One man one value
was the egalitarian message of
Dr. BhīmraoBabasaheb Ramji Ambedkar, a revolutionary who
challenged the social order where the contradiction of caste and class
enjoyed a prominent role through centuries. Dr. Ambedkar battled to
change the existing social order which stood upon caste and class
and tried to plant the seed of ‘social justice' by advocating various
issues pertaining to plight of caste system and untouchability,
human rights, labourers, women rights and above all the Indian
politics. Born in the family of mahar in Maharashtra, he had to face all
the indignities and discrimination that an untouchable was destined to
face.
So he arose out of inequalities and humiliation throughout his life and
stood for the establishment ofsociety based on the socio-economic
and political justice as his whole life itself is a perennial source of saga
of social justice. The idea of social justice is built upon the foundation
of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity' where every person residing is
capable of getting equal opportunities. So this paper basically deals
with the principles of Dr. Ambedkar which are necessary to strengthen
the arena of social justice.
Concept of social justice
Social justice implies that all benefits and privileges in the society
should be shared by all its members. If there is any structural
inequalitytowards any particular section, the government should take
affirmative action in eliminating such inequalities. In simple terms it is
related to the idea of positive liberalism and with the concept of
welfare state. It stands for that kind of state whose functions are not
limited to law and order but are extended to take care of the people
who are not in a position to help themselves. According to Ambedkar,
his social justice is based on moral values and self -respect. Justice
situates through social, political and economic justices regulated by
constitution.
Ambedkar's reflection on Hindu social system vis a vis
untouchability
Ambedkar wanted to reorganise the society on equality and rationality,
therefore opposed the caste based on social structure which he
thought, was characterised by graded inequalities. According to
Ambedkar, the Hindu Society, in common was composed of four
classes namely, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishya and Shudhras. These
classes became an enclosed unit called caste and brought with it
unequal distribution of benefits and privileges. He was a staunch
believer that in order to make a society based on equality and
fraternity, the caste system must abolish, so being the victim of such
discrimination, he decided to give his life to fight battle against this
system.
Caste implies a system in which status and occupation are hereditary
and descend from father to son. With the development of caste, all the
requirements of just social order were lost. With the fixation of
individuals into castes and sub-caste, their status and occupation
were fixed by birth. The individual was not a free human to choose his
course of action. Such system of regarding the status of individual by
birth lead to disorganisation of Hindu society.
The Shudras became the worst sufferers as their position was worse
than slaves, they were denied basic access to water, wells, temple
was out of reach and they were forced to live in dirty places in the
outskirts of villages. Their touch shadow or mere voice was enough to
pollute the caste Hindus.Ambedkar himself probed the caste system.
His three tracts are annihilation of caste, who were Shudras? and the
untouchables. His findings were as follows. Initially Varna's were
based on worth but in the course of time worth was replaced to birth
and the four Varna's were regarded as castes. The principle of graded
inequality fixed the contact between castes.
There was according to Ambedkar a close relation between caste
system and untouchability. It was therefore not possible to abolish the
one without abolishing the other. There can be no severance between
the two as untouchability is the extension of caste system. he opined
that the two stand together and fall together. He therefore favoured
abolition of caste system and reorganisation of society on the basis on
equality, liberty and fraternity only then social justice could be
achieved.
After several movements and struggles of Ambedkar to abolish the
evil of untouchability, laws were incorporated in the Indian Constitution
to commemorate the great oppression faced by the
untouchables. Article 17 of the Indian Constitution abolished
untouchability and declared it as a punishable act. According to this,
no one can restrict the Dalit's or Harijans from entering temples,
streets, buses, etc. the constitution also provides reservation to these
class by virtue of article 15(4) and 29(2) read with article 341 of the
Indian constitution.
Ambedkar and ‘state socialism'
The theory of state socialism in India has developed by Dr. Ambedkar.
He submitted a memorandum entitled as ‘State and Minorities' in the
constituent assembly on behalf of all India schedule caste federation
in the year 1946. In his memorandum he opined that any privilege or
extra privilege arising out of any rank, birth, caste or sub-caste should
be abolished in order to achieve social democracy. Ambedkars
concept of State Socialism is based on the following points;
State ownership of agriculture and key industries to meet the
demand of poorer strata of society.
Maintenance of productive resources by state.
A just distribution of common produce among the different
people without any distinction within caste or creed.
The aims and objectives of his state socialism are to remove the
extreme inequalities and evil caste system from the society. The
concept of state socialism is based on principles on justice.
To him, men are different from each other by virtue of their birth,
mental ability, faculty, hereditary and social atmosphere but they
should enjoy equal opportunities for their upliftment.
The state socialism does not want to abolish the state but stands for
removing the evil of capitalist discrimination, ambedkar believed that
state alone can remove exploitation and can promote collective
welfare. The means of production must be nationalised.
At the round table conference Dr. Ambedkar argued with the soul of
social justice and the indictment not merely of caste system but also of
stratified classes of injustice everywhere. To strengthen the position of
depressed classes and tribal, he demanded special reservation for
them in legislature and public services.
These productive measures were desideratum because he knew the
social position would not change even if country is free from foreign
rule. He also championed for the cause of women progress through
various movements and legislations as well. He called upon to abolish
the Devadasi system and advocated to women's right to education,
property and divorce through the Hindu Code Bill (1951).
He also propounded the labour charter which has been the guidelines
for labour welfare in the independent India. He also advocated the
holiday benefits, maternity benefit, health and sanitation and social
security for the welfare of labours. So to establish a state control
society based on liberty, equality, morality and fraternity, it is needed
to apply all kinds of equalities to all the fields of social, economic,
political.
Conclusion
The study concludes that Ambedkar's notion of social justice is based
on liberty and dignity and as a result of his thought Indian constitution
guarantees equal rights to all irrespective of caste. It is because of his
round the clock effort that diminished the oppression of Dalit to some
extent.
The reason why I mentioned to some extent is, even though the
constitution has protected the rights of oppressed, even though the
revolutionaries sacrificed their lives for equality, still they face
discrimination on daily basis may be the degree has decreased but
not the oppression.
It is because of the lack of knowledge on the part of so called upper
caste. Of course Varna system has conferred different classes,
different duties but nowhere it has conferred any privilege or the sense
of domination on the part of upper caste. So the only thing caste
system is achieved is, it disorganised the very social order of the
society. From the denial of basic public necessities to becoming one
of the many Presidents, India has still a long way to achieve the quest
of Social Justice.
