VOL - 9 ISSUE - 4-7 April 27, 2017 ...ambedkartimes.com/AT-4-7-2017-April 27, 2017.pdf · Fourth...

Editor-in-Chief: Prem Kumar Chumber Contact: 001-916-947-8920 Fax: 916-238-1393 E-mail: [email protected] Editors: Takshila & Kabir Chumber

VOL - 9 ISSUE - 4-7 April 27, 2017 www.ambedkartimes.com www.ambedkartimes.org

The mature electorates of theborderlands State of Punjab onceagain proved that they cannot bemanipulated by false promisesand vindictive adjectives on theone hand, and misled by theidiom of their sectarian affilia-tions on the other. In the 1990sthe people of Punjab rejected theKalashnikov culture of mindlessmayhem and false encounters.And in 2012 they surprised thenation in giving the mandate toSAD-BJP alliance to form thegovernment for the consecutivesecond time while dismantlingthe almost established pattern ofrotational system of governmentformation in Punjab betweenSAD-BJP and INC. They thengenuinely believed in the rationalpriority of the developmentagenda over the archaic Panthicdiscourse spearheaded by theformer Deputy Chief Minister ofPunjab andPresident ofthe SAD.

Whatled the elec-torates in2017 to re-ject the over-s t r e t c h e ddevelopmentvs Panthicagenda ofS u k h b i rSingh Badalled SAD wasthe conspic-uous ab-sence of acommon per-son (Aam Aadmi) in the highway-flyover based four-lanes metallicroads embellished with glam-orous Malls and the suffocatingToll-tax collection glass-centres.The Aam Aadmi was really re-duced into an Aam/Sadaran (or-dinary) person and consequentlyforced to lost and suffer amidstenvious wealth of a well-con-nected and haughty few. Themost desperate poor but hardworking peasants, on the otherhand, were compelled to choosesuicide over the loss of their so-cial prestige which still matters alot in the agriculture based ruralsociety of Punjab.

Youth, allegedly hookedto the politically sponsored drugtrade in Punjab, was lured bythe temptation of easy and quickearning. The widespread drugtrade in the State soon turnedout to be a double edged sword.Gang wars among the drugmafias and the widespread death

of youth in the whole of Punjabby the deadly addiction sentshivers down the spine of every-one in the State and Punjabi di-aspora.

It is amidst this dismalstate-of-the-affairs that Punjabran through the just concluded2017 Assembly Elections givingthumping majority to CaptainAmarinder Singh led Indian Na-tional Congress in Punjab. Duringthe engaging election campaignthe people of Punjab were of-fered a wide variety of options:throwing the allegedly corruptpoliticians and the hobnobbingofficers in jails, providing moreliberal sops/doles to the poor,creating one government job perevery household, round the clockprovision of electricity, enhancingold-age/widow pension amounts etc.

The people of Punjab didlisten to allthe abovement i onedgimmicks ofthe over-con-fident con-tenders inthe fray ofA s s e m b l yElections inthe State.But they didnot give theirmind to any-one. Onceagain all thepre and postpoll huncheswere put to

wrong. What the mature elec-torates of Punjab thought prag-matic at this crucial hour in theState was to save Punjab fromfurther cascading into thelabyrinth of drug led human toll,vindictive political whirlpool andDera based culture of politicalpower manoeuvring. They were,in fact, determined not to be-come further victims of the cal-lous political designs of all thosepolitical forces which hell bent todestroy the State for their narrowvested interests. In other words,they did not allow their wide-spread alienation in the contem-porary Punjab devoid ofemployment opportunities andscarred of drug abuse and thefailure of legitimate governancesystem to be shrewdly manipu-lated by the speculative tradersof votes.

The election results inPunjab are more of a political ver-dict. They are, in fact, a warning

to the theatrical politicians not toorchestrate a mockery of thehard earned and meticulouslygroomed Indian democracy. Theelectorates are not mere specta-tors of their antics. They expectfrom them a high-level of practi-cal political maturity to take theirrespective States and nation tothe ideals and dreams of thefounder fathers of their nationand the constitution. They wanta peaceful, drug and corruptionfree surroundings to earn their re-spectable livelihoods. They alsowant to be governed by the es-tablished system of democraticgovernance without the lewd in-terference of any halka-in-charge- an extra constitutional auto-cratic counter regime.

The people of Punjab haddone their job efficiently. They re-posed their faith in the continua-tion of the tradition ofdemocratic functioning of the po-litical regime while returning topower a tested political party.Now it is up to the Captain ledCongress government in Punjabto deliver in a most suave and ju-dicious way in order to come tothe expectations of the peoplesof the State of Punjab.

The failure to deliverwould be a failure of the genuinedemocratic voice to the detri-mental of all. The bequeathedempty coffers and highly politi-cised bureaucracy would not bethe excuse! The electorates ofPunjab voted to power the Con-gress not listen to such excusesanymore.

They disparately wantedto overcome the mess their Pun-jab was pushed into mercilesslyin the last few years. They delib-erately did not gamble with themuch hyped idea of giving achance to the imported Third Al-ternative/player in Punjab.

Weekly

Election, Politics, Democracy

Some Lessons from Punjab Assembly Elections 2017EDUCATION, SELF RESPECT

AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Prem Kumar ChumberEditor-In-Chief: www.ambedkartimes.com

Babasaheb Dr. B.R Ambedkar used to lay special em-phasis on the agency of education for the emancipationand empowerment of downtrodden. So much so thathe coined a emancipatory slogan with education at thebeginning of the Bhim mantra "Educate, Agitate, Organ-ize." What Baba saheb Dr. B.R Ambedkar was/continuesto be and what he had been able to achieve in his life-long mission of Dalit Empowerment is all due to hisworld reputed stature based on his brilliant academicachievements which still are hard to match not only incomparison to his own people but also with his coun-terparts among the so-called upper castes across thelength and breadth of the country. Again, it was hisworld towering record of academic excellence combinedwith his lifelong commitment towards the annihilationof caste from the soil of Indian social set-up thatbrought him in the forefront of the queues of the mostcelebrated personalities of our time.

Babasaheb Dr. B.R Ambedkar was of the firmview that the first lesson to march on the road of socialtransformation could be to learn how to inculcate thequality of self-respect among the socially excluded mil-lions of our countrymen contemptuously called Un-touchables. The quality of self-respect in turn relies onthe faculty of critical knowledge based on sound edu-cation meant for self-illumination and overall awarenessof ones surroundings. Education in ancient and medievalHindu society was restricted to those who were bornin the upper three higher Varna. Fourth Varna of Shu-dras and the fifth/Avarna of Ati-Shudras were deniedthe facility of education because of their low birth. Thedenial of education had also led to lack of self-respectamong the lower-castes that further transformed theminto docile servants of those who monopolized thepower structures of the society. Babasaheb Dr. B.RAmbedkar wanted to overcome this vicious circle ofdegradation based on the shrewdly designed system ofdenial of education to the downtrodden.

Education leads to self-respect that further ina logical sequence of the emancipatory mantra of "Ed-ucate, Agitate, Organize" creates the conditions for therealization of the higher goal of social justice. That iswhat ‘Educate’ is meant for in the slogan. It means tobe aware of ones life conditions and the overall sur-rounding social set-up. Such a versatile knowledge willstir self-introspection within and creates an urge for anorganization of the like-minded fellow beings to trans-form the unequal social structure into an egalitarianorder. Ambedkartimes.com congratulates its esteemedreaders, contributors and supporters on the auspiciousday of 14th April, the Birth Day of Bodhisattva Babasa-heb Bharat Rattan Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.

Ronki Ram (Dr.)ICCR Chair Professor of India Studies

Faculty of International StudiesRyukoku University

Kyoto, JapanShaheed Bhagat Singh Professor of

Political SciencePanjab University, Chandigarh

[email protected]

www.deshdoaba.comwww.ambedkartimes.com 2V0l-9 Issue - 4-7 April 27, 2017

Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia and Ad Dharm School of Dalit Awakening

Paying Respect to Prof. Mark

It was a great occasion for Prof. Ronki Ram of Panjab Uni-versity, Chandigarh (India) to meet Prof. Mark Juergens-meyer of the University of California, Santa Barbara. ProfRam paid his regards for all that he learnt from Prof.Mark's classic work on the Ad-Dharm movement of Pun-jab. Prof. Mark started working on the movement 45yearsago when he visited villages of Punjab to do research fromUC Berkeley. He wrote his “Religious Rebels in the Punjab”in 1980s based on his research on Dalits in Doaba, Punjab,India. Since the publication of his classic works on theDalit movement in Punjab, many scholars of social mobilitygot inspired to research on human rights issues of Dalits.Prof. Ram is one of them who has written a lot on theDalit social mobility being inspired by the scholarship ofProf. Mark. He visited him in Santa Barbara April 12, 2016to pay his intellectual debt while honoring him with aSiropa, a traditional way of paying respect to great per-sons like Prof. Mark. Dr. Harmesh Kumar, a well-knownClinical Psychologist from the Bay Area (California) andclass fellow of Prof. Ram from Govt. College Hoshiarpur(Punjab) accompanied him on this great occasion.

Prem K. Chumber Editor-In-Chief: AMBEDKAR TIMES

Prem Kumar Chumber Editor-In-Chief: Ambedkar Times & Desh Doaba

Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia was one of founding members of the Ghadarmovement, which aimed at building an egalitarian society and polity after liberatingIndia from the British Raj. He participated in the weapon smuggling mission of themovement. He was arrested and awarded capital punishment, but was saved fromthe death sentence by chance. The news of his supposed death reached his village.According to the tradition of his community, his widow named Piari married his elderbrother. After his return to India in 1925, he remarried and had four sons from hissecond wife, named Bishno.

Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia did not find any change in the life of his fellowvillagers in Punjab after spending 16 years abroad. The social malady of untouchabilityhad continued to torment the Scheduled Castes people. He wanted to overcome thesocial oppression that his people were undergoing for centuries. While living in USA,he realized what it meant to be equal, free and lead a dignified life. He made his mindto devote his life towards the awakening and uplift of the Scheduled Caste people.

He thought that the most viable way to bring social and political conscious-ness among his people was to establish schools for the Achhuts. Settling in his nativevillage, Mugowal, he founded a school for the lower caste children in the village. Theschool was temporarily housed in the garden of RisaldarDhanpat Rai, a landlord of vil-lage Mugowal. Later on LambardarBeeru Ram Sangha, another landlord of village Mu-gowal donated half an acre of land to Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia to build the school.The school had five teachers including Babu Mangu Ram ji. One of the teachers wasa Muslim, Walhi Mohammad, and another was a Brahmin.

Now-a-days, the school land has been declared as Shamlat (common land)and no remnants of the school building exist except the old dilapidated structure ofits well.

It was in this historic school founded by Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia Ji thatthe first mammoth meeting of the Ad Dharm movement was held on June 11-12, 1926.

(Excerpted from Dr. Ronki Ram's article entitled "Untouchability, Dalit Con-sciousness, and the Ad Dharm Movement in Punjab," published in Contributions toIndian Sociology, Vol. 38, No. 3, 2004 with thanks).

5 www.deshdoaba.comwww.ambedkartimes.com 3V0l-9 Issue - 4-7 April 27, 2017

UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT AT SHRI GURU RAVIDASS TEMPLE, NEW YORKWe are writing this letter onbehalf of this Council in regardto an unfortunateincident,which took place atShri Guru Ravidass Temple,New York last week, relatingto the desecration of sacredscriptures of Guru Ravidass JiMaharaj enshrined in the holypages of Shri Guru GranthSaheb Ji. The incident, as wehave learnt, from reliablesources including the localchannels of media, seems to

be an irresponsible act of a disgruntled and ill-informed element of societywho has completely lost his connectivity with the true ideals and preachingof Shri Guru Granth Saheb Ji.

This incident seems to be an unfounded attempt on the part of a

solitary individual to create an atmosphere of mutual misunderstanding, dis-trust and disharmony among different sections of society. We, as staunchbelievers in the philosophy and preaching of Guru Granth Saheb Ji, con-demn this attitude and behavior, which aims at causing social and religiousdivisiveness and emotional unrest among the followers of Guru GranthSaheb Ji. Gurbani teaches us to build the bridges of love, respect and mu-tual harmony, and not creating gaps of hatred and disunity. We, therefore,strongly urge the entire mainstream Sikh community to condemn this inci-dent to restore peace and harmony among the followers of spiritual tenetsand the philosophy of Guru Granth Saheb Ji.

We also urge and appeal to the entire Ravidassia Community to actwith restraint, calmness, and patience without escalating this sensitiveissue further. We are supporting Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha, New York totake legal action against the culprit, ParamjitSingh Gill because it is a dis-respect of Gurughar’s Maryadas, and Guru Granth Saheb Ji.

We have been fully supported and encouraged to issue this com-munication by all Guru Ghars noted below functioning under the banner ofShri Guru Ravidass Ji in California.

Approved by:1. Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha, Pittsburg, (California)2. Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha, Sacramento, (California)3. Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha, Bay Area, Fremont, (California)4. Shri Guru Ravidass Temple, Yuba City, (California)5. Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha, (CV), Fresno (California)6. Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha, Selma (California)

Thank you for your attention.

O.P BALLEY, (925-252-6085)

GENERAL SECRETARYManagement of

Shri Guru Ravidass Supreme Council of USA

SHRI GURU RAVIDASS SUPREME COUNCIL OF USAFloral Tributes paid at late Shri Sohan Singh Damaria's First Anniversary

First Anniversary of late Shri Sohan Singh Damariafounder Member of Shri Guru Ravidass temple, Pitts-burg was observed at the temple on Sunday, April23rd,2017 wherein glowing tributes were paid to oneof the pioneers of our community for his long and ded-icated services in the foundation and running of thisfirst- ever Guru Ghar established in USA.

Path, Kirtan and Langar Sewa for the event withprayers for peace and tranquility of Mr. Singh werehosted by Shri Harbans Kalu and Bibi Harjit Kaur.

Prominent speakers at this religious ceremony,who paid their respectful tributes to the memory of

the departed soul, included Mrs. Gina Bhatia, General Secretary of the temple,Mr. O.P. Balley, Mr. Dev Raj Singh founding Members of the Temple, Mr. CharanSingh Anjaan, Giani Sukhdev Singh, Ex Head- Granthi and Mrs. Kamaljeet Bha-tia joined by Ms Satnam Kaur.

Mr. O.P. Balley depicted a long trail of his cherished memories of overforty plus years spent together with Mr. Sohan Singh in the service of ShriGuru Ravidass temple, Pittsburg. He also expressed in his emotional tributethat persons like Mr. Singh never die; they live through their deeds in the heartsand souls of those who happen to know them. Waves and tides of time willnever be able to wash off the good memories built together. He also paid histributes to other founding members of the temple, who are no more with us,for their dedicated services.

Mr. Dev Raj Singh, a childhood companion of Mr. Damria from Fiji Is-lands also revived their old memories with Mr. Singh, before migrating to USAin 1962.

Mr. Prem Chumber Chief Editor, Ambedkar Times and Desh Doabaweekly newspapers, though was not able to attend the event in person, calledin commemoration of Mr. Sohan Singh's services, especially in building theParking lot of Pittsburg Guru Ghar.

The program ended with Ardass and Hukam Nama from holy pages ofShri Guru Granth Saheb.

Sewadar,O.P.Balley

Founder Member ,Shri Guru Ravisass Sabha,Pittsburg

O.P.Balley


Walter Bagehot defined democracy as ‘Government by discussion’. Abraham Lincolndefined democracy as ‘A Government of thepeople, by the people and for the people’

-Dr. Ambedkar

Heartiest congratulations on

Dr. Ambedkar’s 126th birth anniversary

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AMBEDKAR’S VISIONARY FOUNDATION AFTER 60 YEARSTRAINING SCHOOL FOR ENTRANCE TO POLITICSWorld over, after so many events of‘celebration’ last year on the 125thbirth anniversary of Dr. B. R. Ambed-kar (1891-1956), it now commandsa serious ‘deliberation’ on his unful-filled and highly cherished step of po-litical school which he established totrain youths in order to fortify politicsof social justice and transform politi-cal democracy into a social democ-racy. Currently, when there is apaucity of moral, responsible and ef-ficient leadership in our political sys-tem, increasing incidents ofun-parliamentary and careless behav-iour of our lawmakers, a failure to gar-ner a wider political unity & success,it is quite significant to understandthe visionary but altogether forgottenfoundation that he laid.

With his three decade longexperience in active politics, Babasa-heb Ambedkar established a politicalschool named as “Training School forEntrance to Politics” in Bombay totrain the youths interested in politics.It started to function in July 1956with a batch of 15-20 students andwas shutdown within a few monthsafter his demise. Ambedkar being theDirector, appointed ShantaramShankar Rege as the Registrar of theschool, who was also a librarian inSiddhartha College, Bombay. Otherthan two of his earlier educational in-stitutions, Milind College in Au-rangabad and Siddhartha College inBombay, this School was the third,which in fact had wider vision thanthe earlier ones but was neglected intoto and finds no mention in anystudy done on Ambedkar and thesocio-political movements carried onin his name in the last six decades.

As we all know that Ambed-kar’s primary focus was on educationbut he was also very much concernedon its quality with an objective to pro-duce knowledgeable & moral leadersrather than mere servants (govern-ment or otherwise) or hero worship-ing cadre, which we find today inabundance. In the final stage of hislife he realised that the two colleges,somewhere could not fulfil his objec-tive to generate leaders and came toa logical conclusion to establish aspecialised school to hone leadershipamong community and to counter theill effects of the Poona-Pact.On 04th December 1956, Ambedkarmade a trunk call to the registrar andfinalised his schedule to teach thestudents in this school for a week be-tween 10th and 15th December1956 on various topics, especially onoratory skill. It is very sad that thiswas the last communication betweenthe two and his wish could not be ful-filled due to his sudden demise. Hisnext plan after finishing a week longteaching in the school was to lead aDeeksha ceremony on 16th Decem-ber, 1956 in Bombay with lakhs ofhis followers like he did in Nagpur on14th October 1956. After his deathon 6th December 1956 in Delhi, hisbody was carried to Bombay with aspecial plane to mark his last wish tovisit Mumbai for the above two pur-

poses. If we observe his two com-

mitments above during his plannedvisit to Mumbai, there is no doubtthat his focus in the last phase of lifewas delivering a moral order to Indiaby two means--(a) Buddhism (to thesociety) and (b) Training School forEntrance to Politics (to political lead-ership). Other than this, it is provedthrough many unpublished personalletters Ambedkar wrote to Rege, inwhich he is extremely focussed in aconsistent manner on both the as-pects (Buddhism & Political School)simultaneously. There are many suchletters exchanged between both ofthem regarding school’s name, coursecontent, faculties, academic calendarand motive of the school which areyet to be brought in public domain.

The cherished objective ofthis school at the last stage of his lifeis quite similar to embracing Bud-dhism in October 1956 in Nagpur,Maharashtra. For example, he wishedthat the training of the budding polit-ical leaders would be inculcatedthrough enlightening principles i.e.knowledge (pradhnya) and character(sheel). In one of his letters in April1956, Ambedkar instructs Rege in hisown handwriting that the school’smotto should be ‘knowledge ispower’. For him, the trainees neededa gamut of understanding in varioussubjects of social sciences, strongmoral character and well equipped inparliamentary/legislative languageand procedures, which is a very basicfunction for legislators. He had men-tioned once in his address in Punjabthat the parliamentary democracycould be found in ancient BuddhistIndia. Thus, certainly, there are simi-larities in his thought process regard-ing embracing Buddhism andestablishing Political School.

In Ambedkar’s understanding,if candidates contest elections andalso win seats, they cannot be truerepresentatives without knowing thethings—the techniques/methods tounderstand the problems of their own

constituencies, law making process,and art of speaking in the legislativehouses. For all these purposes he es-tablished such an institution in thiscountry. Although, there were manyschools of thoughts during his time tostudy politics, this was a unique oneand a sole endeavour to train leadersfor practical politics. Dhananjay Keer,a known biographer of Ambedkarwrites, “the school was meant forthose who cherished the ambition ofjoining the legislature and it was firstof its kind in the country”. Thus, itwas a huge stepping-stone for thecause of making politics accessible tothe marginalised groups by providingthem education and proper trainingon many related skills.

One of the core distinctive-ness of this school set by Ambedkar

was the personality of thefaculty in general but mostimportantly for the principalhe was in search of. In wantof such characteristics hehad turned down the pro-posed names that camefrom Siddhartha College forthe post of the principal. Inthis connection, Ambedkarreceived a letter in April1956 in which Rege pro-posed Mr. Sardesai’s nameto be the Principal. In hisreply Ambedkar welcomedthis proposal with a cau-tionary remark, “you canappoint Sardesai as thePrincipal although I have notseen him. But in betweenAmbedkar visited Bombayand might have seen himand turned down his namein the later communicationto Rege in June 1956. Hewrote, “I am positively

against the appointment of Mr. Sarde-sai as the principal of the school. Hehas no personality. He may be kept asProfessor-in-charge of some subject.To be a principal a person must havepersonality”. The faculties who wereappointed for the school were V.B.Karnik, Dr. Bagaram Tulpule, Prof.Madhu Dandavate (a known socialistleader who later became Union Min-ister of Finance in Govt. of India),Prof. V.G. Deshpande, Sachin Mad-hukar Dhotre, Sardesai and Sheikh.

The tragic history of theschool is that though it was actuallystarted to create knowledgeable andhonest leaders, it died a prematuredeath in less than a year while Repub-lican Party of India (RPI), which wasjust proposed and never founded,was pursued as a master key to getpolitical success. Whereas forAmbedkar the political school wasthe foundation, with the motto of‘knowledge is power’, for building theedifice of political party, the followersvalued the party and propagandarather than knowledge and school.For me, it is somewhere a responsiblereason for widening leadership-crisisin the movement, fractions in the RPIand whooping emergence of manypolitical groups in Ambedkar’s name.

Later on andtill now, manyother politicalleaders whoclaim Ambed-kar’s politicallegacy such asKa n s h i r am ,M a y aw a t i ,P r a k a s hAm b e d k a r ,R a m v i l a sPaswan, UditRaj etc. neverpaid any attention to this school.Whatever be the reasons, thisthought of him (political school) re-mained under the carpet for such along time and the so-called dalit lead-ers always focused on getting powerby hook or by crook (Political Parties).This process had started immediatelyafter his death by closing-down hispolitical school and launching the RPI.

For Ambedkar, politics wasnot merely a subject of study but hisfocus was to bring about a change init, converting political democracy intoa socio-economic democracy and forthis motive the school was a step-ping-stone to hone such leadership.Thus, the objective of the politicalschool to be a producer of true lead-ership in the politics of social justiceand democracy is still omitted, forgot-ten, neglected and undervalued. Inacademic domain also except a refer-ence of it, there is no research orstudy on this valuable idea.

After 60 years of Ambedkar’sefforts of establishing PoliticalSchool, although it might not havebrought any transient success andachievement to its credit due to mul-tiple reasons but it has a potential toinherit many solutions to the existingpolitics and lead us to contemplateon many contemporary problems ofdemocracy, leadership, education,representation and political parties etc.

It has been an irreparableblunder for not taking up this idea ofAmbedkar seriously by anybody inthis country. Again, the irony is thatrather than continuing with even asingle centre of ‘Political School’ totrain the future leaders, the margin-alised community has witnessed awhooping emergence of huge num-ber of ‘political parties and their frac-tions’. The main focus of all thesepolitical groups have always been oncelebrating only those events ofAmbedkar’s life, which are beneficialfor tempting people for getting votes.Consequently, even after 60 years ofAmbedkar’s efforts of establishingpolitical school, no political party,government, or any university or NGOcould gather a moral minimumcourage to have even a discussion onthis episode of his life.

To conclude, my submission isthat the large-scale celebrations ofAmbedkar’s 125th birth anniversaryand other events would be futile with-out a serious deliberation on the util-ity of his idea of Political School after60 years of its foundation.

Dr. Shiv Shankar Das(PhD in Pol. Sc., JNU, New Delhi)


Shingara Singh Ralh & Ralh familyShingara Singh Ralh (President, Shri Guru Ravidass Temple Yuba City, California

Heartiest congratulationson


Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realize that our people have yet to learn it.Democracy in India is only a top dressing on an Indian soil whichis essentially undemocratic.

- Dr. Ambedkar

ajY qnvIr afpxy pirvfr nflajY qnvIr

ajY qnvIr aqy

smUh pirvfr

You must abolish your slavery yourselves. Do not depend for its abolition upon god ora superman. Remember that it is not enough that a people are numerically in the majority. They must be always watchful, strong and self-respecting to attain and maintain success. We must shape our course ourselves and by ourselves.

-Dr. Ambedkar

Heartiest congratulations on Dr. Ambedkar’s 126th birth anniversary


YOU SHOULD BECOME RULERS TO CREATE CASTELESS SOCIETY

(A message from the Master (Honorable Sahib Shri Kanshi Ram Ji) to the victimized castes at the First World Convention of Dalits,

held in Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia on October 10-11-1998)Friends,I congratulate you for organizing thisConvention to acquire a new visiontowards a ‘casteless society’.

I am sorry. I could not preparemy paper to be read on this occasiondue to my preoccupation with theparty work.

Annihilation of caste: In theyear 1936, Babasaheb Ambedkarwas asked to present a paper on‘caste’ by the Jatpat Todak Mandal atLahore of Punjab. But Baba Sahebwas not allowed to read his paper.However, that paper was later pub-lished as a book under the title “An-nihilation of Caste”. After reading thisbook, I too started thinking that‘caste’ could be annihilated. But afterstudying the caste behavior and afterlooking at our social structure. Istarted thinking differently. I studied‘caste’ not from books, but from life.People, who come from their villagesto cities like Delhi, carry nothing withthem. But they carry their ‘caste’with them. They leave back their littleproperty, small lands and their huts inthe villages. They leave behind every-thing in their village. But they willcarry ‘caste’ is so much dearer to thepeople. How can we annihilate caste?I stopped thinking about ‘caste anni-hilation’.

You have organized this Con-vention to move towards a ‘castelesssociety’. I am also for ‘casteless so-ciety’ and my aim is also to create a‘casteless society’. But ‘caste’ can-not be wished away. It is not possibleto eliminate ‘caste’. So what to do?

‘Caste is created with a pur-pose’: ‘Caste’ is not created withouta purpose. ‘Caste’ is created with apurpose. And that purpose still re-mains. So long that purpose remains.‘Caste’ too remains. You do not findBrahmins and other upper castesholding conference like this for‘casteless society’. Because, they arethe one who created this ‘caste’ andthey stand to gain by this ‘caste’.They are the beneficiaries of ‘caste’.So long they stand to gain by ‘caste’,why should they destroy it? Theseconferences for ‘casteless society’can only be organized by us. Becausewe are the victims of ‘caste’.

We ourselves may not be thevictims of ‘caste’. But we are bornamong those who are victims of‘caste’. Hence, we need to eliminatethe ‘caste’. But even to eliminate‘caste’, you must take note of the‘caste’. You cannot ignore ‘caste’.We may have the desire to create acasteless society’. But it is not possi-ble to happen in the near future. Tillsuch time what we should do? What

I decided to do is, till ‘casteless soci-ety’ is created; let me handle the‘caste’. When Brahmins could usethe ‘caste’ for their benefit, why notI could use it for our benefit?

Double-edged sword: Caste isa two-edged sword. It cuts both theways. It cuts this way, when you usethis way (swings his hand right side)and it can also cut the other waywhen you use it in opposite direction(swings his hand left side). I decidedto handle the caste to our benefit anddeprive the Brahmins of its benefits.Babasaheb Ambedkar secured politi-cal power to Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes with the help of‘caste’. By using ‘caste’, he securedseparate electorates for ScheduledCastes andS c h e d u l e dTribes in theRound TableConference in1931-32. ButGandhiji wenton fast untodeath againstthis separateelectorates andconsequently,S c h e d u l e dCastes andS c h e d u l e dTribes were granted joint electorates.

Separate electorate: Manypeople ask me. “Why not you strug-gle for separate electorates for whichBabasaheb Ambedkar fought?” I havenot wasted even a single minute onthis separate electorate. When it wasnot possible for Babasaheb Ambedkarduring British rule, how it will be pos-sible for me, now, when casteists areruling? It is impossible.

Experts on ‘caste’: Babasa-heb Ambedkar had prepared Sched-uled Castes and Scheduled Tribes tohandle the ‘caste’. That is how theycould get many benefits from theBritish. Eversince, the exit of British,only three persons have become ex-perts in handling the ‘caste’. The firstperson was Jawaharlal Nehru. Thesecond one was Indira Gandhi. Andthird person is Kanshi Ram. (Cheers).

Nehru handled the ‘caste’ sowell that Babasaheb became helpless.He was an expert in handling the‘caste’ and retains the BrahminicalSocial Order. Mrs. Indira Gandhi wasalso an expert in handling the ‘caste’to the benefit of Brahminical Order.Now, if you ask the Congress peoplein Delhi, “Are you benefitted by the‘caste’?” they will say, “No, we arenot getting the benefits of ‘caste’, wedo not know how to get its benefits.Only Kanshi Ram knows it. He only

knows how to handle the ‘caste’ tohis benefit.” (Laughter)

If you can prevent Brahminstaking benefits of ‘caste’, they willthink twice to use the sword of‘caste’ against us. I have learnt theart of using the sword of ‘caste’ toour benefit. ‘Caste’, which may ap-pear as a problem, may become anasset if we handle it properly. Prob-lems of today may be opportunities oftomorrow. They can be assets in fu-ture. Distress migration: We mustlearn lessons from the history. Wemust start the movement whereBabasaheb Ambedkar left it. In 1932,Babasaheb Ambedkar demanded sep-arate electorates for ScheduledCastes and Scheduled Tribes. After

10 years, in1942, he de-manded sepa-rate settlements. Hewanted to makethese people in-dependent ofthe Hindus.What is the po-sition now? Wehave forty fivelakh hectares ofland under culti-vation. Our peo-

ple till the land and produce foodcrops. But they do not own that landin which they work. They are leavingthe villages in distress and come tocities in search of food and shelter.This distress migration has producedmore than ten crore refugees intowns in the last ten years. Ten yearsago, the urban population was 5crores and today it is 16 crores. Theylive in slums and on streets. Whoshould think about these refugees?Rural Ministry and Urban Ministry ofGovernment of India must find theanswer. The Indian Government plansfor everybody except these people.There is no mention about theserefugees in our budgets. There is aseparate department to plan. Allocatebudget and make settlements for therefugees of Pakistan, refugees ofTibet, refugees of Jammu and Kash-mir, and so on. But nobody thoughtabout these refugees of distress mi-gration.

Since people carry their‘castes’ to cities leaving behindeverything else in their villages, myjob has become very easy. These tencrore refugees are a problem to therulers. But they are our assets. Wewill use ‘caste’ to liberate these peo-ple. We are going to launch a move-ment called “Bharatiya SharanarthiAndolan” immediately after the No-

vember election for Delhi. MadhyaPradesh and Rajasthan. I will not sitidle in anticipation of ‘caste’ to van-ish. I will handle the ‘caste’ till it re-mains. Games people play: Now, letme tell you my experience of handling‘caste’. What I am doing today is, Iam rousing the victims of ‘caste’. Iam rousing the victims of ‘caste’ tostrive for Babasaheb Ambedkar’smovement. I am preparing my people– the victims of caste – to handle thedouble-edged sword of ‘caste’ totheir benefit. Today everybody isafraid of my handling of ‘caste’ fac-tor. Everybody is trying to stop theKanshi Ram phenomenon. RajivGandhi tried, V.P. Singh tried,Narasimha Rao tried and BJP is try-ing. They play their game and I amtrying to play my game. (Claps)

BSP should be recognized allover India: The beneficiaries of‘caste’ have created it with the pur-pose of ruling over others and theyhave retained it to perpetuate theirrule. Creation is more difficult than re-tention. Once you create it, there isno problem in retaining it. It will sim-ply go on.

If you want to destroy‘caste’, you have to stop the benefi-ciaries taking advantage of it. So longthe beneficiaries are allowed to use‘caste’, victims are continued to suf-fer. If you want to put an end to it,you must learn to handle the ‘caste’to your benefit. You should not allowthe Brahminical Social Order to takethe benefits of ‘caste’. You shouldnot ignore ‘caste’ but you should takenote of it. Today with the successfulhandling of caste. Bahujan SamajParty (BSP) has become the fourthnational party in India. There are sev-enty recognized parties and we areahead of sixty seven parties. OnlyCongress, BJP and CPI (M) are aheadof us. When we started in 1984,other parties said that ours would bea Uttar Pradesh party. But today, BSPis not limited to UP alone. Now, theupper castes have become un-happy…. And I am also unhappy.They are unhappy because BSP isspreading to other states too. And Iam unhappy because BSP has notspread to all the states. I want BSP tobecome a recognized party in all thestates of India, including Maharash-tra. Dependents in independent India:In 1997, the Brah-minical SocialOrder planned to celebrate the goldenjubilee of independence. We tooplanned to celebrate. But we havenothing to celebrate. It is independ-ence for them. But it is dependencefor us. We are dependent in independ

(Contd to next Page..)


YOU SHOULD BECOME RULERS TO CREATE CASTELESS SOCIETY

There was a solemn function to welcome the fol-lowers of Dr. Ambedkar at his statue at the Ambed-kar Chowk on April 14. The function was arrangedand organised by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Chowk Main-tenance and Welfare Society floated by GurumuratJiwan Singh and Prem Domeli. AmbassadorRamesh Chander, IFS (Retired) was the Chief Guestat the function. The organizers not only receivedand facilitated the rank and file of the followers of

Dr. Ambedkar who came with bouquets and gar-lands of flowers to pay tributes to the greatest sonof India and their beloved leader but also stream-lined and put in order the flow of thousands of visitors. At the function a Resolution to urge the Gov-ernment of India to approach the UN to declareApril 14 as the International Day of Equality wasalso passed. The text of the resolution is enclosedalong with a couple of photos of the function."

“AMBEDKAR TIMES” AND “DESH DOABA”FONDLY REMEMBER SH. C.L. CHUMBER

International Day of Equality-April 14 Dr. Ambedkar Jayanti

Adaras “Ambedkar Times” and “Desh Doaba”

fondly remember Sh. C.L. Chumber, former

Punjab Government Welfare Officer, founder

editor of “Kaumi Udarian”, Souvenir of the life

and Contributions of Babu Mangu Ram Mu-

gowalia Ji, a social activist and bold journalist

on his birthday who passed away silently on

February 6, 2016 at his sweet home in native

town Jalandhar City (Punjab). His memories

will remain all times with us. It was he who

advised us to designate our Punjabi Weekly as

“Desh Doaba”. He never hesitated to raise his

voice with echo of truth as and when the sit-

uation demanded. He wanted passionately

that our Samaj (Society) should walk into the

footsteps of Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia,

Babasaheb Dr. B.R Ambedkar, and Sahib Shri

Kanshi Ram Ji to fulfill their mission of building

a castles society where our people should live

at par with rest of the society enjoying equal-

ity and dignity.

Prem K. Chumber

Editor-In-Chief: www.ambedkartimes.com

ResolutionWe, the people, assembled at Dr. B.R. AmbedkarChowk at Jalandhar to observe and commemo-rate the birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkartoday, April 14, 2017, pass the following Resolu-tion with regard to the proposed International Dayof Equality which has already been submitted toEAM Smt. Sushma Swaraj and PM Narendra Modiby Ambassador Ramesh Chander and followed upby Forum of SC Members of Parliament and MLAsand a Memorandum submitted to PM NarendraModi by the Former Speaker of Punjab LegislativeAssembly, Shri Charanjit Sigh Atwal in May, 2016.

The proposal made by AmbassadorRamesh Chander in June, 2015 to EAM SushmaSwaraj and followed by Shri Charanjit Singh Atwalwith PM Narendra Modi to make a demarche tothe UN to declare April 14, birthday of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar, as the International Day of Equalitymay kindly be considered and taken up with theUN in New York officially. The details of the pro-posal and case history are available in the at-tached letter dated February 6, 2017 for readyreference.

It goes without saying that the proposedInternational Day of Equality will not only be a be-fitting tribute to Dr. Ambedkar, the champion andexponent of equality, liberty and fraternity, to

bring about and promote world peace but also willprovide a sense of participation and empower-ment to the millions of teeming masses all overthe world who are still struggling to find their duespace and place in the society. India is an up-com-ing leader of the comity of nations and is all setto contribute to the further well-being of the so-ciety. India’s initiatives in declaring the Interna-tional Day of Non-violence on October 2, birthanniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and also Interna-tional Day of Yoga have been much appreciatednot only at home in India but also the world atlarge. The proposed International Day of Equality,on the birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, oneof the greatest sons of India, will be yet anotherfeather in the cap of India and its diplomacy.

We are confident that the proposal to de-clare International Day of Equality will find afavourable consideration. We hereby resolve to re-quest the Government of India to do the needfulin this regard.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Chowk Maintenance and Welfare Society

Jalandhar – Contact: Jiwan Singh – Tele:09501205014

E-Mail: [email protected]

ent India. Even after 50 years, ourpeople still work on others’ lands.They do not have their own land.Why did these ten crore people leavetheir villages? Because they have noindependence in their villages. Whenwe created BSP, Scheduled Castes,Scheduled Tribes and BackwardCastes were not independent. Theywere running to different parties fortickets. Parties are nothing but tick-ets-printing machines. We thoughtwhy not we have our own machine.And hence we created BSP on April14, 1984. No more platform tickets:

During the assembly election ofMarch 1985 in UP. We gave tickets to237 candidates. I told our candidates.“Our tickets are only platform ticketsand hence you cannot reach Lucknowwith these tickets.” There was no de-mand for our tickets, then. But todaythere is a big demand. Every BSP can-didate secures more than one lakhvotes.

Today ours are not platformtickets. Our ticket can take you toLucknow and also to Delhi. Why thereis such a demand for our party tick-ets? Congress made BSP popular: In

1983, Congress Party had won 410out of 425 assembly seats in UP. In1985, it could get only 265 out of425. It lost 145 seats because ofBSP. Frustrated by this loss, theystarted calling BSP as a party ofChamars. This propaganda of Con-gress had really helped us. Our partybecame very popular amongChamars. In 1985 elections, we se-cured 2% of votes. In 1989, our per-centage of votes went upto 9% andin 1991, 11%.

In 1993, it was 20.6%, in1996 elections; we got 29% of

votes. We did not ignore ‘caste’. Wetook note of it and learnt to handle it.Today, ‘caste’ has no effect for Con-gress. For us, it has a growing effect.Victims should not wish away caste.They should learn to handle it. Les-sons of Maharashtra: We have peoplefrom Maharashtra here. I learnt manythings from them. Half of the lessonsof the movement, I learnt fromBabasaheb Ambedkar and other halfI learnt from Mahars of Maharashtra. From Babasaheb Ambedkar, I learnthow to run the movement. From the

(Continued to page no 13)


Remembering Mr. D. R. Suman on 1st death anniversary

Suman family celebrated first Barsi of Mr. D. R. Sumanon February 26, 2017 in Sri Guru Ravidass Gurdwara in Chandigarh

I am reallysorry re-garding thesad demiseof RameshS um a n ' sr e -spectable,Mr. D. R.Summan .Mr. Sum-m a np a s s e daway whenI was on ap e r s o n a lvisit to

India and it was my honor to partici-pate in his funeral, cremation and per-formance of his last rites.

As evident from the contentsof your e/mail and also observedthrough my personal association and

contacts with Mr.Summan for longtime he was un-doubtedly an em-bodiment ofdedication for com-munity service andfor helping those inneed.

I came toknow Mr. Summanthrough his cousinMr. Sajjan Singh in1971 when I wastransferred toChandigarh on acentral Govt. as-signment. Mr. Saj-jan Singh Summanand Mr. DaulatRam Summan wereboth truly dedicated to helping in anycause relating to the welfare of the

community. Theirefforts laid thefoundation of ShriGuru Ravidasstemple, sector 30-A Chandigarh. Itwas their inspira-tion and persua-sion that I alsobecame a memberof the ExecutiveCommittee of thattemple in 1972and that spirit per-meated throughme in the futureyears of my life.During his visits toUSA to see his sonMr. RameshSuman, I had a

chance to see Mr. Summan manytimes and sought his advice on many

social and community issues. Mr.Ramesh Suman who currently is veryclosely involved in the activities of SriGuru Ravidass Sabha, Pittsburg, Cal-ifornia is a living example his father'sservices to the community.

Great men never die becausetheir spirit lives on through theirdeeds and actions. They remain em-balmed in the books of time and thememories of the people. I will nothesitate to say that Mr. Summan wasborn, lived and died for humanitariancauses which were so dear to hisheart and soul.

Mr. Summan's loss is per-sonal to me and will be irreplaceablebut the legacy of his contributions tosociety will live forever. May AlmightyGod bless his soul with peace andtranquility and provide solace andstrength to the bereaved family tobear this huge loss. Thanks.

Mr. D.R. Suman passed away on March 30,2016 in Chandigarh at the age of 85 due to can-cer. Both of his sons live in Antioch, California(USA) and the daughter lives in England. Theyvisited him numerous times during last threeyears.

He was the oldest of 5 brothers and 4sisters. He retired from Punjab Government asa planning officer. He was a very well-knownperson in the community. He was one of thefounding members of Sri Guru Ravidass Gurd-wara in Chandigarh (India) where he served aspresident number of times.

He helped so many people with gettingjobs and financially. He was a firm believer insharing. He donated part of his income to Gur-dwara regularly.

He came to United States and Englandpretty much every year until he got diagnosedwith cancer. He had a unique smile, very friendlyperson. Anyone who came in his contact be-

came his friend.Family and friends came from America,

England and from Punjab to join in Ardass. Over500 people attended the memorial service(BARSI). Col. Prithvi Raj Kumar, Chief Postmas-ter General (Retd.) spoke highly about Mr.Suman. General Secretary Mr. Tarsem Lal andpast General Secretary Mr. Gurbachana Ramgave very emotional speeches. They mentionedMr. Suman’s numerous contributions to Gurd-wara and the community. They said that he wasa father figure for the committee and helped inbuilding Chandigarh Gurdwara. He collectedfunds from all his family members and friends indifferent countries for building Gurughar. Wher-ever he went, he remembered Chandigarh Gurd-wara and worked tirelessly for it's development.

People with his abilities, dedication andpassion are very rare. He will be remembered forhis generosity and kindness.

- Prem Chumber

O.P.BalleyFounder Member Sri GuruRavidass Temple Pittsburg

Mr. A.K Kawatra, Directorof Fishries Department

With his father Chaudhary DalipChand Summan M.C. Hoshiarpur,Son Ramesh Suman and Grand son

Ronesh Suman

With Daughter- in- law GyanSuman. Padma Khanna,Jagdish Sidana and family

With daughterSantosh Mehmi,brother Baldev Raj

Summan andniece.

Ramesh Suman's50th birthday celebration

With both sonsDevinder and Ramesh

With his Sister andbrother-in- law


What you have lost others has gained. Your humiliations are a matter ofpride with others. You are made to suffer wants, privations and humiliationsnot because it was pre-ordained by the sins committed in your previous

birth, but because of the overpowering tyranny and treachery of those whoare above you. You have no lands because others have usurped them; youhave no posts because others have monopolized them. Do not believe in

fate; believe in your strength. Dr. Ambedkar

United Awareness Committee of

Ravidassia Community Californial USA

Kewal Bolina916-548-8902

Hans Raj Kajla916- 479-0421

Tawinder Kazla916- 300-5398

Paramjit Bhutta916-798-9144

Sonu Ambedkar916-320-1647

Sukh Ram Chander916-494-4694

Rakesh Chander916- 698-3808




First and foremost congratulations to all of humanity on the 125th Biirth Anniversary of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, respectfully known as

Babasaheb. History bears witness to the rise of Babasaheb as he came from a Dalit community to become the Father of India's Constituion.

He always realized the value of an education and this is what led him to study abroad. He studied in the United States at the University

of Columbia, recieving a Law Degree. He studied at the London School of Economics as well as the University of Bonn. in Germany. To

this day, his mission to receive a great education is unparalled but it did not come without sacrifice. Babasaheb lost four of his own

children and his wife on the way to his success. Nevertheless, he knew these sacrifices were for the greater good: Equality of all people

regardless of caste, creed, color, religion, region and gender.

As we celebrate Babasaheb's 126th birth anniversary, we must appreciate the work of the gems of our society. Professor Ronki

Ram has made great strides in shedding light on the history of Dr. Ambedkar. We are honored to have Dr. Ronki Ram visit us in the USA

as Chief Guest for the 125th Birth Anniversary celebration here in the Bay Area. We salute the work of Mr. Prem Chumber as a great jour-

nalist. He is the only person in the world to start and maintain a weekly pub-

lication and a website in the name of Dr. Ambedkar. We all have to learn from

the sacrifices and hard work of our brothers.

As many of you already know, our Father, Late Commissioner Lahori

Ram, paved the way for the development and upliftment of our community here in the United States. As the founder of the first Shri Guru Ravidass

Temple in North America, his tireless efforts and financial contributions have created a lasting legacy for our community. He stressed the importance

of educaton and he also stressed the economic upliftment of our people in order to make our voices be heard. He spoke at many different venues

encouraging people with his positivity and his own life lessons. He shared his trials and tribulations very candidly with everyone. He said, "If I

could come to this country penniless and now socialize with the President of the United States then why can't you?"

Dr. Ambedkar said "To have faith in yourself." Without self respect, we as a community cannot achieve anything. We need to stop

talking and start taking action. We need to support each other in our endevears and not be negative and pull each others' legs. Only when we

stand united, will we be able to accomplish our goals and fulfill the mission that Dr. Ambedkar and my Father had envisioned.

UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL

Jagdev Ram, Ajaipaul RamAttorney-at-Law

EDUCATE, AGITATE, and ORGANIZE


LateSh. Lahori RamComissioner

Jagdev Ram with his brother AjaiPaul Ram, sister, mother, wife & daughter


With thanks from “Ambedkar Times” weekly newspaper Vol. 8, Issue 1-5 dated April 13, 2016


My final words of advice to you are educate, agitateand organize; have faith in yourself. With justice onour side I do not see how we can loose our battle.The battle to me is a matter of joy. The battle is inthe fullest sense spiritual. There is nothing materialor social in it. For ours is a battle not for wealth orfor power. It is battle for freedom. It is the battle ofreclamation of human personality.

-Dr. Ambedkar


Vinod Kumar ChumberVice Chairman

Shri Guru RavidasSabha Bay-Area

It is your claim to equality which hurts them. They want to maintain the status quo. Ifyou continue to accept your lowly status ungrudgingly, continue to remain dirty, filthy,backward, ignorant, poor and disunited, they will allow you to live in peace. The momentyou start to raise your level, the conflict starts. Untouchability is not transitory or tempo-rary feature; it is eternal, it is lasting. Frankly it can be said that the struggle betweenthe Hindus and the Untouchables is a never-ending conflict. It is eternal because the re-ligion which assigns you the lowest status in society is itself divine and eternal accordingto the belief of the so-called high caste Hindus. No change warranted by change of timeand circumstances is possible.

-Dr. Ambedkar


Mr. Ram Saroay & Mrs Satya Saroay

RAM SAROAY SAROAY INVESTMENT REALTY

39039 Paseo Padre Parkway Suite # 205 Fremont, CA 94538

Office: (510) 742-8120, Fax: (510) 742-8121


YOU SHOULD BECOME RULERS TO CREATE CASTELESS SOCIETY(Continued from page no 8)

Maharashtra Mahars, I learnt hownot to run the movement. It is notjust important to learn how to runthe movement. Because, unless youknow how not to run the movement,you will not know how to run themovement.

Mahars did not handle the‘caste’ properly. They said that theywere Buddhists and no more Maha-ras. At the same time, they foughtfor reservation as Mahars! They de-manded reservation as Mahars! Evenin Buddhism, you are Mahars! Youdragged in the bad breath of ‘caste’to Buddhism also. ‘Caste’ is the badbreath of Hinduism, but it pollutedthe whole world.

A Century of reservation:Chatrapathi Shahu Maharaj providedthe educational facilities and gavereservation to Scheduled Castes inhis government on July 26, 1902.On July 26, 2002, we will be com-pleting a century of reservation.Now, it is my duty to prepare mypeople not to get the reservation butto grant reservation. How to grantreservation? It is easy to understandbut difficult to practice.

Who can grant reservation?Only rulers can grant reservation.Even to grant your own people – togive from right hand to left hand –your must become rulers. Therefore,we must prepare ourselves to be-come rulers. We should becomerulers….This is the only solution.How can the victims become rulers?

What is important?: I havenot seen Babasaheb Ambedkar whenhe was alive nor have I heard him. Ilearnt Ambedkar only through Maha-rashtra leaders. Mr. Baji Rao Kamble,who is sitting before me here withblue cap, is also one among thosewho taught me Ambedkarism. WhenMaharashtra leaders ran after Con-gress Party tickets, I had heated ar-guments with them. They said, “Ifwe stick to Ambedkarism, we cannotbecome MLAs”. Is it important to runthe movement or to become MLAs?Which is more important? I thoughtmovement was more important andI decided to run the movement. Italso came to my mind that weshould also become MLAs to run themovement. But which party will giveus such MLAs who can run themovement? Such MLAs can be pro-duced only by our own party. Then,I left Bombay and landed in Lucknow.

Castes that supportedBabasaheb: I gave a deep thought to‘caste factor’. I looked at the casteswhich supported Babasaheb Ambed-kar. His movement was led by Ma-hars in Maharashtra, Paraiahs inTamil Nadu, Malas in Andhra

Pradesh, Jatavas in Uttar Pradesh,and Chandals in West Bengal.Babasaheb could not get elected in1952 and in 1954. Hence, naturally,his followers thought, “WhenBabasaheb Ambedkar himself couldnot get elected, how can we getelected?”

Again I thought over the elec-toral victory of Babasaheb. In 1946,Babasaheb got elected in Jaisur andKulnar Constituency of Bengal.How? Chandals of Bengal had 52%of votes. They thought it was betterto send Babasaheb than anybodyelse to the Constituent Assembly.Babasaheb got elected because ofmore votes. Mahars, Paraiahs, Malas,Jatavas etc., were not in big number.Hence, they could not succeed. Theywere leaving the movement.

Babasaheb Ambedkar foughtfor all the victims of ‘caste’. But areMahars, Paraiahs, Malas etc., theonly victims of ‘caste’? Are thesethe only castes which are victimizedby the Brahminical Social Order? No,they are not the only victims of‘caste’.

6000 victimised castes:There are about 1,500 ScheduledCastes and 1,000 Scheduled Tribesand 3,743 Backward Castes, accord-ing to Mandal Commission Report.There are more than 6,000 casteswhich are victimized by the Brah-minical Social Order. Why theyshould not struggle together againstcaste system?

If they are separated, theyare minorities. Some may be more innumber and others may be less innumber. If we add them all, they area big majority. They form more than85% of the Indian population. InHindi, we call majority as “Bahujan”.

Brotherhood among BahujanSamaj: When Bahujan Samaj Partywas started; there was no BahujanSamaj in India. Bahujan Samaj Partycan succeed only when BahujanSamaj is created. Hence, we startedcreating Bahujan Samaj by develop-ing brotherhood among the 6,000victimised castes. In the last 15years – that too in the last 5 years –we could bring together 600 castes,i.e., 10% of the total number ofcastes.

With 600 castes welded to-gether, we are the fourth nationalparty today. If we weld together an-other 400 castes and make it 1,000castes, BSP becomes number oneparty of India.

I do not like speaking, thoughI keep on speaking. I do not want tospeak. I want my works to speak….my results must speak. I tell myfriends who do not agree with me, “Imay be wrong. But look at the re-

sults of my work. What do you sayabout it?”

Welding of all the castes wasdifficult. The welder was criticizedand advised not to attempt it. Butwhen the welder started his opera-tion, nothing could stop him. Hecould weld very well. If he couldweld 600 castes, why can’t he weldmany more castes?

By welding together all thecastes, we can win the politicalpower and become the rulers.

Capture Master Key: Babasa-heb Ambedkar said, “Political Poweris the master key.” Yes, it is a masterkey by which you can open all thedoors of progress.

In Maharashtra, you had agi-tated for over twenty five years to re-name the Marathwada University as‘Babasaheb Ambedkar University’.You could not succeed, because youwere not the rulers to rename theUniversity. You did not have the mas-ter key in your hand. In 1989, LateRajiv Gandhi came to Lucknow andlaid the foundation for Dr. AmbedkarUniversity. When his Congress Partywas refusing to rename the Marath-wada University after Babasaheb inMaharashtra, the same party waslaying foundation in Lucknow for Dr.Ambedkar University. People of U.P.never demanded it. It was the Maha-rashtra people who were demandingit. Why did the Congress peoplewant Dr. Ambedkar University inU.P.? Because, the people of U.P.were demanding the master key.Hence the rulers wanted to hide themaster key behind the University!(Laughter)

By acquiring master key inU.P., we started many universities,not just one university, for which Ma-harashtra people were agitating foryears. In 1994, we laid foundationfor Shahu Maharaj University in Kan-pur. In 1996, we opened MahatmaPhule University and Dr. AmbedkarUniversity. And we acquired 200acres of land for Gautam BuddhaUniversity. We created seventeennew districts of which the last one isBuddha Nagar, which is near Delhi.

You can acquire the masterkey of political power by properlyhanding the ‘caste’.

Dalithing, a refined form ofbegging: Till now, I spoke about‘caste’. Now I want to speak aboutDalits. I rarely go out of India. My fol-lowers were expecting that I wouldnot participate in this Convention.Because I am perturbed by the Dal-its. I am perturbed by their weak-nesses. Their biggest weakness isdalithing.

It has become a profession.Dalithing is a refined form of beg-

ging. Dalits and beggars go hand inhand. Beggars cannot become rulers.So also the Dalits. Direction of theirbegging hand must be changed, likethis (turns his hand downward). Ifyou do not become rulers, our prob-lems, are going to remain forever.

But how can you becomerulers being Dalits, meaning beggars?You should cease to become Dalits.You should become rulers to get ridof all your problems. That is the onlysolution.

Brahminism kills all ‘isms’:Our intellectuals think that the solu-tion lies in Marxism, communism,socialism etc. In a country whereBrahmanism is existing, no ‘ism’ cansucceed. Because no ‘ism’ has takennote of ‘caste’. Therefore the duty ofthe intellectuals – it is my duty too– is to take note of the Brahminismand create our own ‘ism’. They talkso much about unemployment…..about the one crore unemployedBrahmins. But why don’t they talkabout those ten crore refugees, whoare illiterate and unskilled. No partythinks about those ten crore people.They are our people and hence onlyour party can think about them…..Only our party can solve their prob-lems. And we can solve every prob-lem of our people by becoming therulers of India.

We have become the fourthnational party by welding together600 castes and by welding 1,000castes; we will become the rulers ofIndia. Within three years, we will bethe rulers of India.

Kanshi Ram Phenomenon: Iam not thrusting my ideas on others.I only narrated my experience. It isfor you to benefit from my experience.

You can create a castelesssociety by becoming rulers. This ismy solution. Why should the benefi-ciaries of caste destroy the ‘caste’system?

Victims of caste alone haveto destroy the ‘caste’ system. Thiscan be done only by becoming rulers.Rulers alone can destroy the caste system.

You may think that I am ask-ing for the impossible. But I have al-ways been asking for the impossibleand I am getting it too. This is KanshiRam phenomenon. Kanshi Ram phe-nomenon is becoming the nationalphenomenon.Have the right thinkingto go further and a new vision to cre-ate a casteless society.

My solution is that you cancreate a casteless society by becom-ing rulers. Rulers alone can create anew society.

Jai Bhim! Jai Bharat!!By Pramod Kureel Ex MP (BSP)


Bihari Lal Chahal

smUh sRI ibhfrI lfl cfhl pirvfr

The minorities in India have loyally accepted the rule ofthe majority which is basically a communal majority andnot a political majority. It is for the majority to realize itsduty not to discriminate against minorities. Whether theminorities will continue or will vanish must depend uponthis habit of majority. The moment the majority loosesthe habit of discriminating against the minority, the mi-norities can have no ground to exist. They will vanish.

Dr. Ambedkar



Amardeep Chahal with his wife Promila Chahal


We must begin by acknowledging that there is a complete absence of two things in

Indian Society. One of these is equality. On the social plane we have an India based

on the principles of graded inequality, which means elevation for some and degradation

for others. On the economic plane we have a society in which there are some who

have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty. - Dr. Ambedkar

Heartiest congratulations on Dr. Ambedkar’s

126th birth anniversary ajIq bMgV - rmyÈ bMgV

Indians today are gov-

erned by two different

ideologies. Their political

ideal set in the preamble

of the Constitution af-

firms a life of liberty,

equality and fraternity.

Their social ideal embod-

ied in their religion de-

nies them.

- Dr. Ambedkar

Swaran Kaur Vidriand all Virdi Family



Heartiest congratulations

on Dr. Ambedkar’s 126th

birth anniversary

Phone : 510-490-8200 Fax : 510-490-8202

We are in this business since 1989.Your satisfaction is our goal.

959 Corporate Way, Fremont, CA. 94539

Untouchability has ruined the Untouchables, the Hindus and ultimatelythe nation as well. If the depressed classes gained their self-respectand freedom, they would contribute not only to their own progress andprosperity but by their industry intellect and courage would contributealso to the strength and prosperity of the nation. If the tremendous en-ergy Untouchables are at present required to fritter away in combatingthe stigma of Untouchability had been saved them, it would have beenapplied by them to the promotion of education and development of re-sources of their nation as a whole. -Dr. Ambedkar

Amrik Chand (CPA)

From the point of view of annihilation of caste, the struggle of the saints didnot have any effects on society. The value of a man is axiomatic and self-ev-ident; it does not come to him from the gilding of Bhakti. The saints did notstruggle to establish this point. On the contrary their struggle had very un-healthy effect on the depressed classes. It provided the Brahmins with an ex-cuse to silence them by telling them that they would be respected if theyattained the status of Chokhamela.

-Dr. Ambedkar


Bansi Lal

Bangar

www.deshdoaba.comwww.ambedkartimes.com 17V0l-9 Issue-4-7 April 27, 2017

Learn to live in this world with self-respect. You shouldalways cherish some ambition of doing something in thisworld. But remember that the age of selflessness hasended. A new epoch is set in. All things are now possiblebecause of your being able to participate in the politicsand legislature of your country.

- Dr. Ambedkar



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It is disgraceful to live at the cost of one’s self-respect. Self-respect is the most vital factor in life. Without it, man isa cipher. To live worthily with self-respect, one has to over-come difficulties. It is out of hard and ceaseless struggle alonethat one derives strength, confidence and recognition.

- Dr. Ambedkar


mWKx isMG bYNs igafnI rivMdr isMG

John Dewey said: “Every society gets encumbered with

what is trivial, with what is dead wood from the past and

what is positively perverse. As a society becomes more

enlightened, it realizes that it is responsible not to con-

serve and transmit the whole of its achievement, but only

such as makes a better future society”

- Dr. Ambedkar

Heartiest congratulationson Dr. Ambedkar’s 126th

birth anniversary


My social philosophy may be said to be enshrined in threewords: liberty, equality and fraternity. My philosophy hasroots in religion and not in political science. I have derived

them from the teachings of my master, the Buddha.- Dr. Ambedkar

Heartiest congratulations on Dr. Ambedkar’s 126th birth anniversaryEducate! Agitate! Organize!

You are cordially Invited to

126th Birthday Celebration

“Bharat Ratna” Dr. B.R. AmbedkarFounding father of Modern India

An Economist Extraordinaire,

Greatest reviver of Buddhism,

Most Inspirational leader

of

Venue:Golden Peacock Banquets, 24989 SantaClare Street Hayward, CA 94544 (USA)

Performance byALKA BHATNAGAR,

U.P. "RATNA AWARDEE“and her students

BHANGRA by: Jaya Sharmaand her students

Promoters: Desh Doaba Newspaper,S. Ashok Bhaura, Faqira Mehmi,Banga Constructions, Kewal Bolina,Hans Raj Kajla, Om Parkash Balley,RAM Brothers, Kashmiri Bhatia,Shinder Paul Narabat, Dr. HarmeshKumar, Som Nath Bhatia, Major &Gina Bhatia, Dr. Gagan Deep Mall,Ram Nath Chamber, Harmesh Ban-gar, Narinder Chahal, Balbir Thind,Ram Labhaya.

Ambedkar International Center, USA, Ambedkar Educational Aid Society, USAwww.ambedkarinternationalcentre.org

RSVP;Ram Saroay 510-368-3983Amrik Chand 510-329-3215Shashi Paul 707-372-5657

Ram Kumar 408-406-3582Tavinder Kazla 916-300-5398Vinod Chumber 510-953-9800

Ramesh Suman 925-366-3618

Sunday April 30, 2017 Time: 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Guest of Honor: Honorable Consul General Venkatesan Ashok ji

Alma MaterUniversity of MumbaiColumbia UniversityUniversity of London

London School of Economics

AIC USAAEAS, USA

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