Hello everyone!!
I think I should start this post with Merry Chritmas!!
I wish you all a great time for this entire month, and then the entire New Year... and so on... forever...
Today, in my country, is one of the most important days in the history of Human Rights!! 6th of December 1956, was the day Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the father figure (Babasaheb) to the downtrodden, the guide to every heart and soul that wanted to be treated as an equal, had passed away. Just as I should, I'll try my best to talk about his work for humanity, and the impact of his work on India, as we see it today, because that is the most I can do in a blog post, although some of his mission, is yet unfinished.
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Let me first walk you through the problems he worked on.
Discrimination : By Birth, and By Gender:
Hinduism, or as they called it 5000 years ago, the Arya Samaj (kinda literally translates to Noble Society, and yes, of course the earth is older…), was divided into four groups of people. I'll list them in the order of their social status.
- The people who study and learn things, the thinkers or the guides of the society, were called the brahmans.
- The kings, the warriors, the soldiers (the strength) of the society, those who had to protect (and rule) it.
- Then the third were the businessmen, those who traded goods (and slaves) for a living.
- The workers, or laborers, also called the Shudras, those who served for a living.
This is mentioned in the ancient religious text Rigveda. But here is the twist... according to Rigveda, there were no restrictions on birth of a person. A person was only judged by what he was capable of, and how his abilities would help the society the most. And sadly, the open-mindedness was limited to men. The women and transgender didn't count as any of the above four groups. Women were meant to serve the men as wives, or serve the royal status as entertainment… or else they could serve the gods... similar to some other ancient societies back then, and transgender, were treated as outcastes, which sadly continues in some parts of the country, to this day. This was 5000 years ago… one could easily hope things getting better with time. But...
A new set of laws, in the form religion, called Manusmriti, was enforced about 3000 years ago. And this was a nightmare in terms of discrimination, imposing harsh rules on the servant castes, and easier rules on the higher ones. The four groups of people I mentioned above were restricted by birth, to the same groups, presently called castes... never ever to be changed, except if you are a king, or a brahmin with a high authority. You can change anything then, can't you? They could promote or demote the castes of people, as they pleased. Also, the brahmins were called the most pure, and this purity dropped with subsequent castes to shudras which were termed the most impure.
The Opposition :
At this point, I'd also like to mention two important names, of the great sages in Indian History, who opposed this discrimination, and supported equality among humans. The first was Vardhman Mahavir, a naked ascetic, who opposed the discrimination among men, and this led his followers to become a part of a different religion than hinduism... They became the Jains. Mahavir, did not give equal status to women and other genders though. And since partiarchs were okay with it, Jainism thrived in India.
The second name is Siddharth Gautam (Siddhartha Gotama), also known to the world, back then and today, as "The Buddha". He supported equality for all. And that really caused an outrage among those who supported patriarchy. I could talk more about the Buddha, but today is not his day. So I'll shorten it to one sentence - the closed minded people diluted, diverted and destroyed his teachings from the society, about 1200 years ago. And the people stay divided by birth, and gender, to this day.
An important note here, is that none of these sages directly opposed the caste system, or the discrimination. They actually had nothing to do with what ever other people believed. They only cared about those who followed them. It's just that the downtrodden people started liking their ideas, and this was becoming a problem. So you won't find anything that shows them directly going against inequality that dominated the society.
Now, we get to talk about Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. He was born a dalit mahar, the lowest caste among the servants. Mahar was considered to be the most impure of the castes. And even the “touch, or spit, or even shadow”, of a mahar, would spoil the purity of the higher castes (superstitiously of course). They served without wages, cleaned shit of higher castes as well (with bare hands), and survived only on left overs, and dead bodies of animals that the higher castes (businessmen and warriors) didn’t like to eat.
Of course some of the servants united and fought back, but they didn’t win against an enemy that was superstitious, closed-minded way of thinking. They killed people though, they still do, but they are not the enemy, they never were. Mahatma Gandhi, tried his best to stop untouchability, and he did succeed to some extent. But that is just not what equality means, right? Imagine saying this to someone, “Hey! You are an equal. You have the right to be touched.” Unbelievable!!
Dr. Ambedkar, was the first Dalit in India to be too well educated. He made the most out of the opportunities that came his way. This finally resulted in him writing the constitution of our country, or more precisely, being elected as the chairman of the drafting committee of the constitution of India. (There was no other option. He was the most suited man for this job in Asia!!). He had earned -
- 1913 - B.A. in Economics and Political Science, in Bombay.
- 1915 - M.A. with majoring in Economics, Columbia University.
- 1917 - Ph.D. in the same. He became the first Indian to do so in abroad.
- After this he returned to Baroda, India and served his state for three years as per his scholarship contract, and then he went to London.
- 1921 – M.Sc. from London School of economics.
- 1920 – Barrister-at-law, Gray’s inn, London Law.
- 1922-23 – studied economics at University of Bonn, Germany.
- 1923 - D.Sc. in Economics.
- And he had two more (his third and fourth) doctorates given to him as an honor.
In 1926, he won his first significant victory against the Brahmins in Maharashtra, who had sued a man for calling their community the enemies of the country, since they were spreading wrong information about another hindu social activist “Mahatma Phule”, that he was in fact a Christian, so the people would treat him as they treat the british, and ignore, or even hate everything he taught all his life, which included equality, women’s education, widow remarriage (rather than traditionally being burnt to death, or thrown out of house to go through no matter what hell…), and much more. Phule actually had opened the “first ever” school for girls in India. Yup, these are the kind of games that happen in politics.
In 1933, he won another important case against closed-mindedness, this time against a health related magazine, owned by son of other prominent social reformer, which was sued for spreading “vulgarity” by discussing the sex-related issues. In fact, sex education became a part of school curriculum here, only little more than a decade ago. Parents really resisted letting their children know the vulgarities they were born from and with. I’m guessing they thought vulgarity is short for vulgar identity… secret evil language codes you know… rofl.
Anyways, after this, he was much more focused on the society. And this led to various movements led by him to gain the right for equality. And every movement had a huge impact on the entire country, starting with right to use public water reservoirs, entry in temples, and perhaps the most aggressive move, burning the religious text “Manusmriti” that according to him, teaches the discrimination that people follow. His followers burn it every 25th of December as an anniversary.
Dr. Ambedkar, also went on to demand separate electorates for the untouchables, but Gandhi protested against it, saying that would divide the hindu community… After this, he figured he can’t move ahead as fast as he should. And he decided to quit the religion. He said this in as many speeches as he could, so maximum number of his followers could catch up, and on 14th October 1956, he converted to Buddhism. And that’s also how I’m a Buddhist.
This was a short description of the major problems he tackled before he gave India its constitution. After that he gave India, its most precious gifts ever...
- Democracy - The downtrodden now chose who rules them. By the way, both the current President and Prime Minister of India come from downtrodden castes.
- Freedom of speech and expression
- Freedom to practice any religion, cultural freedom.
- Right to equality
- Right to freedom
- Cultural and Educational rights
- Right to privacy
- Most importantly, Right to constitutional remedies, in case any of the above is denied.
Little work is still pending. I’ll talk about that too. The downtrodden castes are now dependent on reservations offered by the law to feel guaranteed that they won’t be discriminated against. And also, on the right to constitutional remedies in case they face any discrimination. And as long as the caste system is something that dominates the idea of religion, this will continue. Some religious gurus say things are different today, and they will be much better in near future. They do seem better than past, comparatively. My grandfather served as a farmer, and I never even faced any discrimination my entire life. But people in some parts of country still do. All the backward families of an entire village were attacked and forced to flee their homes, there have been two such incidents in past few years. And there is much more, It’s just not over… yet... Hopefully Someday…
See you soon, Take care.
References:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._R._Ambedkar
- http://www.culturalindia.net/reformers/br-ambedkar.html
- Old Wikipedia page on Buddha
- More recent page on Buddha
In case you want to see the difference...