Babasaheb Ambedkar was against the heroes and hero worship, but he agreed that the history is the biography of the great men and women. History is the creation of human mind as much as it is the biography of great men and women. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s life shows how his life created history as we look back after his death in 1956. One of the remarkable facts about Babasaheb’s life is the continuous creation of history after his death as well.

The great men and women live life in accordance with their commitment to certain values that they imbibe in their lives and strive to share them with others. Sometimes, the great men and women have to create new values and change the old value system completely, even they seek to destroy inhuman structures and practices.

Babasaheb was born in the time that gave no hope to the people born in the untouchable caste. Over 20 percent of what is now known as Indian population had no hope whatsoever to even become human beings. They were condemned by the caste system to live like lesser humans and exist if they could on the subhuman level. Babasaheb rose from the mighty downward pull of the Hindu Caste system to become the liberated sentient being, fully embracing his own humanity and taking it to the highest possible level for human beings to reach.

This flight from what is gross, subhuman, inhuman, degrading, and self-defeating to the lofty, highly human, respectful, self-respectful, reverential has no parallel in the history of the humanity. Even an objective study of Babasaheb’s life will offer humanity much-needed hope that nothing is lost if a human being tries to cultivate himself to the highest possible level in order to make his/her existence beneficial to others.

This is what Babasaheb Ambedkar did. He refused to become the victim of the society, circumstances, slander, malice, mockery, and the inhuman caste system. He rebelled but did not repulse. He rose above the oppressors but did not oppress them in return. He is not only an ideal of the people he led out of the hell of the caste system, but the people who create the hell of the caste should also bend themselves before what he did for them. He sought to liberate the total humanity through his total devotion to liberating his own people.

Babasaheb’s quest began where it should begin with his own kindred who were forced to subhuman life. He began there, but he refused to confine them there in the society full of degradation and hatred. He freed them so that they can cohabit with what is human, what is sublime, what is limitless, what is respectful, and what is uplifting.

With no strength other than the strength of his mind and strength of his conviction, Babasaheb Ambedkar achieved what is humanly impossible and that is to make his fellow human beings aware of the possibilities exist for them if they chose to be free and fearless. He unshackled the chains that bound his people for centuries and gave them boundlessness.

Human beings die is the law of nature and the unenlightened folks live to be able to live in the lives of their offsprings. The humanity at large lives for the survival of genes, but the great men and women like Babasaheb Ambedkar goes beyond mere survival of the humanity on the genetic level, but they advance it to the further level where human beings can live to the highest possibility for the humanity: the possibility that is open to all to be free and fearless, but denied by the societies, cultures, and politics that only tries to make a few privileged and others servants to keep their priviledges.

Jai Bhim is, therefore, the enlightened invocation to the spirit of freedom and fearlessness which captures the essence of Babasaheb’s own liberated and fearless mind.

Jai Bhim!

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale

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