By Dr. Sawraj Singh
A seminar on the Relevance of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s Thought in the current situation was organized by many organizations and individuals which are active in social work as well as in the literary and intellectual fields at the Bhasha Bhawan Patiala. I presided over the function. A large number of scholars, writers, social activists and people from all walks of life from all over Punjab participated. There was a big participation of the Dalit community. However, people belonging to all socio economic strata were also there in large numbers. The audience truly represented a cross section of the society.
The consensus was that Dr. Ambedkar should not be remembered as a Dalit leader alone but as one of the greatest thinkers of our time who strived for betterment of all people, particularly the oppressed, the exploited and victims of discrimination. All the speakers lauded Dr. Ambedkar as a great thinker, a humanist and a social activist who made a great contribution to the Indian society.
It is a well known fact that the Marxists have not been able to make any significant impact among the Dalits in India. Primarily, because of their inability to adequately represent the Dalits, they finally realized that they needed their own party to properly represent them and the BSP came in to existence. Dalits constitute a big segment of the Indian society. In some states like Punjab, almost 40% population is of the Dalit origin. Not having a solid base in their natural allies is one of the major reasons for the Marxists being unable to build a mass base in India. This situation is the result of not deeply understanding the peculiarities of the Indian society.
The Marxists took a unilateralist stand on the issue of caste. They have generally maintained that caste is a manifestation of class. Therefore, the caste problem will be solved when the class contradiction is resolved. There are two very big faults in this analysis. First, they are limiting themselves to a generality only and are ignoring the peculiarities of the Indian society. Class struggle is a generality and caste system is a peculiarity of the Indian society. Second, they are taking a unilateralist approach of economism toward the issue of the caste and are ignoring the ethical and social aspects of the problem. As opposed to their wrong stand on the issue, Dr. Ambedkar took the right stand.
He said that the Indian people have two enemies, Capitalism and Brhamanism (caste elitism). It is obvious that Ambedkar’s understanding of the peculiarities of the Indian society is much deeper than the Marxists. As opposed to the unilateralist approach of the Marxists, he took a multilateralist approach which took social and ethical aspects into consideration besides the economic factors. Unlike the Marxists who tried to reduce caste to basically a manifestation of economic inequality, Ambedkar saw it as a complex social phenomenon which is particular to the Indian society. Moreover, having personally suffered brutality and cruelty of caste oppression, he could empathize with the Dalits. These were the main reasons of the Dalits to reject Marxist leadership and rally behind him.
However, he was not limited to the Dalits alone but was concerned with the overall issues of human degeneration under capitalism. He embraced Buddhism mainly because of its emphasis on self enlightenment and human development. Buddha is an embodiment of a completely enlightened person. Buddhism emphasizes the role of knowledge in self realization and self enlightenment. Ambedkar also emphasized the role of education. He gave a call to educate, organize and struggle. This is the way to change the society for the better.
Whereas the Indian Marxists have been mostly marginalized as far as their impact on the Indian society is concerned, the Chinese Marxists have had tremendous success in transforming their society. Besides adapting Marxism to the peculiarities of the Chinese society and developing socialism with the Chinese characteristics, the Chinese Marxists have also emphasized the ethical aspect of Marxism. While celebrating the 200th birthday of Marx as a very big event, they advocated using Marxism as a basis for ethics in their educational system. Whereas, capitalism promotes the concept of success before ethics, the Chinese communists want to promote the Marxist concept of ethics before success.
Ethics are the major component of the Indian concept of Dharma. Buddhism has emphasized the role of Dharma in our life. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, which can be considered the zenith of the eastern spirituality and philosophy, also advocates that Dharma is the foundation of life. We can hope that the Indian Marxists will learn from Ambrdkar as well as from the Chinese experience the importance of ethics (Dharma) in Marxism. Ethics are the foundation of any philosophy and without ethics a philosophy does not qualify to be called a philosophy.
We hope that the Indian Marxists can liberate them from the influence of Eurocentric unilateralist economism and adopt an eastern multilateralist approach in which ethics (Dhama) as opposed to economics (in the western unilateralist approach), plays the central role. We also hope that they will try to enrich Marxism with the Indian spirituality and philosophy.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
