Dr Deepak Kumar Nanda
Every year, the 14th of April is celebrated as Ambedkar Jayanti, remembering the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar. People in universities, offices and public spaces celebrate this day with a sense of pride and glorification. The people of Maharashtra state are ahead in making Ambedkar Jayanti a public celebration and civic culture. Apart from office spaces in Mumbai, it is celebrated in every chowk in the city. Taxi, auto drivers, and other labourers’ unions begin the day with the celebration of Ambedkar Jayanti. They garland the statue or portrait of Ambedkar and celebrate the day. People use loudspeakers, music, and DJs to dedicate their day to Ambedkar. It looks like a big festival day for outsiders unaware of Ambedkar Jayanti. It is a public holiday at all India levels, but Ambedkar Jayanti still has no place in public life and civic culture. Religious and social celebrations mostly bind people, and they have yet to realise the importance of civic culture and celebration, although it is essential for a vibrant republic and democracy.
Ambedkar as the founding father of the Indian Constitution
The very foundation of the Indian democracy and republic is the constitution. The credit goes to Ambedkar for being the Chairman of the Drafting Committee. The journey from the British and Feudal collaborated barbaric rule to the present-day self-rule and from a common man to citizen was the idea of Dr BR Ambedkar. It is because of the Constitution a nation-state emerged. With that, we have the safety, security and protection from un-wants, slavery, hunger, and poverty. We are free from the fight and war between the feudals. Now, no king can create a kingdom and captivate the common man. People owned the power to self-rule and had the power of voting rights. People’s priority became the nation’s priority, unlike the earlier interests of feudal and Britishers. Providing basic needs like food, clothes, shelter, education, roads, transportation, and health care became state prerogatives. Whoever comes to power has to serve the interests of the citizens and not the feudal. The beauty of the Constitution is that it protects and enriches everyone, whether the ones who believe in it or those who don’t.
Champion of Equality and Justice
Can we imagine an equal life and liberty between a feudal and common man, man and woman, master and slave, forward caste, Dalits and Tribes, owner and labourer without the constitution? People can lead a free, equal and indiscriminate life in current society. Ambedkar is the epitome of a new social order based on justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity that began with the dusk of British and Feudal collaborated power in India. After more than a thousand years of misrule and barbarism by the feudal kings and two centuries of collaborated British rule, the people of India were liberated and emancipated by Dr Ambedkar’s idea of constitution. Everyone has an equal opportunity in a highly graded, inequal, caste-based society. No one is debarred from practising their choice of profession. Untouchability is no longer the rule of society. No more women be confined to the four walls of the house. All can get free and compulsory education: Dalits, Adivasis and women, and no one can cut their tongue or put a hot liquid on their ear to stop their learning.
Conclusion
Celebrating Ambedkar is like celebrating the constitutional values and ethics of the idea of a welfare state and equal society, doing away from the British and feudal collaborated misrule. It is a celebration of the idea of justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity. For Dalits, Adivasis, Backwards and Women, knowing and celebrating Ambedkar means celebrating their liberation and emancipation from the clutch of injustice, inequality and oppression. Inculcating a civic celebration like Ambedkar Jayanti into the public culture is the beginning of informed citizenship and deepening democracy.
About the Author
Dr Deepak Kumar Nanda is a development researcher and analyst. He is the founding Editor of the Democracy and Development Insights.
About The Author
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