Opinion From Gaza to Bihar — faultlines Ambedkar and Patel warned us against

Not content with mere political democracy, he said, “We must make our political democracy a social democracy as well. Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy.” He defined social democracy as a way of life which recognises liberty, equality and fraternity and called them a “union of trinity” in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy. He expressed his fears stating, “We must begin by acknowledging the fact that there is complete absence of two things in Indian society. One of these is equality. On the social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of graded inequality which means elevation for some and degradation for others. On the economic plane, we have a society in which some have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty.”

He said, “On January 26, 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics, we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality.” He gave a grim warning: “We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has so laboriously built up.”

Seven decades on, there is no real social and economic equality. Social inequalities are deeply rooted in our society and are actively manifested in every village, town, and city. In every institution — political, economic, religious, educational and social — the stark reality of our social life is chilling. A national caste Census is the first step in acknowledging the prevailing situation. Only then can we take ameliorative measures to remove the social inequalities. For thousands of years, inequality has been recognised, be it in the Vedas, Upanishads or the great holy text, the Gita. But the time has come for every Indian to change. Those who have been denied their rightful status and rights for over 2,000 years now deserve the correction of this situation through all means available to the state, including affirmative action.

We must wake up. Economic equality may be a distant dream. But the least that can be done is to bridge the gap between rich and poor. The nation’s resources deserve proper and fair allocation. Poverty is a curse and must be rooted out.

Last Saturday’s events in Gaza should be an eye-opener for the world. The following words of Edmund Burke were quoted by Ambedkar before the Constituent Assembly on November 17, 1946: “The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment, but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again, and a nation is not governed which is perpetually to be conquered… My next objection is its uncertainty. Terror is not always the effect of force and an armament is not a victory. If you do not succeed, you are without resources; for, conciliation failing, force remains; but, force failing, no further hope of reconciliation is left. Power and authority are sometimes bought by kindness but they can never be begged as alms by an impoverished and defeated violence.” Then Ambedkar said, “These are weighty words which it would be perilous to ignore.”

Two years later, on November 4, 1949, he warned that “to diehards who have developed a kind of fanaticism against minority protection I would like to say two things. One is that minorities are an explosive force which, if it erupts, can blow up the whole fabric of the State.”

When the Constitution was drafted, Sardar Patel, as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Minorities, echoed these words: “We on our part, taking this responsibility of laying the foundations of a free India which shall be and should be our endeavour both of the majority — largely of the majority — and also of the minority community, have to rise to the situation that is demanded from all of us, and create an atmosphere in which the sooner these classifications disappear the better.” While commending minorities to trust the good sense and sense of fairness of the majority and to place confidence in them, he advised, “So also it is for us who happen to be in a majority to think about what the minorities feel, and how we in their position would feel if we were treated in the manner in which they are treated.”

The Hamas attack must be condemned by all. However, for over seven decades, Israel, which has a right to exist, has unfortunately denied the existence of the Palestinian state. As a result, millions of Palestinians are living in occupied territories in miserable conditions, suffering politically, socially and economically. Israel has been using force — brute force — to subdue violence. The global community has been sitting quietly, ignoring the two-state solution advocated for long. Edmund Burke’s warning appears to have come true for Israel.

The writer is a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India