Shashi Tharoor on Ambedkar, 'India’s First Male Feminist' And His Extraordinary Relevance Today

Shashi Tharoor, in his latest work, Ambedkar: A Life, has been able to paint a clear, concise and moving portrait of Dr BR Ambedkar. The author makes it a point to set the tone with the initial pages itself as we see the young man charting his course through the parochial ways of the world. While Ambedkar’s own autobiography, Waiting for a Visa, is enough for a young reader to understand what his life was like, Tharoor’s biography of the luminary adds more to the circumstances that made him the towering scholar that he was.

“I have written two biographies and they both follow the same template. One is on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the other is on Dr. BR Ambedkar. Each of these are short because the honest truth is that in today’s day and age the great books on these wonderful individuals are almost 700 or 800 pages long. Others run into numerous volumes," says Tharoor, who spoke to News18 on the sidelines of Tata Literature Live! Mumbai Litfest.

The intent here, he says, is clear; to get young minds to understand Ambedkar. This is particularly important for the man is deified, appropriated and quoted by almost every political party. This practice, especially in India, is known to take the shine off many a icons. “(With tomes) we know that young people will not get into it. And mostly the information (on Ambedkar) would be received from headlines here and there. Here you have something which is readable, short, focused and leaves out nothing significant in terms of episodes in his life, it addresses his concerns and arguments but at the same time gives you a 21st century assessment of his legacy. Although he passed away 65 years ago at the age of 65, this seemed to be the perfect moment to actually look back on his life."

Tharoor points out that the achievements of the man are staggering. So much so that a person born to privilege would find it hard to match Ambedkar’s accomplishments. “Here is somebody who is the 14th child of a Subedar of a Dalit background, born in an army regiment in a tiny cantonment town. Where does a boy like this go on to become a giant that Dr Ambedkar was. It is an extraordinary life," he says.

Watch the full interview here:

Ambedkar’s position as a towering figure also means that today, the man is deified like nobody else is, something that he himself would’ve despised. “You can understand people deifying him," says Tharoor, adding, “However, he never wanted it. He actually said that bhakti in politics is the worst thing imaginable. I think he would be horrified with the way he is being worshipped and the way people literally treat him like a God. He would not have wanted it."

Did that mean it was hard to humanise him? Not so much, says Tharoor. “As a human being, he humanises himself through his own writings. When you read his own accounts of some of the really painful episodes in his life, it is impossible not to be moved by the man’s humanity and his feelings. Therefore, it was not that hard to imagine Ambedkar the human being, Ambedkar the boy, Ambedkar the student, Ambedkar the young lawyer etc. Moreover, as a politician, he did not have as much success. Yet, he left an impact which has vastly exceeded anything he could have done had he won more elections."

Ambedkar was a champion of women’s rights. Perhaps this is the side to him which is not spoken about much. His quotes on marriage (cautioning the need for financial independence before marriage) and pregnancy (where he emphasizes the need for consent among married couples) has acquired a patina that will resonate with many around the world. “When you think about the era in which he spoke for women’s rights, this was 80-90 years ago. This is an extraordinarily far sighted human being. Also, when he was the legislator in the Bombay assembly he actually legislated greater rights for female labourers, much greater amount of leaves including during a particular time of the month and fought for  their right to receive comparable wages to men workers."

In 1938, Ambedkar tried to pass a legislation granting government funded birth control for women. It lost on the grounds of ‘immorality’. When one juxtaposes this which the situation in America and with the marital rape laws debate in India, Ambedkar emerges as a man who lends himself to the feminist movements around the globe.

“He really was India’s first male feminist of any consequence. His consciousness of the issues, the way he expressed them and the manner in which he expressed them so early in an era when these things are not there. He raised Dalit issues when some upper caste Hindus thought that would be a distraction from the freedom struggle. He raised feminist issues at a time when women’s place in a society was taken for granted by men. He really was a thinker ahead of his time in every respect," says Tharoor.

The author says this is a striking element to his personality for he did not really know much about his own mother. “She passed away when he was a toddler. He has been accused by some of not having given enough importance to his wife though I would argue that he actually was an amazingly supportive and admiring husband. You get this indication through his own writings."

Ambedkar: A Life is just over 240 pages long and Tharoor hopes that it makes for a perfect introductory gateway to the man for young minds. A better understanding of Ambedkar is essential before judging why he wielded the facility of piercing prose in his fight against injustice.

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