Sunday, January 24, 2010

[ZESTCaste] In The State Of Telangana

http://www.countercurrents.org/kannabiran230110.htm

In The State Of Telangana

By Kalpana Kannabiran

23 January, 2010
Sanhati

At the time when the movement for the State of Telangana reaches its
peak, and even as the leaders of this movement craft the contours of
this state that is one step towards liberating the people of this
region from a history of economic, political and cultural oppression,
it is important to think about which way we would like to go. As
somebody who believes in Telangana statehood, not as part of a general
argument about the efficacy of smaller states alone, but as
indispensable to the dignity of the region, I raise these questions
with the aim of pushing for a greater democratization of the movement.
There are unresolved issues that need to be addressed and there are
leaders of integrity, with a radical vision and political astuteness
like Kondandram and Ratnamala, who have the capacity to take difficult
questions on board and turn them into strengths.

One pillar for the demand for a separate Telangana is the fact of
economic hegemony and the appropriation of the assets in Telangana by
the ruling classes and business interests in Andhra. Indeed what sets
the Telangana movement apart is the fact that it is led by persons
with a proven commitment to civil liberties and human rights. This is
in stark contrast to the Samaikya Andhra movement. This however, is
only the starting point. Having a leadership with a socialist vision
in a region, which has seen the worst forms of feudalism and continues
to grapple with the worst forms of caste discrimination and
exploitation of adivasi communities, it becomes imperative to outline
the economic contours of the new state. This is even more important
because the power of the movement today, although the result of years
of silent work and campaigning in each district by civil libertarians
committed to the cause, is within the grasp of mainstream politicians
of different hues who see in the new state unlimited political
opportunity. It is of course necessary to broaden the base and create
inclusive platforms by converting political opportunism into a
commitment to justice. But what will be the non-negotiables in that
platform, apart from the demand for a separate state?

What sets Telangana apart from other "small states" is that six
decades ago, it witnessed the armed struggle against imperialist and
feudal forces; three decades ago it provided the epicentre of the most
vibrant civil liberties movement in the country. What sets Telangana
apart as well, is not just that the Marxist Leninist resistance to the
state attained its most powerful and most creative forms here, but
importantly that the most trenchant critique of the patriarchal bases
of Marxist-Leninism came from this region in the aftermath of the
Emergency, leading to the formation of the first autonomous women's
rights groups in the country in the mid 1970s.

The history of the Telangana region is a history of political
radicalism and resistance to forces of conservatism across the board –
ranging from fundamentalism and feudalism to authoritarian "democracy"
to dogmatic and patriarchal communism. It is this history of Telangana
that will set the new state apart. At a time when global capitalism
has eaten into our economies and our lives, Telangana having paid a
particularly heavy price, we need to draw on our history of political
radicalism and set out the non- negotiables – resistance to virulent
capitalism and discrimination being an important part of state policy.
The opposition to economic inequality and hegemony that provides the
primary justification for the emergent state must travel its full
course and draw an irreversible roadmap for the equitable distribution
of resources.

The second pillar of the demand for a separate Telangana is the fact
of cultural hegemon. The Telugu film industry is the worst offender –
the criminalizing of Telangana language and the people of Telangana in
popular culture reaching levels that undermine the dignity of the
people of the region. Culturally, what sets Telangana apart is its
composite culture and the strong presence of the Deccani language till
recently not a language spoken by Muslims alone, but increasingly
becoming so; and the presence of a strong and visible Muslim
community.

In the aftermath of Gujarat, the state's war on terror and hindu
nationalist propaganda has driven a deep wedge of mistrust and
exclusion – Muslim youth in Hyderabad [the heart of Telangana]
becoming targets of suspicion, illegal arrests and detention. Sixty
years ago, this region witnessed a historic struggle against
imperialist-feudal-capitalist-communal forces, and forged a common
identity based on shared values of justice and equity. In recalling
that struggle, we need to ask ourselves what conscious measures we
have taken in crafting our struggle to give voice to minorities –
voice and visibility can only be effective through shared leadership.
And in this we need to move beyond a token presence of the mandatory
"minority representative" in the leadership. The meetings must address
not merely the Telugu-speaking people of Telangana but the
Urdu-speaking people as well, a sizeable section. We can scarcely
forget that Telangana will be a bilingual state – with Telugu and Urdu
as official languages with equal focus.

Speaking of feudal and cultural domination, the central focus of the
Telangana struggle was the liberation of women from violent
subjugation. And the participation of women in this struggle is
historic – Mallu Swarajyam and Chityala Ailamma continue to be widely
revered icons. Three decades later, Telangana, more specifically
Hyderabad, was the centre of the emergence of the autonomous women's
movement which put the articulation of women's rights in place
nationally – the agenda that was drawn up then continues to influence
public policy and party politics across the board even today. And
Hyderabad continues to be remembered as one of the few cities in the
country that witnessed the birth of the second wave women's movement.

As progressive women who support the demand for the Telangana state,
we act in the faith that this leadership, given its stated commitment
to democratic ideals and equal citizenship will exercise duty of care
in matters as important as this. It is time now for us to look around
us and ask, where are the women leaders? That women, equally with men
are the architects of this movement, there is no doubt. What needs a
second look, however, is what is the space women occupy in the
official deliberations on state formation? While it may be argued,
rather simplistically, that nobody obstructs women's elevation to
leadership, or even their entry into the political arena, the more
pertinent question has to do with how women's leadership is being
enabled and built consciously on equal terms with men.

Adivasis of the Telangana region have a history of resistance against
all forms of hegemony and today continue to provide vital support for
the movement. This is a struggle that goes back at least to the early
1940s, when Gonds under the leadership of Komaram Bheem fought state
repression. In the present context, across different adivasi
communities in the region, the Telangana movement has seen the
emergence of adivasi leadership at different levels. Dialogues with
adivasi communities in this region have demonstrated their unswerving
support for a separate state.

Over the past several decades, especially in Independent India there
have been concerted struggles waged by these communities in different
parts of the state for control over resources and land as well as
struggles against forced displacement. Adivasis of this region were
the first to define the meaning of self-rule, building it around
control over resources, knowledge and culture. We have often spoken of
the resources in the Telangana region. Since these resources – coal,
water, minerals, forests — are an inalienable part of the homelands of
the Gond, Koya, Kollam, Nayakpodu, Chenchu and other tribes, decisions
on resource utilization must be a matter of adivasi self
determination, because a failure on this count will amount to
recolonisation. This brings us back to the question of Adivasi voices
and visibility in the processes leading to state formation.

Within Adivasi communities, importantly, there is a diversity of
location, identity and experience that has been central to any
dialogue or contestation on their rights. And they have secured
important gains through courts and on the ground. This dialogue and
contestation is one that characterizes every vulnerable community –
the specific situation of Telugu Muslims, the need for Madiga
reservation, the situation of Dalit and Muslim women and the specific
experience of different adivasi communities in the region. We must, in
building a common platform keep sight of this diversity, and make
every effort to be representative in real terms, difficult though the
task may be – through a sharing of leadership in significant numbers –
rather than be satisfied with a representation of issues alone.

The agenda for Telangana is born out of the lives and struggles of
diverse communities in the region. The leadership of the struggle must
give voice to the contribution of these diverse constituencies in
order to be truly representative – and the burden of ensuring that
this movement strikes a different path is on the progressive civil
liberties leaders in the movement. It is well within the realm of the
possible because the social and intellectual base that supports the
movement is its strength. At this time we need to move beyond assuming
that representation will follow after the struggle has achieved its
goal, because representation, for us is a defining component of the
goal itself.

[This article is the result of discussions between the author, Sagari
Ramdas and N. Madhusudhan and presents a shared perspective]

This article is an English translation of the article in Telegu that
appeared in Varta.


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[ZESTCaste] ‘Give inner reservation to Madigas’

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/47183/give-inner-reservation-madigas.html

'Give inner reservation to Madigas'
Sira, Jan 16, DHNS

''It is a matter delight that efforts of Mandiga Dandora to develop
the community is fetching results,'' expressed Mandiga Dandora State
President Pavagad Sriram. He was speaking after inaugurating a Madiga
Dandora village unit at Kumbarahalli in the Gowdagere hobli in the
Sira taluk.


The Madiga Dandora will soon protest against the Sadashiva Commission
which from the past 4 years has not bothered to conduct census of
castes coming under Schedule Caste. He urged people belonging to the
community to identify themselves as Madigas and to fight over their
rights.

Markandeya swamiji who spoke on the occasion said that Madiga as a
caste had a history of 5,000 years and since then the people of the
caste were oppressed socially, politically and economically. He said
that government should immediately implement inner reservation for
Madigas in the existing reservation policy.

Madiga Dandora working secretary M V Raghavendraswamy, General
Secretary Narasimhalu, district president J S Manjunath, Kemparaju,
Paramesh, Guruswamaiah, Lakshmidevi and others were present on the
occasion.


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[ZESTCaste] Ambedkar’s Desiderata (Ramachandra Guha)

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263878

essay
Ambedkar's Desiderata

In six decades of 'progress' India hasn't realised our founders'
vision of social democracy

Ramachandra Guha

Special Issue: Sweet 60: Republic Day Special

Over the years, the makers of modern India have been parochialised by
the sect or state to which they originally belonged. Rabindranath
Tagore, whose stories and especially essays are of universal appeal,
is now considered an icon of Bengalis alone. Vallabhbhai Patel,
without whose efforts India would not be a united nation, is now
hardly remembered outside Gujarat. Jawaharlal Nehru, who helped
nurture a democratic ethos across India, is now the property of a
single party.

A fourth Indian who has become a victim of sectarian diminution is
B.R. Ambedkar. He is now known only for his contributions to the
emancipation of the subaltern castes. To be sure, he did a great deal
to instil a sense of dignity among the oppressed. But we seem to have
forgotten that he was not just a militant Dalit, but also a wise
democrat, whose life and thought can profitably be studied by all
Indians, regardless of the caste or religion to which they belong.

This week, we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Indian republic.
Our republic owes its existence to a constitution whose drafting was
overseen by Ambedkar. In his last speech to the Constituent
Assembly—delivered on November 25, 1949—Ambedkar issued three warnings
that are compellingly relevant to the predicament that the nation
finds itself in today. First, he urged his compatriots to "abandon the
bloody methods of revolution". In the circumstances of colonial rule,
there were grounds for taking to the streets to protest, and even
perhaps to use violence. But with the coming of a free, sovereign and
democratic republic, wrote Ambedkar, "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".

Ambedkar would have been appalled by the activities of his fellow
Maharashtrian, Raj Thackeray. But he would have had no time either for
the Maoists, who claim to speak on behalf of the disadvantaged. He
would have urged them to persuade rather than coerce citizens to their
point of view, to abandon the gun and enter the democratic process
that the Constitution had legitimised.


The Indian republic's promise of equality that Jaipal Munda banked on
has been belied in the last 60 years.


At the same time, Ambedkar would have been sharply critical of the
conduct of the mainstream political parties themselves. In that final
speech to the Constituent Assembly, he invoked John Stuart Mill in
asking Indians not "to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great
man, or to trust him with powers which enable him to subvert their
institutions". There was "nothing wrong", said Ambedkar, "in being
grateful to great men who have rendered life-long services to the
country. But there are limits to gratefulness". His worry was that 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."

When he spoke these words, Ambedkar may have had the possible
deification of the recently martyred Mahatma Gandhi in mind. But they
seem uncannily prescient about the actual deification of a later and
lesser Gandhi. In the early 1970s, Congressmen began speaking of how
"India is Indira and Indira is India", a process that culminated, as
Ambedkar had foreseen, in the eventual dictatorship of the Emergency.
Now, a generation later, the party chooses to be more ecumenical,
distributing its veneration equally among four Gandhis, two of whom
are deceased (Indira and Rajiv), two others living (Sonia and Rahul).

Last year, on a visit to Arunachal Pradesh, I was taken from the Rajiv
Gandhi University—where I was staying—to see the Indira Gandhi State
Museum. The next day, I drove from Itanagar to Guwahati. Just before
crossing the Brahmaputra, I passed a gleaming yellow structure built
by the Assam government—this, a board informed me, was the Rajiv
Gandhi Indoor Stadium.

Such naming of parks, offices, airports, sarkari schemes and so on
after Indira and Rajiv is ubiquitous across India. Their contributions
are remembered and honoured; their errors forgotten or suppressed.
They are even given credit for policies that were actually the work of
other Congress prime ministers. Thus party and state propaganda insist
that Indira rather than Lal Bahadur Shastri initiated the Green
Revolution, and that Rajiv rather than P.V. Narasimha Rao liberalised
the economy.

The cult of the Nehru-Gandhis, dead and alive, is deeply inimical to
the practice of democracy. It has led to the corruption and corrosion
of India's premier political party, whose own example in this regard
has been eagerly followed by the regional formations. Travelling
through Tamil Nadu last month, I was met at every turn by ever-larger
cutouts of the heir apparent, M.K. Stalin—of Stalin smiling, Stalin
writing, Stalin speaking into a cellphone. The only other place where
I have felt so stifled by a single face was in the Syria of Bashar
Assad; but then the last time I went to Punjab, the Badals were in
opposition, and I have not visited Lucknow since Mayawati became chief
minister.


The founders Ambedkar at a Constituent Assembly meeting

Parties professing violent revolution are antithetical to democracy;
so, too, warned Ambedkar, are parties based on the principle of bhakti
or hero-worship. The proliferation and increasing influence of the
political family firm has led, as he had feared, to the subversion of
our public institutions. In New Delhi, the Congress chooses ministers,
governors and secretaries to government on the basis of loyalty or
sycophancy rather than competence. The same practice is followed by
regional parties with regard to the public offices that lie within
their gift. Sometimes, it is the power to bribe rather than the
ability to flatter that proves decisive in obtaining the job one
desires.

India has been called a "dynastic democracy". Perhaps it would be more
accurate to call it a darbari democracy. The atmosphere in national
and state capitals resembles nothing so much as a medieval court.
Intrigue and gossip are rife. Those who seek public office nudge
themselves ever closer to the inner circle of the King, the Queen, or
the Prince-in-Waiting. Those who already hold public office have one
eye on their job and another on what needs to be done,
sycophantically, to retain it. This is as true of Mayawati's Lucknow
and Karunanidhi's Chennai as it is of Sonia's New Delhi.

Things are only superficially different in states dominated by
ideologies rather than personalities. Where the Bharatiya Janata Party
is in power, political preferment is crucially dependent on one's
equations with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. In communist-ruled
West Bengal, even secretaries to government and vice-chancellors are
known to make regular visits to the CPI(M)'s headquarters in Alimuddin
Street. Here, as elsewhere in India, a vast majority of jobs in the
state sector, whether of low, high or middle rank, are filled by men
(and less often, women) who are not best qualified for them.

The one part of the public sector that remains somewhat insulated from
corruption and sycophancy is the sphere of science. The Indian
Institute of Science still produces research of quality, and the
Indian Space Research Organisation still executes the tasks assigned
to it with a degree of competence and professionalism. Otherwise, our
public institutions are in a state of atrophy and decay. This hurts
the poor far more than the rich, for they are dependent on the sarkari
iskool and the sarkari aspatal—no Doon School or Apollo Hospital for
them. Denied equality of opportunity, they are also denied the
benefits of redistributive policies, with a large chunk of the welfare
budget intended for their succour instead going into the hands of
politicians and contractors.

This brings us to Ambedkar's final warning, which was that "political
democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social
democracy". As he pointed out, "on the social plane, we have in India
a society based on the principle of graded inequality, which means
elevation for some and degradation for others. On the economic plane,
we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as
against many who live in abject poverty". On January 26, 1950, by
adopting a democratic constitution, India upheld the principle of "one
man one vote and one vote one value". However, our society continued
to be deeply inequitous, "deny(ing) the principle of one man one
value".

"How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions?"
asked Ambedkar. "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 so laboriously built up."


The statistics propping up our economic and political achievements
hide shocking inequalities we haven't yet set right.


The Indian Constitution recognised two groups that had historically
suffered most from inequality. These were Dalits and adivasis. The
chief spokesman for the tribal interest in the Constituent Assembly
was Jaipal Singh Munda, a man of character and flamboyance who
deserves to be more widely known today. He was a brilliant hockey
player—he captained the Indian team to victory in the 1928
Olympics—and a still more brilliant orator. When Nehru moved a
resolution in the Assembly proclaiming India a sovereign and
democratic republic, Jaipal made a stirring speech interpreting the
proclamation from his people's point of view. "As a jungli, as an
adibasi," said Jaipal, "I am not expected to understand the legal
intricacies of the resolution. But my common sense tells me that every
one of us should march in that road to freedom and fight together.
Sir, if there is any group of Indian people that has been shabbily
treated, it is my people. They have been disgracefully treated,
neglected for the last 6,000 years. The history of the Indus Valley
civilisation, a child of which I am, shows quite clearly that it is
the newcomers—most of you here are intruders as far as I am
concerned—it is the newcomers who have driven away my people from the
Indus Valley to the jungle fastness.... The whole history of my people
is one of continuous exploitation and dispossession by the
non-aboriginals of India punctuated by rebellions and disorder, and
yet I take Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at his word. I take you all at your
word that now we are going to start a new chapter, a new chapter of
independent India where there is equality of opportunity, where no one
would be neglected."

These hopes were to be falsified. For it is Jaipal's adivasis who have
gained least and lost most from six decades of electoral democracy. In
terms of access to education, healthcare and dignified employment,
they are even worse off than the Dalits. Meanwhile, millions of
adivasis have been thrown out of their homes and forests to make way
for dams, factories and mining projects intended for the producers and
consumers of urban India. Thus the "exploitation and dispossession"
have continued, to be answered by a fresh round of "rebellions and
disorder". It is surely no accident that the greatest gains made by
the Maoists in the past decade have been in the tribal districts of
central and eastern India.


The dynasts Indira and Rajiv, with Rao in the background

Apologists for the Maoists sometimes try to appropriate Ambedkar to
their side, on the grounds that Dalits and adivasis have no option but
armed struggle to resist and overcome their oppressors. But, as the
remarks quoted earlier in this essay make clear, Ambedkar abhorred
violence, rejecting it as a means of settling political disputes. In
fact, he even had little time for non-violent protest on Gandhian
lines. He was a constitutional democrat, who believed that arguments
between citizens had to be resolved through the means of the press,
the law courts and the legislature.

It was as a patriot and democrat that Ambedkar uttered those warnings
in his speech of November 1949. Recalling them 60 years later, one may
be inclined to despair. I think that Ambedkar himself would have
demanded that we renew and redeem the idea of India rather than
abandon it altogether. Vigilance rather than cynicism may be the
correct response to the crisis our state and society are currently
faced with.

Let us begin by acknowledging that what we now confront is indeed a
crisis. Through the first half of the Noughties, there was much
careless talk about our imminent rise to superpower status. After the
recession, such talk receded, only to revive after the emphatic
victory of the United Progressive Alliance in the elections of 2009.


We now have a dynamic private sector, an energetic civil society.
It's the state that has been found to be wanting.


Those who claim that India is a "rising global power" offer two
statistics in their support—first, that, unlike China or Pakistan, we
have held 15 general elections in a row; second, that, unlike the
nations of Africa and Latin America, our growth rates are in the
region of 8 per cent and 9 per cent. Aldous Huxley remarked of the Taj
Mahal that marble conceals a multitude of sins. In the same manner,
the statistics purporting to capture the political and economic
achievements of India conceal, among other things, shocking
inequalities in wealth and living standards; a third-rate education
system and a fifth-rate healthcare system; a criminal justice system
on the verge of collapse; a serious and still growing left-wing
insurgency in central India; continuing tensions in the states of the
northeast and northwest; a spate of farmer suicides in the
countryside; rising crime rates in the cities; rapid and possibly
irreversible environmental degradation in both city and countryside; a
fragile neighbourhood (with Pakistan mired in sectarian conflict and
Sri Lanka and Nepal scarred by civil war); and more.

Arguably, the last time India faced a crisis of such proportions was
at its birth. When Mahatma Gandhi died, in January 1948, the nation
was confronted with religious rioting, food scarcities, a communist
insurrection, angry and homeless refugees, and recalcitrant princes
holding out for independent states of their own. If these (and other)
problems were tamed and transcended, it was largely because of the
visionary yet very focused leadership provided by the men and women
whom Gandhi had trained. These included Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal
Nehru and Maulana Azad at the centre; C. Rajagopalachari and B.G. Kher
in the states; and Mridula Sarabhai and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay in
the domain of civil society. These names are but a sampling of the
thousands of Indians who, inspired by Gandhi, helped pick up the
pieces of a divided and desperate nation and put it back on the road
to survival.

The document that finally marked the end of the nation's teething
troubles, and sign-posted its future, was of course the Constitution,
which came into effect on January 26, 1950. Remarkably, the man who
piloted this Constitution through the Constituent Assembly was himself
a lifelong opponent of the Congress. How and why Ambedkar was chosen
as the first law minister of the government of independent India
remains a mystery. It has been speculated that Gandhi instructed Nehru
and Patel to include Ambedkar in the cabinet, on the grounds that
freedom had come to all of India, not merely to Congressmen. This
seems in keeping with Gandhi's extraordinary combination of personal
generosity and political sagacity, whereby he was willing to overlook
Ambedkar's savage denunciations of himself in view of the younger
man's acknowledged abilities as a scholar and administrator.

India was united, and made democratic, by a "team of rivals" sinking
their differences to work together in a larger cause. The phrase in
quotes is borrowed from a book by an American historian, which deals
with how Abraham Lincoln worked with his political adversaries in
seeing the United States safely in and out of a bloody civil war. But
it applies with equal force to the circumstances of newly independent
India, when men and women of clashing temperaments and opposed
ideologies likewise came together in the interests of their nation.


Less equal A school in the backward Bundelkhand region of UP

Between 1947 and 1950, the task before India's political leadership
was to ensure the nation stayed together. Now, in 2010, we need not
fear any more that the nation will break up into many parts. However,
despite 60 years of electoral democracy, India remains a society riven
by hierarchy and inequality. The life chances of a woman are worse
than that of a man, of a villager worse than that of a city-dweller,
of a Dalit worse than that of a Brahmin, of an adivasi worse than that
of either a Dalit or a Brahmin.

Some of these hierarchies have their basis in deep historical
processes; others are of more recent origin. Gore Vidal once said of
his adopted homeland, Italy, that it combined the worst features of
capitalism and socialism. In some respects, contemporary India
combines the worst features of capitalism, socialism and feudalism.
Thus, the spurt in economic growth has widened the gulf between the
wealthy and the poor, this compounding the gulf between official and
citizen that was the legacy of state socialism, which itself
compounded the gulf between mental and manual labour that was the
legacy of the caste system.

Personal behaviour reflects these broader trends in social inequality.
The successful capitalist has contempt for those who do not earn as
much as him; so too the powerful bureaucrat or politician for those
who hold less power. On their part, the poor and the powerless tend to
be deferential; taking these asymmetries of privilege to be divine or
preordained, rather than particular creations of particular men
behaving in, as it were, less-than-democratic fashion.


Do we, in 2010, have leaders who can redeem the pledges of those who
framed our Constitution in 1950?


In that last speech to the Constituent Assembly, Ambedkar asked, "What
does social democracy mean?" He supplied this answer: "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.... Without equality,
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."

For a democracy to function at somewhere near optimum potential, three
sectors have to simultaneously pull their weight. These are the state,
the private sector and civil society. In 1947, when the nation was
born, civil society was weak and the private sector risk-averse. The
centre held, and a democratic constitution came into being, only
because the energy and capability of the state compensated for the
limitations of the other two sectors. Now, 60 years later, we have a
dynamic private sector and an energetic civil society. It is the state
that is wanting.

In the 1990s, Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh initiated a series of
economic reforms that unleashed a surge of creativity and productivity
in the private sector. Those reforms were both necessary as well as
overdue. However, they now need to be complemented by a second set of
reforms, aimed this time at making the government more productive and
efficient. For, the task of the private sector is merely to increase
the size of the cake. To make economic growth more equitable and
sustainable must largely be the responsibility of the state.

The first institution in urgent need of renewal is the Indian
political party. This must no longer be run as a family firm; rather,
it should be open to individuals who can make their way up the party
hierarchy on the basis of ability and ambition, rather than birth. The
Congress became a national party because of the patient work done in
nurturing state units by four generations of hard-working politicians.
The first generation consisted of, among others, Bal Gangadhar Tilak,
Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal; the
second generation of M.K. Gandhi, C.R. Das, G.B. Pant, Maulana Azad,
etc; the third generation of Subhas Bose, T. Prakasam, Jawaharlal
Nehru and their colleagues; the fourth generation of K. Kamaraj, Y.B.
Chavan, S. Nijalingappa, Sucheta Kripalani and others.

Only one of the individuals named in the preceding paragraph was the
child of a politician. Nor was this experience peculiar to the
Congress. Those who built the dmk and the Akali Dal were likewise born
into homes unmarked by wealth or privilege. It is this silent and
often self-effacing work that forms the forgotten background to the
rise of the Nehru-Gandhis, the Badals and the Karunanidhis, who, in a
manner of speaking, have all thrown away the ladder that brought them
to the top.


Flag-bearers Nehru and members of the first Cabinet

Second, the civil services at both central and state levels need to be
freed from arbitrary political interference. Postings and length of
tenure must be decided on the basis of a person's capability and
performance rather than his caste affiliation or his proximity to an
MLA, MP or minister.

Third, this restoration of institutional autonomy must be extended to
other state sectors such as education. Politicians should no longer
decide who will head universities or research institutions; rather,
the process must be in the hands of the academicians themselves.

Fourth, there should be more lateral entry into government,
particularly (but not exclusively) at the higher levels. Professionals
from outside the state sector must be encouraged to join it. As things
stand, generalist services such as the IAS are assigned jobs for which
their background does not prepare them. Who is to say that an
experienced doctor or hospital administrator would not make a better
health secretary, or a senior lawyer a better law secretary, than
those who currently occupy these posts?

Fifth, our judicial process has to be made more transparent and
efficient. There must be a greater willingness, among politicians and
judges alike, to prosecute and send to jail those palpably guilty of
corruption.

This list of required reforms is indicative rather than comprehensive.
But that the Indian state needs to be reformed and reinvented is
manifestly clear. The question is: do we, in the year 2010, have the
leaders who can finally redeem the pledges made by the framers of the
Constitution in 1950—leaders who can make India, in Ambedkar's terms,
a proper social democracy rather than a mere political democracy?

Some years ago, I wrote that while a democracy needs to be founded by
visionaries, in mid-career it can be led by mediocrities. I now think
that to have been a careless judgement. The times we live in, and the
expectations engendered by them, call for leadership that is rather
better than mediocre. The men and women who now rule India—whether
from the centre or in the states—seem concerned, above all, with
survival: the survival in his present post of an individual politican;
the survival at the apex of the organisation of a particular family;
the survival in government of a particular party. To plausibly and
successfully redeem the ideals of the republic, however, this shall
not be enough.


(The writer is the author of India after Gandhi. He may be contacted
at ramachandraguha@yahoo.in.)


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[ZESTCaste] AP Govt to give lumpsum to SC/ST beneficiaries of Indiramma

 

http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20100121/1429861.html

AP Govt to give lumpsum to SC/ST beneficiaries of Indiramma
Hyderabad | Thursday, Jan 21 2010 IST

The Andhra Pradesh Government today decided to provide a lumpsum
amount to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes beneficiaries for
construction of pending houses under INDIRAMMA programme.

Noting that construction of a large number of houses sanctioned to SCs
and STs under three phases of the programme were pending due to
non-clearance of loan applications by banks, the Chief Minister
announced at the Collectors conference here that government would, on
its own, mobilise the required amount and make it available to SC/ST
beneficiaries for early completion of the houses.

Briefing newsmen on the deliberations, Revenue Minister D Prasada Rao
said accordingly, the beneficiaries in rural areas would be provided
Rs 20,000 each and those in urban areas Rs 30,000 for completion of
construction of pending houses. The Chief Minister asked the the
departments of Municipal Administration, Housing and Revenue to hold a
joint meeting with District Collectors of Hyderabad and Rangareddy to
resolve pending issues and ensure early handing over of houses
constructed for the selected beneficiaries in the two districts, he
said.

-- (UNI) -- 21MS34.xml

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[ZESTCaste] ‘Spirit of Constitution not being adhered to'

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=%E2%80%98Spirit+of+Constitution+not+being+adhered+to&artid=m1g21JTWdI4=&SectionID=xAV59odivTs=&MainSectionID=wIcBMLGbUJI=&SectionName=BUzPVSKuYv7MFxnS0yZ7ng==&SEO=

'Spirit of Constitution not being adhered to'

Express News ServiceFirst Published : 23 Jan 2010 10:45:00 AM IST

Last Updated :

HYDERABAD: Vice-Chancellor of EFLU Abhay Maurya has given a call that
Dalits and the oppressed and suppressed sections of the society should
unite to achieve liberation. "I am not a Dalit, but I consider myself
one among you since my parents were oppressed peasants. Even now, some
upper castes do not rent


their houses to the lower castes," Maurya said and warned that there
were some `clever forces' bent upon creating wedges between BCs, SCs
and STs. He

was speaking at a national conference on `60 years of Indian constitution

- a review' organised by the SC, ST Employees' Welfare Association of
the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) here on Friday.

Bojja Tharakam, senior advocate, felt that the Constitution had not
been implemented in its true spirit in the past 60 years. Only now
people started insisting on its proper implementation.

"Ambedkar had drafted the Constitution not only for SC, STs but for
all citizens. Everything and everyone is protected by the statute,
including

foreigners who visit our country. Hence, I want to remind you the
words of Lenin that those who support the Constitution are the real
patriots," he said.

Udit Raj, Chairman, All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations,

New Delhi, was among those present.


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[ZESTCaste] 'Dignified living for every girl'

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Dignified-living-for-every-girl/articleshow/5493692.cms

'Dignified living for every girl'
24 January 2010, 02:49am IST

What are your priorities?
My topmost priority is to reduce gender disparities in our society.
Planned approach to Gender Development is my key target. Our
government has committed holistic development and growth of women and
children. The Common Minimum Programme has highlighted our goals.
Within the framework of the Common Minimum Programme, I have
prioritised our focus on poverty reduction, gender justice, women's
health, child nutrition, sustained awareness of rights and redressal,
eradication of social evils.

What are your immediate goals?

To implement a national mission for socio economic development of
women through convergence of inter- ministerial, inter-departmental
schemes. To provide the village women, a single window service
delivery scheme. To facilitate widows, single women, household women
and destitutes with attractive incentives for growth and development.
To reduce implementation bottlenecks at the grass root. To provide
village women access to central schemes.

What are your action plans for undernourished mothers and children?

Two new schemes are going to come up. One scheme is called Sabla, for
growth and development of the adolescent girls. The Sabla, dedicated
to late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, will support the underweight
adolescent girls. The other scheme is for undernourished mothers,
dedicated to Indira Gandhi. The scheme is called Indira Gandhi
Matritva Sahoyog Yojna. This scheme will provide conditional cash
transfers to the poorest of the poor pregnant and lactating mothers.

How do you plan to eradicate discrimination against dalit women?

The discrimination against dalit can be curbed by sustained awareness
of human rights. The Constitution of India has guaranteed equality to
every citizen. I am planning a door-to-door awareness campaign to
empower our fellow citizens, on the subject of equal opportunities.
Also a campaign among the elected panchayat leaders, on this subject.
If panchayat leaders can be motivated to prevent atrocities against
dalit women, there will be a remarkable change. I am planning to
empower economically deprived landless women and marginalised
agricultural labourers, majority of this group is dalit. My ministry
will support the gender budget for development of dalit women.

How do you visualise the ICDS programme in near future?

The ICDS is the only flagship scheme of my ministry. Therefore,
highest priority has been accorded to this scheme. In 1975, prime
minister Indira Gandhi launched this programme to provide food
supplements to hungry children. Today, the National Rural Health
Mission, the Sarva Siksha Abiyan often use the Anganwadi Centres as
convergence points. Over the years, the scheme has contributed
immensely for the growth of the under-fed children at the grass root.
We are trying to establish Anganwadi Centres at every habitat. The
number is going to be 14 lakhs soon.

Your views on the ICDS centres...

The quality and quantity of food will improve when meals are cooked by
mothers and communities in a public service mode. I am considering the
regularisation of services of the Anganwadi workers, examining pros
and cons of NGO participation in monitoring and development of
Anganwadis. Today, ICDS needs advocacy support of communities and
community based NGOs. The community mobilisation at the grassroot
level will bring in change, accountability, innovation and
transparency in the functioning of the Anganwadis. We need to go for
PPP approach to improve our services.

How do you plan to tackle violence against women?

I had initiated a volunteer action programme for communities on
October 2, 2009. Under this programme, community members can volunteer
to be peace messengers. I have also launched a campaign viz. Daughters
Against Dowry. Under this programme, daughters' groups have been
organised to stand firmly against commercialisation of marriage. In
addition, I am reviewing all the legislations that protect women's
rights. Very soon, we will initiate a step to strengthen various laws,
meant for women. I am calling upon household women, to join me in the
ahimsa messenger campaign in communities.

Plans to improve the shelter facilities and rehabilitative services for women?

Shelter services are provided under Swadhar Scheme and Short Stay
Homes. I am planning to make a universal code of rehabilitation in our
country. There will be national protocols, guidelines and handbook of
shelter services soon. Non-conforming centres will be penalised and
de-barred to act as rehabilitation centres. I am also planning a
"Tatkal" and "Ati Tatkal Service" for release of grant in aid to the
voluntary organisations. The NGOs need support, aid, technical
expertise. It is my aim to reform the present system and provide a
fasttrack, single window project clearance system for NGOs so that
inter-departmental delays can be reduced and complicated processes can
be simplified.

What is your Mission Statement in a single line?

A dignified living for every girl.

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[ZESTCaste] Opening temple doors to all

http://guardian.co.tt/features/life/2010/01/24/opening-temple-doors-all

Opening temple doors to all
A new year resolution for Hindusism
Published: 24 Jan 2010
A recent report of a study conducted across 1,655 villages in the
Indian state of Gujarat, representing 98,000 Dalits, revealed the
shocking fact that 97 per cent of them feel that they are unwelcome at
Hindu temples, religious gatherings and public discourses on
scripture. Researchers did not find a single village that was free
from the practice of untouchability. ("No temple entry for Dalits in
Gujarat," Times of India, December 7, 2009). Such exclusion is neither
infrequent nor limited to Gujarat. The BBC News ("Fury over south
India temple ban," October 15, 2009) reported an incident of stone
throwing to protest Dalits entering a temple near Vedaranyam in the
state of Tamil Nadu.

Last month the High Court of Chennai issued an order, against the
wishes of temple trustees, that a temple procession pass through a
Dalit community in the Villipuram District. Dalit (oppressed) is the
name preferred by those who have been relegated to the lowest rungs of
the caste ladder and regarded as untouchable by members of upper
castes. Dalits constitute around 20 per cent of the Indian population.
Although the exclusion of Dalits from places of Hindu worship ought to
be a matter of deep concern and distress, there is hardly a ripple of
protest in the sea of Hindu complacency. Shutting the doors of Hindu
temples to Dalits stands in bewildering contrast to the anxiety in
other religious traditions about dwindling numbers and the expenditure
of considerable resources to attract the faithful. It should not
surprise that those debarred from Hindu sanctums enter, in significant
numbers, the open and inviting doors of others.
Those in India and outside who are vociferous opponents of religious
conversion must understand and acknowledge the Dalit experience of the
Hindu tradition as oppressive and negating their dignity and
self-worth.

Conversion is a challenge for Hindus to consider the relationship
between religious practice and systemic oppression. Exclusion from
temples is only one manifestation of such oppression. It troubles
deeply also that, with notable exceptions, the principal voices of
protest over exclusion are not those of Hindu leaders. In the case of
anti-Dalit violence in the town of Vedaranyam, referred to above, the
protests were led by supporters of the Communist Party of
India–Marxist. In other cases, secular-minded human rights activists
are at the forefront of the agitation on behalf of the Dalits. Earlier
this year, Navin Pillay, UN Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned
caste as negating the human rights principles of equality and
non-discrimination and called for a UN convention to outlaw
discrimination based on caste.

The response of silence from Hindus may be interpreted as support for
barring Dalits from places of worship. Even more importantly,
indifference gives validation to the wrong impression that the Hindu
tradition has no theological ground or core for challenging the human
inequality that is at the root of the Dalit ostracisation and
oppression. The assumptions of human inequality that explain the
continuing persistence of untouchability need an urgent, vigorous and
unambiguous theological repudiation originating from the
non-negotiable heart of the Hindu tradition. Although Hinduism is
admittedly diverse, its major traditions are unanimous in affirming
the equal existence of God in every being. "God," the Bhagavadgita
proclaims, "lives in the heart of all beings." This core theological
teaching must become the basis for the assertion of the equal dignity
and worth of every human being and the motivation for challenging and
transforming the oppressive structures of caste that, in reality, deny
and violate the luminous presence of God in all.

Although every unjust expression of caste needs to be denounced, the
shutting of temple doors to people pleading for the opportunity to
worship challenges, in a special way, the meaning and legitimacy of
Hinduism as a religious tradition. For this reason, Hindus must commit
themselves with tireless determination to the work of welcoming Dalits
into every Hindu place of worship. Such work must be seen as
fundamental to Hindu identity and the meaning of belonging to the
community of Hindus. While we must commend and support Hindu leaders
and movements working already for the wellbeing of Dalits and their
equality and dignity, we must recognise also that many Hindu leaders
may not be at the forefront of such a religiously inspired movement.
They are the beneficiaries of the privileges of caste and immune to
the pain of those who live at the margins. All Hindus who understand
the contradiction between teachings centred on God's embodiment in
every human being and the exclusion of people from places of worship
must embrace this cause.

Hindus settled outside of India who enjoy the privileges of living in
free societies and the protection of the law against unequal and
unjust treatment, have special obligations in this matter. They need
to lift their voices in protest against practices in the name of
Hinduism that denigrate human beings. They must ensure that Hindu
leaders, and especially those who travel often to the West and who are
the recipients of their donations and reverence, hear their voices.
They must make clear the unacceptability of religious discrimination
and demand that leaders renounce silence and indifference and become
active advocates for change. Every Hindu leader must be challenged to
take a stand in this matter. The Constitution of India specifies: "The
State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds of
religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth." Constitutional and legal
measures, as necessary as these are, have not and will not eliminate
all forms of discrimination based on caste inequality.

Legal measures can never cause the joyous embrace of all that follows
from awakening to God's presence in each heart. Religious vision and
wisdom can be the source of such transformed relationships. Hinduism
needs an unequivocal theological proclamation that complements
constitutional law by repudiating caste injustice and that commits
Hindus to the equal worth of all human beings. Opening the doors of
all Hindu temples to Dalits is an important step, an urgent religious
matter and an opportunity for the Hindu tradition, in our time, to
define itself. Let this be our collective Hindu resolution in 2010.

Prof Anantanand Rambachan
Professor and Chair
Religion Department
Saint Olaf College
rambacha@stolaf.edu


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[ZESTCaste] Being called a Hindu is like an abuse to me: Dalit writer

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Being-called-a-Hindu-is-like-an-abuse-to-me-Dalit-writer/articleshow/5490479.cms

Being called a Hindu is like an abuse to me: Dalit writer

Meenakshi Sinha, TNN, 23 January 2010, 04:36am IST

JAIPUR: "Being called a Hindu is like a gaali (abuse) to me. I use
Valmiki as a surname because having one is almost a necessity these
days. If you just say Omprakash, it's not enough. People demand a
surname as they come from a certain mindset. Caste envelops every
aspect of life in India," said Omprakash Valmiki, leading Dalit writer
in Hindi, at the fifth Jaipur literature festival on Friday.

Valmiki was one of three speakers at the session, Outcasts: The Search
for Public Conscience with P Sivakami, Dalit novelist and political
activist from Chennai. Kancha Ilaiah, political science professor in
Osmania University, Hyderabad and author of the bestseller 'Why I am
Not a Hindu', was the third speaker. Ilaiah is an OBC by caste.

Sivakami maintained that upper-caste Hindus only have a caste
conscience and no public conscience. "They lack human conscience," she
said. Sivakami resigned from civil services after 29 years of service
to join the Bahujan Samaj Party in 2008.

Valmiki, author of celebrated autobiography Joothan (1997), maintained
that Dalits continue to be shunned in the realms of culture,
literature and the arts. "And that is despite 60 years of independence
and numerous laws guaranteeing their fundamental rights," he said. His
other works include three collections of poetry: Sadiyon ka santap
(The centuries-old anguish, 1989), Bas! bahut ho chuka (Stop it!
That's enough, 1997) and Ab aur nahin (Not any more, 2009).

Valmiki is currently working on two novels. One is based in Bihar and
the other on the Gohana episode in Haryana (2005) where homes of
Dalits were burnt. He is also working on a compilation of Dalit poetry
from across India.

"A casteist person cannot write Dalit literature. He will first have
to 'de-caste' himself, only then can he give the right picture. A good
Dalit writer hardly gets any visibility. In literature, Dalit
consciousness is not visible even in the writings of Ismat Chugtai,
Nagarjun or Premchand," said Valmiki.

While Ilaiah said Dalit literature is in its nascent stage, Valmiki
believed it has matured well in Gujarati, Marathi and Hindi languages.
"It's just starting out in Punjabi and Bangla," Valmiki said.

While sharing their angst at the way Dalits remain marginalised, the
writers maintained that a collective Dalit consciousness is the need
of the hour. Valmiki said that there's segregation in every village in
India and that Dalits are forced into ghettoes, to the western side of
the village where the sun's rays won't touch them. "Their homes are
mostly near drains or at the end of a river which is likely to swell
during floods hence making their homes the first to get washed away,"
he said.

Recounting discrimination of Dalits in Rajasthan, Valmiki recalled an
incident where in Rajasthan's village Chakwara, after Dalits managed
to gain access to the local lake, the caste Hindus started defecating
there and polluting it denying them access to it.

Valmiki said he doesn't need God because 'He' was not with the person
who's oppressed and pained. "Are we not his creation? He's
appropriated by those who conduct business in his name. "Saraswati is
no devi for me because when we were stopped from going to school, she
was not with us. For us God is Ambedkar and Buddha because they were
with us."

For Ilaiah, denouncing Hinduism was a necessity as he finds it
spiritually fascist. "I'm not a Hindu and I appeal to all brahmins
that if they read my book, please do so without self righteousness and
self pity. The idea is to put a sense of shame and guilt into them."

meenakshi.sinha@timesgroup.com

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[ZESTCaste] Community still facing discrimination: Mungekar

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/48156/welfare-sc-st-must.html

Community still facing discrimination: Mungekar
'Welfare of SC, ST must'
Bangalore: Jan 21, DHNS

Unless both the Centre and the State governments ensure effective
implementation of various programmes meant for uplifting the economic
condition of the members belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled
Tribes and minorities, the country will not be able to bring down the
poverty level, former Planning Commission member Prof B L Mungekar
observed.


Delivering a keynote address at the inauguration of a convention on
"Institutional Processes in New Development Paradigms" at the
Institute for Social and Economic Change, here on Thursday, he said
the members belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes,
who constitute about 27 per cent of the country's total population,
are still facing discrimination.

It may be in terms of wages or education or health, they are not being
treated at par with others in many parts of the country. As a result,
there is unequal distribution of wealth.
This, according to Mungekar, is one of the key reasons for poverty
level to remain at a higher level for long time now, despite the
country achieving higher rates of economic growth. The Planning
Commission too has acknowledged that major weakness in the economy is
lack of inclusive growth.

"Though the percentage of population below the official poverty line
has come down from 36 per cent in 1993-94 to 28 per cent in 2004-05,
the rate of decline in poverty has not accelerated along with the GDP
growth. And the incidents of poverty among certain marginalised groups
like STs have hardly declined," Mungekar noted.


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[ZESTCaste] Bhim, Eklavya

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263871

dr bhimrao ambedkar
Bhim, Eklavya
From Ambavadekar to Dr Ambedkar, the shaping of India's Dalit icon
Smruti Koppikar
The Lawman's Heroes

Kabir Saint-poet an early influence.

Tukaram Saint-poet left a deep impression

Edwin Seligman Economist and mentor

James Shotwell Historian and a major influence

John Dewey Philosopher and Ambedkar's hero

***

In the west-facing corner of the first-floor library that
metamorphosed into the Ambedkar home is situated an angular room that
Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar spent considerable time in while in Bombay.
The study opens out onto a balcony overlooking Dadar station, where
Ambedkar appeared occasionally to greet an eager crowd of supporters
gathered below. "I have heard him, pushing us all to study hard and
rise in life," recalls the white-haired Tukaram Londhe, a teenager
then who's spent decades here as attendant at 'Raj Griha', the
Ambedkar home in the ironically named Hindu Colony.

The balcony, the study, the winding staircase that leads to it, indeed
Raj Griha itself, is as nondescript as any other two-storey building
in the colony. It has seen better days. In the study, Ambedkar's
four-feet-wide table and personal chair are still in the position they
were through the 1930s, '40s and '50s. Two old chairs and a sofa
complete the seating. His C-shaped bookcase still holds the volumes
that he had leafed through. As one's fingers glide over the solid
table, it is not difficult to imagine Dr Ambedkar seated there,
writing and fine-tuning drafts of many a volume, drawing on his
memories and experiences.

Dr Ambedkar, as his grandson Prakash Ambedkar sarcastically remarks,
had a rich and large treasure of experiences and influences to call
upon, as he pushed millions of Indians, British rulers, the Indian
National Congress and Mahatma Gandhi into acknowledging the
dehumanisation of the untouchables. In October 1948, as he presided
over the Drafting Committee, he completed The Untouchables—Who Were
They And Why They Became Untouchables. The first copy still stands in
his bookcase. The dedication reads: "Inscribed to the memory of
Nandanar, Ravidas, Chokhamela—three renowned saints who were born
among the untouchables and who by their piety and virtue won the
esteem of all." Dr Ambedkar may well have been talking about himself;
beyond the obvious references, the inscription is a pointer to some of
his earliest influences.

The young Bhimrao through his childhood years in Dapoli and Satara saw
his father, a military officer, live as a devoted Kabirpanthi
advocating anti-idol worship who strangely insisted that his sons read
the Ramayana and Mahabharata every day. Bhimrao, in his unpublished
preface to The Buddha and his Dhamma, writes that he could not
reconcile the contradiction, though he soaked in the influences, just
as he could not comprehend why he was made to sit on the floor in a
corner of the school classroom, or had to go thirsty but could not go
to the common well, or boys in the classroom ran to "rescue" their
tiffin boxes the only time he went near it. Bhimrao Sakpal
Ambavadekar, his surname coming from his native village Ambavade,
learned to live with the injustices without even recognising them as
such, until later when he walked through the portals of Columbia
University. At the Satara school was a Brahmin teacher who left a
lasting impression—during lunch hour everyday he would quietly walk up
to Bhimrao to drop a part of his meal into the young boy's hands. "He
took so much fancy to the boy that he even changed his surname from
Ambavadekar to his own surname Ambedkar in school records...Ambedkar
gratefully remembered this teacher," writes biographer Dhananjay Keer.

Gautam Buddha came into Ambedkar's life rather accidentally. When he
completed his matriculation in 1907, his community wanted to
felicitate him as he was the first boy to do it, but his father would
have none of it. His father's friend and literary figure Dada Keluskar
prevailed. Keluskar even presided over the function and gifted Bhimrao
a copy of his book on Buddha's life, written for the Baroda Sayajirao
Oriental Series. Ambedkar recalls in an unpublished reference: "I read
the book with great interest, and was greatly impressed and moved by
it."

During his five years in Elphinstone College, Bombay, he met the
reform-minded Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda who offered a monthly
scholarship and learned of a Mahar conference in Jejuri organised by
Shivram Janba Kamble, an early reformer. Incidentally, Gaekwad, much
to the chagrin of caste Hindu guests, sat and ate a meal with Ambedkar
there. All this left an impression on Ambedkar as he reached Columbia
University in 1913 as a post-graduate student where he formed the
intellectual connections and personal relationships that were to shape
much of his life's work.

"The best friends I have had in life were some of my classmates at
Columbia and my great professors, John Dewey, James Shotwell, Edwin
Seligman and James Harvey Robinson," wrote Ambedkar in the Columbia
Alumni News, December 1930. Of them all, he considered Prof Dewey, one
of the major philosophers of the 20th century, and Prof Seligman, a
well-known economist, as his hero and mentor respectively. When he
wrote his seminal work Annihilation of Caste in '36, he referred to
Prof Dewey "who was my teacher and to whom I owe so much".

For a boy who had to fight to be at school and was not permitted to
learn Sanskrit, he had an MA in Economics with Sociology, History,
Anthropology and Philosophy from Columbia University. This was a major
inspiration for him to study law as well as to go to LSE, says Prakash
Ambedkar. "And beneath it all was a strange mix of the mysticism of
saints and some strands of Marxist philosophy with Buddhist
humanitarianism. An original, perhaps unique, set of influences," he
adds. To this amalgamation, Ambedkar brought his study of law—he was
later the principal of Government Law College in Bombay and
established the Siddharth College of Law in addition to the Siddharth
College of Arts and Science through his People's Education Society—all
of which segued into his work, writing, indeed, his life. The stamp,
says Prakash, is there on the Constitution of India.

In Raj Griha, a part of which is now People's Education Society
premises with the Ambedkar museum and library, the sense of history is
still strong. Amidst his personal collection of books, letters and
photographs, especially in the study, the man's presence is palpable.
Two young men from Mahad, where Ambedkar broke convention by drinking
water from the public tank, stroll in. They solemnly pay their
respects at the bust. On their way out, they call out a greeting "Jai
Bhim," Ambedkar's greeting-cum-war cry to the millions who were not
permitted to say "Jai Siya Ram". Londhe smiles back with a "Jai Bhim"
of his own.


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