Dr.B.R.Ambedkar’s
Contribution for India
Speech
Delivered on All India Radio..!
It
is truly an honour to be given the opportunity to deliver a lecture on
Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar on the occasion of……………
Dr.Babasaheb
Ambedkar was born on 14th April 1891 in a small village called Mahu. He was the fourteenth child of Subhedar Major Ramji Sakpal
and Bhima Bai. Since his mother died early, his aunt took care of Bhimrao.
Subhedar Ramji was a man of principles and a strict father. He raised Bhimrao
under strict discipline. From the childhood Bhimrao was a rebel. Since his
father was a Kabir Panthi, he used to tell bhimrao religious stories. Bhimrao
being a rebel in nature always used to question the rationality of the mythical
stories told by his father.
Being
born in untouchable family, Bhimrao Ambedkar suffered humiliation at every walk
of life while growing. He was surprised to see the attitude of upper caste
people towards him and the untouchable community. He used to question his
father why is that the barber not cutting his hair and the school
administration which did not allow him to drink water? Being an untouchable, he
used to sit outside the classroom but still he was a bright student. Bhimrao Ambedkar was the first student who
passed matriculation in his area. It was a matter of great pride for the
untouchable community that someone from their community could pass matriculation.
He did his higher education in Elphinstone College, Mumbai and went to London
School of Economics for his Masters. Very few people know that Dr.Ambedkar was
the only person in whole of India who studied in the top universities of that
time such as Oxford University, London University and Cambridge University. He
was also enrolled in Germany’s Bonn University but due to lack of financial
help he could not join there. His papers “Castes In India”, “Problem of Rupee”
which he presented during his Masters In London is one of the best thesis
papers of his time and holds significance even today among the economists
fraternity. He also wrote a critique “Reconstruction of World” on Mr.Bertrand
Russel’s historic book “Reconstruction of Society”. In this critique he fearlessly criticized Mr.Russel’s
opinion which forced Russel to come and meet Dr.Ambedkar. Such was the
brilliance he acquired right from his student age.
Dr.Ambedkar’s vision of a new social order can be summed up in the way in which he so often did, with the great slogan, “Liberty, Equality, fraternity and justice.” In his one of the constituent assembly speeches he says “Positively, my social philosophy may be said to be enshrined in three words: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. Let no one however say that I have borrowed my philosophy from the French Revolution. I have not. My philosophy has roots in the religion and not in political science. I have derived them from the teachings of my master, the Buddha.”
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar has emerged as the most outstanding intellectuals of the world in the 20th century. Paul Baran, an eminent economist, had made a distinction in one of his essays between an "intellect worker" and an intellectual. The former, according to him, is one who uses his intellect for making a living whereas the latter is one who uses it for critical analysis and social transformation. Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar fits Mr.Baran's definition of an intellectual very well. Dr. Ambedkar is also an outstanding example of what Antonio Gramsci called an organic intellectual, that is, one who represents and articulates the interests of an entire social class.
Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar throughout his life worked for the social upliftment of the masses. While Dr. Ambedkar is famous for being the father of India's Constitution and for being a doughty champion of the interests of the under privileged, his views on a number of crucial issues pertaining to economic development are not so well known.
Apart from writing the constitution, Dr. Ambedkar was a strong proponent of land reforms and economic development. He recognized the inequities in an unfettered capitalist economy. His views on these issues are found in several writings; of these the most important ones are his essay, "Small Holdings in India and Their Remedies" and "States and Minorities". In these writings, Dr. Ambedkar elaborates his views on land reforms and the kind of economic order that is best suited for the people.
In many ways, his economic and political thinking can be
characterized as a form of what feminists used to describe as “dual systems”
theory. Just as early socialist feminists in the U.S. talked of “capitalism and
patriarchy” or Black radicals of “capitalism and racism,” Dr.Ambedkar began to
focus on “capitalism and Brahmanism.” These,
in a famous speech at Mahad in 1938, he said,
“There are in my view two enemies which the workers of this country have to
deal with. The two enemies are Brahmanism and Capitalism…By Brahmanism I do not
mean the power, privileges and interests of the Brahmans as a community. By
Brahmanism I mean the negation of the spirit of Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity. In that sense it is rampant in all classes and is not confined to
the Brahmans alone, though they have been the originators of it”
The RBI was formed upon his suggestions to Hilton Commission, The River Grid System, Power Project Dams, 8 Hours work timings for workers and peasants, equal property and adoption rights for women, these are the remarkable contributions which Dr.Ambedkar has gifted Indian people.
Dr.Ambedkar’s life can be looked into two perspectives. 1.As
an Activist (1927-1935) and 2. As an Revolutionist (1935-1956).As an activists,
he fought for the equal rights with the hindus since the untouchables were
considered as a part of hindu society, he asked for the equal treatment. And
that’s the reason why he fought for the drinking Water in Mahad, entered
KalaRam Mandir in Nashik, did Parvathi Satyagraha, Representation in Round
Table Conferences, forming the Independent Labor Party in 1935, and so on…until
1935 as an activist he fought for the equal treatment and tried to convince the
upper castes. But when he understood that, the feeling of inequality is
imbedded in the minds of majority of people, in 1935 at Yevla, he finely announced
that “it
was not in his hands to be born as a hindu, but I will not die as a hindu”. From here on we see a revolutionary
Ambedkar at the national front. From here on he never agitated on roads,
neither did satyagrahas for any issues, rather he choose to focus on fighting
on intellectual front by writing numerous historic books and ultimately in 1956
he embraced Buddhism with his lakhs of followers.
Now
let us see his Role and Contribution in Making of Indian Constitution:-
Writing a constitution of any nation is not an easy task. It becomes more difficult when we think of India wherein hundreds of castes, races, religions, traditions, beliefs, and customs are prevailing. Therefore it needs Top Class mastery on World Constitutions, Excellence in Political Knowledge, Top class Philosopher who can study the past, analyze the present and could foresee the future, it also needs great knowledge of different civilizations, society and culture and also command in legal knowledge. In depth knowledge of world history, Democracy, Anarchy, Imperialism etc., Constitution can be written only by such person who has in depth knowledge of Law and Social System of all the countries. It becomes more difficult when it comes to India wherein the larger section of people lived in thousand years in slavery, experienced several atrocities. After being ruled by Britishers for more than 150 years I feel it’s not less than a miracle to write the constitution of India. And that miracle could become possible only because of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar.
Dear Friends, the first effort of proposing the constitution of India was came in 1927 when Lord Birkenhead gave a challenge to Indians asking them to produce a constitution for India. That challenge was taken up. A committee was formed to frame a constitution. A constitution was produced and was known as 'The Nehru Constitution'. It was, however, not accepted by Indians and was buried without remorse! A second opportunity presented in 1930, when they assembled at the Round Table Conference. There again, we Indians failed to play their part and write out the Constitution. Again in 1942 britishers sent Sir Stafford Crips with few suggestions for writing up the constitution, but ultimately that effort was also gone vain and in 1945 one more attempt was made by the Sapru Committee. The proposals of this committee too have fallen flat. The reasons may be vary as per the conditions, but the fact is we were offered almost four chances in the span of 20 years to write our constitution but we failed every time.
India got freedom in 1947 and the process of writing the constitution begun. It was decided that the members would be elected by Universal Adult Franchise ie on every 10 Million population One elected representative shall be elected. Since the then congress does not wanted Dr.Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly, it played their conspiracies, however, he was elected from Khulana District of West Bengal. But under a political conspiracy after the Indian Independence Act 1947, his candidature got cancelled and resulted in his expulsion from the Constituent Assembly. Later on he was again elected from Bombay after the resignation of Mr.Mukundrao Jayakar.
The constituent Assembly came into being in November, 1946. The members were elected in July, 1946. Out of 296 seats of British India, the Congress captured 211 seats and the Muslim League 73 seats. The rest were not filled up. The constituent Assembly met for the first time in New Delhi on December 9, 1946. On this day Dr.Ambedkar’s speech turned out to be the milestone of India’s democratic future. All the members of the house were surprised to see Dr.Ambedkar’s vision of future India as a result the constituent assembly made Dr.Ambedkar as a Chairman of Drafting Committee. At the other side, Muslim League refused to participate in its deliberations. In spite of this, the Assembly made a substantial progress. As a result of Partition under the PLAN OF JUNE 3rd, 1947, a separate Constitution Assembly was set up for Pakistan on July 16, 1947. The representatives of Bengal, Punjab, Sind, North Western Frontier Province, Baluchistan and the Sylhet district of Assam (which had joined Pakistan by a referendum) ceased to be members of the Assembly of India and there was a fresh election in the new Provinces of West Bengal and East Punjab. The Constituent Assembly appointed a Drafting Committee on 29th August, 1947 under the Chairmanship of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar. There is a different story altogether as to why and how Dr.Ambedkar was made Chairman of the Drafting Committee. Which we may discuss some other time. Along with Dr.Ambedkar, there were 6 other members in the drafting committee…
1.N.Gopal Swami Iyangar
2.Alladi Krishna Swami Iyangar
3. Sayyed Mohammad Sadulla
4. K.M.Munshi
5.B.L.Mittal
6.D.P. Khaitan (T.T.Krishnamchary after the death of Mr.Khaitan in 1948.)
Dr.Rajendra Prasad was the President of Constituent Assembly. Before Rajendra Prasad, Sachinanand Sinha was the temporary president.
When the drafting committee began its work the problem of federation with the Native States had ceased to exist, as the Native States which acceded to India merged in India. It was Dr.Ambedkar who suggested the solution for Princely State problem to the Advisory Committee. It was he who is responsible to the united India during and after the partition, if not India could have been a next USSR or Pakistan by now!
The “Draft Constitution” prepared by Dr.B.R.Ambedkar was published in January, 1948. The people of India were given 8 months to discuss the draft and propose amendments. As many as 7,635 amendments were proposed and 2,473 were actually discussed. These all amendments were checked and studied by Dr.B.R.Ambedkar alone during the making and this has been accepted by the whole constituent assembly. Mr.T.T.Krishnamachary in his concluding speech in the assembly acknowledged Dr.Ambedkar’s work rightly. He says “There were 7 members appointed in the Constitutional Assembly, One of them resigned, whose place was empty all the time, one person died and that place was also empty, one member used to lived in America, ultimately his place also remained vacant, one member was busy with his political duties and could not spare time in the Assembly, one or two people were out of Delhi as it was impossible for them to adjust in Delhi’s cold weather. Ultimately the whole responsibility of framing of constitution shouldered on Dr.Ambedkar. We all are obliged and grateful to Dr.Ambedkar, who could complete the tough task of drafting the constitution ALONE. Therefore his work is truly appreciable.”
During the process of framing the Constitution of the Republic of India, Dr. Ambedkar proposed to include certain provisions on fundamental rights, specifically a clause to the effect that the state shall provide protection against economic exploitation. Among other things, this clause proposed that:
* Key industries shall be owned and run by the state;
* Basic but non-key industries shall
be owned by the state and run by the state or by corporations established by
it;
* Agriculture shall be a state
industry, and be organized by the state taking over all land and letting it out
for cultivation in suitable standard sizes to residents of villages; these shall
be cultivated as collective farms by groups of families.
Apart from the nationalization of key industries, Dr. Ambedkar stressed on the importance of insurance and proposed the nationalization of insurance. He categorically stated: "State socialism is essential for the rapid industrialization of India. Private enterprise cannot do it and if it did, it would produce those inequalities of wealth which private capitalism has produced in Europe and which should be a warning to Indians." if we see the current scenario, his prophesy has turned out to be true. The capitalism has been dominating the market in such a way that money is into the pockets of few capitalist families. At the other hand we have more than 30% of the population below poverty line who don’t even get two times quality food!
Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar stressed on the importance of Directive Principles of State Policies in Part IV Art.36to51. According to him these directives are fundamental in nature and all the states should strive to implement the policies of DPSP which speaks about social, economical, political, educational empowerment of all the citizens. But unfortunately in the past 65 years of independence, the government has failed in realizing the vision of Dr.Ambedkar and did not think of national growth.
He was also against the special status to Jammu & Kashmir. He says “…my view has always been that the right solution is to partition Kashmir. Give the Hindu and Buddhist part to India and the Muslim part to Pakistan as we did in the case of India. We are really not concerned with the Muslim part of Kashmir. It is a matter between the Muslims of Kashmir and Pakistan. They may decide the issue, as they like. Or if you like, divide it into three parts; the Cease-fire zone, the Valley and the Jammu-Laddhak Region.” Dr.Ambedkar's views were praised by most of the national as well as international newspapers including the Manchester Guardian.
Dr.Ambedkar was against Art.370 of the constitution, which was put against his wishes. Balraj Madhok reportedly said, Dr. Ambedkar had clearly told Shaik Abdullah: "You wish India should protect your borders, she should build roads in your area, she should supply you food grains, and Kashmir should get equal status as India. But Government of India should have only limited powers and Indian people should have no rights in Kashmir. To give consent to this proposal, would be a treacherous thing against the interests of India and I, as the Law Minister of India, will never do it." Then Abdullah went to Mr.Nehru, who directed him to Gopal Swami Ayyangar, who approached Sardar Patel asking him to do something as it was a matter of prestige of Nehru, who has promised Sk. Abdullah accordingly. Patel got it passed when Nehru was on foreign tour.
Not only this, Dr.Ambedkar also proposed to have smaller state concepts. He was of the opinion that, small states are easy to administer. But this proposal was also not accepted by the then government. I tell you my friends, at the time of independence India had around 18 states and now in 2015 we have 29 states.
Dear Friends, Ever since the Constitution of India came into force on 26th January 1950, the world looked at India with high surprise. Whole world congratulated India for adopting democracy. Glanville Austin in his words said “With the adoption of the Constitution by the members of the Constituent Assembly on November 26th 1949, India became the largest democracy in the world, by this act of strength and will, Assembly members began what was perhaps the greatest political venture that originated in Philadelphia in 1787”.
If we look at the merits of the constitution, we see that the preamble explains us the egalitarian spirit of the constitution. We can understand by reading the Preamble what the framers intended to achieve through this constitution. “We, The People of India”. It means the constitution is emanated from the people of India and not from any other external sources. Dr.Ambedkar wanted to build the society based on liberty, equality, fraternity and justice. The whole Part IV from Art.36-51 is the reflection of the preamble.
When we look at Fundamental Rights in Part III Art.12-35, we can see that the articles speak about the rights of citizens. The Fundamental Rights, embodied in Part III of the Constitution, guarantee civil rights to all Indians, and prevent the State from encroaching on individual liberty while simultaneously placing upon it an obligation to protect the citizens' rights from encroachment by society. Seven fundamental rights were originally provided by the Constitution – i.e. right to equality, right to freedom, right against exploitation, right to freedom of religion, cultural and educational rights, right to property and right to constitutional remedies. However, the right to property was removed from Part III of the Constitution by the 44th Amendment in 1978.
During the past 65 years, the Indian Constitution has been amended almost twice more often than America in over 200 years. There have been periodic demands for a new Constitution, without any consensus on its content. We need to understand the very spirit of the Constitution and the intention of Dr.Ambedkar to know what exactly they wanted to give us. The time has come for all of us to devote our time and energy to read, understand and promote the humanitarian principles of the greatest Indian. The responsibility lies on our shoulders to make the greatest democracy an example for the rest of the world to show that we are the greatest modern democratic nation..!
Conclusion:-
Dr.Ambedkar was a true
social democrat. This we can understand by his speeches while presenting the
Constitution. There he makes several important points which deserve to be
emphasized today. For example, he quotes Thomas Jefferson to emphasize the
inherent right to change the Constitution. Jefferson had argued that “every generation had the right to create a
new Constitution for itself if it felt necessary; to refuse this right would
mean that the earth belongs to the dead and not to the living.” Dr.Ambedkar
cites this, adding, “What Jefferson has said
is not merely true, but absolutely true.” However, Dr.Ambedkar says, “There will never be a need to reject
India’s Constitution as such, because of its flexible scope for amendment”.
He was so confident on his wisdom and ability to see the future that he felt the constitution is so flexible that it will adjust in any condition the nation will come across. Unfortunately, the common man is unaware of the greatness of his wisdom and intellect. He is always termed as dalit leader, the time has come to read, understand and implement his thoughts and wisdom. The predictions he made during the making of constitution has proved right today. Every word of his is proving to be a mark on the rock. And therefore it becomes much necessary to read and understand his abundant literature and contribute in national growth.
Thank you !
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