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Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s strive the justice and egalitarian society

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s strive the justice and egalitarian society
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If any movement’s ultimate aim is to achieve ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ in humanity, it is bound to make serious impact not only on the social situation in which it is staged but also the whole social structure. Though this slogan became a part of almost all modern social movements, the local perception of the slogan varies from country to country and movements to movements. As a number of other social movements derived inspirations from it, larger Indian movements for emancipation of socially excluded communities and downtrodden social categories also subscribed the same. Amongst all, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s movement and his intellectual engagement for achieving the said goals in the slogan have brought out overarching essence of it. As a result, Ambedkarism is well-acclaimed and applicable across the gender, class, caste, creed and national boundaries. The overarching principle of human rights and strives for egalitarian society had been deeply embedded in Dr. Ambedkar’s each movements and efforts. For instance - Mahad Satyagrahaga, Kalaram temple entry Satryagraha, Mahar Vatan & torturous Khoti system issue, Labour issues, various referendums, issues raised in Legislative council sessions, his comments on functioning of local administrative bodies and educational institutes, while making labour laws, his role as lawyer, while contemplating upon a new religion for Dalits, Law & making of Hindu Code Bill, his interventions in the Indian economic structural policies, manifestos & constitutions of various organizations & political parties founded by him – such a number of occasions - his interventions were not only critically addressed the problems but embedded humanism always surpassed the Indian temporal issue. Even if we go through the range of his contributions made for each Indian social category, we get glance of his magnanimity. For example - Employment Exchange, Employees State Insurance, Working hours reducing from 12 Hrs to 8 Hrs, Compulsory Recognition for Trade of Union, Dearness Allowance, Paid Holidays, Health Insurance, Legal Strike Act, Provident Fund, Labour Welfare fund, Central Irrigation Commission, Right to Vote, Indian Statistical Law, Central Technical Power Board, Hirakund Dam, Damodar Valley Project, Orissa River Scheme, The Sone River Valley Project, Reserve Bank of India, River Grid Scheme & exclusively for women - Right for Guardian, Right to Property, Right to Divorce, Maternity Benefit Act, Equal pay for equal work, Women Labour Protection Act and above all ‘The Constitution of India’, which happens to be the longest and most meticulously elaborated – well crafted written constitution.

Dr. Ambedkar’s entire praxis had gone beyond the spheres of caste-question and Dalit predicament and became the thought of human liberation which are openly revealing in arguments of his articles, books, booklets, speeches, correspondence – communication; His conception and meaning of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ was emerged after much negotiated and profound thoughts. His expertise - an economist, sociologist, anthropologist, philosopher, historian, activist, journalist, lawyer, active politician, writer and profound scholar – had been employed towards achieving just and egalitarian social system. He concentrated on dominated-oppressed-exploited social categories to achieve in real sense ‘unity in diversity’ and celebration of Indian multiculturalism. He used to find liberty within the boundaries of political power and social power. It means power controls liberty, if it is executed for selfish ambition. It is expected that all socio-cultural, economical and political institutions always work for formation of society with particular aims and objectives. Dr. Ambedkar pronounces that liberty and equality should be the aims of social formation. To have balance between liberty and equality, fraternity should be developed in the society so that selfish objectives and concentration of power could be avoided. According to him, during pre-modern period ‘utility’ was the criteria to evaluate religion and ethical imperatives; in modern times to achieve just and egalitarian society we should have ‘justice’ as a criteria. Justice means the value system of liberty, equality and fraternity for individual as well as society’s behavior and interaction pattern. Ultimately, according to him, ethic and do’s and don’ts of the society will be based on the values of liberty-equality-fraternity. In India religion, social status and wealth are the sources of power. Here, religion ordains to obey caste system as well as inculcating rituals like upanayana (thread ceremony) formal membership to ‘sacrosanct society’ has been denied. The moment we accept ‘justice’ as criteria, then all values of inequality and social discrepancy will be rejected. Social behavior gets regulated by value system. Criteria justice alters the behavioral pattern based on old values. In course of time all socio-cultural institutions, also, will change. The whole world view will change. Dr. Ambedkar did not derive the philosophy of liberty, equality and fraternity from French revolution but he derived it from Gautama Buddha, Sant Kabir and Mahatma Jotiba Phule - the fact he clearly mentioned in his speech which was aired by Delhi Radio on 13 October 1954.

Dr. Kishor D. Gaikwad, Professor & Director,

Dr. Ambedkar Chair in Social Justice &

Empowerment of Tribal Population,

Indira Gandhi National Tribal University,

(Central University established by Parliament law),

Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh (INDIA)

Updated : 13 April 2017 6:07 PM GMT
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