How the Doctors are forgotten and Saints Remembered?

Arundati Roy’s famous introduction “The Doctor and Saint” permeates through the unexplored histories of Indian freedom struggle. The famous introduction to Ambedkar’s The Annihilation of Caste, is an attempt to highlight the visions of Dr. Ambedkar and his works for the downtrodden. But what makes the essay more interesting is that it juxtaposes two great visionaries of modern India, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar. Through the poising of the two influential figures of India, Arundhati Roy makes a critical comparison of the lives of two.

Through the introduction, Roy points out how the Dalits, the marginalized, the oppressed is treated unfavorably in history. History is always with the powerful. It can alter, replace, conceal or manipulate the real past for the advantages of the dominant. Ambedkar is the perfect example for this. Though a great visionary, a warrior for the Dalit rights, Ambedkar never received what he deserved. History was cruel to him as always.

Even now, Indian society is not free form caste, the Dalits remains the same Dalits centuries back and the Upper caste remains powerful as the same ever. There is no drastic change in the lives of Dalits even after decades of independence. Even the self-rule or “Swaraj” did not benefit the life of the downtrodden Dalits. They remain same. In 2012, the year of Delhi gang rape and murder, 1574 Dalit women were raped. There are many more unrecorded cases. There are 651 murders and many more other atrocities.

Roy questions the boastful accounts of India’s “father of nation” unfathomable service to the Dalits. History was always fair to him. He was godly, he was the father, he was the leader, and he was India. He ascribed himself as the representative of the whole India. Indeed he was. He represented the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the merchant class Vaisyas and all other Hindu class (because, even now they are the India). Even under his claims of his “real” concern for his “harijans”, he did not represent them. Through the masquerades of saintliness, Gandhi was protecting the interest of the Varna class. In the “aura” of this “saint” who gave placebos to the sick, the real doctor, Dr. Ambedkar, who fought for the cure of the Dalits was forgotten.

According to Ambedkar, “there cannot be a more degrading system of social organization than the caste system. It is the system that deadens, paralyses and cripples the people form helpful activity”. Ambedkar was a real patron of untouchable. Himself a Dalit, he experiences all atrocities of Dalit life. So, his whole life was a struggle against the deep rooted evil of caste system. He hated the religion that is found on the caste based division of society. But Gandhi was contrasting to Ambedkar, he believed that “caste represented the genius of Indian society” (qtd in Anand 19). In 1921, in his Gujarati journal he again assert his through belief in Caste system:

I belive that if Hindu Society has been able to stand, it is because it is founded on the caste system . . . . To destroy the caste system and adopt the Westen European social system means that Hindus must give up the principle of hereditary occupation which is the soul of the caste system. Hereditary principle is an eternal principle. To change it is to create disorder. I have no use for a Brahmin if I cannot call his a Brahmin for my life. It will be caos if every day a Brahmin is changed into Shrudra and a Shudra is to be changed into a Brahmin. (20)

Even though he admired caste system, Gandhi argued for the equality between castes, and pleaded for the inclusion of avarna castes to the Varna system. He preached for inclusion of untouchables to the Hindu folks. But ambedkar vehemently opposed this, he believed that with caste based division, the utopian dream of equality and equal rights will never happen. He strongly, proclaimed that, “nothing can emancipate the outcaste except the destruction of the caste system”. So, he rejected the caste based Hindu religion. He could not reconcile with a religion that divided people hierarchically.

Roy highlights the political side Gandhi. Gandhi always represented for the Upper caste. During his South African life, he pleaded for the rights of the Vaisya merchants. His early movements in Africa was for the Indian merchants and their rights to be treated fairly than the “Kaffirs”. For him, the Indian, who are also Aryans must be treated distinct from the Africans, who were animal-like “kaffirs”. In India also, Gandhi voiced for the interests of the upper class. Through the inclusion of untouchables to Hinduism, Gandhi was not being godly or humanitarian, but was playing a great political role. As, a result, the majority of Indian population became Hindus and the need for Hindu Swaraj became plausible.

While Gandhi held the tradition, Ambedkar clutched on modernity. Ambedkar believed that only modernity could save people like him from untouchability. He adhered his fellow being to move to city and lead the urban life. Roy points out, “Ambedkar on his part, was painfully aware of the inequality of that past, but his urgency to move away from it, he failed to recognize the catastrophic dangers of Western modernity” (40).

As the drafting committee chairman of the Constitution, Ambedkar could safeguarg many constitutional rights for the Dalits. But many of his attempts were eroded under the skillful mediation of the upper caste interests. Ambedkar, as the political representative of the Dalits tried to implement positive discrimination within the electoral system. He did not believe that universal adult franchise would not bring justice to the untouchables. His daring acts was tactically stopped by Gandhi’s adamant stand and his later fast. In reality, Gandhi threatened with his life against this proposal and Ambedkar was morally forced to withdraw it.

While Gandhi became the “saint” and “father” of the country, Ambedkar was under debt at the time of his death. The upper caste politics and influence blurred his efforts of freedom and equality for the Dalits and it is still reflected in India. Today, the most of the big industries in India are owned by the Vaisyas and Brahmins, the top level officers in the administration are Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas. The representation of the lower caste is marginal and hardly visible.

Arundhati Roy’s introduction, though it is longer than the actual text provided the apt background information for reading the text. It goes through the fringe of history and find out the half-hidden truths behind the Indian National Movement and its political undertones. The political vision of Ambedkar compared with the most famous Indian, Mahatma Gandhi’s provides a more illuminated outlook of Ambedkar’s life and his struggle.

Bibliography

Ambedkar, B. R. Annihilation of Caste: The annotated Critical Edition. Ed. Anand S. London: Verso, 2014. E-book.