Ambedkar Bhavan Controversy
The Enemy Within
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The contentious razing of the Ambedkar Bhavan and the Buddha Bhushan printing press started by Babasaheb Ambedkar in Mumbai has shown how wide the gap is between the Dalit "class" and "mass".
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.—Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
The controversy over the demolition of the iconic Ambedkar Bhavan in Mumbai, associated with Babasaheb Ambedkar has brought to the fore the class divide among Dalits in the ugliest possible manner. Upper middle class Dalits covertly or overtly supported the demolition of the old building in order to pave the way for construction of a swanky 17-storey building. The Dalit masses however came out on the streets to protest against it and demanded that those responsible should be arrested.
The demolition on 25 June targeted the Ambedkar Bhavan and the Buddha Bhushan Printing Press started by Ambedkar on behalf of the People’s Improvement Trust (PIT). Janata and Prabuddha Bharat, two of Ambedkar’s important publications, were printed and published from this press and the premises served as the centre of the Ambedkarite movement from the 1940s onwards. This continued even after his death and various movements and campaigns, including the one for renaming of the Marathwada University after Babasaheb, were planned and executed from here.
Babasaheb bought the 2,332 square yards plot for ₹45,095 which had been collected from his supporters and followers and transferred it to the Bombay Scheduled Caste Improvement Trust in the 1940s. The objectivess of the trust were listed as advancement of adult education, provision of legal aid for securing and safeguarding civic and social rights; eradication of evil customs and spread of general knowledge and enlightenment so as to remove superstitious practices and beliefs from among the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the establishment and maintenance of as well as support to institutions engaged in these kind of activities. As the press was owned by him, Babasaheb considered himself a tenant and paid a rent of ₹50 per month to the trust. It came to be occupied by bhangarwallas and it was a challenge to evacuate them when the trust wanted to build a hall there in the 1970s. But due to the concerted efforts of one of the trustees, P L Lokhande and Yashwantrao Ambedkar (Babasaheb’s son), the plot was vacated. A small hall was built in 1975 which housed some offices and provided shelter to poor Dalit visitors to Mumbai.
Later, in the 1990s, the Ambedkar Bhavan came up and it soon became a centre for Dalit and progressive activists who held meetings, conferences and other programmes there. It also provided shelter to needy Dalits who came for medical treatment or other work to Mumbai. It also served as the community hall where marriages took place. Among its many rooms, two were occupied by Prakash and Anandraj Ambedkar as offices of their Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangha and the Republican Sena, respectively. The other rooms were in the possession of the trust. The press housed the antique machines of the press; old issues of the Janata and Prabuddha Bharat, and important pamphlets and documents of various movements, and the office of the Bharatiya Bauddha Mahasabha (Indian Buddhist Society). During the demolition, many of these historical documents were reportedly lost, stolen or destroyed.
Land Grab Intrigues
Ratnakar Gaikwad, ex-IAS officer who retired as chief secretary to the Government of Maharashtra and holds the post of state information commissioner after retirement submitted a change report to the Charity Commissioner which was challenged by the chairman of the trust and is pending with the Charity Commissioner’s office. As a result, the changes could not be incorporated into Schedule I and the property card.
Gaikwad says that building a 17-storey building would be the fulfilment of Babasaheb’s dream. He has already submitted the building plans to the municipal authorities and reportedly got their approval. What Gaikwad revealed with pride to the public is that the building will have a multistorey car park, a vipassana centre, a skill development centre, conference halls and offices for the Dalit movement. This amounts to sheer commercialisation of the sacred property Babasaheb bequeathed to the Dalits. The entire intrigue is sought to be passed off as fulfilment of Ambedkar’s dream. In the matter of running a trust, there is nothing like fulfilling someone’s dream; the solemn duty of the trust is to fulfil the objectives outlined in the trust deed. Gaikwad’s plan is in clear contravention of Ambedkar’s dream. He wanted an educational centre where ordinary Dalits would be educated in rational thinking and prepared for radical action. It was not meant to be a car park for the elite, nor a club or vipassana centre (repugnant to Ambedkar’s conception of Buddhism). Gaikwad’s mention of building the “headquarter” of the Dalit movement only exposes his complete disconnect with it.
Larger Conspiracy
Gaikwad’s greed is abetted by the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)–Shiv Sena government in the state and the Hindutva forces at large in order to completely erase the real Ambedkar and reconstruct him in the shape that would suit their purpose. The Buddha Bhushan press building and antique machinery reminded Dalits of the struggles Ambedkar waged during the early phase of the movement and inspired them anew. In its place a high-rise will only reinforce a false consciousness that the Dalits have “arrived” and may even inspire them to collaborate with the ruling classes to extract further gains. Two years ago, the Siddharth Vihar in Wadala was demolished, and with it was decimated the space for ordinary Dalit youth to come together, discuss issues, articulate ideas, and agitate against the forces that reproduced their misery. Its demolition did not create ripples perhaps because it was not seen as directly associated with Ambedkar. The demolition of the Ambedkar Bhavan and Buddha Bhushan Printing Press however is another matter.
Likewise, the Ambedkar family, though it has little influence in the political sphere, is immensely respected by the Dalit masses. Politically, they reflect a pro-people stance lending support to peoples’ struggle. Howsoever weak, they represent the only Ambedkarite establishment today that is firmly against Hindutva forces. A section of middle class Dalits has slowly spread propaganda that the Ambedkar heirs are not Ambedkarites and are Maoist supporters.
Class Polarisation
This episode has exposed clearly the endemic class divide among Dalits. While the masses were angry at the demolition, the classes, comprising well-off Dalits including senior bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen and their ilk overtly/covertly supported it. Ambedkar Bhavan had, over the years, become a natural hub of Dalit and progressive activists. Its Spartan look and the people it sheltered would repel them. They would not even be aware that this humble structure has seen many agitations being planned in its benign shadow and the many activists who were shaped by these protests. Arguably, it came closer to serving the purpose Ambedkar had in mind. But these classes would think otherwise; they would like to have a swanky structure that they consider more becoming of their stature, where they could network with “civilised” people; could flaunt to the world that they have “arrived”. Gaikwad only voiced their aspirations. They would hate being called Dalits, the dilapidated ones. Ambedkar for them just serves as an abstract identity marker. Described in superlatives and lately made much of, he lends them pride. They would not like to remember any other Ambedkar, particularly not the one who struggled during 1920s and 1930s. They would be proud to see him rubbing shoulders with the ruling class but would not like to remember the obstacles he faced and so bravely overcame. They would hate to recall his lament that educated people like them had cheated him or that whatever he had done, only benefited the relatively better off urban Dalits of their ilk and that he could not do much for the vast majority of Dalits living in rural areas.
The class divide among the Dalits has existed in an incipient form but remained dormant under the leadership of Ambedkar. It raised its ugly head soon after his death. The split in the Republican Party of India (RPI) over of the issue of constitutional versus agitational mode of struggle (the former being claimed as the Ambedkarite method and the latter as communist), was a mere manifestation. The educated class represented by B C Kamble claimed Ambedkar’s legacy and castigated B D Gaikwad, the rustic mass leader, as being unworthy of it. This division went on expanding over the years even as the number of reservation beneficiaries grew. The thin layer of the better off urban Dalits went on widening, separating the have-nots among them from the haves. Although, this class could not completely rid itself of the caste stigma, its class transition prevented it from identifying with the Dalit masses that were left behind. Being visible and vocal, they completely overshadowed the Dalit masses that paradoxically, followed them as role models. It is this class that helped the ruling classes decimate the radical content of Ambedkar’s exhortations; isolate those who show concern for the poor Dalits as anti-Ambedkarites, goons and Maoists, thereby abetting their repression by the state.
The Dalit movement has always had its “headquarter” on the streets. The mass fury against the demolition and Gaikwad’s plan was exhibited in the form of a protest rally on 19 July. Thousands of Dalits from all over Maharashtra came to Mumbai to march in protest. The rally refused the BJP government’s offer to rebuild the Ambedkar Bhavan and decided that they would restore the demolished building through voluntary donation and labour. The display of this kind of self-respect and self-reliance of ordinary Dalits is what perhaps Babasaheb Ambedkar dreamed of.
The Ambedkar Bhavan issue has since slipped into the cobweb of legal cases like the other trusts and institutions he founded. But the class divide among the Dalits that this episode has brought to the fore constitutes a critical lesson. Unfortunately, the Dalit masses blinded by their blinkers of caste identity may not see it and fail to identify the enemy within.
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