Why an Ambedkarite must stand with Sonam Wangchuk

By Martin Macwan 

Sonam Wangchuk's health is fragile. Everyone knows what could happen if his fast continues, and yet many are still waiting and watching.

The allegation against the government is that it has neither the intention nor the time to talk to fasting protesters who are not risking their lives for personal gain. In fact, since the government is made by the people, to say that the people of India have no time or intention to talk to Sonam and those with him would not be an exaggeration—unless people conclude that they had no role at all in forming this government. Still, we should not forget that even though a government may be formed by the votes of only some people, under the Indian Constitution it is a government that represents all citizens.

The issue is freeing education from corruption. Young students who have been wounded by corrupt practices are perhaps seething inside, but they are holding back from expressing that anguish. Anna Hazare too once sat on a fast over this very issue, but he is silent now. Gujarat's black-shawled and rosary-wearing figures, those who hang crosses around their necks or wear caps pointing skyward while explaining "religion" to people—these saints, fakirs, holy men, and priests, even if they understand the difference between a value-based system of governance and the ruler's duty to uphold dharma, are not willing to speak on this issue.

Gandhi's innocent-looking charkha, spinning on the banks of the Sabarmati at the ashram that today lacks its riverfront, was not innocent at all, because its whirring sound unsettled the British rulers 6,850 kilometers away in London. But organizations that call themselves Gandhian or devoted to human rights now want to spin their own charkha so quietly that its sound does not even pierce the walls of their own offices.

With the dream of freeing India from British rule, Gandhi chose Gujarat as his base. The wealthy merchants were afraid of angering the British, yet they secretly gave money to the ashram. Even so, the women of these families crossed the thresholds of family and society to join the freedom movement. Seven years before Gandhi's first direct confrontation with the British landed him in an Indian jail for the first time, on 10 March 1922, he had already encountered the question of untouchability. On 20 May 1915, at Gandhi's Kochrab Ashram, Thakkar Bapa sent the first Dalit couple to live with Gandhi. The moment Danibehn stepped into the kitchen, Kasturba was outraged and threatened to leave the ashram. She did not leave, but Gandhi's sister left the ashram for good. Kaka Kalelkar too was disturbed by Gandhi's decision. Farmers stopped supplying water to the ashram, and the milkman declared he would only resume supplying milk if the Dalit couple left. Donations to the ashram stopped, and food and water ran short. But Gandhi said at the evening prayer, "We will move the ashram to the Valmiki settlement, but Dudabhai, Danibehn, and Lakshmi will stay in the ashram." Everyone softened before Gandhi's firmness. In time, Gandhi and Kasturba took Lakshmi in as their own.

Two and a quarter years before this incident, in January 1913, Dr. Ambedkar, having been humiliated, had to leave his first job and move from Baroda to Mumbai. To lodge a complaint about the discrimination he faced, Krishnarao Arjun Keluskar took the young Bhimrao to Maharaja Gaekwad's residence in Mumbai. Instead of hearing the complaint, the Maharaja offered to send Bhimrao to the renowned Columbia University in America for higher education. Rather than getting stuck at one painful step in life, it was a strategy of leaping past the first step straight to the fifth.

Maharaja Gaekwad had firsthand experience of the caste system. His own "Shudra" lineage had prevented Brahmins from performing his coronation according to Vedic rites. In 1674, Shivaji Maharaj in Maharashtra had also faced such Brahmanical obstruction, and it was Gaga Bhatt of Paithan in Maharashtra, considered "Vedic," who came to his aid, enabling Shivaji Maharaj's coronation. Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad and the progressive Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur faced similar oppression at the time of their own coronations, and it was the "definition of dharma" established by Gaga Bhatt that proved useful then too.

Social movements have a long history in India. Just as India did not become "free" in 2014, the Dalit movement did not begin with the Poona Pact, nor is it "completed" by the government compensation given after atrocities. Dr. Ambedkar did not write the Constitution for a single caste alone, and his contribution to women's rights was strong enough to put India's feminist movement to shame. So if I call myself an "Ambedkarite," I must ask myself why I am not supporting Sonam Wangchuk's movement. Have Dalit, Adivasi, and OBC students not suffered in the grip of NEET's corruption?

Gujarat holds a unique place in India. Just as Gandhi, Sardar Patel, and Thakkar Bapa were born here, Dr. Ambedkar too drew strength for his historic movement to uproot caste from the soil of Baroda—even as he had to adopt the name "Parsi" in order to keep his family's sole means of support, his job with the Baroda State, in the post of "military secretary." The Parsis, who had settled as refugees mainly in Gujarat after fleeing religious persecution in their homeland, took up sticks and hurled filthy abuses at Dr. Ambedkar, dressed in his coat, pants, and tie, threw him out of a Parsi eatery, and stopped just short of beating him. This was because, to preserve their own existence, they felt compelled to align themselves with the dominant classes of society. I have many Parsi friends who have made an exceptional contribution to social renewal. Among the four professors—Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Parsi—who drew me into this field, one was a Parsi, Prof. Firoz Contractor, who played a special role in laying the foundation of the Dalit movement in Golana and surrounding areas around 1970.

Unfortunately, the proud image of Gujarat today stands tarnished by the eclipse of casteism and communalism. Here, the already tiny statues of Indulal Yagnik have been hidden from view, and young people do not even know his name or the history of the Mahagujarat movement. Only what changes is called "history"; history that loses its dignity is called "decline." We may feel great joy leaping about, puffed up by the winds of "development" in our own homes, but we must also examine how much value and honor India, which once humbled the mighty British empire and made its name shine, still commands in world politics today. The world is watching how we treat Sonam Wangchuk, who is merely asking that education be freed from corruption.

Against a power structure steeped in vast wealth and the rich, even if we call it a system of governance run according to the Constitution, Sonam Wangchuk's fast is like a drop in the ocean. But that drop is the voice of freedom from fear. 

---

*Human rights defender, and founder, Dalit Shakti Kendra and Navsarjan Trust, Gujarat, Martin Macwan wrote this article a few hours before he went on a 70 hour solidarity hunger strike from the midnight of July 16, the 70th anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar's passing. He called the fast "an effort to ensure that Dr. Ambedkar's powerful voice for social, economic, and political justice does not get silenced"