By Anand Teltumbde
05 May, 2015
Countercurrents.org
Countercurrents.org
If the number of statues, memorabilia, pictures and posters; songs and ballads, books and pamphlets, or the size of congregations in memory were the parameters to measure greatness, there may not be any other great in history who can rival Babasaheb Ambedkar. Newer and newer places and events are getting added to the list of his memorials where ever growing congregations take place every passing year. He has been such a phenomenon that after a while it would be difficult for people to believe that such a person who had to struggle to drink water from a public water source, open for cats and dogs, ever walked on this planet. Even the gods in heaven, if they exist, would be jealous of him. What might be behind this miracle? There is no doubt that he has been a messiah for Dalits, initially only a section of them and now the most of them. It is natural for them to be beholden for what he has done to them single handedly and single mindedly. True though, it would be pure naïveté to believe it to be the lone and the entire cause. The catalytic role played by the ruling classes in constructing and promoting Ambedkar icon has been major one and mutually reinforcing.
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