Lucknow- On the 6th of December, Dr. BR Ambedkar's death anniversary is celebrated worldwide as Mahaparinirvan Diwas. Around 7 lakh people are expected to assemble at Chaitya Bhoomi, the cremation site of Babasaheb, to pay tribute. Hoardings by all political parties, from regional Ambedkarite parties to national Ambedkarite and non-Ambedkarite parties, dot the vast expanse of Chaitya Bhoomi.
One notable element in the observance of the death anniversary is that Ambedkar is perhaps the only socio-political figure whose death anniversary is observed at a mass level.
It is ironic that Ambedkar was ignored for a long time; the fact that he was awarded the Bharat Ratna only in 1990 speaks volumes about the oblivion he had slipped into.
The Mooknayak spoke to Sumeet Mhaskar, a professor at Jindal Institute. He said, “There have been many attempts to diminish Ambedkar, but his stature has only grown, and no government can take credit for this. It is the people's love for him that has made Ambedkar a towering figure, whom no political party, irrespective of their ideology, can ignore."
Earlier, Ambedkar was confined to a few Ambedkarite political parties in Maharashtra, barely known outside the state. But the emergence of the Bahujan Samaj Party led by Kanshiram is believed to have changed the landscape. The party is credited with carving out Dalits as a voting bloc, which political parties find hard to ignore. Ambedkar was taken out of his home state, Maharashtra, and by the end of the '90s, he was catapulted to a national icon. A theory behind the emergence of Ambedkar as a national icon is that upper-caste-led political parties used Ambedkar to stop the rise of the BSP.
Others disagree and opine that the emergence of the Dalit middle class has contributed to the growing awareness of Ambedkarite thought. They point out that the tallest Ambedkar statue of 125 feet was erected in a state like Telangana, where the BSP has a negligible presence.
Dr. Kancha Ilaiah, an academician with Osmania University, says, “Until 1990, Ambedkar was untouchable to all mainstream political parties. The question of the BJP looking at him did not arise at that time. The implementation of the Mandal Commission report, the VP Singh government honouring Ambedkar with the Bharat Ratna, and the massive Dalit civil societal celebration of his role across the country triggered a new debate.
Dr. Ambedkar had been a trenchant critic of Hinduism. His 22 vows while adopting Buddhism on October 14, 1956, and the burning of Manusmriti in 1927 are sufficient to prove his stance on Hinduism. Besides, there is ample text available to outline his disdain for Hinduism. For example, he writes, “The sanctity and infallibility of the Vedas, Smritis, and Shastras, the iron law of caste, the heartless law of karma, and the senseless law of status by birth are, to the untouchables, veritable instruments of torture which Hinduism has forged against them.”
However, the BJP, the political party known for its Hindutva ideology, has very adroitly woven Ambedkar into its political strategy. The adoption of Ambedkar by the Bharatiya Janata Party goes beyond the politics of votes and is believed to be a part of a larger Hindutva project. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, believed to be the parent organization of the BJP, has also attempted to co-opt Ambedkar.
The mad scramble to appropriate Ambedkar by different political parties is in contrast to the failure that Babasaheb received as a politician. In the 1951 elections, he contested from the Bombay North Central constituency for the Scheduled Caste Federation (later the Republic Party of India). He was defeated by Narayan Sadoba Kajrolkar, a former associate of Ambedkar fielded by the Congress party. However, 70 years later, while Kajrolkar lies in the oblivion of history, Ambedkar has been exalted to the stature of a political god whom one cannot ignore.
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