Dr.B.R.Ambedkar: His Enduring Significance

April 14 is celebrated as the birth day of Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar. This year the Government of India has declared 14 April as a holiday to pay tribute to his life and work. A many splendoured personality he was an outstanding jurist, educationist, social reformer,  a fighter for the rights of the downtrodden and above all a compassionate rebel . Suffering social discrimination right from his childhood he overcame all the handicaps to launch a country wide movement for establishing a just society based on liberty, equality and fraternity and went on to become the architect of our Constitution. It is important to recall his vision which is of immense significance for twenty first century India. President Barack Obama while addressing the Parliament of India referred to the name of Dr. Ambedkar to drive home the importance of our democratic framework which provides opportunities to all including the dispossessed and disinherited to prove their worth.

DR.Ambedkar and Buddhism:    

Dr. Ambedkar relentlessly fought against social oppression of Dalits and those sections of society who remained deprived and discriminated. He was one of the outstanding champions of women’s rights. He remained in the forefront of a movement to fight for the rights of suffering humanity right from the days of our freedom movement. He was a bitter against the graded social inequality of Hindu society and, therefore, firmly resolved that he would not die a Hindu and untouchable even as he was born a Hindu.

His decision to embrace Buddhism was historic in every sense of the term. Stating that Buddhism is based on Pragyan(Enlightenment), Karuna(Compassion) and Samata (Equality) he along with his followers converted to that religion. That act of accepting Buddhism as their religion had a deeper significance. It is now well understood that wherever Buddhism became the predominant religion   the human development indices of people living there vastly improved. For example the human development indices of  Sri Lanka, Japan, Vietnam or  China, where Buddhism is the main religion, is better than India’s. The  literacy rate of peoples living in those countries is quite high. Their life expectancy is very impressive. They have better access to education, health care and other essential facilities  than many other countries.  Such remarkable progress achieved in those countries are attributed to many factors one of which is Buddhism the governing philosophy and framework of action of which is based on equality for all and kindness for the suffering humanity.

Dr. B.R.Ambedkar rebelled against Hinduism and chose Buddhism to provide answer to the problems afflicting people and society for centuries due to caste system and domination of ritualism and superstition. It is important to be mindful of the fact that Buddhism is closer to Hinduism and is described as the rebel child of Hinduism by none less than Swami Vivekananda whose hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary is being celebrated in our country. He while writing about Buddhism described it as a religion which preached what he called “the gospel of sympathy”. Being a compassionate rebel Dr.B.R.Ambedkar preferred to follow Buddhism which is the rebel child of Hinduism. In doing so he was making a gigantic effort to revive that age when Buddhism was followed by large number of people in India and when science, technology, mathematics and  medicine occupied pride of place in our country.

In fact late Professor Dr.Raja Ramanna who was the architect of our first nuclear test conducted in 1974 contributed  a perceptive foreword to a volume  “Science and Technology in Ancient India” brought out by the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata. In that forward he wrote “Somehow one has a feeling that had we not discarded the pragmatic spirit of Buddhism the way we did, the scientific activities of India would not have suffered a decline like they did.” In another interesting book entitled ‘Asceticism and Healing in Ancient India : Medicine in the Buddhist Monastery’ written by Professor Kenneth G. Zysk of Copenhagen University it is stated that doctors and medical practitioners in ancient India were not encouraged by the Brahaminical tradition and therefore Ayurveda in India could not develop.

With a refreshing insight Professor Zysk wrote that the pollution purity syndrome which considered certain things pure and certain others impure came on the way of advancement of medical science. Doctors and medical practitioners who dissected dead bodies were looked down upon by Brahmins who treated the act of direct observation of a decaying corpse as polluting. Emphasis on compassion and enlightenment made Buddhism a protagonist of medical science. Professor Kenneth Zysk in his book  referred to the argument that the Buddha’s key teaching of the four Noble Truths was based on a medical paradigm, whereby suffering, its cause, its suppression and the method for its elimination correspond in medicine to disease, its cause, health and the remedy.

Buddhist monks and monasteries greatly supported medical practitioners and doctors in the field of Ayurveda following the ideals of Buddha to end suffering in the world.In other words a major social factor like Buddhism was closely linked to the advancement of Ayurveda, a holistic medical science. Professor Zysk also suggests that with the decline of Buddhism the tradition of Ayurveda also declined.

It was Albert Einstein who, in his seminal article on Religion and Science wrote that cosmic religious feelings as represented by Buddhism constitute the motive force for scientific research. A celebrated scientist like Albert Einstein who gave paradigm shift to the understanding of the universe stressed on spiritual dimensions as represented by Buddhism for the promotion of scientific research. Reason,  enlightenment and critical outlook   which are integral to Buddhism are building blocks  of science, technological advancement and scientific spirit.

The point that I am trying to make is that whenever the tradition of enlightenment, argument, debate and questioning attitude suffers decline, the tradition of science and technology also get eroded. Adi Shankara was a genius and is held in high esteem for his profound interpretation on different dimensions of Hinduism. His  campaign  against Buddhism  resulted in driving out that wonderful religion and the values associated with it from the soil of India. It may be interpreted that in losing Buddhism we lost its glorious legacy of pursuing life based on critical understanding which is at the heart of science.

In other words, by converting to Buddhism Dr.Ambedkar was trying to revive that magnificent heritage which is associated with enlightenment, open mind and upliftment of all. All these are upheld by science and are in fact are basic to it.

Shri D.Raja, Member of Parliament, representing the Communist Party of India  has done considerable work on Dr.Ambedkar. During an animated conversation with me he was of the opinion that if due to  Adi Shankara Buddhism became extinct in India and our country  suffered resultant decline in the field of science, then Dr.B.R.Ambedkar in embracing Buddhism was trying to revive that glorious legacy of Buddhism which promoted the cause of science and equality and ensured access of all to spirituality.

Today when the cult of superstition is swaying the minds of people and twenty four hour news channels are transmitting all kinds of programmes calculated to perpetuate blind believe, it is important to recall the legacy of enlightenment which was integral to the life of Buddha and through which he wanted to salvage mankind from suffering.

Dr.Ambedkar, Political Parties and Nation:

Today when some sections of our society are active in a movement highlighting the issue of corruption it is important to focus attention on political parties which are now looked upon by people with scepticism. It was  Dr. B.R.Ambedkar who in his last speech in the Constituent Assembly had prophetically said that in independent India there were many political parties operating within the political system and in future many more parties would be established and get involved in electoral politics. However, he cautioned that if political parties would give precedence to the creed over nation we would lose our independence for ever.

When Shri Anna Hazare undertook fast for the cause of a strong Lok Pal Bill for stemming the rising tide of corruption and eventually removing it, he was criticised for using the method of fast and Satyagraha which Dr.Ambedkar in  his last speech in the Constituent assembly had  described as “grammar of anarchy” . In fact he wanted people to cultivate constitutional morality and adopt constitutional methods and not take  resort to “grammar of anarchy”.  While recalling those great words of Dr.Ambedkar let all concerned remember his words about political parties and follow his prescription that nation must get priority over party interests. In doing so they can pay best tribute to the man whose contributions are being recognised quite late and whose name is used to mobilise people for justice, equality and fraternity.
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# The author was OSD and Press Secretary to the late President of India Shri K.R.Narayanan and served as Director in the Prime Minister's Office. He is currently Joint Secretary in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. The views expressed by the author are his personal views.