15.04.2025.Todays.UT News of India.by Team S
Ambedkar Jayanti: Police Prevent 'Blue Flag' Hoisting at Udaipur’s Court Circle, Dalit Community Question BJP’s Saffron Flags
Udaipur- A heated confrontation unfolded late Sunday night at Udaipur’s Ambedkar Circle, locally known as Court Circle, when police stopped Dalit organizations and Bhim Army activists from hoisting a blue flag to mark Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s birth anniversary. The incident, which occurred around 9:30 PM, has sparked outrage among Bahujan groups, who allege discriminatory treatment compared to other communities allowed to display their flags.
According to Shankar Chandel, a Congress SC Cell leader, activists were preparing to raise the blue flag—featuring Ambedkar’s image and the Ashok Chakra—on a long pole near Baba Saheb’s statue when Bhupalpura SHO Adarsh Parihar intervened. “We had arranged a crane, but the SHO not only stopped us but also misbehaved with the crane driver and drove him away,” Chandel told The Mooknayak. Despite requests to allow the flag for just one day, citing its removal post-Jayanti, the SHO insisted on prior permission from the ADM City and SP. “He even called his seniors in our presence, but we were denied permission. It seems they were instructed to stop us,” Chandel added.
In the shadow of the Bodhi tree
The temple town of Bodh Gaya in Bihar, where people believe Buddha received enlightenment, is at the centre of a sensitive situation involving religion, politics and governance. Amarnath Tewary tracks how the Buddhist temple is administered under a 75-year-old law, and why people are protesting, many under the banner of the Bhim Army
Published - April 13, 2025 08:00 pm IST
Buddhist monks along with members of the Bhim Army sitting on a silent protest, in Bodh Gaya, Gaya district, Bihar. | Photo Credit: MOORTHY RV
There is barely anyone at the site of the peepal tree on the banks of the now-dry Niranjana river, where Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, after he is believed to have attained samma-sambodhi(perfect enlightenment). The tree is located at the Mahabodhi temple complex in Bodh Gaya, about 115 km south of Patna, Bihar’s capital. Within the temple too, visitors are sparse. The crowd is a couple of kilometres away, seen from a distance as a colour palette of ochre and maroon. The details emerge close up: of about 300 male monks sitting in protest, interspersed with a few women in white, in front of a gold Buddha statue.
The Buddhist monks, under the banner of the All India Buddhist Forum (AIBF), have been protesting in the temple town since February 12, 2025, demanding the repeal of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act (BT), 1949, which was enacted to regulate the temple’s management and resolve disputes between Hindus and Buddhists.
“We want full control of the temple management committee. Why should there be members from other religions to run our temple management?” says Akash Lama, the monk spearheading the protest. He says the demand is not new, but now, the Buddhist community is determined to continue protesting on the street until their demands are fulfilled.
The monks are demanding the repeal of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949. | Photo Credit: MOORTHY RV
Currently, the temple — a UNESCO World Heritage Centre since 2002, built by emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century B.C. — is administered by the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC), consisting of four Buddhists and four Hindus, with the District Magistrate of Gaya as ex-officio chairperson.
The protest began near the temple, but the local administration evicted people from there, calling it a “prohibited zone”. On March 1, it moved to Domuhan, by the side of a road, on government land. Here, under a waterproof canopy, they eat and sleep. There is a kitchen to feed the protestors, most from Maharashtra, and bare mattresses that are piled up when not in use.
Jostling for space are colourful Buddhist flags; posters of the Bhim Army, a socio-political organisation founded 10 years ago; and banners of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, who steered India’s drafting of the Constitution. Dr. Ambedkar, a Dalit, converted to Buddhism to step out of the Hindu caste system. “All those who follow Ambedkarji are Buddhists,” asserts Akash. Those around him nod in agreement.
Temple control
In a letter to the Gaya District Magistrate in March 2025, the AIBF called the current constitution of the BTMC “a complete hoax”, dominated by people “with vested interest”. It said, “The so called four Buddhist members are also handpicked by this vested interest”, tarnishing “the Buddhist image, tradition and culture”.
The four current Buddhists members of the temple management committee have distanced themselves from the protest, saying the key people have “personal ambitions”. There are only two Hindu members listed on the BTMC website.
The Mahabodhi temple, which is regulated by the Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949. | Photo Credit: MOORTHY RV
In 2012, Buddhist monks had filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court to repeal the 1949 Act. At her plush office in Bodh Gaya, Mahashweta Maharathi, the member secretary of the BTMC, says, “I cannot comment on this protest as it is unconstitutional. The matter is sub-judice.” She says the present committee was formed on July 17, 2023, with a tenure of three years.
The District Magistrate of Gaya Thiyagarajan S.M. says, “The protesting Buddhists should wait for the court’s verdict on the issue. The protest has been politicised as there are flags and supporters of the Bhim Army at the protesting site.” He says the delegation had met Bihar’s government officials, including those from the Home Department, for their demands.
History meets identity
One of the provisions of the BT Act was that the Bihar government would nominate “a Hindu as chairman of the Committee for the period during which the District Magistrate of Gaya is non-Hindu”. In the 1960s, for instance, a Muslim IAS officer, K.M. Zuberi was appointed as Gaya DM. The then government had appointed Jageshwar Prasad, an MLC, as the chairperson of the BTMC for the period of Zuberi’s tenure. An amendment to the law changed this in 2013, making the post of the ex-officio member religion-neutral.
The reason that a Buddhist site has Hindu members on its management committee has a history to it. The Bodh Gaya complex has always seen pilgrims from across the world visit, including Chinese travellers Fa-hien and Hiuen Tsang, who visited the area in the 5thand 7thcenturies A.D., and left accounts of the pilgrimage spots, among other aspects.
In the early 13th century, however, Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turko-Afghan general of the Ghurid ruler Mohammad of Ghor led the Muslim conquests of the eastern Indian regions of Bengal and Bihar. Buddhism saw a decline, and in 1590, a Hindu monk, Ghamandi Giri, established the Bodh Gaya mutt, a Shaivite monastery. The Shaivites believe that Buddha was the ninth incarnation of the Hindu Lord Vishnu, hence they have a claim over the temple. Hindu priests began to manage the temple thereafter. In the complex of over 11 acres, stands a temple of the Hindu deity Jagannath.
In the 19th century, a Buddhist monk Hevavitarna Dharmapala, called Anagarika, or one who gives up worldly possessions, travelled to India. In 1895, as the honorary general secretary of the Mahabodhi Society in then Ceylon, he took the then Mahanth to court over not allowing him to place an image of Buddha in the temple.
The contentious issue was raised at the Gaya session of the Congress in 1922 and a committee under Dr. Rajendra Prasad was constituted for the resolution of the conflict between Hindus and Buddhists for control over the temple site.
After independence, the Bihar government brought in the BT Act, which stipulated that all Buddhists and Hindus had the right to worship at the temple. “The very Act is illegal, unconstitutional and an assault on the freedom of religion,” Akash says.
In the 1990s, the then government under Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had drafted the Bodh Gaya Mahavihara Bill to replace the BT Act, allegedly to hand over the management of the temple to the Buddhist community. The Bill had prohibited idol immersion near the temple and Hindu marriages inside, but it was never passed.
In 2015, the AIBF was formed in Siliguri, West Bengal, and since then they, along with several other Buddhist organisations have been demanding the repeal of the BT Act. In November 2023, Buddhist monks had held a rally in Gaya and submitted a memorandum to the Central and State governments to ask for this, but when it did not have the desired result, the monks again held a rally in Patna in 2024. They began the indefinite sit-in protest on February 12, 2025. It has been two months now, and their numbers are growing.
A protester at the site with a book on Buddhism. | Photo Credit: MOORTHY RV
“Several legislators and parliamentarians who sympathise with our cause have raised the issue in the State Assembly and the Lok Sabha,” says Bhante Karunashil, who has come from Haryana to join the protest. “Have you heard of any religious site being governed by members of another faith?” he says, angrily.
The Buddhist-Hindu debate reached Parliament in April this year, during the debates on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which sought to include non-Muslims into boards governing Waqf property, and also put District Collectors in-charge of disputes in their areas. Upendra Kushwaha, currently an MP from the Rajya Sabha and formerly elected from Karakat, in Bihar, said that while the Congress was opposing the Waqf Bill now, “they were in power (in Bihar then in 1949) when the BT Act was passed”.
“Back then, you didn’t feel that it is a Buddhist temple and so you thought control should not be with them. On behalf of my party (Rashtriya Lok Morcha), I appeal that we give the temple back to the Buddhists so that they can manage the affairs their way,” he said.
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) legislator from Makhdumpur constituency of Jehanabad district, who is from the neighbouring Gaya district, raised the issue in Bihar’s Assembly on March 7, 2025. He says he also submitted a letter to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary in support of the protesting Buddhists. “But since then, nothing has happened,” he says.
Later, Satyadeo Ram, an MLA from the same party from Darauli constituency of Siwan district, says he too had raised the issue between March 11 and 13 in the State Assembly, but no action has been taken yet.
Money matters
Several members of the Buddhist community say that the real fight is over the vast funds of the temple. In fact in 2000, there had been infighting among Buddhist monks over finances from abroad. Maharathi, however, says all donations are carefully audited because they are governed by the rules of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010. On the BTMC website, the link to its annual report is not functional. In 2023, the Centre had slapped a fine of ₹80 lakh for allegedly violating FCRA provisions.
Bhadant Anand Mahathero, the national president of the Buddhagaya Mahabodhi Vihar All India Action Committee, a group advocating for the temple to be run by the Buddhists, who had written the 2023 letter, says, “The protesting Buddhists federations have given different bank accounts on social media for donations. If this agitation is not for funds, then what is this for?”
In 2024, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced development plans for the Mahabodhi temple complex on the lines of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor.”
கடந்து செல்லாதே முழுவதையும் படித்து செல்
பயங்கரவாத ஆர்எஸ்எஸ் காவிகளை தூக்கிப்பிடிக்கும் நாடார் சீமான் மற்றும் அவரை வழிநடத்தும் நாடார் ரவீந்திரன் துரைசாமி மற்றும் நாடார் தமிழிசை பார்வைக்கு :-
RSS இந்துத்துவா கூட்டம், இந்துக்கள் என்று கூவுவது நாடகமே, மொகலாயனும், ஆங்கிலேயனும் செய்யாத கொடுமைகள் இந்த
ஆரிய கும்பல் இந்துக்களுக்கு செய்த கொடுமைகள் அதிகம்.
இருநூறு ஆண்டு முன்பு குமரி மண்ணில் நடந்த வெறியாட்டத்தை ...
மறக்க முடியுமா ??
ஆரிய இந்துக்களால் மனுதர்ம விதிகள் ஆட்சி செய்த காலத்தில்.....
மறுக்க முடியுமா ??
அவற்றின் சில கொடுமைகள்.
இதோ பாருங்கள்..
திருவிதாங்கூர் (தற்போதைய தமிழகத்தில் உள்ள கன்னியாகுமரி மாவட்டம் மற்றும் கேரளத்தில் உள்ள திருவனந்தபுரம் ) சமஸ்தானத்தின் கீழிருந்த குமரி மாவட்டத்தில் அன்று நிலவிய சாதிக் கொடுமை....
சமூகத்தில் ஒதுக்கி வைக்கப்பட்ட நாடார், பரவர், ஈழவர், முக்குவர், புலையர்.... உள்ளிட்ட "18 சாதியைச் சேர்ந்த பெண்கள் மேலாடை அணியமுடியாது. அப்படி அணிவது மாபெரும் குற்றம்."
சமஸ்தானத்தில் பெரும் எண்ணிக்கையில் இருந்தபோதும் குறைந்த எண்ணிக்கையில் இருந்த நம்பூதிரி (பார்ப்பனர்கள்) மற்றும் உயர் சாதி நாயர்கள் பிள்ளைமார் (வெள்ளாளர் ) இந்துக்களால் உலகில் மிகவும் கொடுரதனமாகவும் ,கேவலமாக நடத்தபெற்ற வரலாறு இன்றைய இளைய சமுதாயம் அறிந்திருக்க வேண்டும் .அதனால் இந்த பதிவு ...
ஆரிய இந்துக்கள் அந்த காலத்தில் குளத்தில் உடைப்பு ஏற்பட்டால் தெய்வ குற்றம் எனக்கருதி , தெய்வத்திற்கு வேண்டியவர்களான தாழ்த்தப்பட்ட அடிமைகளை உயிரோடு குளத்தில்
உடைப்பெடுத்த இடத்தில போட்டு மூடியிருக்கிறார்கள்.
மகாராஜா மார்த்தாண்ட வர்மா காலத்தில் அவருக்கு
அரசாங்கத்தில் ஏதாவது பிரச்சினை வந்தால் அதற்க்கு தெய்வ குற்றம் என நம்பூதிரி(பார்ப்பனர்கள்)
எடுத்து கூறி தெய்வ குற்றத்தை போக்க வேண்டும் எனில் தாழ்த்தப்பட்ட 15 குழந்தைகளை தெய்வத்திற்கு பலி கொடுக்கவேண்டும் என்றார்கள்.
அதன்படி ஒரு மழை நாள் இரவு ஈழவர் சமுதாயத்தை சேர்ந்த 15 குழந்தைகள் திருவனந்த புரத்துக்கு பிடித்து செல்லப்பட்டு ,நம்பூதிரி (பார்ப்பனர்கள்) மந்திர, தந்திர சடங்குகளுக்கு பின் நகரின் நான்கு மூலைகளிலும் உயரோடு புதைக்கபட்டார்கள்.
மேலும் எசமானுக்கு உடல் நலம் சரி இல்லை எனில் ஆடு மாடுகளை பலி இடுவதற்கு பதிலாக, எல்லா பெரிய கோவில்களிலும் நரபலி கொடுக்க பட்ட கொடுமைகள் கூட அரங்கேறி இருக்கிறது. கொடிய தீமைகளில் பாதிக்க பட்ட ஒரு பிரிவு தான் நாடார், முக்குவர், புலையர், மற்றும் பறையர்.
இடுப்புக்கு மேலும், முட்டுக்கு கீழும் ஆடை அணியக்கூடாது என்றக் கட்டுப்பாடு இருந்தது . உயர்ந்த சாதி இந்துக்களின் முன்பு தாழ்த்தப்பட்ட பெண்கள் மறைக்கப்படாத மார்பகங்களுடன் தான் மரியாதை செலுத்த வேண்டும்.
மீசைக்கு வரி
தாலிக்கு வரி…
மார்புக்கு (முலை) வரி.
வசூலிப்பார்கள்...
மார்பகம் அளவுக்கு ஏத்தா மாதிரி வரி. பெரிய மார்பகளென்றால் வரி அதிகம். வரி கட்ட முடியாவிட்டால், இடுக்கியினை ( பனைமரத்து பூவை பத படுத்த பயன்படுத்துவது ) கொண்டு மார்பகங்களை திருகுவார்களாம்
சில இடங்களில் முலைகள் அறுத்து எறியப் பட்டது... என்ன கொடுமை இந்த கொடுமை. உலகில் நடந்ததுண்டா...?
கோவில் தெருக்களில் செல்வதற்கும், உயர்சாதியினரின் தெருக்களில் செல்லவும், குளம், கிணறுகளில் தண்ணீர் எடுக்கவும், குளிக்கவும், காற்றோட்டமுள்ள வீடுகளில் வசிக்கவும் கூட தடை விதிக்கப்பட்டிருந்தது...
மேலும் நாகர்கோயில் செல்லும் வழியில் தாழைக்குடி எனும் கிராமம். அங்கு சாம்பவர் சாதியைச் சார்ந்த கர்ப்பிணியை வெள்ளாளர் சமூகத்தை சார்ந்தவர்கள் அந்த பெண் மேலாடை அவிழ்த்து அவரை மாட்டுக்குப் பதிலாய் கலப்பையில் பூட்டி நிலத்தை உழுது கொன்றனர். இந்த கொடுமை 19ம் நூற்றாண்டில் நடந்தது...
கன்னியாகுமரி அருகேயுள்ள கொட்டாரத்தில் திருமணமான சில நாட்களில் தாலி, மேலாடையுடன் வந்த பெண் அரசாணையை எதிர்த்த குற்றத்துக்காக பொது இடத்தில் தாலியறுத்து உடை களைந்து அரசுப் படையால் கொலை செய்யப்பட்டார். அந்த இடம் இன்றும் தாலியறுத்தான் சந்தை என்ற பெயரில் அழைக்கப்படுகிறது!!
மேலாடை அணிந்ததற்காக சிலரைச் சுடுமணலில் நாள் முழுவதும் நிற்க வைத்தார்கள் மேலாடை அணிந்த பெண்களின் மார்புகளை வெட்டினார்கள்...
பிரிட்டிஷ் ஆட்சியாளர்கள் கூட “திருவிதாங்கூர் சமஸ்தானத்தில் நிலவும் சாதியக் கொடுமைகளைப் போன்று உலகில் வேறெங்கும் கண்டதில்லை” என எழுதியுள்ளனர்...
இதை எதிர்த்து குரல் கொடுத்தவர்கள் ஐய்யா வைகுண்டர், பெரியார், போன்றவர்கள். அப்படி பட்ட தலைவர்களை தரக்குறைவாக பேச அதே ஆரிய கும்பல் நம்மில் ஒரு நபரை களம் இறக்கி உள்ளது.
இது தமிழர் வலாற்றின் கறைகள்...காலம் மாறலாம் .வரலாறு தெரியாமல் இருந்தால், எதிர் காலம் மதவாத சத்திகளிடம் அடிமை பட்டு விட கூடாது.
DMK government will always strive to ensure a bright future for Adi Dravidars and Tribal communities: Stalin
Speaking at an event held to commemorate Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, he says democracy has taken root across all domains through the transformation achieved by the Dravidian movement
Published - April 15, 2025 12:16 am IST - CHENNAI
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, and Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of B.R. Ambedkar, releasing the Tamil version of Annihilation of Caste and Riddles in Hinduism at the event on Monday. | Photo Credit: R. RAGU
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Monday affirmed that his government would always strive to ensure a bright future for Adi Dravidars and Tribal communities.
“Through our policies, struggles, and continuous awareness efforts, we have shattered the barriers that had prevented entry to schools, streets, and temples in the name of caste,” he said at the ‘Day of Equality’ function organised by the Department of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare to commemorate the birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar.
“Today marks a historically significant day — the birth anniversary of a revolutionary who challenged caste discrimination, untouchability, and social injustice and rewrote history with his activism. That is why under our Dravidian model governance, we have declared the birth anniversary of Thanthai Periyar as Social Justice Day, and today, the birth anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar, as the Day of Equality,” Mr. Stalin said.
“We have brought education, employment, governance, power, and administration into the hands of the oppressed. Democracy has taken root across all domains — that is the transformation achieved by the Dravidian movement,” he said, adding: “Our aim is to instil the belief that we are all Tamils — one people. The journey towards an egalitarian society continues.”
Earlier in the day, Mr. Stalin inaugurated a student hostel in Saidapet named after one of Tamil Nadu’s foremost leaders, M.C. Raja, who was the first nominated member from the Scheduled Caste (SC) in the Madras Legislative Council and played a pivotal role in bringing the SC community’s grievances before British authorities. Mr. Stalin announced that a life-size statue of Raja would be installed in front of the hostel soon.
Mr. Stalin also listed a slew of welfare schemes implemented by the State government for the advancement of Adi Dravidar and Tribal communities such as the Nannilam land purchase scheme to help women agricultural labourers from the Adi Dravidar community become landowners, the Chief Minister added.
“The Free Bus Travel Scheme for Women, a flagship initiative of our government, has particularly benefited our sisters from the Adi Dravidar community. Under the Ambedkar Entrepreneurship Development Scheme, we have supported 3,950 entrepreneurs with loans worth ₹630 crore, of which ₹403 crore has been given on subsidy. Among them, 1,000 are women entrepreneurs,” Mr. Stalin said.
An official release said, the Chief Minister launched various buildings at the cost of ₹332.6 crore, which would help 49,542 people, and distributed welfare measures, marking the Day of Equality. Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of B.R. Ambedkar, was the chief guest for the event. Mr. Stalin also released the Tamil version of Annihilation of Caste and Riddles in Hinduism, authored by Ambedkar.
Speaking at the function, Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin said attempts were being made to divide and rule and these should be defeated, and for that the visions of Periyar and Ambedkar were essential. Ministers E.V. Velu and Mathiventhan, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President K. Selvaperunthagai, and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi founder Thol. Thirumavalavan were among those present. The Chief Minister also paid tributes to Ambedkar and administered an oath of equality at the Ambedkar Memorial.☘️☘️☘️☘️🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀
Published - April 15, 2025 12:16 am IST
Opinion | What Ambedkar's Raised Finger Is Really Trying To Tell You
- Opinion,
- Updated:Apr 14, 2025 10:09 am ISTPublished OnApr 14, 2025 10:04 am IST
- Last Updated OnApr 14, 2025 10:09 am IST
Ambedkar's raised finger pointed to an imminent state of bliss. It was just a few miles ahead.
"Ambedkar was a national hero once, but these statues have reduced him to just a god of Dalits." In a competing environment of statues of gods big and small, a poorly designed statue of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar dressed in a gauche blue suit would often elicit this response each time we crossed it on our way to Agra. The statue meant that we were nearing the city where we would get access to ice cream, pineapple pastry, and a meal at our favourite restaurant. If my parents were feeling generous and had the cash, we could also get a toy.
The four-year-old me had always associated the 'Blue Statue' with happiness and gratification till it got corrupted by the caste acrimony that any child raised in an "upper caste" household is exposed to in the mofussil India, even if the immediate family is relatively progressive. One heard caste slurs on the streets being casually thrown around. Women in the household won't eat in the expensive chinaware because those plates were also laid out while entertaining friends who couldn't be fed in the home utensils.
'Those People'
And then, Prime Minister VP Singh implemented the recommendations of the Mandal Commission. All and sundry instructed one to study harder than anyone else because now 'those people' were getting all the benefits, thanks to reservations. "You have no hope. These people are going to be everywhere."
And then, I was sent to a boarding school where casteism was all alive but, fortunately, institutionally suppressed. But there were stories that the upper caste kids often told each other. Like the one about how one Raja Bachchu Singh killed that insolent Dr Ambedkar in the parliament. Dr Ambedkar allegedly dared to insult a Rajput maharaja and was suitably punished. "These people need to know their place."
And then, there was the political bile against Mayawati and Kanshiram propping up Ambedkar statues across Uttar Pradesh. Even the not-so-casteist friends and family members showed their disapproval at this in-your-face assertion of identity. As if there was no other identity that had been asserted in an equally in-your-face manner. "These people have lost their minds after getting to power."
'These People'
And then, there was an outrage during a family reunion when a cousin shared that she was excluded from any get-together that one of her professors hosted at home because he confused her with those people. "You should tell him how dare he! Just because these people have started using our surname doesn't mean that we have become .
And then, my brother would be routinely told by some of our father's friends that he was not supposed to touch the feet of a particular 'uncle'. That particular uncle also squirmed when my brother did so. My father would also be lectured by some against hobnobbing with those people. "You have brought these people to your head, and now they have lost theirs!"
And then, there was a classmate at the university whom I was helping remember the names Mahad and Chavdar on the morning of our 'Modern Indian Literature' final exam. He kept mixing them up. None of us had heard of the names of these places, no matter how poignant they were in reshaping the country's consciousness.
And then, I got married to a man whose simple family prepared for eternal penance for daring to make a Brahmin girl wash their utensils. However, they also believed in keeping a separate set of utensils for those who worked in the household. "White teacups for these people."
Like Poisoned Air
Casteism was like poisoned air for both ends of the social spectrum. One didn't pay much attention to it till it killed you.
And then, something happened. The poison became unbearable, and one began to gag. One's progressivism stuck out as fraudulent. Why were these people invisible despite the draconian reservation that allegedly robbed us of our due station in life? Why were particular surnames seen only in some political parties and not at our farewell parties or university get-together parties? Why were some people saying, "We'll sniff these people out and bludgeon them in the open streets to celebrate" after the Bahujan Samaj Party lost elections and Mayawati never returned to power in UP? "These people can be identified from miles away due to their body odour."
It all made perfect sense. Dr BR Ambedkar's Annihilation of Caste became more than a book. It inspired personal gestures and social activism in those self-congratulatory years of the late teens and the early twenties. But it also became a utopia that frustrated more than it reassured.
Teaching at one of the best undergraduate colleges in Asia, a progressive haven, one still had to field students' acrimonious questions about the validity of any affirmative action. The staff room was still often filled with disdain for those who were loud in their declaration of anti-caste credentials. The imagined wounds of the Mandal Commission were still oozing.
They are still oozing even when these people who undeservedly got everything that we were denied are rarely seen in decision-making places in newsrooms, educational institutions, political offices, think tanks, and industry chambers. And those who are occasionally seen there have to justify their being. One day, perhaps, they won't feel the need to. Because one man pointed the country in a direction from which it can not be turned back.
Ambedkar's raised finger, though routinely vandalised in different parts of the country, keeps the hope alive against all hopes.
(The author is a Delhi-based author and academic)
New York City observes Ambedkar Day, mayor lauds his ideals
New York City has declared April 14, 2025, as Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Day, honoring his legacy as a champion for social reform and equality.
Ambedkar was born on April 14, 1891, in Mhow, India. He was an economist, political leader, and social reformer. He earned a PhD in economics from Columbia University and a DSc from the London School of Economics. He led the committee responsible for drafting India’s constitution.
Adams said Ambedkar opposed caste discrimination and worked to protect farmers and tenants in India. His message, “educate, agitate, organize,” became central to his movement. “After experiencing severe caste discrimination in his youth, he spent the rest of his life fighting for diversity, equity, and inclusion,” he said.
The mayor also addressed the city’s ongoing commitment to those values. “As part of that promise, we must renew our commitment to these ideals every day. I applaud those associated with today’s event for their efforts to honor Dr. Ambedkar’s rich legacy of egalitarianism.”
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