By Zulafqar Ahmed Tantray
“How ignominious is this for Indian society that for those social evils he fought for whole life is still prevalent and alive.”
India celebrated 126th birth anniversary of Dr.B.R Ambedkar in a fragile condition prevailing in India. After 70 years of India’s independence minority section of society are still being oppressed & exploited. It is apt time to assess & reassess the thoughts, Ideology of this modern Manu. He was the person who not only interpreted the social & political condition of minority of that very time but also with stiff determination & strong will he struggled for change in the society. He had a strong faith that negation of caste system & capitalism are the only imperatives that can emancipate vulnerable and minority section of society from oppression. Known as the father of the Indian constitution Ambedkar’s life is full of struggle to achieve the cause of equality and justice.
Struggle for Social Justice
Ambedkar fought for his whole life for social justice. He used to say that caste is antinational & India’s social, political, & economic development is not possible in caste driven society. According to Ambedkar, system of rank & gradation is simply mean to enunciate another version of inequality. He said that sooner we will realise that we are not yet a nation in the social & psychological sense of word. If we go deep to this statement this comes true before us that minority section still are looking down, Dalits, women and other minorities in India are being raped from their social space for which he struggled. They are intentionally being discriminated in social, political, economic & religious spheres. How ignominious is this for Indian society that for those social evils he fought for whole life are still prevalent and alive.
Inclusive Nationalism
The situation in India from last few years has given shape to many ugly events especially the current discourse of Indian nationalism, which is totally different from Ambedkar’s Nationalism. The present led establishment under BJP & RSS leaders are imposing the Nationalism on minority sections of the society by force & recurrent manner. They believe that shouting slogan like “Bharat Mata ki Jai” make ensure credibility of people as nationalist, rest of this slogan everything is anti-national. Besides this, the growing discourse ideology of Ambedkarite in several campuses in Indian universities like JNU, Hyderabad university campuses are being targeted by government and labelled them “Anti-National. Harassing of the students & rolling back fellowships to Research Scholars, dismantling reservation of student in university, cutting the 83% of total seats for research in JNU. Government is not entertaining dissent of those students & people who are identify themselves with Ambedkarite Ideology. This type of imposed Nationalism is not successful in country like India. Nationalism is feeling of oneness, brotherhood, compassion which can be possible only through social, political, & economic inclusiveness. In short, it is high time for present government to reassess ideology of this visionary Indian intellectual and son of the soil that would be fruitful for vulnerable section of society & country as a whole.
Zulafqar Ahmed Tantray, is a Doctorate candidate at the Department of Political Science, Aligarh Muslim University.
