Worshipping False Gods
- ARUN SHOURIE
The feedom for struggle could be traced long back to 1920's,when it was in full swing.
While the years culminated in the country's independence,in Ambedkar's case they culminated in his becoming a member of the Viceroy's Council,that is- to use the current terms-a Minister in the British Cabinet
Government has by now published 14 Volumes of the speeches and writings of Ambedkar.These cover 9996 pages.Volume up to the 12th contain his speeches and writings up to 1946.These extend to 7371 pages.You would be hard put to find one article,one speech,one passage in which Ambedkar can be seen even by interference to be arguing for India's Independence.Quite the contrary.
Pause for a minute and read the following:
Allow me to say that the British have a moral responsibility towards the Scheduled Castes.They may have a moral responsibility towards all the minorities.But it can never transcend the moral responsibility which rests on them in respect of the untouchables.It is a pity how few Britishers are aware of it and how fewer are prepared to discharge it.British rule in India owes its very existence to the help rendered by the Untouchables.Many Britishers think that India was conquered by the Clives,Hastings,Cootes and so on.Nothing can be a greater mistake.India was conquered by an army of Indians and the Indians who formed the army were all Untouchables.British rule in India would have been impossible if the Untouchables had not helped the British to conquer India.Take the battle of Plassey which laid the beginning of British rule or the battle of Kirkee which completed the conquest of India.In both these fateful battles the soldiers who fought for the British were all Untouchables...
Who is pleading to whom?It is B.R. Ambedkar writing on 14 May 1946 to a member of the (British)Cabinet Mission, A.V.Alexander.#1

Ambedkar refused to join the struggle for feedom.
The reason they have not joined this sham "Fight for Freedom", Ambedkar claims, "is not because they are the tools of British Imperialism but because they fear that freedom of India will etablish Hindu domination which is sure to close to them and forever all prospect of life,liberty and persuit of happiness and that they will be made the hewers of wood and drawers of water."#2
And they have from the beginning been the loyal supporters of and the beneficiaries of British rule in India,he says."Until the advent of the British,the Untouchables were content to remain Untouchables."Ambedkar writes."It was a destiny pre-ordained by the Hindu God and enforced by the Hindu State.As such there was no escape from it.Fortunately or unfortunately,the East India Company needed soldiers for their army in India and it could find none but the untouchables.The East India Company's army consisted,at any rate in the early part of its history,of the Untouchables are now included among the non-martial classes and are therefore excluded from the army,it is with the help of an army composed of Untouchables that the British conquered India..."The Untouchables too gained,he adds:among the things that were done to the recruits was to give them education.This awakened them both to their condition,and to the fact that there was no just no justification for it...#3

The Freedom Struggle,in his words
For one thing the Movement is unnecessary,for it is a sham,a hoax to fool the people of India.
The Movement which Gandhi is leading is unjustified,it is unnecessary,Ambedkar declares,for the simple reason that the British do not want to stay,they do not want to rule India in any case,indeed they are anxious to leave.They are being compelled to stay by the fact that Indians are not able to come to an agreement among themselves about the form that the new country,the new constitution must take.
"The British conquered India by the sword and they will hold it by the sword"as proclaimed by Lawrence whose statue in Calcutta has this motto.This attitude is dead and buried and it is no exaggeration to say that every Englishman today is ashamed of it.
This stage was followed by another,Ambedkar acknowledges in which,in which the argument of the British government against India's freedom was the alleged incapacity of the Indians for the parliamentary institutions.The British government admits India's right to freedom,even to independence,if Indians so desire.The British government admits thr right of Indians to frame their own constitution.There can be no greater proof of this new angle of vision than the Cripp's Proposals.The condition precedent laid down by the British government for India's freedom is that Indians must produce a constitution which has the concurrence of the important elements in the national life of country.Such is the stage we have reached.The untouchables therefore cannot understand why the congress instead of trying to achieve agreement among Indians,should keep on talking in terms of a "Fight for Freedom" and maligning the Untouchables in not joining it...#4

Notice first that were this claptrap to be written by anyone today-unless of course,he is a champion of "social justice"-he would be hauled up and prosecuted:for not only is it full of conjured up falsehood about groups and classes,it is nothing but incitement and is calculated to sow enmity between groups.But,as it has been written by Ambedkar,and Ambedkar has been anointed the Redeemer,with his books sold all over the country at subsidised prices!
That very Ambedkar is a Bharat Ratna!
With a national holiday granted on 14th April as "Ambedkar Jayanti"

#1The letter is reproduced in Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar,Writings and Speeches,Volume X,the pp.492-99
#2Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar,Writings and Speeches,Volume IX,p.168
#3Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar,Writings and Speeches,Volume IX,p.189
#4Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar,Writings and Speeches,Volume IX,p.177