8 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Stigma Of Untouchability
Even as a figure of national importance, Dr. Ambedkar does not escape the stigma of untouchability. In 1929, while serving on a committee investigating certain grievances of the untouchables, he visited Khandesh District, and at a place called Chalisgaon was welcomed by the local Mahars. After a long delay at the station he was put into a tonga and driven in the direction of the Maharwada, the Mahar quarters. The driver of the tonga was lamentably inexpert and at a culvert the horse bolted and Dr. Ambedkar was thrown on to the stone pavement and seriously injured. He then learnt that the untouchables had great difficulty in getting a tonga and that, as no tonga driver would drive him, one of the Mahars took the reins, not thinking of the risk to his leader.
As recently as 1934 Dr. Ambedkar and some of his fellow workers visited Daulatabad Fort in the Nizam’s Dominions while on a sightseeing tour. They reached the Fort covered with dust and unthinkingly took water from a tank to wash. While they were getting permission to go round, an old Mohammedan ran up and raised an outcry, shouting, “The Dheds (untouchables) have polluted the tank.” The situation became serious and, exasperated by the attitude of the Mohammedans. Dr. Ambedkar asked : “Is that what your religion teaches ? Would you prevent an untouchable from taking water from this tank if he became a Mohammedan ?” That silenced the crowd, but the untouchables were only allowed to go round the Fort with an armed soldier who saw that they did not “pollute” water anywhere else.
His life’s experiences have shown Dr. Ambedkar that, while caste and untouchability are of Hindu creation, India’s Mohammedans, Parsis and Christians are not wholly free from Hindu inhibitions on the subject. During his long struggle he has found valuable companionship in a world which denies none of its treasures to the outcast among men—the Common-wealth of Letters.
Literary Activities
No one who has seen Dr. Ambedkar at home can fail to be struck by the number and variety of the volumes which fill his bookshelves and lie on the tables around him. Books of every kind, but more especially works on constitutional law, politics, economics and sociology, appeal to him.