambedkar's case they culminated in his becoming a member of the Viceroy's Council, that is -- to use the current terms -- a Minister in the British Cabinet in India. These facts and many more have been illustrated by Arun Shourie in his book, "Worshipping False Gods", a book in which Shourie challenges Ambedkar's contribution to Indian Independence. While Shourie may be right in claiming that Ambedkar played virtually no role in the freedom struggle, Shourie commits the cardinal sin of calling Ambedkar a 'false God'. Shourie ignores the fact that Ambedkar was pursuing an agenda of his own. Ambedkar was primarily concerned with the plight of some people who were then treated as 'untouchables', 'unapproachables', and even 'unseeables'. Ambedkar, himself having been treated very shabbily by upper caste Hindus, had observed how there were virtually no reforms taking place in the Hindu society. He feared that the 'British Raj' would be substituted by the 'Brahmin Raj', in which there would be absolutely no freedom for the backwards. Freedom from oppression, reformation, and economic upliftment of millions of dalits and adivasis was therefore high on his agenda. It was an agenda that Ambedkar pursued forcefully and relentlessly. Ambedkar throughout his life fought for the rights of the lowest strata of the society. For his immense dedication to the cause of the backwards, Ambedkar can rightly claim his place in history as being the messiah of the downtrodden; he is certainly no 'false God'. Sandeep Heble Panaji-Goa ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
