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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (2958)	10/4/1998 3:34:00 PM
From: JPR	Respond to of 12475

Mohan: Your cousin's father-in-law should be held in high esteem for what he has done to Narayanan. Here is another piece, I want to present which, in a way, brings shame to the country. What a paradox. The man who wrote the constitution is subjected to humiliation and was forced to change religion. Read on. Ambedkar, Bhimrao Ramji On July 11 the nation witnessed one of the worst outbreaks of communal violence in recent years. More than 2,200 people were arrested, scores severely injured, and at least 12 killed when members of the lowest caste rioted in Bombay (Mumbai) and throughout Maharashtra state in response to the desecration of a bust of B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian constitution and a vigorous proponent of a secular state and the welfare of the lowest caste, of which he was himself a member. While Gandhi taught that the lowest members of Hinduism's caste system are "Harijans" ("children of God") and that Hindus must abandon the practice of ritual impurity, or "untouchability," in order to achieve a just society, today's "untouchables," who called themselves "Dalits" ("The Oppressed"), regarded Gandhi as a Brahmin elitist committed to the continuation of the caste structure. Ambedkar, on the other hand, was regarded by Dalits as the champion of a truly casteless society and virtually an incarnation of deity. The draping of a garland of leather shoes around his image in a Bombay slum by an unknown culprit was, therefore, for the Dalits tantamount to sacrilege and provided further evidence of their oppression in modern Indian society. Born of an untouchable Mahar family of western India, he was as a boy humiliated by his high-caste schoolfellows. His father was an officer in the Indian Army. Awarded a scholarship by the Gaekwar (the ruler) of Baroda, he studied at universities in the United States, Britain, and Germany. He entered the Baroda Public Service at the Gaekwar's request, but, again ill-treated by his high-caste colleagues, he turned to legal practice and teaching. He soon established his leadership among Harijans, founded several journals on their behalf, and succeeded in obtaining special representation for them in the legislative councils of the government. Contesting Mahatma Gandhi's claim to speak for Harijans, he wrote What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables (1945). In 1947 Ambedkar became the law minister of the government of India. He took a leading part in the framing of the Indian constitution, outlawing discrimination against untouchables, and skillfully helped to steer it through the assembly. He resigned in 1951, disappointed at his lack of influence in the government. In October 1956, finally in despair because of the perpetuation of untouchability in Hindu doctrine, he renounced Hinduism and became a Buddhist, together with about 200,000 fellow untouchables, at a ceremony in Nagpur, India. My Comments: The Maharajah recognized his potential, which he went on to prove and a scumbag, who enjoys the freedom given to him by Ambedkar, gives him a garland of shoes. JPR