India's path to redemption

In celebrating Ambedkar's legacy, one cannot ignore its liberal inspiration

- SHYAM SARAN

India honoured the memory of the chief architect of its Constitution, Babasaheb Ambedkar, by declaring a public holiday on his 135th birth anniversary on April 14. Political parties have long competed to claim they are the true inheritors and sentinels of his political legacy. It has been easier to sing paeans in his praise and install his statues at prominent locations than to keep faith with his vision of a liberal and democratic India, where individual rights transcend community-based prescriptions.

The Constitution of India is citizen-centric, with the state under a legal and justiciable obligation to govern without heed to caste, creed, sex or religion. The enjoyment of fundamental rights by individuals is not only a protective shield against community oppression but also against a predatory state. Neither the claim of tradition nor religious sensibility may be used to abridge individual rights. In this sense, Ambedkar's vision of India is unabashedly that of a liberal democracy. It is true that he argued persuasively for the promotion of social justice through limited community-based reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, recognising the challenge of overcoming a long history of discrimination and oppression. But this was to be temporary, until social and economic justice had been substantially achieved.