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| Ravikumar |
In a contest where dalit writing is being equated only with
autobiography, we present here in book from notes written by B R Ambedkar,which have the characteristics of autobiographical writings. In multi volume writings
and speeches of Babasaheb Ambedkar edited by Vasant Moon, these writings can be
found in Volume 12, under the title ‘Waiting for a Visa’. The connection
between the title and the six autobiographical ‘illustrations’ – as Ambedkar
calls them – is not clear. Perhaps, Ambedkar indented adding more to this body
of writing but eventually could not. All that the editorial note by Moon says
is: “Here are some of the reminiscences drawn by Dr. Ambedkar in his own
handwriting. The MSS traced in the collection of the People’s Education Society
were published by the society as a booklet on 19th March 1990. –
ed.” If these are some reminiscences, were there more? What Visa was Ambedkar
waiting for? We can, however, gather frome the content that Ambedkar wrote at least
a few of these available notes in 1935. In the second reminiscences, he refers
to his return from London to work in Baroda in 1917. towards the end of this
section, he recalls that “18 years has not succeeded in fading away” the memory
of the incidence of untouchability he experienced in the Parsi inn. The last
‘illustration’ refers to an incident that happened in march 1938, and must have
been written well after that. It is clear that Ambedkar jotted down several
such ‘illustrations’ over the years, and perhaps many have been lost. In this
edition, we have given separate titles to each episode that Ambedkar recalls,
instead of numbering them as in the original.
Though Ambedkar’s works are available volumes, and despite
the availability of biography by Dananjay Keer (Dr.Ambedkar: Life and
Mission, 1954), and two feature films on the man (Jabbar Patel’s
Babasaheb Ambedkar in Hindi, 2000; and Dr Padmavathi-Bharath’s Ambedkar
in Telugu, 1992), we learn very title about this personal life. What we know of
Ambedkar pertains solely to his public life, his public self. Other than
occasional reference to his poor helth in his writings, speeches and letters,
it has not been possible for us to know anything about the sorrows and joys
that came his way. How was his marital life; what was the nature of his
relationship with his son; the kind of friendships he had – we know little
about these.
Ambedkar emphasized the role of the individual in society.
He was someone who waged a hard battle during the drafting of the Indian
Constitution to centralize the individual in its frame work. He also accepted
the contribution of the individual to the making of history. However he did not
leave behind anything his writing for us to understand and approach him as an
individual.
The issues that confront dalits can be understood through
the binary of the public and the private. The public has come to connote things
and space which are inaccessible for the dalits. Common wells, public roads and
cremation grounds are space denied to dalits. If a dalit does well in the open
competition of an entrance exam, she is often slotted in the reserved category.
In electoral politics, a dalit is not expected to contest from a general
constituency. Whatever the law – ironically drafted by Ambedkar – says, this is
the reality.
The purpose of Hindu politics has been to restrict and
relegate dalits to the ‘reserved’ sectors. The dalits have to defy such social
strictures to enter the public sphere. This is a difficult process. Even as we
infiltrate these common spaces, we need to retain our singularity,
individuality. The process is a problematic as the state of mind of a dalit
person who has o make sure he does not touch any other person in the village
and also remain untouched by others, and yet is forced to consider the village
as his own (‘native place’). In this struggle, there is pressure on dalits to
merge the specificities of their selfhood into the collective identity of the
(dalit) community.
In the struggle that let to his emergence as the
spokesperson and symbol of a community, Ambedkar’s personality has merged into
a larger collective, public self. Only when a comprehensive biography is
written can Ambedkar’s individual self be reclaimed. The several facts of his
personality, if collected, could also be useful for the dalit struggle.
These autobiographical notes, written with the objective of
enabling foreigners to understand the practice of untouchability, are relevant
even today. The atrocities and the justices continue, and so does the
indifference.
To think that one could eradicate untouchability while
remaining within Hinduism is similar to the attempt to clean sewage with
ditchwater. How long will we resist the clear water of democracy?
Pondichery
!5 October 2003.
Courtesy: Ravikumar, ‘AMBEDKAR an Autobiographical Notes’,‘NAVAYANA’ Publications.
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