Introduction
The soil of India was blessed with a son namely Dr.
Bhimrao Ambedkar born in a Mahar caste considered to be the lowest in
Hindu social order. Dr. Ambedkar defying all the humiliations because of his
low caste attained higher education and established himself as a crusader against injustice in India society.
The life of Dr. Ambedkar was a mission against the
prevalent social evils such as untouchability, varna system and degraded
status of women. His contribution in the named sector proclaims him the title
of modern social reformer.
Dr. Ambedkar’s entire life was devoted towards mankind
and promoting spirit of nationalism and patriotism by chanting the mantra of
equality, liberty and fraternity which shall be evident from discussion in this
article under appropriate sub headings by deciphering his ideas and philosophy
of social justice.
The Concept of Indian Social Justice and Ancient Hindu
Society.
The approach
towards justice by Indian society was in consonance with performance of duties
as per Dharma rather than enjoyment of rights. The two major pillars of
Justice were Dandaniti i.e. modern day’s law and punishment and Dharma
i.e. code of duties.
The social order was arranged as per the varna system
i.e. bifurcation of status into four orders, the Brahamna, the
Khastriya, the Vaishya, the Shudras. This arrangement of
social order is also known as Varnashrama Dharma which rejects the
fundamental concept that every individual was born equal with equal
opportunities resulting into inequalities and dehumanization. Dr. Ambedkar on
the point of varnashrama dharma stated that this vedic principle
dictates the duty of individual as per caste, determined by birth which was
negation of social justice[1] as
there was no liberty of occupation or equality of opportunity to rise to the
higher strata of the society. The other practices of social injustices can be
exposed through the Ashramvyavastha and slavery through the varna
and jati system in Hindu social order[2].
The reliance must be laid upon the two major oppressed
sections i.e.Shudras, who were lowest in the social order was considered
as untouchables and denied access to public paths, temple, rivers and normally
to everything which was enjoyed by the upper castes and the women who were
denied education and declared to be devoid of spiritual potentiality[3]. This
two sections attracted particular concern of Babashaeb is highlighted under the
below headings.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: The Crusader of Social Justice;
Philosophy and Struggle.
Dr. Ambedkar belonged to Mahar caste which was
treated as untouchable and subject to socio-economic discrimination.
Babasaheb’s life was no exception to this evil practice but he was armed with
only one weapon, his power of logic and thought and consistently fought for the
upliftment of downtrodden sections. The contribution of Dr. Ambedkar in
evolution of law and social justice can be evaluated from the statement of
Former Chief Justice of India P.B. Gajendragadkar who said “Ambedkar is law
maker of 20th century and modern manu but unlike old manu this new
manu favoured equality and social justice.”
It is pertinent to simplify the term social justice to
understand the struggle and philosophy of Dr. Ambedkar. The term has been used
widely by many philosophers and thinkers. According to Utilitarianismtheory
social justice is the component of justice which stands for fraternity to
ensure fair development of human beings.[4]John
Rawls in his theory of justice says “all social primary goods-liberty and
opportunity, income and wealth, and the basis of selfrespect are to be
distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any or all of these goods
is to the advantage of the least favoured”[5]. In
contemporary period social justice was defined none other than pioneer of
Judicial Activism Justice Krishan Iyarwho expressed that “social justice
is not cant but conscience, not verbal borrowing from like documents but the
social force of the supreme law”. Social
justice is people oriented, legal justice is canalized, controlled and
conferred by law[6].
The basic idea derived from foregoing is that social
justice means fair society and each individual who have been subjected social
oppression from several years must get opportunity to live a dignified life.Dr.
Ambedkar’s directs the path of Buddham, Dhammam and Sangham i.e.
education, agitation and organisation which is the basic requirement to
achieve social justice.
It is evident to understand the struggle of Dr.
Ambedkar’s life which led to development of his philosophy. At first, he had
two fold struggle aimed at exposing the Hindu social order meant to protect the
status of Brahmins and other to refuse the argument made in support of such
practices. Few measures adopted by him in are establishing Bahiskrut Hitakarini
Sabha in 1924, Evolution to Dalit Poetry, Hindu Code Bill in post independence
era, abolishing discrimination through Fundamental Rights and Directive
Principles of State Policy in Indian Constitution and demand for reservation
for dalits.
To conclude with his philosophy it could be summarized
that it was the outcome of these struggle and days of humiliations which gave
birth to his philosophy of social justice in which he advocated for liberty
for action and expression, equalitywhich binds men together and fraternity
for sense of brotherhood in all Indians and said divorcing anyone from the
trinity shall defeat the very purpose of democracy[7] and
blessed new born independent India with Social Democracy.
Dr. Ambedkar’s Vision of Ideal Society and Present
Scenario.
The Ambedkar’s vision of ideal society rests on the
proposition that a just society is that in which ascending sense of reverence
and descending sense of contempt is dissolved into the creation of a
compassionate society.
The concept of ideal society is apparently clear from
the philosophy of Babasaheb, therefore under this heading efforts has been made
to present the outline of his ideas and vision for a just society specifically
through the below mentioned points-
· The
society must be based liberty, equality and fraternity and follow the religion
of rationality by rejecting traditional dogmas and superstitious beliefs.
·
Individual
must be regarded as above the society and should be treated as ends and not as
means.
· The evil practices of casteism and untouchability must
be abolished and constitutional ideas based on Fundamental Rights and Directive
Principles of State Policy must be cherished.
· The status in the society should not be determined by
birth but by merits and achievement and believed in one man one value.
· There must be division of labour in the society based
on individual ability and every individual shall have freedom to choose ones’s
occupation or profession.
· Society must thrive for benevolence, mutual love,
tolerance and spiritual awakening.
· The press is essential part for the development of
society.
· Dr. Ambedkaar was feminist of his era who consistently
advocated for upliftment of women through education and access to material and
social resources.
The foregoing points reflects the vision of social
democracy as Babasaheb believed political democracy can never succeed without
social and economical democracy which is very well evident from usage of terms
in preamble in order of social, economical and at last political.
The vision of Dr. Ambedkar when examined with present
scenario of the society appears to be dormant in nature because few practices
which were rigorously disregarded by him are still followed such as dominance
of casteism, Obstacle in inter-caste marriage, bonded labour due to economic
and social conditions, mob lynching in name of religion, vote bank politics
against Dalit community and disrespect to women in form of heavy and irrational
social restrictions, sexual offences against women and huge discrimination
between rich and poor based on income and wealth.
Today, Babasaheb is not with us to guide the society
but his never diminishing ideas still prevails in academic studies and theories
which needs to be applied pragmatically in the society and within every
individual to attain the dream of sustainable society through social justice.
The topic of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Social Justice is
never ending and cannot be restricted within few words under the heading of
conclusion as the ideas and philosophy of Babasaheb is to renovated and
rejuvenated by each generation of the this country to attain the self
determined goals and gift a level playing field to upcoming generations.
The completion of any work based on Babasaheb can
never be a sigh of relief rather a sense of regret as his several contribution
may go unnoticed and uncherished due to his immense personality and benefaction
for the society.
[3]
Dr. Ambedkar on women’s emancipation, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar series Pub.
of Ambedkar Peeta, KSOU, Mysore, 2005,
P.5.
[4]
Nazeer.H.Khan, “B.R. Ambedkar on federalism, ethnicity and junder
justice” Deep&Deep Pub. NewDelhi, P.151.
[6] Krishna Iyar
“B.R. Ambedkar Centenary, Social Justice and the Undone vast Justice” B.R Pub.
Delhi, 1991, P.141.
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