The Right or Wrong of a Cartoon !
For the past few days, a
controversy is raging on inside the Parliament and in print and electronic
media as well, over a cartoon of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, which is published in Class
XI Political Science text book by NCERT, under one of its chapters called
“Indian Constitution at Work”. People who have created a furore over this
cartoon are describing it as an insult and derogatory to the great scholar who
was the chief architect of Indian constitution, whereas, others have taken it
very lightly and even opine that there is nothing wrong or offensive in this
cartoon.
Before going deep into this wide ranging controversy,
let us first examine as to what is this cartoon all about and to what extent it
is right or wrong to make and publish such a cartoon, which depicts Dr. Ambedkar
in such a poor shade. This cartoon is about making of the constitution of India
and it shows Dr. Ambedkar riding on the back of a snail (with a word –
“constitution” written on it), holding a whip in his hand so as to make a
gesture to the snail to move fast. Pandit Nehru is also shown in the picture
walking behind Dr. Ambedkar, he too is cracking a whip in his right hand
and a few people are also following them holding sticks in their hands and
making a lot of hue and cry over its slow speed. The crux of the matter is that
– in this cartoon, Dr. Ambedkar, who was the Chairman of the Constitution
Drafting Committee, is shown as a lazy man who cannot complete his work assigned
to him within the given time-frame, meaning thereby, “whole illustration of the
cartoon shows the snail’s pace at which the constitution of India was made” and
every effort has been made to put the entire blame on him over the long delay in
making of the constitution.
This cartoon was initially made by the then famous
cartoonist, K. Shankar Pillai in 1949 and it was first published in his weekly
magazine known as “Shanker’s Weekly.”
Let us now go a little bit further and deeper into the
right or wrong side of this cartoon so that a fair opinion could be made to
judge as to whether there was really some delay or not, and if at all, there was
indeed some delay, what were the reasons behind it. After a century of struggle
and huge sacrifices made by lakhs of patriotic people, India attained
independence on the 15th August, 1947. But, the work on the constitution was
started much before that, under the instructions from the Cabinet Mission Plan.
This Cabinet Mission Plan was headed by its President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, who
had constituted Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) and Dr. Ambedkar was made
the Chairman of the CDC. Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who often
acknowledged Dr. Ambedkar’s educational and scholastic credentials and legal
expertise, also made him first Law Minister of India. There were 30 members of
the CDC* and by the virtue of powers bestowed on him because of being Chairman,
Dr. Ambedkar assigned various works to all the members to study different
articles of successfully working democracies of the world over and submit their
drafts to him for further vetting and presenting it to the Parliament for
discussions etc. Those drafts were to be discussed in the Parliament and the
final and combined wisdom and will of the house was to be ultimately
incorporated in the bill. However, after a few meetings, it was observed that
some of the members of CDC did not even touch pen and papers to draft their
respective jobs, and on enquiring, it was revealed that they were not feeling
comfortable working under Dr. Ambedkar due to the latter’s caste factor.
The matter was brought to the notice of the
Prime Minister and all efforts to persuade such non-willing and non-working
members to make them to start their works failed, as caste and untouchability
were very much dominant factors during those days. It is also pertinent to
mention here that some people were also jealous of Dr. Ambedkar over being made
him the Chairman of the CDC and they wanted that he should not succeed in his
gigantic efforts to make the constitution of the biggest democracy of the world.
Possibility was also explored to replace the non-working members with some fresh
members and assign their left-over work, but the malaise of casteism was so much
ingrained in the psyche / minds of the people that even those replaced members
also expressed their unwillingness to work under the Chairmanship of Dr.
Ambedkar. The entire emerging scenario was discussed with the Prime Minister and
then Home Minister, Sardar Patel etc., and thus ultimately, Dr. Ambedkar assured
the Government that the entire left-over work of the rigid and non-working or
unwilling members shall be done by him, no matter whatever additional efforts
and pains he might have to take for completing it.
While on the caste based prejudices, it very much
pertinent to mention here that a similar situation had also arisen in 1977 when
the then Defence Minister, Babu Jagjivan Ram quit the Congress party and many
small political parties including Jan Sangh joined hands under the overall
guidance and leadership of Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan to contest general
elections, particularly against the Congress Party headed by then powerful Prime
Minister, late Mrs. India Gandhi. Incidently, the newly formed Janata Party won
the elections with a clear majority. Later on, after their historic victory, the
Loknayak decided that the most experienced leader, Babu Jagjivan Ram should be
made the Prime Minister, but another prominent Jat leader - Chaudhary Charan
Singh flatly refused to join the government if a Dalit leader is made the Prime
Minister. The rest is the history as to how Morarji Desai was made the Prime
Minster.
It was initially
expected that the constitution shall be made within a period of 18 to 24 months
or so, but ultimately, it took around two years, nine months and 11 days to
finally complete the entire work and give the final shape to the Constitution.
No doubt, the final draft of the constitution was approved and signed by the
Parliament to be made the supreme law of land on the 26th November, 1949, but it
was officially adopted two months later, i.e. on the 26th January, 1950, for
some historical reasons. Thus, the Constitution was enacted by the
Constituent Assembly on the 26th November, 1949, but it came into effect on the
26th January, 1950 and this date i.e. 26th January was chosen to commemorate
the Purna Swaraj declaration of independence of 1930. And that how India
became a socialist, secular and democratic republic on the 26th January, 1950
and since then, this day is celebrated as the Republic Day.
Now, after taking into account all the above mentioned
factors, it is totally unfair on part of the critics to say that the CDC headed
by Dr. Ambedar has taken a long time to make the constitution of India. And
despite this, if somebody talks of delay, he might be denigrating a great
scholar like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and his herculean efforts to complete it in spite
of so many odds and obstacles coming his way and give the biggest democratic
polity of the world, a complete new and written constitution.
It is also not out of place to mention ether that
school text books are not meant to shoot satires or make fun of the great men of
repute, rather they should fairly present a factual position; otherwise, the
children who read these books may grow-up with biased opinions and prejudices
about our great scholars. If at all, the book has tried to talk about delay in
making of the constitution, it should have also made some sincere efforts to
explain the factors which have led to its delay and also discussed about the
character of those who were responsible for such an unwelcome delay. Simply
presenting one aspect and deliberately concealing the other vital factors
certainly amounts to cheating and thereby, tarnishing the image of our great
scholars.
It may also be mentioned here that the efforts of this
great man in achieving this gigantic task were appreciated by many countries and
the University of Columbia, USA, in recognition of his Herculean task, bestowed
on him the honorary degree of Doctorate of Law on the 6th June, 1952.
That is why, keeping in view the bruised sentiments of
the followers of Dr. Ambedkar, the Union HRD Minister, Kapil Sibal, has assured
the Parliament that this derogatory cartoon shall be withdrawn from the text
books next year. Some of the people who take false pride in attacking the great
leader of the poor and the down-trodden, may term this withdrawal as
“psepho-cracy or caste-o-cracy”, but I would like to describe it as a wise
decision of the government, because respect, regard and stature of Dr. Ambedkar
in the eyes of his followers is certainly not below even Mahatma Gandhi, whom
Pandit Nehru has fondly called the Father of the Nation. And if Mahatma Gandhi
is the father of the nation, Dr. Ambedkar is the Father of India Constitution.
Moreover, Dr. Ambedkar is a great socio-economic and political reformer of
Indian society and his contribution in this field cannot be denied or minimised.
People belonging to the SCs and STs and many other weaker sections of society
just love and regard him as a semi-God, as it was due to his tireless efforts
throughout his life that India could witness a sea-change in the fortunes and
status of the entire Dalit community.
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N.B. : * Prominent Members of CDC were Jawaharlal Nehru, C. Rajagopalachari, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Nalini Ranjan Ghosh, Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Benegal Narsing Rau, K. M. Munshi and Ganesh Mavlankar. Sarojini Naidu, Hansa Mehta, Durgabai Deshmukh, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and Vijayalakshmi Pandit were important women members.
By : R.D. Bharadwaj
“Noorpuri”
Dated : 22nd May, 2012