The four of us were bundled on our black beauty last night (read: honda activa scooter - in proper Bharat style) and were puttering through the streets of Thane when we came up to a procession which had stopped the traffic on both sides. A marriage I thought at first. But then I saw police lights flashing. A religious procession of some sort.
It was. Amidst the drum beats and men dancing in front of the drummers - amidst the lights and sound courtesy of the generator van in tow - there was displayed on main chariot in God-like form a image of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. April 14th is the birthday of Dr. Ambedkar - who has easily surpassed Gandhi as the first and foremost icon of backward-caste empowerment in India today.
So much has brand Ambedkar been used that we now have politicians of every hue pasting his icongraphic image on anything that they want to have take on a social justice hue. The icon is one of a plump, slightly serious bespeckled face - usually wearing a suit of some shade of blue.
What intrigues me is how a man whose in life was known for his formidable learning, keen intellect and political acumen today is revered largely as a deity. Ambedkar's choice of Buddhism as the religion to lead his followers into (one of his famous statements being that he was born a Hindu but would not die one) seems largely pragmatic in nature. He does not seem to have had much of a religious bent at all (like many of his contemporaries including Nehru and Jinnah) in the sense of personal piety and devotion. But that certainly has not stopped his own deification - especially as time flows by and the historical Ambedkar conveniently becomes fainter and fainter - while the symbolic Ambedkar continues to grow as a repository of hope.
On our journey to our weekly meeting to break bread and remember the death and resurrection of Christ, we pass through an area of Thane controlled by a local political dynasty. The whole family seems involved in politics - by the numerous banners and hoardings at least. Mother and father beam happily from various huge placards - with sons of various ages (all the way down to what seems a pre-teen local-politician-in-the-making) grinning at various strategic locations. It is no secret what party they belong to - given the generous pictures of Ambedkar who they have photo-shopped into their midst. Our dear Father of the constitution would be sadly bemused - if not outraged - to see how crassly people use his icon to further their own empires. The question that remains is why is his image so powerful. There have been other powerful leaders of the struggle for nationhood - but we rarely see their images - and certainly not as objects of personal devotion.
I think that Ambedkar has won the icon sweepstakes because he remained true to his vision - a single-minded agenda of social power for many who were in various stages of bondage. While certainly not successful in every effort towards this empowerment agenda - he remains most clearly linked with the formation of a dalit consciousness and laid the organising framework for different caste groupings to demand rights and entitlements. Ambedkar's role as the major drafter of the national constitution is a pale second place in this light. People do not dance in front of an image because that person helped draft a constitution. Worship is always the giving of our devotion to a figure much larger than our lives.
We are hungry for worship. I remember the first experience of watching a Pink Floyd concert on video (back in 1990 or so). The camera opened up in darkness. The occasional strobe of a laser started firing. Then the first notes of shine on you crazy diamond were played, with the guitarist back lit by a coloured spotlight. The crowd roars. Roars. And the camera pans out to show a sea of light - thousands of lighters lit up across the darkened stadium as the worship is complete - individual voices melded together in a cathartic anthem that took them far beyond a set of musical chords.
Dr. Ambedkar has been deified. In big and small ways. Almost endlessly it seems across our nation. Take a look at the pic below:
We have a shot of the head of the doorway to a home. Above a set of deities is Dr. Ambedkar - with the Buddha placed in the background. Below are a set of hearts saying "Shub Dipa.." the last heart is missing to wish the people entering an auspicious Diwali. There are two other objects of devotion though. In the upper right hand corner is a small piece of a horse shoe. Put up for luck it seems. And snaking down from above - into the ventilation hole near the ceiling - is none other than the almost ubiquitous black cable that pipes Bollywood dreams into people's homes every day. Probably the greatest object of devotion in our land today is our TV.
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