Celebrating Dr. Ambedkar’s 134th Birthday in the Hindutva Fascist Context
P J James
On 14 April 2024, Indian people are celebrating the 134th birthday of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, “Father of Indian Constitution”. As exemplified in the 25 December 1927 ceremonial burning of Manusmriti that categorized the oppressed untouchable castes and women as subhuman, and advancing of the Hindu Code Bill to the Constituent Assembly on 6 April 1948, Dr Ambedkar stands ahead as the celebrated and undisputed leader of India’s most oppressed untouchables and lower caste people comprising vast majority of the working and toiling people together with his utmost dedication to women’s empowerment and gender equality. According to him, under the Manu code, Barhamnism had made the life of the untouchables and women worse than that of animals. Quite logically, Ambedkar is also acknowledged as the greatest ideological enemy of Hindutva.
Today, when we are commemorating Dr. Ambedkar, RSS, world’s biggest and longest-running fascist organisation which, through its political tool BJP, is already having its hold over the reins of India’s State power and Street power. It is now in a madding pace towards its ultimate objective of transforming India into a Hindurashtra that entails the undermining of the present Indian Constitution itself. For, when the Constituent Assembly was adopting the Indian Constitution and India was becoming a Republic in 1950, the RSS was proposing Manusmriti, its ideological guide as Constitution that Ambedkar had set on fire two decades back.
Along with the burning of Ambedkar’s effigy in Ram Lila ground for his proposal of the Hindu Code Bill in 1949, while India was finally adopting the Republican Constitution, Golwalkar and other leaders of RSS had no qualms in proposing Manusmriti, the ideological basis of caste system (which Ambedkar called “the bible of slavery for untouchables”), as India’s Constitution. Among other things, the RSS then said: “… in our Constitution, there is no mention of the unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat. Manu’s Laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing.” This was perfectly in tune with the total identification of Indian nation with casteism as propounded by the then RSS leaders.
For a wide spectrum of left liberals including self-professed communists whom Ambedkar called “Brahmin boys”, Manusmriti-based caste system and/or a caste-based Hindutva nation was a mere super-structural and ‘cultural’ issue. But for Ambedkar, together with stigmatisation of Muslims and targeting them as main enemy of the nation, a caste-based Hindutva nation meant a situation where the twice-born Brahmanical castes would be prevailing upon Dalits, oppressed castes and women. Therefore, in contradistinction to the RSS position of a Hindurashtra based on Manusmriti, Dr Ambedkar had noted: “If Hindu Raj becomes a reality, it will undoubtedly be the greatest misfortune of this country. Whatever Hindus may say, Hinduism is a threat to liberty, equality and fraternity. This is incompatible with democracy. Hindu Raj should be prevented from being established at any cost.”
As a matter of fact, Dr Ambedkar’s views on Hindutva and his warnings about the dangers of a plausible Hindurashtra including his observation on it as a “veritable chamber of caste horror” were coming out at a particular historical context, when the presence of RSS in the political limelight was fading and the establishment of a Hindurashtra led by it was a remote possibility and its credibility being at its lowest ebb. As is obvious, this was on account of Hindutva leadership’s altogether betrayal of the Indian independent struggle and castigation of Muslims as the principal enemy of the nation coupled with RSS’ role in the political developments following Transfer of Power. However, today the situation is basically different and extremely dangerous.
In the overall background of the far-right, neofascist world situation today, and taking advantage of the set-backs suffered by the Indian communists whose ideological-political bankruptcy is more manifested in their failure to concretely analyse caste-ridden Indian society, the far-right RSS and Sangh Parivar have already established their stranglehold over the entire macro and micro spaces of Indian society with deep-rooted Hindutva fascist tentacles in the country’s political, economic and cultural spheres. With RSS control over the entire civil and military administration, judiciary, police, education, scientific research, history writing, art and literature and so on, the “Hindu raj” that Ambedkar cautioned and fought against almost a century ago starting with his burning of Manusmriti in 1927 is unfolding in its full-fledged form today. What remains is a formal declaration of it and the RSS/BJP fascist forces are engaged in accomplishing that task by securing a hat-trick win for Modi regime in the 18th Lok Sabha Election. And, this is the last chance before the Indian people to avoid such a threatening situation.
In retrospect, the greatness of Babasaheb Ambedkar lies in the fact that he is the only Indian political leader who was far-sighted enough to predict the dangerous consequences of a Hindurashrastra based on his analysis of Caste and the struggle and practice against Manuvadi Hindutva. Therefore, at this critical juncture, and when Indian people are observing the 134th birth anniversary of Ambedkar, it is high time on the part of the Communists to self-critically evaluate why they failed to have a proper perspective on the caste question and formulate appropriate steps including the badly needed unity with the working class and most oppressed castes who comprise India’s super-exploited working majority. Only such a formidable struggling unity of the working class and all oppressed by the inhuman caste system alone can provide the strategic base for resisting and defeating Indian fascism.
