There just is no dearth of torchbearers for Dr. Ambedkar’s legacy it seems, as the years roll on and yet another Ambedkar anniversary is observed.
The iconoclast that Ambedkar was it is rather ironic that the loudest of his torchbearers and destiny’s daughter Mayawati is so caught up with installing his statues while throwing in a statue or two for her mentor Kanshiram and herself while she was at it.
One often wonders if these intellectual pygmies, who have repudiated almost everything that Ambedkar stood for by deifying him, can ever fathom Ambedkar’s sagacity.
Here is one instance highlighted by Offstumped in the past and reproduced below.
The Constituent Assembly while debating Ambedkar?s Constitution Bill,? also took up the question of the Preamble for the Constitution. Ambedkar makes a strong argument against the current situation of having Socialism ingrained in the Preamble and requiring every political party to express faith in it.
What should be the policy of the State, how the Society should be organised in its social and economic side are matters which must be decided by the people themselves according to time and circumstances.
It cannot be laid down in the Constitution itself, because that is destroying democracy altogether. If you state in the Constitution that the social organisation of the State shall take a particular form, you are, in my judgment, taking away the liberty of the people to decide what should be the social organisation in which they wish to live.
It is perfectly possible today, for the majority people to hold that the socialist organisation of society is better than the capitalist organisation of society.
But it would be perfectly possible for thinking people to devise some other form of social organisation which might be better than the socialist organisation of today or of tomorrow.
I do not see therefore why the Constitution should tie down the people to live in a particular form and not leave it to the people themselves to decide it for themselves.
Offstumped Bottomline: From entitlement seeking Dalit activists to Communal Socialists just about everyone have attempted to appropriate Ambedkar’s legacy while paying scant attention to Ambedkar’s liberal views on why the people of India must have the freedom to make economic choices that best work for them.
Filed under: Constituent Assembly
Dude u Rock. I never knew about this conservative side of Ambedkar. Thanks for the info.
[...] Offstumped Bottomline: From entitlement seeking Dalit activists to Communal Socialists just about everyone have attempted to appropriate Ambedkar’s legacy while paying scant attention to Ambedkar’s liberal views on why the people of India must have the freedom to make economic choices that best work for them. [...]
[...] reminds us that Ambedkar took a strong stand against having the word “socialism” ingrained in the preamble and wonders if the [...]
Hi yossarin, I like your articles generally but with this I have a slight problem.
Although this sseems to be one of the good things of B.R. Ambedkar, it takes us away for what he was.
Firstly, till 1946, he considered Indians to be unfit for self rule and supported the Britishers on all the round table conferences.
Secondly, according to one of his own speeches, he despised being the part of the constituent assembly as it was giving too much power to the Indians. He believed that even after India gained its independence, Britishers should have the authority to circumvent any policy measures adopted by the Indians which they deemed unfit.
To get a clear picture of Ambedkar, I would request you to have a look at ‘Worshiping False Idols, B.R. Ambedkar and the facts that got erased’… by Arun Shourie.
Pritish – thanks for the comment, arun shourie is a great inspiration and role model. As far as this post goes, I would say view it as an attempt at highlighting how leaders across the spectrum eschewed right of center values which could be a powerful argument against those who swear by these leaders to push leftist socialist agendas.
Hi Yossarian….This is the real stuff… and to Pritish….That was the general opinion amongst the educated classes in 1946….Ambedkar by no means wanted a permanent British involvement in India after Independence. The confusion in those days was enormous and I support his line at that time.
Netaji Bose propagated a dictatorship in India for the first 25 years of our Independence, his thinking was that the future generations wont realize the price paid for achieving Independence. Well looking at things in our country today, WOULD YOU DIS AGREE WITH HIM ??????
Guys….read this superb piece from Shri M V Kamath:
Ambedkar: Social Reformist cum Politician
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=236&page=11
[...] B.R. Ambedkar’s sagacity on the Constitution [...]