Author – Vishwanath Shegaonkar, IAS (Retired)

In Greek mythology, the life story of Prometheus, a Titan, was remarkably interesting and adventurous who had protected humankind from its extinction at the hands of Zeus, the tyrant Greek God. In ancient Greece, wild beasts used to attack human beings and eat their flesh day in and day out without any breather. The humans tried their best to protect themselves from such deadly attacks but for want of effective tools, they could not succeed to contain the critical situation they were placed in. Therefore, it was feared and terribly felt that a catastrophe of enormous proportion was imminent; humanity might vanish in no time.  

The legend further adds that though the discovery of the ‘fire’ was known to man to effectively deal with the fatal attacks of the wild beasts, the Greek God withdrew it from the public domain and stored it at a secret place in heaven with an evil design to obliterate the whole human race through violent attacks of these animals. Not only did Zeus withdraw fire but also made the means of livelihood inaccessible to humans to make their daily sustenance almost difficult. At this crucial time, it was Prometheus, a friend of the humans who appeared on the scene to protect them from their annihilation. Zeus was angry with Prometheus for thwarting his plan to obliterate humanity. He publicly warned Prometheus of the dire consequences if he meddled between him and the humans. However, the legendary hero of this myth did not bother about the warning who knew the secret place where the fire was stored. He instantly approached heaven and stole the fire; brought it down to the earth and gave it to humans to be used against the onslaught of the wild beasts.

Prometheus was known to be one of the most interesting characters in Greek mythology with fine intellect, foresight and humanitarian qualities. He was considered as a symbol of the progress of mankind and a strong opponent to the oppressive system of Zeus. While watching the day-to-day plight of the humans, he thoughtfully devised a grand plan to make them stronger on their own for which he acquainted them with the art of writing and reading.  Besides this, he taught them other uses of fire viz. cooking, warmth and basic tenets of other civil arts such as mathematics, agriculture, medicines, astronomy, architecture, metallurgy and navigation to sustain the human civilization. Due to such a noble act towards humans, he became the human benefactor and hence was called the ‘Father of Human Civilization’ in Greece. 

The Greek God, Zeus was incredibly angry with Prometheus, the fire bringer, for defying his dictates and helping mankind. But the domineering and fearless Prometheus never bothered about God and his orders on imposing any punishment on him. It is also said that Prometheus was vested with a divine power to create human beings out of clay. Due to such divine power and humanist approach, Prometheus had acquired the status of demigod in Greece. 

This adventurous mythological story of the Greek hero represents a striking resemblance to the socio-political condition that prevailed in India and the emergence of Dr. Ambedkar on Indian soil during the 20th century. Dr. Ambedkar toiled for about four decades and emancipated the Depressed Classes from the shackles of the tyrannical contemporary social system and sought their all-round resurrection with a rare commitment. Being a victim of social and religious disabilities all along, he had vowed to liberate the Depressed Classes from their heinous socio-political, economical and religious conditions. His life mission stood for removal of pervasive chaturvarnya, caste system and untouchability and to build a new reformed social order based on the principles of equality, liberty and brotherhood. He worked hard ceaselessly like a titan without any concern to personal ordeal and sufferings. His loyalty to the Depressed Classes was resolute. Hence, his emergence could be termed as a providential milestone on the path of liberation of the Depressed Classes in India. In May 1926, Dr. Ambedkar in his spellbound address at the Satara District Untouchables’ Conference said like this:“I am the stick at the hands of my blind masses. If my people continue to walk ahead with the help of the stick, then they will not fall into the traps set up by the cunning people.”

These above strong words as pronounced by the Messiah of the downtrodden at the Satara Conference were due to the prevailing contemporary social order which made the life of the Depressed Classes miserable for thousands of years at all fronts. The Untouchables were ill-treated, day in and day out. They were forced to occupy the dirty outskirts of the villages for their living; their honorable means of earnings were also made inaccessible to them. They had no lands; they had no liberty to own industrial units. They were also not permitted to fetch water from the public wells; nor were they allowed to use public pathways in villages during morning and evening hours to avoid pollution of the Hindus due to long shadows. Their physical touch was also forbidden. In some parts of Southern India, the mere sight of men and women of the Depressed Classes was also considered one of the reasons of pollution. They were also prohibited from wearing new and good clothes. The womenfolk were debarred from using certain metallic ornaments. Their entry into temples was banned. Even the barbers and washer men refused to serve them. Their marriage celebrations were not allowed to pass through the public streets in the villages. They were prohibited from holding any kind of education. From 1892, their entry into public services like Defense and Police was also banned to avoid pollution of the Hindu soldiers. Further, they neither had the right to vote nor to contest elections. In a nutshell, they were deprived of all social, political, economic and religious rights and their status was utterly dehumanized and reduced worse than animals. In a nutshell, there was a complete animosity between the caste Hindus and the Untouchables in every walk of life.

On this background, the emergence of Dr. Ambedkar on the Indian horizon was momentous to organize the Depressed Classes to reclaim their human status for which he fought against the existing social order and its religious dogmas. Like Prometheus, he had intellect and humanitarian qualities. He least bothered about his personal luxury and sufferings while accomplishing the lofty objective of his mission to secure basic human rights of the ignored untouchables across the country. In a public meeting at Nare Park, Bombay on 24th May 1956, he frankly told the audience that his people were his sheep, and he was their shepherd to protect them and to find out a new path of liberation for them. Earlier to this occasion, at the Dalit Women’s Conference held at Mahad in 1927, he emphatically advised his people: “give up dirty, heinous customs; use fine clothes; wear a single ornament of gold instead of number of ornaments of silver and brass; educate boys and girls without any discretion as knowledge and education is necessary for both. You are goddess of house. Since March 1927, our people have stopped eating meat of dead animals. I am glad. If it has not yet happened in some houses, you should take responsibility to make it happen… I am sure that if you take this seriously, this bad habit will stop completely.” 

During the Round Table Conference held at London in 1930, Dr. Ambedkar formulated and submitted a historic memorandum to the British King with certain socio-political demands on behalf of his seven-crore people in India. This could be equated to the ‘Magna Carta of Liberties’ of England sealed by King John in 1215 AD, 800 years before. It is the beacon of liberty for mankind. Under this historic Magna Carta, no man or woman on this earth should be deprived of his or her due human rights except by due process of laws of the land. Like this, the memorandum of Dr. Ambedkar comprised of the following demands: 1.To create equality of citizenship for all subjects including the Depressed Classes, 2. Legal ban on the practice of untouchability, 3. All subjects of the state are equal before law and possess equal civic rights and free enjoyment of those rights, 4. Social boycotts should be banned by law and punishment could be imposed against the perpetrators and instigators of such boycotts and 5. Adequate representation of the Depressed Classes in the State / Central legislation and in public services and educational institutions, etc. 

It was providential when he was asked to frame the Indian Constitution. He worked hard ceaselessly for about three years and drafted the most comprehensive document securing Justice: social, economic and political; Liberty: of thoughts, expression, belief, faith and worship; Equality: of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the nation and handed over such a vibrant Draft Constitution to the Constituent Assembly on 26th Nov 1949 for approval under which untouchability was legally banned; equal fundamental rights ensured to all citizens; provision of reservation was made mandatory for the disadvantaged sections in the legislatures, public services and the educational institutions. Even the voting rights were bestowed upon equally on all subjects irrespective of their caste, creed and color.

In his closing historic speech made in the Constituent Assembly on 26 Nov 1949, he had earnestly appealed to the gathering of towering personalities in these profound words: “I am of the opinion that we are not yet a nation. It must be realized and appreciated by all the people divided into several thousands of castes that could not be a nation. The sooner we realize that we are not yet a nation, in the social and psychological sense of the word, the better for us. In India, there are castes. The castes are anti-national because they bring separation in social life. They are anti-national and therefore they generate jealously and antipathy between caste and caste. But we must overcome all these difficulties if we wish to become a nation.  For fraternity accorded the pride of place in our Constitution, can be a fact only when there is a nation.  Fraternity is a sense of common brotherhood of all Indians. Without fraternity, equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint.” 

To put it briefly, what was Prometheus to ancient Greece, so is Dr. Ambedkar, to the modern India who is now a major inspiration for the new generations. If an objective evaluation of the contribution is made out by Dr. Ambedkar to the country’s socio-political development, most of his contemporaries in terms of popularity and applicability of his philosophy would certainly be consigned to the second position. No other case can stand even for comparison as he was not just a constitutionalist, but also a frontline statesman, a parliamentarian, a social philosopher, an educationist and above all a great humanist and nationalist of par excellence. In the Greek myth, Prometheus had to steal ‘fire’ from heaven to save humanity, whereas in modern India Dr. Ambedkar had to undertake the life-long titanic crusade against many gods, demigods and a multitude of religious scriptures and then to draft the Indian Constitution to make India a nation. This mission is certainly more fascinating and adventurous than the mission of Prometheus for more than one reason. In the latter’s case, he had to deal with a single god, whereas Dr. Ambedkar had to revolt against thirty-three crores of gods with their orthodox disciples. With the production of a new remarkable scripture by Dr. Ambedkar to form an egalitarian mass, in fact, awakened and inspired the depressed, suppressed and oppressed from their deep slumber of thousands of years.  

It is now a fact that the arrival of Dr. Ambedkar on the Indian soil on 14 Apr 1891 was a great moment for the most shattered humanity as if the dead returned to life. It would, therefore, not be an exaggeration to say that we all Indians should be proud that we are part of an era when Dr. Ambedkar, the apostle of equality visited this land, developed social consciousness and liberated sub-humanity towards their achievement of full manhood. It is now feared that the real-life story of this titanic son of India and his great deeds towards the reconstruction of Modern India with new social order might turn into an epic story of the Indian mythology in posterity, as no one from future generations would then believe that such a great spirit like his walked on this earth during the 20th century in flesh and blood to rebuild modern India. One can even be afraid to visualize of what would have happened to the excluded people from the mainstream of society had his spirit refused to emerge to carry out the challenging mission of epoch-making. In its refusal, perhaps, the present landscape of this country would have undoubtedly been a different one, unimaginable.