New Delhi: Prime Minister Modi paid glowing homage to Dr B R Ambedkar at a rally in Jammu and Kashmir on his 128th birth anniversary on Sunday, but Ambedkarite writers and activists point out that his government stopped printing the Collected Works of Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar in English since after he came to power in 2014.
They say the BJP and the RSS have always been hostile to Ambedkar’s questioning of Brahminical ideas and the caste hierarchy as in his book Riddles in Hinduism and as such they will not propagate his ideas that go against their thinking and ideology.
Pramod Ranjan, editor of social justice monthly magazine Forward said the undeclared ban on printing Babasaheb’s books was natural since he was a critic of Hindu practices because of which the RSS believing in the caste hierarchy and Brahminism never tolerated him.
“No wonder the government is setting up memorials in his name and Prime Minister Modi regularly hails the Dalit icon while accusing the Congress of sidelining him, but they won’t print his books to propagate his viewpoints.”
Officials, however, wriggle out claiming a copyright case filed by Ambedkar’s grandson Prakash Ambedkar against the Maharashtra Government, which was the first to publish many of Babasaheb’s works. Activists say there is no stay order of any court on the centre’s Dr Ambedkar Foundation to make an excuse of not publishing his books.
Ambedkar’s books are still available from private publishers, but Ambedkarite writer Dilip Mandal said the Foundation’s books were cheaper and became popular among Dalits, who gifted them to one another during weddings and community get-togethers.
It was during the UPA government that the Foundation took up the project of translating and publishing Ambedkar’s writings and speeches in English and seven Indian languages.
Maharashtra’s education department that has already brought out Ambedkar’s unpublished works in English and Marathi gave a permission to include its English volumes in the Collected Works. In 2013, the Foundation published all 20 volumes of Ambedkar’s works in English and announced to publish the translated versions in seven languages.
