Gandhi Vs Ambedkar- No match: 2008

NO MATCH!!

Throughout the century Mahatma Gandhi & Sri Bhimrao Ramji Amdekar have preposterously been conceived as two equipotent names of more or less identical good underscoring them. They, the two paradigms of humanitarian dogmas ironically are two incomparable quanta on the life scale. They, truly are poles apart. Mahatma had dedicated his whole life for humanity & nation. A true benevolent by his manner of existence, his life story is full of giving and not of taking or acquiring anything. He didn’t earn money, post, crown or even any award. Leave alone Dr. Ambedkar, none in Indian politics till date stands anywhere near the towering personality of Mahatma Gandhi. He was a person of unquestionable integrity, honesty and courage. The whole world has accepted his charismatic & successful experiment of non-violence, truth & Satyagrah which brought independence & one of the finest democracy for India. Gandhi ji and his thoughts are most sought topic for the researches all over the world and he is definitely the most revered personality on the earth.
But what can be said of the few jug heads or a herd of them with vested interests, who time and again, in a bid to downgrade the psyche of Mahatma Gandhi have compared him with any Tom, Dick and Harry. It’s nothing but a cheap political upheaval of mud-slinging which ultimately malign themselves who do that.

AMBEDKAR

Dr. B R Ambedkar was a great scholar, jurist, economist and one of the architects of Indian Constitution. No doubt, his personality was colossal, his knowledge infinite and he worked for the downtrodden masses of India. But this is no sanction for those in favour to regard him as fit to put in front of Mahatma Gandhi for comparisons. I am creating this blog, to imbed a final full stop on this ongoing illogical debate of Gandhi verses Ambedkar.

To start with, here we will take the logics of the so-called pro Ambedkar & anti Gandhi lobbies, which they bring forward in their support.
1- Dr. B R Ambedkar had drafted the Indian Constitution and was the main Architect to get it enacted.
2- He was the sole saviour of downtrodden classes of India. Gandhi ji has not done any thing for them and even created hurdles in the efforts of their upliftment. These activists site that Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘fast onto death’ in Yarvada jail in 1932 to was oppose the “Ramsay Macdonald’s award” meant for giving separate electorate to depressed class of Hindus & Muslims on cast and religious basis. On the contrary, the fact is Gandhi’s contention was that the British Rulers were aiming at further dividing Indian society while Ambedkar was advocating for separate electorate.

3-

OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS OF AMBEDKAR

A-)
“As a leading Indian scholar, Ambedkar had been invited to testify before the Southborough Committee, which was preparing the Government of India Act 1919. At this hearing, Ambedkar argued for creating separate electorates and reservations for Dalits and other religious communities.”
B-)
In 1920, he began the publication of the weekly Mooknayak (Leader of the Silent) in Bombay. With its attaining popularity, Ambedkar used this journal to criticize orthodox Hindu politicians and a perceived reluctance of the Indian political community to fight caste discrimination. His speech at a Depressed Classes Conference in Kolhapur impressed the local state ruler Shahu IV, who shocked the orthodox society by dining with Ambekdar . Ambedkar established a successful legal practise, and also organised the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha to promote education and socio-economic uplifting of the depressed classes. In 1926, he became a nominated member of the Bombay Legislative Council. By 1927 Dr. Ambedkar decided to launch, active movements against untouchability. He began with public movements and marches to open up and share public drinking water resources. He also began a struggle for the right of the dalits to enter Hindu temples. He led a satyagraha in Mahad to fight for the right of the untouchable community to draw water from the main water tank of the town.
C-)
On January 1, 1927 Ambedkar organised a ceremony at the Koregaon Victory Memorial,which commemorated the Indian soldiers who had died in the Second Anglo-Maratha War, during the Battle of Koregaon. Here, he inscribed the names of the soldiers from the Mahar community on a marble tablet. In 1927, he began his second journal, Bahiskrit Bharat (Excluded India), later rechristened Janata (The People).

D-)
He was appointed to the Bombay Presidency Committee to work with the all-European Simon Commission in 1928. This commission had sparked great protests across the country, and while its report was ignored by most Indians, Ambedkar himself wrote a separate set of recommendations for future constitutional reforms.
E-)
By 1930 Ambedkar had become one of the most prominent political figures of the time. He had grown increasingly critical of mainstream Indian political parties over their perceived lack of emphasis for the elimination of the caste system. Ambedkar criticized the Indian National Congress and its leader Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, whom he accused of reducing the untouchable community to a figure of pathos.
F-)
At a Depressed Classes Conference on August 8, 1930 Ambedkar outlined his political vision, insisting that the safety of the Depressed Classes hinged on their being independent of the Government and the Congress both: In this speech, Ambedkar criticized the Salt Satyagraha launched by Gandhi and the Congress.
G-)
Ambedkar's prominence and popular support amongst the untouchable community had increased, and he was invited to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London in 1931. Here he sparred verbally with Gandhi on the question of awarding separate electorates to untouchables.
(Contents of Ambedkar’s achievments are taken from pro Ambedakar sites&Books )

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OUR SUBMISSIONS

1-) It is a completely misconcieved, disillusioned, biased and fabricated logic that Dr. B R Ambedkar had drafted the Indian Constitution. It is written there, in the intricacies of the Constituent Assembly and in records of Indian Parliament. Dr. Rajendra Prashad, the then President of The Constituent Assembly & of the Indian Union himself, delibrately repeated in his last speech in Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949, the day when draft Constition was passed from the Assembly, that the Costitution was drafted by Sri Benegal Narsing Rau.
(B N Rau)# Rtd. ICS who was inducted in the Constitution Draft Committee as an Advisor. For a more authentic realization, we are keeping forward excerpts of President’s speech of November 26, 1949 here for perusal.

Mr. President: “Before I formally put the motion in front of House which was moved by Dr. Ambedkar, I desire to say a few words…
A) “I have only to add that they all (members of Draft Committee) worked in a business-like manner and produced reports which were considered by the Assembly and their recommendations were adopted as the basis on which the draft of the Constitution had to be prepared. This was done by Mr. B.N. Rau, who brought to bear on his task a detailed knowledge of Constitutions of other countries and an extensive knowledge of the conditions of this country as well as his own administrative experience. The Assembly then appointed the Drafting Committee which worked on the original draft prepared by Mr. B. N. Rau and produced the Draft Constitution which was considered by the Assembly at great length at the second reading stage. As Dr. Ambedkar pointed out, there were not less than 7,635 amendments of which 2,473 amendments were moved. I am mentioning this only to show that it was not only the Members of the Drafting Committee who were giving their close attention to the Constitution, but also other Members were vigilant and scrutinizing the Draft in all its details. No wonder, that we had to consider not only each article in the Draft, but practically every sentence and sometimes, every word in every article. It may interest honorable members to know that the public was taking great interest in its proceedings and I have discovered that no less than 53,000visitors were admitted to the Visitors gallery during the period when the Constitution has been under consideration. In the result, the Draft Constitution has increased in size, and by the time it has been passed, it has come to have 395 articles and 8 schedules, instead of the 243 articles and 13 schedules of the original Draft of Mr. B.N. Rau.
B) “I must convey, if you will permit me, my own thanks as well as the thanks of the house to our Constitutional Adviser, Shri B.N. Rau, who worked on honorary basis all the time that he was here, assisting the Assembly not only with his knowledge and erudition but also enabled the other Members to perform their duties with thoroughness and intelligence by supplying them with the material on which they could work. In this his band and research workers and other members of the staff who worked with zeal and devotion assisted him. Tribute has been paid justly to Shri S.N. Mukerjee who has proved of such invaluable help to the Drafting Committee. (The last but one paragraph of Mr. President’s Speech)

2 A)

(i)- Mahatma Gandhi was the first prominent mass leader of Indian history who openly & in widespread way advocated the abolition of untouchability from Indian Society. Gandhi had faced the brunt of untouchability & racial discrimination in South Africa in the last decade of 19th century when B R Ambedkar was merely of 2 or 3 years of age.
(ii)- “Wikipedia” quotes- In South Africa, Gandhi faced discrimination directed at Indians. Initially, he was thrown off a train at
Pietermaritzburg, after refusing to move from the first class to a third class coach while holding a valid first class ticket. Traveling further on by stagecoach, he was beaten by a driver for refusing to travel on the foot board to make room for a European passenger. He suffered other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from many hotels. In another of many similar events, the magistrate of a Durban court ordered him to remove his turban, which Gandhi refused. These incidents have been acknowledged as a turning point in his life, serving as an awakening to contemporary social injustice and helping to explain his subsequent social activism. It was through witnessing firsthand the racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South Africa that Gandhi started to question his people's status within the British Empire, and his own place in society.
(iii)- Gandhi extended his original period of stay in South Africa to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote. Though unable to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He founded the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, and through this organization, he molded the Indian community of South Africa into a homogeneous political force. In January 1897, when Gandhi returned from a brief trip to India, a white mob attacked and tried to lynch him. In an early indication of the personal values that would shape his later campaigns, he refused to press charges against any member of the mob, stating it was one of his principles not to seek redress for a personal wrong in a court of law.
(iv)- In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony's Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on September 11 that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time, calling on his fellow Indians to defy the new law and suffer the punishments for doing so, rather than resist through violent means. This plan was adopted, leading to a seven-year struggle in which thousands of Indians were jailed (including Gandhi), flogged, or even shot, for striking, refusing to register, burning their registration cards, or engaging in other forms of non-violent resistance. While the government was successful in repressing the Indian protesters, the public outcry stemming from the harsh methods employed by the South African government in the face of peaceful Indian protesters finally forced South African General Jan Christiaan Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi.

2 B)-Ramsay Macdonald’s Communal Award was only a new mask of British Rulers to further divide and rule over India. It envisaged separate electorate (representation) of Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo Indians, women and even backward classes on religion and cast lines. Jinnah and Ambedkar were supporting that award but Mahatma Gandhi was dead against it.

THE BIG BANG

Mohammad Ali Jinnah came to Congress fold in 1906 with an idea of Hindu-Muslim unity. British Rulers imposed separate Muslim electorate on India only with a nefarious plan to divide & rule through the Act of 1909.Sri K M Munshi, renowned scholar and one of the member of Constitution’s Draft committee, wrote in his ‘Pilgrimage to Freedom’- ‘ In the sense Jinnah dominated the Congress and the Muslim league at that time. He had played a key role in preparing a draft constitution for India and getting it adopted by the sessions both of the Congress and of the League. The historical Lucknow Pact of 1916was an integral part of this Constitution. Under it, the Muslims led by the League promised to work with the Hindus to achieve freedom in return the Congress conceding to the Muslim separate electorates with weightage far in excess of their numerical strength’.
Sri H M Seerwai, one of the top most Constitutional experts of India, whose commentary on Constitutional Law of India is treated as Bible in the Jurists community, had written in his book – “we must note the entry into Indian politics of Mahatma Gandhi, who was to dominate the political scene till he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic on 30th January, 1948.No other political leader has commanded the affection and devotion of the people of India as he did. His ascetic ways of living endowed him with halo of a saint. This makes it difficult to evaluate his political achievements. Great as they were, for it is not easy to determine at what times the astute politician in him submerged the saint. In 1920, Gandhi was made President of Home Rule League in place of Mrs. Besant. He changed the object of Home Rule League from self- government within the British Empire to complete Swaraj- freedom from all ties with Britain. When Jinnah protested that the meeting was not competent to alter the Constitution of the league, Gandhi overruled his objection. Thereafter Jinnah with 19 more members left the Home Rule league… Again it was Mahatma Gandhi who shown the doors to Jinnah by rejecting his demand of separate Muslims electorate with weightage, in an all party conference called to consider the Motilal Nehru Report on principles of framing a Constitution for India.”
Shri B. R. Nanda - former Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi wrote in his full-scale biography of Mahatma Gandhi (published in India, Britain and the U.S.A. and translated into French, Spanish, Italian and several other languages) “ A new twist to the civil disobedience movement came in September 1932 when Gandhi, who was in Yeravda Jail, went on a fast as a protest against the segregation of the so-called "untouchables" in the electoral arrangement planned for the new Indian constitution. Uncharitable critics described the fast as a form of coercion, a political blackmail. Gandhi was aware that his fast did exercise a moral pressure, but the pressure was directed not against those who disagreed with him, but against those who loved him and believed in him. He did not expect his critics to react in the same way as his friends and co-workers, but if his self-crucifixion could demonstrate his sincerity to them, the battle would be more than half-won. He sought to prick the conscience of the people and to convey to them something of his own inner anguish at a monstrous social tyranny. The fast dramatized the issues at stake; ostensibly it suppressed reason, but in fact it was designed to free reason from that mixture of inertia and prejudice which had permitted the evil of untouchability, which condemned millions of Hindus to humiliation, discrimination and hardship.”
“The news that Gandhi was about to fast shook India from one end to the other. September 20, 1932, when the fast began, was observed as a day of fasting and prayer. At Shantiniketan, poet Tagore, dressed in black, spoke to a large gathering on the significance of the fast and the urgency of fighting an age-old evil. There was a spontaneous upsurge of feeling; temples, wells and public places were thrown open to the "untouchables". A number of Hindu leaders met the representatives of the untouchables; an alternative electoral arrangement was agreed upon, and received the approval of the British Government before Gandhi broke his fast.

Yeravada Jail

More important than the new electoral arrangement was the emotional catharsis through which the Hindu community had passed. The fast was intended by Gandhi "to sting the conscience of the Hindu community into right religious action". The scrapping of separate electorates was only the beginning of the end of untouchability. Under Gandhi’s inspiration, while he was still in prison, a new organization, Harijan Sevak Sangh was founded to combat untouchability and a new weekly paper, the Harijan, was started. Harijan means "children of God"; it was Gandhi’s name for the "untouchables"
“After his release Gandhi devoted himself almost wholly to the campaign against untouchability. On November 7, 1933, he embarked on a countrywide tour that covered 12,500 miles and lasted for nine months. The tour evoked great enthusiasm for the breaking down of the barriers that divided the untouchables from the rest of the Hindu community, but it also provoked the militancy of the orthodox Hindus. On June 25, while Gandhi was on his way to the municipal hall in Poona, a bomb was thrown at his party. Seven persons were injured, but Gandhi was unhurt. He expressed his "deep pity" for the unknown thrower of the bomb. "I am not aching for martyrdom," he said, "but if it comes in my way in the prosecution of what I consider to be the supreme duty in defense of the faith I hold in common with millions of Hindus, I shall have well earned it."
“Gandhi’s fast had aroused public enthusiasm, but diverted it from political to social issues. In May 1933, he suspended civil disobedience for six weeks. He revived it later, but confined it to himself. A year later he discontinued it: this was recognition of the fact that the country was fatigued and in no mood to continue a campaign of defiance. These decisions disconcerted many of his adherents, who did not relish his moral and religious approach to political issues, and chafed at his self-imposed restraints. Gandhi sensed the critical mood in the Congress party and in October 1934, announced his retirement from it. For the next three years, not politics but village economics was his dominant interest.”

THE ICING

Our intention is not to make any comment on Dr. B R Ambedkar or any one else but to bring forward some of the hidden facts and truths of Indian History which are not known to the common man till date. Sri Ambedakar was a staunch critic of Mahatma Gandhi & he kept on his tirade against him and Congress till he became Chairman of Constitution’s Draft Committee and first Law Minister of Union of India. How many Indians know that Ambedkar was inducted in the Government and in Draft’s Committee with only the strong recommendation of Mahatma Gandhi himself? Gandhi had not aspired for any post only recommended few names like Ambedkar and Sri Syama Prashad Mukherjee for the ministerial births and he himself marched for the riot ridden, bleeding areas of West Bengal, Bihar & East Bengal.
What happened to the Constitution of India, how Gandhi’s advice was ignored, what Ambedkar did on his long pending demand of separate electorate for Dalits, all is in records while Mahatma Gandhi’s one man army’s successful operation’s tales are also abound in our history.
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SEPERATE ELECTORATES FOR DALITS

IN INDIAN CONSTITUTION

The three decades old & long awaited demand of Mr. Ambedkar for Separate Electorate for depressed class of Hindus (Dalits) in Indian Constitution touched its GOAL? What was destined? What Ambedkar did as Chairman (so called main architect of Indian Constitution) and first Law Minister of independent India, in that regard? Any one can go through the debates of Constituent Assembly, the present form of Indian Constitution and the last speech by the President of India before the Bill forwarded by Ambedkar was passed by the absolute majority of the house and see the hidden truth.
No separate electorate was envisaged in the Indian Constitution for Dalits while Dr. B R Ambedakar was on the helm of the affairs. The Constitution adopted the same line which was given by Mahatma Gandhi from Yarvada Jail in 1930.That is reservation of seats for Dalits (depressed classes) in Legislative elections but with joint electorate. This is the same provision which has given space to rise to the fugitive concept of castes in Indian politics which can cut your throat today and embrace your siblings or coming generation with their convenience of tomorrow and Visa –versa.
[Example: “Tilak, Taraju aur Talwar. Inko maro Jute char”… Now converted with need of time in “Brahmin- Dalit social engineering”.
(Here I can salute to Rajdeep Sardesai that he chose this subject to enhance his channel’s TRP). I will let you know who’s who after a brief break!!

1- You want to know how Mahatma was betrayed in the Constituent Assembly. Gandhi ji was an ardent crusader for creating the village government (Panchayat). When this issue was not taken up in Constituent Assembly he raised his voice in opposition.
2- “The resolution on the aims and objects of free India's Constitution was introduced in the Constituent Assembly on 13 December, 1946, yet it is surprising that no specific mention was made in the Constituent Assembly resolution of 13 December, 1946 regarding the place of India's villages in independent India, their role in its Government and the meaning of Swaraj to the Indian village.” (V. SUNDARAM, Rtd IAS, wrote in his article “Why not India’s villages?”)
3- Even when the Draft Scrutiny Committee of the Constitution was doing its work, On 21 December, 1947, Mahatma Gandhi expressed his concern and anguish about the total omission of any reference to the principle of Village Swaraj based on village panchayats in the proposed Constitution. He expressed his views in 'Harijan' as follows: 'I must confess that I have not been able to follow the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly and the correspondent says that there is no mention or direction about village panchayats and decentralizations in the foreshadowed Constitution. It is certainly an omission calling for immediate attention if our independence is to reflect the people's voice. The greater the power of the panchayat, the better for the people'. - Gandhi ji.
4-In April 1948 itself, Rajendra Prasad, the President of the Constituent Assembly, referred the matter relating to the position of villages and Village Swaraj and other connected issues to the Constitutional Adviser Sri B N Rau for appropriate action. Sri B N Rau in his note to the President of the Constituent Assembly stated: 'Even if the panchayat plan is to be adopted, its details will have to be carefully worked out for each province and for each Indian State with suitable modification for towns. Apart from other difficulties, this will take time and rather than delay the passing of the Constitution further, it would seem better to relegate these details to the auxiliary legislation to be enacted after the Constitution has been passed.'
5-Mahatma was ultimately betrayed. No provision for village Swaraj was envisaged in the Constitution. It was left for the time coming and was incorporated in Indian Constitution after almost 40 years of his death by the then Prime Minister Sri Rajiv Gandhi.
So, why this hype, this colored campaign of Gandhi Vs Ambedkar?

How this topic boggled my mind? Courtesy! Sri Rajdeep Sardesai, a renowned journalist. Rajdeep is now running IBN 7 with the collaboration of CNN. He had several rendezvous earlier, been with many channels & now doing very well for his survival in this cut throat competition. IBN 7 did one survey, telecasted it sometime in 2006 and placed it in their website which I have seen few days before. The debate, anchored by Rajdeep, is very interesting but on an absurd subject. That is again Gandhi Vs Ambedkar. I am one of the fans of Rajdeep. I have seen his many struggles as a common man. He must not know me as I was in Print Media for almost 24 years and was limited up to the Uttar Pradesh. More over I was a Hindi Journalist & unfortunately ‘ Hindi walas’ till date are suffering with identity crisis.
Rajdeep has again done good job as an anchor in the aforesaid programme by making his guests of honour of the debate including Sri Tushar Gandhi to toe his line while answering his queries. But for me his demeanour was too professional to sound pompous as if some one is selling his stuff in any vegetable market. I am sorry for these wordings but it is my instant reaction because Rajdeep’s that total episode was based on two facts- 1- Mahatma Gandhi’s statues are outnumbered by the statues of Baba Sahib & 2- lakhs of people gathered in Mumbai on Ambedkar’s anniversary. Is this not mockery of a legend of Mahatma’s status? From where came these thousand and thousands of statues of Baba Sahib? Don’t you know? They came to existence overnight during three /four terms of a particular regime and purpose behind them was sole- illegal land grabbing.
Now where you stand in the crowd of vegetable market? ‘Sabse pahile”, ‘Sabse aage”. ‘Sabse taja”… Huh.
I am inviting you all my friends and foes (not personal but of my thoughts) to send your instant or well thought reaction so that we can conclude this debate in right earnest.
You all are welcome! But I am waiting eagerly for Rajdeep’s counter attack. Here, I must make myself clear that Rajdeep is not my subject but a symbol. By this name I mean all those who are in that “ Rat Race” or are intending to join it.
Welcome again!!
Waiting, waiting & waiting.

Wednesday, July 2

Is Gandhi a Villain????

Saturday, June 28

Mahatma is villain for them....?

Saturday, June 21

The Futile Fight

Gandhi Vs Ambedkar- No match

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