Dr. Ambedkar On Women Liberation
By Ratnesh Katulkar
31 August, 2008
Countercurrents. org
"We shall see better days soon and our progress will be greatly
accelerated if male education is persuaded side by side with female
education…" are the words of Young Ambedkar, during his studies at New
York which came out while writing a letter to his father's friend.
Interestingly Dr. Ambedkar's first academic paper "Caste in India:
Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development" also begins with his concern
towards women, where he located the linkages between caste and gender
by observing that "Superimposition of endogamy on exogamy means
creation of caste" and concluded that there is no divine or natural
cause of origin of caste but Brahmins of ancient India craftily
designed it by enclosing their class through means of controlling and
subjugating their woman.
He further pointed attention to the fact that in order to maintain
endogamy, the only ideal situation is constant sex ratio with in a
class, i.e., one man for one woman. As he observed, " The problem of
caste then, ultimately resolves itself into one of repairing the
disparity between marriageable units of two sexes with in it. Left to
nature, the much-needed parity between the units can be realized only
when a couple dies simultaneously. But this is rare contingency. The
Husband may die before the Wife and create a Surplus woman, who must
be disposed of, else through intermarriage she will violate the
endogamy of man, whom the group, while it may sympathies with him for
sad break the endogamy. Thus, both the surplus man and surplus woman
constitute a menace to the Caste, if not taken care of, for not
finding suitable partners inside their prescribed circle (and left to
themselves they cannot find, any for it matter be not regulated there
can only be just enough pairs to go round) very likely they will
transgress the boundary, marry outside and import offspring that is
foreign to caste".
Therefore he observed that in the maintenance of strict endogamy
surplus men and surplus women were the main challenge, here he also
noted that man being powerful and upper hand in society can not be
forcibly controlled thus the society let him untouched but the women
being inferior to man were easy pray of its victimization. So as a
'protective' measure Sati system was introduced, where by a surplus
woman (= widow) was forced to burn along with her deceased husband.
But in some cases it was difficult to operate so the second remedy was
to compulsory enforce widowhood on her for rest of her life, and in
order to guard the her morals and also morals of group, the widows
were obliged to follow much restrictions such as shaven head,
restriction on diets, wearing of colorless Sari and no intermixing
with any one and in this way she is no longer source of allurement.
As said above, both these treatments-Sati and Enforced Widowhood were
not possible in the case of Surplus Man. Therefore, Surplus man was
allowed to re-marry to recruit another bride, but here there is every
possibility of increase in competition in consumption of woman in
Caste, therefore as a corrective measure, man was allowed to recruit
his wife from lower marriageable rank, this resulted in the beginning
of Girl Marriage. In this way, the inhuman practices of i) Sati system
ii) Enforced Widowhood and iii) Child marriage came into existence.
Thus much before the Indian feminist school, Dr. Ambedkar pointed out
the direct relationship between caste and gender and observed that
gender could not be seen in isolation from caste.
Apart from his academic writings when Dr. Ambedkar headed in public
life, women were the major force in all his struggles. Women's issue
was also main plank in his fortnightly Mooknayak and Bahiskrit Bharat.
In historic Mahad Satyagraha there were about 500 women took active
part in this procession. On 18th July 1927, Dr. Ambedkar addressed a
meeting of about three thousand women of Depressed classes, where he
said that 'I measure the progress of community by the degree of
progress which women had achieved' and said to the Women, "Never
regard yourself as Untouchables, live a clean life. Dress yourselves
as touchable ladies. Never mind, if your dress if full of patches, but
see that it is clean. None can restrict your freedom in the choice of
your garments. Attend more to the cultivation of the mind and spirit
of self-Help." Then with a little fall in voice he said, "But do not
feed in any case your spouse and sons if they are drunkards. Send your
children to schools. Education is as necessary for Females as it is
for males. If you know how to read and write, there would be much
progress. As you are, so your Children will be." Dalit Women too
responded very positively to Dr. Ambedkar's advice and to the surprise
of all the women left early in the morning with wonderful change in
the fashion of their Sarees as ordained by Babasaheb.
Further Dr. Ambedkar said to Women "Learn to be clean. Keep from
vices. Give education to your children. Instill ambition into them.
Inculcate in their minds that they are destined to be great. Remove
from them all inferiority complexes." On marriage he remarked, "Do not
be in hurry to marry. Marriage is liability .You should not impose it
upon your children unless they are financially able to meet the
liabilities arising from marriage. Those who will marry will have to
keep in mind that to have too many children is a crime. The paternal
duty lies in giving each child a better start than its parents had.
Above all, let every girl who marries stand by her husband, claim to
be her husband's friend and equal, and refuse to his slave. I am sure
if you follow this advice, you will bring honour and glory to
yourselves."
Dr. Ambedkar also raised the Women's issue as Member of Legislative
Council during his debate in Bombay Legislative Assembly on 10th Nov.
1938; he strongly advocated family planning measures and said that
besides many other problems giving birth to many children negatively
affects Mother's health. Later in the year 1942 Dr. Ambedkar also
introduced Maternity Benefit Bill during his tenure as Labour Minister
in Governor General's Executive Council.
While drafting the constitution of India, Dr. Ambedkar was the prime
movers of the provisions related to the welfare of women. On the
question of civil rights, Dr. Ambedkar made provisions in articles
14-16 in the Indian Constitution, which provide equal status to Woman
and also banned the of sale and purchase of woman prevailing Hindu
India. Further to ensure women's status Dr. Ambedkar also introduced
an emancipatory bill (the Hindu code Bill) in Parliament which
intended mainly 1) to abolish different marriage systems prevalent
among Hindus and to establish monogamy as the only legal system; 2)
Conferment of right to property and adoption on women; 3) restitution
of conjugal rights and judicial separation; attempts to unify the
Hindu Code in tune with progressive and modern thought.
But the Caste Hindus who considered this move as an attempt to attack
the sanctity of Hinduism opposed this revolutionary bill. It was
opposed both inside as well outside the House, where not only leading
members of Hindu Mahasabha but also large number of caste-Hindu women
protested against this. In his vigorous defense to this Bill, Dr.
Ambedkar alleged that the ideals enshrined in this bill are derived
from the constitution of India, which is based on liberty, equality
and fraternity. He observed that 'the sacramental marriage does not
satisfy the ideal of liberty or equality'. And described 'sacramental
marriages as polygamy for the men and perpetual slavery for the women
because under no circumstances with in that system woman got liberty
from her husband however bad he may be, however undesirable he may
be'. But unfortunately this revolutionary bill couldn't see day of
light as in face of growing opposition Pt. Nehru, then Prime Minister
decided to drop this bill.
Dr. Ambedkar was so disgusted with this that he resigned from Nehru's
cabinet. He said, 'it (The Hindu Code Bill) was killed and buried,
unwept and unsung'.
Thus Dr. Ambedkar practiced what he preached. Dr. Ambedkar's influence
on Women is still visible especially in the Maharashtrian Buddhist
Women, who are not only empowered but often criticize mainstream
Feminist movement as the Brahmin Women Movement.
Ratnesh Katulkar is an Ambedkarite activist from Madhy Pradesh and
Research Scholar in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar National Institute of
Social sciences, Dr. Ambedkar Nagar MHOW Distt. Indore MP 453 441
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