Monday, January 2, 2012

[ZESTCaste] ‘Indu Mills had devpt potential of Rs 3,600cr’

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Indu-Mills-had-devpt-potential-of-Rs-3600cr/articleshow/11343777.cms

'Indu Mills had devpt potential of Rs 3,600cr'
TNN | Jan 3, 2012, 12.51AM IST
MUMBAI: The National Textiles Corporation said its 12.5-acre Indu
Mills property at Prabhadevi, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
agreed to hand over to the state free of cost, had a development
potential of around Rs 3,600 crore.

Last week, the PM assured a state delegation, led by chief minister
Prithviraj Chavan, that the sea-facing property would be allotted for
a memorial for B R Ambedkar.

NTC officials are tight-lipped because of the sensitivities involved;
all that they divulged was that their valuation of this prime property
came to around Rs 300 crore per acre. However, a senior state official
debunked the NTC figure, saying the property could not be worth that
much, given the existing ready reckoner rate for land in that area.
The bureaucrat said the plot was reserved only for industrial use and
so, there was no question for commercial exploitation. "The FSI for
industrial use is 1," he said, adding the proposed memorial would have
a substantial part of the land reserved for a park, to be open to the
public.

The official said there were several ways NTC could be compensated,
including giving it an equivalent area outside the city. Another
option could be to offer the transfer of development rights or TDR to
NTC. This TDR could be exploited in the suburbs. But civic officials
said TDR could only be sanctioned if a civic amenity was created on
the surrendered plot.

According to sources, the Indu Mills was one of the finest parcels of
land in the island city; rates in a nearby high-end residential tower
are being currently quoted at Rs 70,000 a sq ft.

The NTC had plans to build a luxury hotel and commercial complex there
to garner revenue to revive its sick units elsewhere. The original
understanding between the state and NTC was that the latter would
surrender four acres for the Ambedkar memorial. As compensation, NTC
was to receive extra construction rights on the eight acres.

The plan had to be change after supporters of Republican Sena forcibly
occupied the mill premises on December 6. When the NTC approached the
HC following the state's failure to act against the "encroachers", the
court rapped the government for its inaction. On December 22, the
state informed the court that it had persuaded the squatters inside
Indu Mills to vacate within a week and if they did not, they would be
evicted. Last week, after meeting the PM, Chavan said a panel
comprising Union ministries of environment and forests, urban
development and textiles officials and state government
representatives would be formed to resolve the issue related to land
transfer.


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[ZESTCaste] Police beats up Dalit officer for doing his work, No FIR yet!

 

Dalit officer beaten up for doing his work by police, No FIR!

Khuturam Sunani from Odisha is telling us story of a Dalit School
Ispector who was beaten up in the middle of the night by a police
officer after breaking the door of his house. According to the school
Inspector, his only crime is a report against a school teacher about
his negligence of work. Police has not filed any FIR 10 days after the
incident. You are requested to call SP 09437210607 to ask why. For
more Sunani Ji can be reached at 09437657625

http://www.cgnetswara.org/index.php?id=8876

regards
Swara moderators team

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[ZESTCaste] Anna’s house is not for all (Kancha Ilaiah)

http://www.asianage.com/age-sunday/anna-s-house-not-all-861

Anna's house is not for all
Jan 01, 2012 - kancha ilaiah (Commentator on dalit issues)

The debate about corruption and Team Anna's role in eradicating it has
consumed disproportionate space in the Indian print and electronic
media. Team Anna has even come to believe that it can influence the
electoral politics of the nation. But the fact remains that poor,
lower caste masses have no trust in these middle class movements and
their leaders.

Corruption of the kind that Team Anna is talking about is a problem of
the state and the middle class because the Indian middle class lives
by manipulating the state. This very middle class was opposed to
social justice and welfare mechanisms like reservations both in the
government and also in the private sector.
Whichever agenda the middle class takes up, the poor — particularly
the Dalit-Bahujans — view with suspicion. In the past, we have seen
the tension between the Indian middle class and the Dalit-Bahujan
social forces both in the 1990 anti-Mandal and the 2007
anti-reservation movements.
There is a close socio-economic relationship between the Indian middle
class and the upper caste social forces. The Indian state has created
a substantial middle class from upper castes. By and large the lower
castes remain in the below poverty line zone. There is a small
educated middle class from the lower castes which emerged out of the
reservation package — particularly of the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes — and joined the ranks of the urban middle class.
Those who support Team Anna hate this lower-caste middle class as the
latter does not fit into their cultural realm. Even that small
SC/ST/OBC middle- class has not been integrated into the upper-caste
middle class.
The so-called movement of Team Anna is of the Hindu upper castes and
has no sympathy for the poor. Even the minority religious middle class
(though small in number) does not trust Team Anna's secular
credentials. There is a view that it is in league with Hindutva
forces, who are opposed to the development of minority communities.
By and large the OBCs are an agrarian community or form the urban
lower middle class who do not have a role in the state and the media.
Anna's movement was propped up by the English media, and the SCs, ST
and OBCs are beyond the pale of that media zone. This social mass does
not know how the kind of corruption that Team Anna talks about affects
their lives.
There are two types of corruption in India. One is at the higher level
— political and bureaucratic — which grabs large amounts of the
nation's money that otherwise would have been used for the welfare of
the people at large. The scams in 2G spectrum allocation and
Commonwealth Games, Jalayagnam in Andhra Pradesh, the looting of
government land like Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa did in Karnataka and Mr Ashok
Chavan did in Maharashtra are some of the outstanding corruption
cases. The Gali Janardhan Reddy kind of looters are a different
category altogether.
Several IAS and IPS officers are also looting the state's money
through various means. The Indian bureaucracy has not overcome its
colonial heritage. It treats the poor masses, irrespective of their
caste, as objects of oppression and exploitation. Team Anna has no
agenda to reform the bureaucracy.
Second, there is the corruption in the lower levels of the bureaucracy
such as section officers, clerks and peons, who collect small amounts
of money from people who go to the offices for their daily needs. This
type of corruption harasses people of all castes, even at the village
panchayat and samiti level. The poor and lower castes understand the
implications of this kind of corruption that snatches away money from
them, which they do not have to give.
People hate such corrupt characters but pay them when they stretch
their hand. This kind of minor corruption cannot be stopped even by
the Lokpal. It can be stopped only by a massive campaign against
corruption among the masses. The taker and the giver of money both
need to change.
Apart from these two, there is corruption in the private corporate
sector and also among NGOs. Team Anna is indifferent to this and also
believes in the privatisation of the Indian economy. Hence it is
indifferent to wage regulation and undignified treatment of the
unorganised labour in the private sector. In fact this is a much
bigger problem than corruption.
Quite unbelievably "India Against Corruption" treats reservation as a
part of systemic corruption. Their website calls the anti-reservation
movement as ARM in an abbreviated form and a massive discussion around
the strategy of ARM is debated online. There is general agreement
among the participants in this debate that the quota system should be
treated as a "demon". The word demon is their code for reservations.
This ideology of the IAC that works as a key anchor in mobilising
forces around Team Anna is more dangerous than the corruption that
they are opposing.
If we examine the historical underdevelopment of the SCs, STs, OBCs,
it is not corruption that has kept them so. It was the anti-social
justice ideology deeply embedded in the Hindu ethic that was
responsible for the social masses getting arrested in the economic
zones of underdevelopment. Anna, who lives in a Hindu temple, cannot
think out of the Varnadharma box. He orders each caste person to do
their caste 'karma'-bound work. He implements a fascist law of
flogging anybody who drinks liquor in his village. This is nothing but
Hindu Talibanism. The Dalit, OBC and minority masses cannot trust him
at all. When they have deep distrust of the Gandhian ideology even
when Gandhi was alive, where is the question of trusting this village
headman who is a social fascist? The more Team Anna goes round the
country campaigning against the Congress, the more the Congress seems
to benefit. That is because the SC, ST, OBC and minority masses will
go to the Congress with a vengeance. Fortune seems to be favouring the
Congress as the BJP and Team Anna keep shouting the same slogan —
Vande Mataram. Ambedkar disliked that slogan. His followers dislike it
even more.


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[ZESTCaste] ‘Made Snana is against democracy, constitution'

http://expressbuzz.com/states/karnataka/%E2%80%98made-snana-is-against-democracy-constitution/349070.html#.TwEpDTXDJYE.twitter

'Made Snana is against democracy, constitution'

Express News Service
Last Updated : 02 Jan 2012 08:37:15 AM IST

MANGALORE: Supporting the 'Made Made Snana' ritual is similar to
opposing democracy and the Constitution which emphasises on equality
among all castes, intellectual G K Govinda Rao said on Sunday.

Addressing the gathering at a workshop on 'Made Made Snana' organised
by Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), Dalit Sangarsh Samiti
and Sahamatha vedike at Ravindra Kalabhavan, he said a campaign in
favour of the practice is a conspiracy to keep Dalit and backward
classes in the darkness of superstitions.

The attempts to perform 'Made Made Snana' are by people who oppose
democracy and equality in our society, he charged. Pointing out that
the involvement of mutts in politics was aimed at protecting interests
of supporters of 'Made Made Snana', he said an insecurity feeling
within mutts and pontiffs makes them protect the slavery system.

He attributed the feeling of insecurity among mutt heads to the
progress achieved by members of Dalit and backward  communities. He
said Pejavar Mutt senior pontiff Vishwesha Thirtha Swamiji's
initiatives against untouchability is a mere act and he takes a bath,
consumes Panchagavya for self-cleansing after visiting Dalit colonies.

He described Made Made Snana as a practice of a bygone area which
treated backward classes as slaves. DSS leader S P Ananda read out the
resolutions which included demanding an immediate ban on the ritual.

A resolution to stage a strong protest if the ritual continues was
adopted in the meeting.


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[ZESTCaste] Re: Pawar calls for spl policy to encourage Dalit bizmen

 

What Sharad Pawar has said is important. Dalits should become businessmen because in India Dalits were barred from becoming rich. This will in a way break the caste barriers. But dalit capitalists should not become pro-elites and forget their brothers who in majority are deprived and poor. Many Dalit high post people become part of the elites- upper caste and forget the very people from whom they have come. They should try to fulfil the dream Dr. Ambedkar of Annilhilating caste.

--- In ZESTCaste@yahoogroups.com, Siddhartha Kumar <mailsiddhartha.k@...> wrote:
>
> http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/pawar-calls-for-spl-policy-to-encourage-dalit-bizmen/935217.html
>
> Pawar calls for spl policy to encourage Dalit bizmen
> PTI | 11:12 PM,Dec 17,2011
>
> Mumbai, Dec 17 (PTI) Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today
> said there is a need to formulate a separate policy to encourage and
> protect the interests of Dalit entrepreneurs. "There is a need to
> formulate a separate policy, which will protect the interests of the
> weaker sections of the society. We need to encourage young Dalit
> entrepreneurs, who will come forward and provide jobs to tens of
> hundreds of members of the weaker sections of our society," Pawar told
> the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (DICCI) trade fair
> here this evening. He said, DICCI should take up a mission to create
> at least three to four entrepreneurs every year, who will set up their
> businesses. "If this chamber takes this initiative, I will make an
> effort to convince my government to formulate a policy that will
> encourage the young entrepreneurs. And if they take up this
> responsibility over the next 8-10 years, we will see a galaxy of
> entrepreneurs," Pawar said. Pawar said, some decisions have been taken
> for the small and medium enterprises already. "Making certain
> percentage provision is not enough. Time has come that if the younger
> generation from the Dalit community is ready to accept this challenge,
> it is the duty of the government to make certain provisions of certain
> percentage in the area of providing land, electricity and other
> facilities," he said. "And if such facilities are provided, I am sure
> my young colleagues will prove that they will become successful
> businessmen. But for this to happen, the chamber has to take an
> initiative," Pawar added.
>

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[ZESTCaste] Dalits should not fall prey to Cong tactics: Thackeray

 

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/dalits-should-not-fall-prey-to-cong-tactics-thackeray/894805/

Dalits should not fall prey to Cong tactics: Thackeray

Agencies Posted online: Mon Jan 02 2012, 15:40 hrs
Mumbai : Reacting to the Centre's decision to give an in-principle mod
to hand-over of Indu mill land here for a memorial of Dr B R Ambedkar,
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray today said Dalits should not fall prey
to the Congress's "tactics".

"The Congress-led government has resorted to this strategy of giving
the Indu mill land for construction of Ambedkar's memorial to win
Dalits votes in the municipal corporation elections," Thackeray said
in a statement in the party mouthpiece 'Samanna'.

Municipal polls in Mumbai, where Sena-BJP alliance is in power, are
scheduled next month.

Advising Dalits to be cautious, Thackeray said they should trounce
Congress and bring the (recently formed) Shiv Shakti-Bhim Shakti
(Sena-BJP-RPI combine) to power in the elections.

"Dalits should not fall prey to the assurances from the Congress," he
said. He pointed out that there was an air of uncertainty about the
word 'in-principle'.

Following an agitation by Dalit outfits, the Centre, on Saturday,
agreed in principle to give 12.5 acres of Indu Mills land in Mumbai's
Dadar area to the Maharashtra government for Ambedkar memorial.

An assurance to this effect was given by the Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh to an all-party delegation from Maharashtra, led by Chief
Minister Prithviraj Chavan.

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[ZESTCaste] The grammar of anarchy - in Perspective by B R Ambedkar

http://pragati.nationalinterest.in/2010/08/the-grammar-of-anarchy/

The grammar of anarchy

in Perspective by B R Ambedkar — August 1, 2010 at 12:08 am |


As much defence as could be offered to the Constitution has been
offered by my friends Sir Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar and Mr T T
Krishnamachari, I shall not therefore enter into the merits of the
Constitution. Because I feel, however good a Constitution may be, it
is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it,
happen to be a bad lot. However bad a Constitution may be, it may turn
out to be good if those who are called to work it, happen to be a good
lot. The working of a Constitution does not depend wholly upon the
nature of the Constitution. The Constitution can provide only the
organs of State such as the Legislature, the Executive and the
Judiciary. The factors on which the working of those organs of the
State depend are the people and the political parties they will set up
as their instruments to carry out their wishes and their politics. Who
can say how the people of India and their parties will behave? Will
they uphold constitutional methods of achieving their purposes or will
they prefer revolutionary methods of achieving them? If they adopt the
revolutionary methods, however good the Constitution may be, it
requires no prophet to say that it will fail. It is, therefore, futile
to pass any judgement upon the Constitution without reference to the
part which the people and their parties are likely to play.

The condemnation of the Constitution largely comes from two quarters,
the Communist Party and the Socialist Party. Why do they condemn the
Constitution? Is it because it is really a bad Constitution? I venture
to say 'no'. The Communist Party want a Constitution based upon the
principle of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. They condemn the
Constitution because it is based upon parliamentary democracy. The
Socialists want two things. The first thing they want is that if they
come in power, the Constitution must give them the freedom to
nationalise or socialise all private property without payment of
compensation. The second thing that the Socialists want is that the
Fundamental Rights mentioned in the Constitution must be absolute and
without any limitations so that if their Party fails to come into
power, they would have the unfettered freedom not merely to criticise,
but also to overthrow the State.

No right to bind succeeding generations
These are the main grounds on which the Constitution is being
condemned. I do not say that the principle of parliamentary democracy
is the only ideal form of political democracy. I do not say that the
principle of no acquisition of private property without compensation
is so sacrosanct that there can be no departure from it. I do not say
that Fundamental Rights can never be absolute and the limitations set
upon them can never be lifted. What I do say is that the principles
embodied in the Constitution are the views of the present generation
or if you think this to be an over-statement, I say they are the views
of the members of the Constituent Assembly. Why blame the Drafting
Committee for embodying them in the Constitution? I say why blame even
the Members of the Constituent Assembly? Jefferson, the great American
statesman who played so great a part in the making of the American
constitution, has expressed some very weighty views which makers of
Constitution, can never afford to ignore. In one place he has said:

   "We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a
right, by the will of the majority, to bind themselves, but none to
bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another
country."

In another place, he has said:

   "The idea that institutions established for the use of the nation
cannot be touched or modified, even to make them answer their end,
because of rights gratuitously supposed in those employed to manage
them in the trust for the public, may perhaps be a salutary provision
against the abuses of a monarch, but is most absurd against the nation
itself. Yet our lawyers and priests generally inculcate this doctrine,
and suppose that preceding generations held the earth more freely than
we do; had a right to impose laws on us, unalterable by ourselves, and
that we, in the like manner, can make laws and impose burdens on
future generations, which they will have no right to alter; in fine,
that the earth belongs to the dead and not the living;"

I admit that what Jefferson has said is not merely true, but is
absolutely true. There can be no question about it. Had the
Constituent Assembly departed from this principle laid down by
Jefferson it would certainly be liable to blame, even to condemnation.
But I ask, has it? Quite the contrary. One has only to examine the
provision relating to the amendment of the Constitution…I challenge
any of the critics of the Constitution to prove that any Constituent
Assembly anywhere in the world has, in the circumstances in which this
country finds itself, provided such a facile procedure for the
amendment of the Constitution. If those who are dissatisfied with the
Constitution have only to obtain a 2/3 majority and if they cannot
obtain even a two-thirds majority in the parliament elected on adult
franchise in their favour, their dissatisfaction with the Constitution
cannot be deemed to be shared by the general public.

The danger of divisive politics
[But] my mind is so full of the future of our country that I feel I
ought to take this occasion to give expression to some of my
reflections thereon. On 26th January 1950, India will be an
independent country. What would happen to her independence? Will she
maintain her independence or will she lose it again? This is the first
thought that comes to my mind. It is not that India was never an
independent country. The point is that she once lost the independence
she had. Will she lose it a second time? It is this thought which
makes me most anxious for the future. What perturbs me greatly is the
fact that not only India has once before lost her independence, but
she lost it by the infidelity and treachery of some of her own people.
In the invasion of Sind by Mahommed-Bin-Kasim, the military commanders
of King Dahar accepted bribes from the agents of Mahommed-Bin-Kasim
and refused to fight on the side of their king. It was Jaichand who
invited Mahommed Ghori to invade India and fight against Prithvi Raj
and promised him the help of himself and the Solanki kings. When
Shivaji was fighting for the liberation of Hindus, the other Maratha
noblemen and the Rajput kings were fighting the battle on the side of
Mughul Emperors. When the British were trying to destroy the Sikh
Rulers, Gulab Singh, their principal commander sat silent and did not
help to save the Sikh Kingdom. In 1857, when a large part of India had
declared a war of independence against the British, the Sikhs stood
and watched the event as silent spectators.

Will history repeat itself? It is this thought which fills me with
anxiety. This anxiety is deepened by the realisation of the fact that
in addition to our old enemies in the form of castes and creeds we are
going to have many political parties with diverse and opposing
political creeds. Will Indians place the country above their creed or
will they place creed above country? I do not know. But this much is
certain that if the parties place creed above country, our
independence will be put in jeopardy a second time and probably be
lost for ever. This eventuality we must all resolutely guard against.
We must be determined to defend our independence with the last drop of
our blood.

The importance of constitutional methods
On the 26th of January 1950, India would be a democratic country in
the sense that India from that day would have a government of the
people, by the people and for the people. The same thought comes to my
mind. What would happen to her democratic Constitution? Will she be
able to maintain it or will she lose it again. This is the second
thought that comes to my mind and makes me as anxious as the first.

It is not that India did not know what is democracy. There was a time
when India was studded with republics, and even where there were
monarchies, they were either elected or limited. They were never
absolute. It is not that India did not know Parliaments or
parliamentary procedure. A study of the Buddhist Bhikshu Sanghas
discloses that not only there were Parliaments—for the Sanghas were
nothing but Parliaments—but the Sanghas knew and observed all the
rules of parliamentary procedure known to modern times…Although these
rules of parliamentary procedure were applied by the Buddha to the
meetings of the Sanghas, he must have borrowed them from the rules of
the political assemblies functioning in the country in his time.

This democratic system India lost. Will she lose it a second time? I
do not know. But it is quite possible in a country like India—where
democracy from its long disuse must be regarded as something quite
new—there is danger of democracy giving place to dictatorship. It is
quite possible for this new born democracy to retain its form but give
place to dictatorship in fact. If there is a landslide, the danger of
the second possibility becoming actuality is much greater.

If we wish to maintain democracy not merely in form, but also in fact,
what must we do? The first thing in my judgement we must do is to hold
fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economic
objectives. It means we must abandon the bloody methods of revolution.
It means that we must abandon the method of civil disobedience,
non-cooperation and satyagraha. When there was no way left for
constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives,
there was a great deal of justification for unconstitutional methods.
But where constitutional methods are open, there can be no
justification for these unconstitutional methods. These methods are
nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned,
the better for us.

The politics of pedestals
The second thing we must do is to observe the caution which John
Stuart Mill has given to all who are interested in the maintenance of
democracy, namely, not "to lay their liberties at the feet of even a
great man, or to trust him with power which enable him to subvert
their institutions." There is nothing wrong in being grateful to great
men who have rendered life-long services to the country. But there are
limits to gratefulness. As has been well said by the Irish Patriot
Daniel O'Connel, no man can be grateful at the cost of his honour, no
woman can be grateful at the cost of her chastity and no nation can be
grateful at the cost of its liberty. This caution is far more
necessary in the case of India than in the case of any other country.
For in India, Bhakti or what may be called the path of devotion or
hero-worship, plays a part in its politics unequalled in magnitude by
the part it plays in the politics of any other country in the world.
Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in
politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to
eventual dictatorship.

Social democracy
The third thing we must do is not to be content with mere political
democracy. We must make our political democracy a social democracy as
well. Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of
it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way
of life which recognises liberty, equality and fraternity as the
principles of life. These principles of liberty, equality and
fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They
form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the
other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy. Liberty cannot be
divorced from equality, equality cannot be divorced from liberty. Nor
can liberty and equality be divorced from fraternity. Without
equality, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the
many. Equality without liberty would kill individual initiative.
Without fraternity, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few
over the many. Equality without liberty would kill individual
initiative. Without fraternity, liberty and equality could not become
a natural course of things. It would require a constable to enforce
them.

We must begin by acknowledging the fact that there is complete absence
of two things in Indian society. One of these is equality. On the
social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of
graded inequality which we have a society in which there are some who
have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty. On the
26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of
contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and
economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be
recognising the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value.
In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and
economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one
value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions?
How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic
life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by
putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this
contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer
from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy
which this Assembly has to laboriously built up.

The second thing we are wanting in is recognition of the principle of
fraternity. What does fraternity mean? Fraternity means a sense of
common brotherhood of all Indians-if Indians being one people. It is
the principle which gives unity and solidarity to social life. It is a
difficult thing to achieve…

To build a nation
I remember the days when politically-minded Indians, resented the
expression "the people of India". They preferred the expression "the
Indian nation." I am of opinion that in believing that we are a
nation, we are cherishing a great delusion. How can people divided
into several thousands of castes be a nation? The sooner we realise
that we are not as yet a nation in the social and psychological sense
of the world, the better for us. For then only we shall realise the
necessity of becoming a nation and seriously think of ways and means
of realising the goal. The realisation of this goal is going to be
very difficult…The castes are anti-national. In the first place
because they bring about separation in social life. They are
anti-national also because they generate jealousy and antipathy
between caste and caste. But we must overcome all these difficulties
if we wish to become a nation in reality. For fraternity can be a fact
only when there is a nation. Without fraternity, equality and liberty
will be no deeper than coats of paint.

These are my reflections about the tasks that lie ahead of us. They
may not be very pleasant to some. But there can be no gainsaying that
political power in this country has too long been the monopoly of a
few and the many are only beasts of burden, but also beasts of prey.
This monopoly has not merely deprived them of their chance of
betterment, it has sapped them of what may be called the significance
of life. These down-trodden classes are tired of being governed. They
are impatient to govern themselves. This urge for self-realisation in
the down-trodden classes must not be allowed to devolve into a class
struggle or class war. It would lead to a division of the House. That
would indeed be a day of disaster. For, as has been well said by
Abraham Lincoln, a House divided against itself cannot stand very
long. Therefore the sooner room is made for the realisation of their
aspiration, the better for the few, the better for the country, the
better for the maintenance for its independence and the better for the
continuance of its democratic structure. This can only be done by the
establishment of equality and fraternity in all spheres of life. That
is why I have laid so much stresses on them.

I do not wish to weary the House any further. Independence is no doubt
a matter of joy. But let us not forget that this independence has
thrown on us great responsibilities. By independence, we have lost the
excuse of blaming the British for anything going wrong. If hereafter
things go wrong, we will have nobody to blame except ourselves. There
is great danger of things going wrong. Times are fast changing. People
including our own are being moved by new ideologies. They are getting
tired of Government by the people. They are prepared to have
Governments for the people and are indifferent whether it is
Government of the people and by the people. If we wish to preserve the
Constitution in which we have sought to enshrine the principle of
Government of the people, for the people and by the people, let us
resolve not to be tardy in the recognition of the evils that lie
across our path and which induce people to prefer Government for the
people to Government by the people, nor to be weak in our initiative
to remove them. That is the only way to serve the country. I know of
no better.?

B R Ambedkar was the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, apart
from being an activist, philosopher, thinker, anthropologist,
historian, orator, prolific writer, economist, scholar, editor, and
revolutionary


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