Kancha Ilaiah - No one can convert Ambedkar
The 124th Ambedkar Jayanti celebrations on April 14 (leading
to the 125th next year) are trying to transform Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar into an
acceptable Buddha of our times by totally opposite political camps. Both the
Congress and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have formed visible committees
to take ownership of his legacy from totally opposite standpoints. The Congress
celebration committee is headed by Sonia Gandhi, while the BJP is working
through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, apart from the financial assistance
from the government, to own his legacy as “ghar wapsiwala”.
The Congress is not very clear as to what kind of place they
can give to Ambedkar in their galaxy of national icons like Mahtama Gandhi,
Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad, Indira Gandhi and so on. But the Sangh Parivar
seems to place him at the centre of their cultural nationalism debate. Though
Mr Modi does not use his name quite often, the BJP spokespersons, of late, have
been using him as an anti-Islamist, anti-beeferian, anti-Christian thinker.
They have been arguing that they are for a beef ban because Ambedkar included
cow protection in the Directive Principles of the State Policy. If the Congress would like to slot him as a secular
political and social practitioner, the RSS wants to project him as Hindu,
though he converted to Buddhism, as part of their co-option strategy.
Of late, they have been approvingly quoting him as a thinker
against Islam and pro-Hinduism and are also saying that he opposed the Hindus
converting to Islam. I do not think that both the camps are trying to do this
just for votes. They have been forced to do this because Ambedkar’s message as
a socio-spiritual reformer is becoming internationally respectable and the
sense of shame of practising human untoucha-bility is pricking the
socio-political conscience of the upper castes in every sphere of life except,
perhaps, that of the national-level communist leaders. Hence their irrele-vance
could be seen every-where.
The fact that Ambedkar has become a god-like cult figure
among the dalits of the nation is well known. Thousands of Ambedkar
associations have been spreading his message for years and now both the
national ruling parties are forced to own and place him among their respective
icons. Quite interestingly, the RSS has now started a campaign
called “One Well, One Temple, One Crematorium” and wants to use Ambedkar to
advance their cultural nationalism and social engineering. But there is no “One
Book’’ campaign because they want to continue idol worship in the temples and
do not want to promote book reading as part of development. Praveen Togadia is
continuing his trishul distribution programme for the Other Backward Classes
youth as he wants to use them basically as anti-Muslim musclemen.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to play down
the ghar wapsi mischief in international forums by saying “we respect all
religions”, the RSS is working on a big agenda by co-opting Ambedkar as an
ambassador of “ghar wapsi” to persecute the church. They are going to the
extent of saying that Ambedkar maintained good relations with Hedgewar and Deen
Dayal Upadhyaya. The moot question is: Does Ambedkar have a ghar in Hinduism
even now?
Unlike the stand I took that “I am not a Hindu” by birth,
though I do not come from the untouchable background, Ambedkar said that
“Though, I was born a Hindu, I solemnly assure you that I will not die as a
Hindu”, and he died as a Buddhist. His statement that he was born Hindu is slightly misleading.
This was because he examined Hinduism from its textual position, not from the
living reality. A born untouchable could never be part of a religion that
treats him/her untouchable even to god. Hence he also said that the
untouchables were never Hindus but were historically Buddhists, and hence
rendered to be untouchables in the post-Manu period.
The Panchama varna (untouchables are known as panchamas) of
untouchables, according to him, came into existence only in the process of
Manu’s counter-revolution. Though this aspect of history needs serious
examination, his main tenor of argument was anti-Hindu. From among his massive
writing selective quotations could be picked up by anybody to buttress one’s
own arguments.
His so-called anti-Islam arguments, like Islam has no scope
of reform, women’s equality is not possible in it, are being picked up
selectively by RSS ideologues and being used for their anti-Muslim propaganda.
They have suddenly discovered his opposition to some Hindus in Pakistan getting
converted to Islam. They wrote “when in Pakistan and some provinces such as
Hyderabad, scheduled caste Hindus were forcibly converted, Ambedkar warned them
against it and told the converted Hindus that they would be welcomed back.”
If the RSS wants to declare Ambedkar as Hindu, which in
essence means declaring all Buddhists, including those in China, Sri Lanka,
Cambodia, Japan and so on, as Hindus because Ambedkar, like the Dalai Lama, was
Buddhist, they need to change the meaning of “religion” itself. Then the
question arises whether the RSS is going to change all multiple idol
worshipping Hindus into only one Buddha’s idol worshippers or will they convert
all global Buddhists into Ram, Shiv, Krishna, Kali and Durga’s idol worshipper?
If they want to talk about “One Temple”, which is that one temple? Is it that
of Buddha or Ram? Since Ambedkar embraced Buddhism in 1956, almost all
Buddhist viharas in India are headed by dalits as monks worshipping Buddha in
Pali language. And if the brahmins convert to Buddhism, they will be equals
with dalits in all spheres of Buddhist religion.
The Ram temples are headed by brahmins. And even if dalits
are treated as Hindus they can never be the equal of brahmins in Ram temples.
There are millions of dalits who consider themselves to be Hindus and have no
accessibility to temples even now. Even if the dalits learn the best of the
Sanskrit language they cannot become priests in Hindu main temples. So what does Ambedkar’s identity being defined as Hindu mean
after 59 years of his death? Has the RSS, which has its headquarters in
Maharashtra, appointed at least some Mahars as priests of “one Hindu temple”
that they want to promote? Where is that temple? Can the nation know?
The fact of history is that the existence of Hinduism was
threatened after Ambedkar got converted to Buddhism. Though a large number of
dalits got converted to Christianity, not Buddhism, that trend is continuing. Spiritual equality, English education to their children,
along with overall improvement in their literacy rate and social life is what’s
leading to these conversions. Most of the dalits do not bother about swarg
prapti. But they want a dignified life in this world. Ambedkar thus opened the
modern lock of conversions. He legitimised dalit conversion to Christianity.
The RSS wants to use the same Ambedkar to reconvert Christian dalits into
Hindus.
But the heads of non-political Hindu structures like
Shankara pittadhipathis, the priest associations that consist of only brahmins,
do not want to lose their exclusive privileges and are hence opposing the RSS
agenda of ghar wapsi. They know that once Hinduism is defined as “one ghar” the
question of spiritual equality has to be addressed seriously. This is the
reason why Ambedkar will become a bigger headache after this celebration to
Brahminic forces within the RSS also. He will now enter into Brahmin puja rooms
not just as an idol like Shirdi Saibaba but as a modern prophet with a written
word of his own.
Though the RSS does not have “one religious book” to promote
along with the notion of “one temple”, Ambedkar wrote his own “one book” of his
Navayana Buddhism called “The Buddha and His Dharma”. Will RSS own this as
their “One Book”? Ambedkar can be appreciated or criticised for what he was as
one can do about Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Ram, Krishna. But no one can convert
him from his religion to Hinduism now. Only a criminal force can think to
convert somebody after his/her death.
The writer is director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad
