admin SAVARI
The process of being politicized into an Ambedkarite consciousness is complex and varied. It is the only counter-culture that offers the possibility of complete rejection of being socialized as a participant in a Brahmin supremacist society. ‘What Babasaheb Ambedkar Means To Me’ is one of a kind book that is at once a tribute to the 125th birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar and documentation of contemporary processes of becoming politicized towards the goal of Annihilation of Caste.
An excerpt from Pradnya Jadhav’s essay ‘Bhima’s force shall keep growing… ‘ tells the story of the first biographers of Babasaheb and their songs as the bedrock from which all subsequent socializing happens.
~The masses who were deprived of education were the first people to understand Ambedkar. They honoured him with a respectful name “Babasaheb” and often conversed with him by addressing him as “Bhima.” These songs by our foremothers documented the history of Babasaheb’s life in a wholesome manner. The songs would start with the mention of Babasaheb’s birth in 1891, the happiness it brought to his parents Ramaji and Bhimai, the difficulties Babasaheb faced being an untouchable student, his journey abroad for higher studies, the contentment of his community when he received the degree of Barrister-at–law, and becoming the Minister of Labour.
The songs mark the events when he laid the foundation of Scheduled Castes Federation and Samata Sainik Dal, and when he erected the stone of social revolution, and the Mahad Satyagraha-Kalaram Mandir Pravesh. The verses take the listeners through the preparation of the
Hindu code bill followed by the agony he faced with the signing of the Pune Pact, while celebrating Babasaheb becoming the law minister and drafting the constitution of India. These songs further claim that our Babasaheb created an equal law for all, despite facing betrayal by this Nation and that he attacked the rigidity of a fundamentalist and inhuman religion and offered us Buddhism which is a humane one. The Bheemgeete with such rich meaning and historical rendering of his life events as a founding father of a large democracy are sung in our families and communities to keep reminding us of how hard Babasaheb’s life was and how we should not let him down.~
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The print version of the book is available on Amazon.in.
