The book unconsciously exposes Ambedkar’s abnormalities which, sadly, existed throughout his life.
The Constitution of India: Role of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: Legend and Reality
Sheshrao Chavan
Atlantic Publishers
Pages: 354; Price: 995 |
If there is one person who is an authority is on Dr B.R. Ambedkar, it is Sheshrao Chavan who has written extensively not only on the great dalit leader but on Dr Ambedkar’s contemporaries as well such as the latter’s bete noire Mahatma Gandhi, the Muslim League leader and founder of Pakistan M.A. Jinnah and the legal luminary run educationist K.M.Munshi.
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Chavan’s expertise on law can be gauged by the fact that he had addressed the Third International Conference of the Chief Justices of the World held in India which was attended by Chief Justices of 40 countries. Dr Ambedkar has been a familiar figure in the politics of India in both the pre- and post independence years. His, however, has been a life full of contradict¬ions.
As a dalit he surely underwent, the humiliation of being one, as a student as one growing up in a caste-ridden society. He began to cultivate a hatred towards Hindus that was paranoid. It influenced his intellectual and social life in more ways than one. He was obsessed with casteism to his very end and it especially showed during the time he was a member of Jawaharlal Nehru’s catholic cabinet and a formulator of the Constitution of free India.
Though he received valuable assistance in the drafting of the Constitution by such experts as Sir B. Narasimha Rao which he has always acknowledged his own role was in a way flatteringly summed up by such dignitaries as Dr Pattabhi Sitaramayya, a senior Congressman and Dr Nani Palkhivala, one of India’s leading lawyers. “What a steam-roller intellect he brought to bear upon this magnificial task, irresistible, indomitable, unconquerable” was how Dr Sitaraimayya once suited up TV Ambedkar’s contri¬bution. And Dr Palkhivala was to say: “The highest tribute we can pay to Dr Ambedkar is to redouble our efforts to preserve the Constitution which endures as a lasting monument to the man who was one of the noblest sons of India.”
Dr Ambedkar, however, had his own views some of which were self-contradictory. To start with he was not in favour of the Constituent Assembly for framing free India’s Constitution which he explained to the Cripps Mission. “It is quite obvious,” he said in a statement “that the proposal for Constituent Assembly is intended to win over the Congress. How do the proposals deal with the Depressed Classes? To put it shortly, they are bound hand and foot and handed over to the Caste Hindus. They offer them nothing, stone instead of bread. For the Constituent Assembly is nothing short of a betrayal of the Depressed Classes…”
In a presidential address at the All India Scheduled Caste Federation in May 1P65 he warned: “I must state that I am wholly opposed to the proposals of a Constituent Assembly. It is absolutely superfluous. I regard it as n most dangerous project which may involve this country in a civil war. I do not see why Constituent Assembly is at all necessary…”
He wrote to Winston Churchill, India’s worst enemy, who had made a strong anti-India speech in the British Parliament, praising him. In it Ambedkar said that the Cabinet Mission proposals “are a shameful betrayal of the cause of the 60 million Untouchables”. Subsequently he went to London to fight for the cause of Untouchables and to address a meeting of the Conservative Indian Committee in the House of Commons. There he demanded the abrogation of the Poona Pact signed by himself and Mahatma Gandhi and demanded the restoration of Separate Electorates. And here was a man who considered himself as a sole spokesman for the Dalits and went to the extent of fielding 1,585 candidates for election to various Provincial Assemblies, of them only ONE got elected.
In Bombay where he competed, to his external chagrin, he lost to a Congressman. To comfort him, a nominated member of the “Viceroy’s Executive Council resigned to make way for Ambedkar who was then drown into the Constituent Assembly and was not only drawn into the Drafting Committee but was further elected as its Chairman. Unquestionably he did a wonderful job. But what comes as a shock is statement he made in Parliament on September 2, 1953 in great angst.
Said the man praised to the skies for his work in drafting the Constitution: “I shall be the first person to burn the Constitution. I do not want it, it does not suit anybody. People always keep on saying to me: ‘Oh, you are the maker of the Constitution’. My answer is: ‘I was a hack. What I was asked to do, I did, much against my wish’.” Shocking? Yes.
But it is the same man who said also in Parliament on March 19, 1955 how elated he was with the fulfilment of his task. It was he who said: “I say it with a certain amount or pride that the Constitution which has been given to this country is a wonderful document. It has been said not by myself but by many people…It is the simplest and the easiest.”
As for safeguarding the interests of the dalits he was to say: “The provisions made in the Constitution for safeguarding the position of the Scheduled Castes were not to my satisfaction. However I accepted them for what they were worth.” The man who hated Hindus, once even went to the extent of saying that “the Schedule castes should give up their political aloofness and co-operate with other communities…” What part of Ambedkar should one believe? For an answer, one must read all the thirteen chapters that go to make this excellent study of Dr Ambedkar.
Chavan is soft on the dalit leader, but he tells the story as it is. As he put it: “He (Dr Ambedkar) did his duty no matter what his adversaries may have to say. Could it be, could it just be, that in the end his ego, his tireless fight for the cause of dalit and his feelings of failures, did the trick?”
The book unconsciously exposes Ambedkar’s abnormalities which, sadly, existed throughout his life. But Chavan himself has done a marvellous job in showing up the “legend and reality” that Ambedkar was which to this day continues to fascinate his fellow countrymen.
M.V. KAMATH
