April 14 is the birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar. The whole nation celebrates it whole-heartedly. One can hardly found a corner in the country where celebrations are not going on. They last for more than a week. The organisers are generally dalit or government officials. Though such events create awareness, they often miss the importance of the event. The question often asked is whether Dr Ambedkar worked only for dalits? The work done by Dr Ambedkar for women empowerment was never limited to the dalit and tribal communities. Non- dalits and tribals often participate in such event as guests.
If Dr Ambedkar had been alive today, he would have focused on disseminating ideologies rather than celebrating his anniversary. Throughout the year we celebrate birth or death anniversaries of great personalities of the country such as Gandhiji, Sardar Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose. Many seminars and meetings are organised discussing their ideologies and contributions. If we leave a few exceptions, there are hardly any events which are organised for Dr Ambedkar. Even the share of space provided to Dr Ambedkar in literature and syllabus is much smaller than his contribution and stature.
Dalit thinkers and writers often question that why they should participate in anniversaries, meetings and seminars of others, when non-dalits never participate in celebrations for Dr Ambedkar, Jyotibha Phule, Sahuji Maharaj. They have even started questioning that why should they invite scholars and thinkers of those communities who do not celebrate their leaders. Why a dalit and tribal is not invited as speaker or guest to celebrate the anniversary of a brahmin, a kshatriya or a vaishya leader.
Non-dalit speakers come to share their views on Dr Ambedkar and even instruct dalits to follow Dr Ambedkar teachings. Ideally, it should be other way around. Non-dalits should be made aware of Dr Ambedkar’s principles. It is as important for them and the tribals to understand the ideas of Dr Ambedkar as it is for dalits. Discrimination will end only when non-dalits and tribals communities start to understand Baba Saheb Ambedkar.
Thoughts of Dr Ambedkar are important not only for dalit upliftment but are important for nation-building too. Caste binding in our country is much more than binding of religion. These caste-ridden divisions didn’t break even during the heydays of our country. It is the prime reason why so many invaders succeeded in ruling over us.
Even today, caste unity is much bigger than religion-based unity. Even when there is religion-based unity, the founding stone is laid on caste.
Breaking the chains of caste looks impossible in near future. Therefore, it will be a smart move that non-dalit and tribal communities should start celebrating the political leaders, great personalities and thinkers of dalit community also. This will send a positive message to them and will help in breaking the chains of caste division.
During the 70s and the 80s, it was never expected that dalits will form political parties on the basis of caste. If equal participation were given to them since Independence, then fight for social equality would not have taken such an ugly shape. It is quite visible nowadays among dalit youths that they want to study and read about thinkers and leaders from their community only. This is visible greatly on social media. There is a sense of negativity among youths regarding non-dalits’ and tribals’ disinclination to appreciate the ideas of dalits thinkers and leaders. Now is the right time that non-dalit community should start accepting dalit leader and thinkers as one of their own.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen on developing this trend. Therefore, he never fails to appreciate the contribution of Dr Ambedkar, wherever he finds such an opportunity, and I believe this should form part of discussions at other places also.
The writer is member of Parliament (Lok Sabha)
