Islam: the epitome of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity

Ambedkars advice: conversion vital for emancipation

By: Khan Yasir
The personality of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar needs no introduction. He was an intellectual par excellence with a law degree and multiple doctorates for his research in Law, Economics and Political Science from Columbia University and the London School of Economics. He is also regarded as the chief architect of the Indian constitution; though the plight of the architect was indeed exposed when he resigned from the cabinet in 1951 following the stalling in parliament of his draft of the Hindu Code Bill, which sought to expound gender equality in the laws of inheritance, marriage and the economy. In the annals of Indian freedom movement he is also regarded as a villain always at odds with the hero number one the father of the nation Mahatma i.e. Mohan Das Kramchand Gandhi, on the issues like separate electorates and reservations for Dalits. He organised a Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha. His endeavours for the development & emancipation of Dalit society needs no mention and thats why even today, if a political party has to play the Dalit-card or a politician has to make himself popular as a Dalit-leader, he has to do so by singing the songs in praise of the Dalit messiah Ambedkar. At a Depressed Classes Conference on August 8, 1930 Ambedkar outlined his political vision, insisting that the safety of the Depressed Classes hinged on their being independent of the Government and the Congress both: We must shape our course ourselves and by ourselves... Political power cannot be a panacea for the ills of the Depressed Classes. Their salvation lies in their social elevation. And one of the biggest strategy for this social elevation in this regard is conversion. He is also characterised by always thinking and rethinking the strategies of the development of the Dalits. In writing a sequel to Who Were the Shudras? In 1948, Ambedkar derided Hinduism in the The Untouchables: A Thesis on the Origins of Untouchability: The Hindu Civilisation.... is a diabolical contrivance to suppress and enslave humanity. Its proper name would be infamy. What else can be said of a civilisation which has produced a mass of people... who are treated as an entity beyond human intercourse and whose mere touch is enough to cause pollution? One can safely argue that Ambedkar dedicated his life for the Annihilation of Castes. He argued eloquently, I do not accept a religion in which one class alone has a right to gain knowledge, another has only a right to use arms, the third one to trade and the fourth only to serve. Everyone needs knowledge. Everybody needs arms. Everyone wants money. The religion, which forgets this, and with an intention to educate a few, keeps the rest in darkness, is not a religion but a conspiracy to keep the people in mental slavery. I solemnly assure you that I will not die a Hindu. This unequivocal declaration of Ambedkar made at Yeola, Nasik on 13 October 1935 was not an inebriated caveat but a staid frustration a fierce war-cry. Addressing a gathering at Dadar on 31 May 1936, he argues that Hindu religion has no sympathy, no equality and no freedom for the Dalits. Some abstracts are as follows; So far as sympathy is concerned, it does not exist. Wherever you go, no body looks at you sympathetically.... though people feel nauseated by thinking of a leper; they have at least sympathy for him. But people have nausea as well as hatred against you.

They say, Get educated yourselves, be clean, and then we will touch you, we will treat you on par. In fact, we all know by experience that the condition of an educated, moneyed, and clean Mahar [the caste to which Ambedkar belonged and was addressing] is as bad as that of an uneducated, poor, and dirty one [treatment meted out to Ambedkar himself at different stages of his life are vocal enough of this reality as is mentioned later]. To tell a person, who is treated as unfit for entry into any service due to the defilement attached to him by birth, and under whom working is most contemptuous for others, that he has a right to serve, is to make a mockery of him. The law may guarantee various rights, but only those can be called real rights which you are permitted by the society to exercise.

In short the declaration that he made at Yeola was not a decision in haste or a ploy to bargain (as many would pretend) but a conclusion that he reached after a lifes experience. Even after this declaration he continued to compare different religions, pursued his intellectual pursuit of contrasting different ways of lives. After this torturous pursuit he became a bodh on 14th November 1956 here we are going to analyse his decision under the pretext of following questions; Did he really want to convert to Buddhism? Do dalits got what Ambedkar anticipated them to get by conversion to Buddhism even after 53 years of his conversion today?

Let us admit at the very outset that Ambedkars conversion was negative. A positive conversion in my view is one in which a person hunt for the truth of life, explanations for the intricate questions about universe, morbid and metaphysical realities and then compare and contrasts different religions and at last the one that satisfies his mind and soul finds him. On the other hand negative conversion implies severe dissatisfaction (not intellectual but material), for e.g. to avoid degrading treatment meted out or for some gain like jobs and reservations etc. Ambedkar himself declared in his Dadar speech, The matter of conversion should be viewed through two aspects social as well as religious and material as well as spiritual. (Note social before religious and material before spiritual) he also said, ...one must think of what is permanently beneficial. In my opinion, conversion is the only way to eternal bliss. If it is so then let us examine through Ambedkars own writings and speeches that what were aims and objectives behind his conversion? Let us turn to one of his speech made at Kalyan on 17th May 1936, in which he begun from recalling three incidents of his life incidents through which he learnt the harsh realities of the castediscrimination within Hindu society. 1. [As a child of five years Ambedkar didnt understand], why in spite of the presence of so many barbers, no barber was prepared to cut our hair. 2. ...but owing to our being members of Mahar caste, no bullock-cart driver was willing to drive us.

3. [When he arrived in Baroda state to serve in the durbar of Baroda], neither a Hindu nor any Muslim was prepared to rent a house to me in the city of Baroda. [He lived in a Parsi dharmasala under a fake name barely for a day when his secret was divulged and he had to leave], seeing no hope of getting a house, and no alternative but to quit, I tendered my resignation and left.... After narrating these three incidents which naturally have cropped-up thousands of similar instances in the minds of the audience. He pinched these remarks with this incendiary question, what is the sense in living in a society which is devoid of humanity, which does not respect you, protect you or treat you as a human being? Instead, it insults you, humiliates you and never misses an opportunity to hurt you. Any person with an iota of self respect and decency will not like to remain in this satanic religion. Only those who love to be slaves can remain in this religion. He then threw a hair-raising question at the audience, in view of the fact that the Hindu religion which forced your forefathers to lead a life of degradation, and heaped all sorts of indigents on them, kept them poor and ignorant, why should you remain within the fold of such a diabolical creed?. If you continue to remain within the fold of Hinduism Ambedkar roared, you cannot attain a status higher than that of a slave. In Dadar speech he dealt with the topic of conversion at length. He lamented that Dalits are powerless, they have less manpower (sic) and that too is fragmented and disorganised. They have no wealth. Their mental strength has also been paralysed by the centuries of domination and suppression. Self confidence and self respect are the traits that could hardly be found in them. If a creamy layer is excluded; these are also truths of our age. If this is a fact then it leads to only this conclusion in his words, if you depend only upon your own strength, you will never be able to face the oppression. He reiterates emphatically, conversion is the only right path of freedom which ultimately leads to equality. Conversion is not the path of escapism. It is not the path of cowardice; it is the path of wisdom. Why conversion? Why not reforms within the Hinduism? One can think! Ambedkar is a severe critique of this mentality. It is diversion most charitably. In his views, to talk of annihilating castes while living in Hinduism is like talking of changing poison into nectar. He openly ridiculed those reformers who enjoyed the cause of reforming Hinduism to soothe the Dalits. He said once, The greatest of the Hindus who claims to fight for the cause of the untouchables is Mahatma Gandhi. To what extent can he go? Mahatma Gandhi who pilots non-violent agitation against the British government is not prepared even to hurt the feelings of Hindus, the oppressors of the untouchables. He is not willing to launch a satyagraha against them. He is not even prepared to take legal action against the Hindus. I do not see any good of such reformers. Ambedkar also thwarted Gandhi in these words, Dont fall under Gandhis spell, hes not God... Mahatmas have come and Mahatmas have gone but untouchables have remained untouchables. Ambedkar is much focused in his approach and against any thought of diversion, to reform the Hindu society is not our field of action. Our aim is to gain freedom for us. He was also fed up by the allegation that Hindus lay on him of dividing the Hindu society by talking of emancipation of Dalits. The solution of this headache was only conversion. As he said, by conversion, nobody can say or feel that a single society has been split up. And thus, conversion is as important to the untouchables as is self-government to India. HAS BUDHDHISM SOLVED THESE PROBLEMS?

Note the following instances, Hindus denied the cremation of Ambedkar at Dadar crematorium, A Buddhist-style cremation was organised for him at Chowpatty beach on December 7, attended by hundreds of thousands of supporters, activists and admirers. Jagjivan Ram, the then Deputy Prime Minister of India was humiliated in Benares when he went for an inauguration ceremony of Shri Sampurnanand (an idol). The goddess so inaugurated by Jagjivan Ram was purified or decontaminated through a wash by Ganga-jal. Frequent violent clashes between Buddhist groups and orthodox Hindus have occurred over the years. When in 1994 a garland of shoes was hung around a statue of Ambedkar in Mumbai, sectarian violence and strikes paralysed the city for over a week. When the following year similar disturbances occurred, a statue of Ambedkar was destroyed. On the top of all this some Dalits who had converted to Buddhism have rioted against Hindus (such as the 2006 Dalit protests in Maharashtra) and desecrated Hindu temples, often incited into doing so by anti-Hindu elements and replacing deities with pictures of Ambedkar. The radical Ambedkarite Dalit Panthers Movement has even gone so far as to attempt to assassinate academics who have been critical of Ambedkar's understanding of Buddhism.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when Deputy Prime Minister is not exempted and what about the common Dalits. It is the clear that the objective with which Ambedkar embraced Buddhism has not proved viable. ISLAM: The essence of Islam is equality. As Dalits are to India; slaves, black and Negroes were to Arabia. They were looked down upon, beaten black and blue at smallest of provocation, forced to work for longer durations, were given less and insufficient to eat, sometimes mother or wife or father or husband or infant child was separately sold leading to separation of close relatives. These and other cruelties were there. Following Aristotelian dictum they considered the slave, a tool with a soul. Who can forget the treatment meted out to slaves in Europe and America until the last century. The status that Islam accorded to slaves that led to virtual abolition of slavery from Arabia are hard to enumerate in a single article. The names of Bilal, Suhaib and Zaid the companions of prophet; and Muhammad bin Seerin, Naafie, Abdullah bin Mubarak, Ikrama, Muhammad bin Ishaaq, Ataa bin Rabbah, Taawus bin Kesaan, Yazeed bin Habeeb, Imam Makhool, Memoon bin Mehraan, Imam Zahhaak, and Ibrahim Nakhie are still referred to as gems of Islamic history, jurisprudence and theology these all were earlier slaves who attained such glorious status because in Islam there was no provision of the sort, limiting the access to education on the basis of the accident of birth as there in the Manusmriti which clearly states, If the Shudra intentionally listens for committing to memory the Veda, then his ears should be filled with (molten) lead; if he utters the Veda, then his tongue should be cut off. In a nutshell the basis of Islamic equality is the Quranic verse, {Human beibgs, We created you all from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. Verily the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most God-fearing of you. (Hujraat-13)}. This implies the common origin (confuting any birth based distinction including the theory of superior people being born from Brahmas mouth, shoulders,

thighs and inferiors from feet) and clearly asserts that birth distinctions are for mere introduction and identitys sake, they are no criteria for high or low status of a being. The criterion of high and low status is piety and God-fearing. A slave dynasty in Muslim history is also a proof that Islam has treated slaves at par. Even Ambedkar was appreciative of these facts and so earlier there was never Buddhism in his consideration for conversion instead he said that there are three religions from amongst which Dalits have to choose 1) Islam, 2) Christianity, and 3) Sikhism. [Thus Spoke Ambedkar: Vol-IV by Bhagwan Das pg: 296-7 (cited in Dr. Ambedkar aur Islam by R.S Adil)]. He is also very appreciative of Islam he said, after a comparative analysis of all three Islam seems to give Dalits whatever they desire [op.cit]. Even his enemies and friend have identified that Ambedkar is going to embrace Islam for e.g. G.K Gawai (a prominent Dalit leader) said once that Ambedkar is going to accept Islam. Hindu Mahasabha and other right wing leaders also had opined that Ambedkar is going to accept Islam and they pressurised him not to do so in which they unfortunately achieved success. If Islam was and is the ultimate solution to all the grievances of Dalits and untouchables, even in respect of their material interests and Ambedkar too is appreciative of the fact, then why he didnt accepted the truth? The answer to this most important question lies in historical circumstances. The main aim of Dalits behind conversion in Ambedkars terms was to achieve power from outside. Muslims in India had such powers as Ambedkar had earlier remarked, ... Muslims are equally small in number. Like Maharmangs, they too have few houses in the village. But no one dares to trouble the Muslims while you are always a victim of tyranny. Why? Because, Hindus realise that the strength of the whole of the Muslim population in India stands behind those two houses of Muslims... if any Hindu commits aggression against them, the whole Muslim community from Punjab to Madras will rush to their protection at any cost. They also command respect in everybodys eyes as he recognised, the Hindus and Muslims are helpful to each other in legal boards, legislative councils and in business. But is there a single instance of such sympathetic consideration being shown towards you [untouchables] by caste-Hindus? He also unequivocally marked that, those of you who have become Muslims are treated by the Hindus neither as untouchables nor as unequals. Ambedkar rightly realised that in extant circumstances, exploitation of untouchables is the internal matter of Hinduism and others could not interfere even on humanitarian grounds. After conversion any such discrimination could never remain the internal matter of Hinduism... and its implications need not be elaborated. R.S Adil a Buddhist from 1961-81 has converted to Islam on 6 December 1981, has written on the hidden aspects of the conversion of Ambedkar. He writes that: In 1956 after formation of Pakistan the course of history was altered. At that hour there was no power in Muslims of India. They were aimless, hopeless and directionless with their cream-population (especially in political and economic leadership) migrating to the newly born Pakistan. Hindus hated Muslims from the deepest of their heart and regarded them responsible for the partition of the nation. The woes were afresh. At that hour if we would have accepted Islam the wildfire of riots would have pursued the country to a civil war. The wise step taken to annihilate caste would have nevertheless been successful as it have had resulted in the annihilation of untouchables themselves. And so Ambedkar relied on the second best option and opted for Buddhism through which they could enjoy the moral support of China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand. Alas! Ambedkar died within one month and twenty two days after declaring his conversion and thus could not see the repercussions of his prescription on his community. After half a century now we are in a position to do so, it is clear that the strategy has proved to be flawed. Situation is further aggravated by the wars between chamars and bodh. This led to the further division within the already divided community.

Can a change in strategy now is against the principles of Ambedkar? I can say YES to the staunchest of the Ambedkarite looking straight in his eyes. Ambedkar was resisted the blind following of a path only because it was followed by forefathers. In his words, a fool alone will say that one has to adhere to ones religion because it is that of his ancestors. He adds, it cannot be denied that our ancestors lived in the ancient religion, but I cannot say that they remained there voluntarily [it is the same argument Ambedkar is making regarding Dalit ancestors that I want to make regarding Ambedkar himself, that he did not converted to Buddhism voluntarily but circumstances forced him to do so]. Now Dalits are required not to tread on the beaten path but follow their masters wisdom. In his word they must, be illuminating like sun and should not be dependent for light like earth. Enough have been they exploited by every political party including parties made and formed on the very rhetoric of securing the interests of Dalits parties that have not hesitated in forging alliances with communal exploiter and upper caste right wing anti national parties like BJP core behind the exploitation of the untouchables and biggest proponent of the Hindu Rashtra based on the Manusmriti. Sixty years even after independence and fifty three years after Ambedkars conversion now it is clear that Dalit problem requires not any haphazard but some permanent solution and Islam provides with that solution. Sympathy of Muslims for the untouchables or any downtrodden wing of society is not new; Muslims supported the cause of Ambedkar in second round table congress even at the cost of enraging the father of the nation. Dalits have got asylum during mahad agitation only in houses of Muslims when Hindus have unleashed a violent movement to suppress their movement for the attainment of equal rights. Some mischievous elements would blur things by arguing that in Islam there are also castes especially in India. Ambedkar dealt with this allegation in a pure academic manner, the caste of the Muslim and Christian religions has no sanction in their religion. If the Hindus proclaim to disband the caste system, their religion will come in their way... Hindus cannot destroy caste system without destroying their religion. Muslims and Christian need not destroy their religions for eradication of the castes. Rather their religion will support such movements to a great extent. An untouchable embracing Islam could rise to the throne of Delhi as Sultan Khusru Shah such is the wisdom, freedom, equality and fraternity within Islam. No amount of reservation, preferential treatment could give Dalits the dignity that mere citation of a single kalima: {there is no god but Allah and Muhammad (saw) is his slave and messenger} give him in an instant. Open your eyes Oh Dalit brothers! Come out of the shackles of slumber, shackles of oppression of thousands of years, instead of running behind some temporary gains choose the eternal bliss and pay the rightful tribute to your master Ambedkar.