For many of us, Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birthday is the biggest celebration of the year, followers of Babasaheb Ambedkar had started celebrating his birthday in large numbers even when Babasaheb was alive. With the Coronavius situation in place, this year Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti would look very different. There would be no mass gatherings, no visits to Dikhabhoomi or Chaityabhoomi, no neighbourhood gatherings, no children painting or quiz competitions, no bookstalls of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s books and no celebratory lunches. (Even the thoughts of all this is making me sad!)

But still many of us will be trying to remember Babasaheb Ambedkar and celebrate his birthday maybe just a little differently. We will be celebrating sitting in our living rooms.

Yesterday, a user on Twitter sent me a direct message and asked how to celebrate Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birthday this year while staying within the limits and restrictions imposed by the government of India to curb Coronavirus. So, I tried to put some ideas here on how can we celebrate Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Jayanti while sitting at home. I understand well that many of these suggestions might not be possible for everyone because of various reasons. But for those who are in a position or capable of having good internet connection or laptop or access to other tools and technologies, here are some of the ideas.

Online Celebration of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Birthday

1. Organize video chats – Set up video chat groups or webinars to discuss the life and mission of Babasaheb Ambedkar and let your family and friends join those. You could arrange a guest speaker as well. There are various free tools and apps which you could use to organize video chat groups. Further, you could record your video message or the meetings and share it on social media.

To all the TikTokers and Instagramers, we challenge you to record a video while reciting 22 vows of Babasaheb Ambedkar in your local language or language of your preference and share with us on Twitter at @Velivada. You can find 22 vows in different languages from our website.

2. Get involved in a Twitter/Facebook storms – In recent years, many of us try to storm Twitter/Facebook with the ideas of Babasaheb Ambedkar. We frequently use hashtags to make those hashtags trend on these social media platforms and we have succeeded many times. Twitter recently also launched Twitter emoji on Babasaheb’s birthday celebration. You could use the following hashtags to activate those emojis –

#AmbedkarJayanti
#JaiBhim
#जयभीम
#अंबेडकरजयंती

Create images and videos from the quotes of Babasaheb Ambedkar and bombard social media!

How does #SelfieWithBabasaheb sound to you? Click a selfie with Babasaheb Ambedkar’s photos in your home or Babasaheb Ambedkar’s books and share on social media.

3. Create WhatsApp/Telegram chat groups and discuss – So, you are not a big fan of video chats, you can set up WhatsApp/Telegram chat groups to discuss the contribution of Babasaheb Ambedkar. Create and share Babasaheb Ambedkar greeting messages to each other. You can get some of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s real-life images from our website.

4. Go live on Twitter/Facebook/YouTube – You can go live on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube and show everyone your family tradition on celebrating Babasaheb Ambedkar’s anniversary. I remember joining one such live event where Buddhist monks were performing religious ceremonies.

Or go live when cooking traditional Dalit food and share tips and recipe with others. If you have ever taken part in a community kitchen, cooking for Dr Ambedkar’s Jayanti celebrations, you can talk and share with your followers/friends about your experiences of that time.

5. Online reading and writing sessions – Organize online reading sessions, you could use Amazon Kindle apps on mobile or computers. You can collaborate on Google Docs and maybe edit or write together tributes to Babasaheb Ambedkar as well. Write your tribute to Babasaheb Ambedkar and send us those and we will be happy to publish that! And finally, you can send us images of the books you are reading by tagging us on Twitter at @Velivada.

6. Create a playlist of Dr Ambedkar songs on your favourite music channel/platform – Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birthday celebration without motivational songs about Babasaheb and Dalit-Bahujan icons is incomplete! So, why not create a playlist on your favourite songs around Dr Ambedkar on Spotify or Soundcloud or any other music/sharing platform and share with others?

You can listen to songs from the Babasaheb Ambedkar movie from here.

7. How about sending e-gift cards to your family and friends – Do you give gifts on Dr Ambedkar’s birthday? Buying and giving books to each other on Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Jayanti is one of the main traditions. While Brahmins might have cow-urine drinking or cow-dung eating stall at their celebration, one would not find any Dalit-Bahujan icon’s celebration without a bookstall. So, why not keep up the tradition alive in the digital world as well?

Go ahead and buy e-gift cards for your family and friends. If you would like to send us such gift-card and support Velivada books giveaway initiative, please donate to Velivada.

8. Organize Facebook watch party – So, how many times have you watched Babasaheb Ambedkar movie directed by Jabbar Patel? Do not ask me that question as I would not be able to answer because I have watched that uncounted number of times!

I also know many friends who watch this movie together on the birth and death anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar. With technology, it is still possible to sit on your couch at your home and watch a movie together with your friends and family members.

You can set up Facebook Watch Party to watch the movie together with your friends and family. You can get the Babasaheb Ambedkar movie in Hindi/English/Tamil/Telugu from here.

9. Organize art/craft/painting/quiz sessions online – I know as a child how excited I used to be for this day of Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti celebration. So, given this year it would be difficult to come out of our homes for celebration, children will miss the opportunity to participate in different children events organized around the celebration. But it does not have to be like this.

You can organize art/craft/painting sessions with your children. We have some children colouring images. You can download those from here.

If you are interested in hosting an online quiz session with your friends, you can check out some quiz apps and websites, one such example is myQuiz. myQuiz allows up to 100 players to participate for free and you can create free quizzes. You could put together a quiz for family and friends on the life of Babasaheb Ambedkar and Dalit History.

These are just some of the ideas on the top of my head. You can get your participants involved in various other activities you can think of such as sharing their best Babasaheb Ambedkar’s quote, what qualities of Babasaheb Ambedkar impress them the most or creating something special for Babasaheb’s birthday celebration.

Share your experiences with us

How will you be marking Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birthday this year? Are you adapting your usual traditions to a life under the lockdown/curfew or setting new traditions, perhaps having lunch over video chat with family and friends, watching the movie together or bringing children painting competition sessions indoors? Or will you be setting some new traditions this year?

Are you taking part in any official Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Jayanti celebration events under lockdown? Do you know any online event taking place to celebrate Dr Ambedkar Jayanti?

We are interested in hearing how are you celebrating Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Jayanti in 2020 under lockdown? Let us know in the comments section and send us your images of celebration from your home at our email id velivada[@]gmail.com or by tagging us on Twitter at @Velivada

Let us know your plans to celebrate Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birth anniversary in 2020.

Author – Pardeep Attri