Discuss Ambedkar’s idea of nation and nation-building.

Ambedkar did not accept that India was a nation; rather it was nation in the making. He made this fact very clear in 1930s during his conflict with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. According to Ambedkar, “The Anglo-Indians were never tired of proclaiming that India was not a nation.” (Ambedkar 1990: 29). It is true that the colonial administrators did not view the Indian subcontinent as one nation. Strachey (1888:5) wrote, “…there is not and never was an India…no Indian nation, no people of India.” In the same vein, Sheeley (1883: 255) commented, ‘India is … only a geographical expression like Europe or Africa. It does not make the territory of a nation and a language, but the territory of many nations and languages’ (both Strachey and Sheeley as quoted in Oommen 2000: 1). Ambedkar also opined that even Rabindranath Tagore, the national poet of Bengal, also agreed that India was not a nation (Ambedkar 1990: 29). That is why he emphasized that, “First of all there is no nation of Indians in real sense of the word. The nation does not exist, it is to be created, and I think it will be admitted that the suppression of a distinct and a separate community is not the method of creating a nation” (Ambedkar 1991: 412). Again while speaking on the 26th November 1949 when the Constituent Assembly was going to pass the Constitution of independent India, he argued, “[in the past] politically- minded Indian resented the expression “the people of India.” They preferred the expression “the Indian nation”, I am of opinion that in believing that we are a nation, we are cherishing a great delusion” (Ambedkar 1994: 1216).

According to Ambedkar, “How can people divided into several thousands of castes be a nation? The castes are anti-national. In the first place, because they bring about separation in social life. They are anti-national also because they generate jealousy and antipathy between caste and caste” (Ambedkar 1994). Moreover, “There is an utter lack among the Hindus of what the sociologists call “consciousness of kind”. There is no Hindu consciousness of kind. In every Hindu the consciousness that exists is the consciousness of his caste. That is the reason why the Hindus cannot be said to form a society or a nation…” (Ambedkar 1979: 50-51). Apart from fraternity within Hindus, Ambedkar also highlighted whether, “…there are enough affinities between Hindus and Muslmans to constitute them into a nation…” (Ambedkar 1990: 31). Ambedkar asked, Are there any common historical antecedents which Hindus and Muslims can be said to share together as matter of pride or as matters of sorrow…so far they have been just two armed battalions warring against each other. There was no common cycle of participation for a common achievement. Their past is a past of mutual destruction – a past of mutual animosity, both in political as well as in religious fields” (Ambedkar 1990: 35). Ambedkar emphasised, while Hindus revere Prthiviraj Chauhan, Rana Pratap, Shivaji in history, the Muslims revere the likes of Mohammed Bin Qasim and Aurangzeb. In religious field argued he, “…the Hindus draw their inspiration from the Ramayan, the Mahabharat, and Geeta. The Musalmans…derive their inspiration from Quran and Hadis” (Ambedkar 1990: 36). Therefore he suggested that “we must overcome all these difficulties if we wish to become a nation in reality. For fraternity can be a fact only when there is a nation” (Ambedkar 1994: 1216-7).

Having discussed India was not and why was India not a nation let us see how did Ambedkar define Nation? Ambedkar argued that race, language and country do not suffice to create a nation. Quoting Renan, Ambedkar argued that: A nation is a living soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which in truth are but one, constitute the soul, this spiritual principle. One is in the past, the other in the present. One is the common possession of a rich heritage of memories; the other is the actual consent, the desire to live together, the will to preserve worthily the undivided inheritance which has been handed down… (Ambedkar 1990: 35).

Further Ambedkar continues:

The nation, like the individual, is the outcome of a long past of efforts, and sacrifices, and devotion… A heroic past, great men, glory,… these form the social capital, upon which a national idea may be founded. To have common glories in the past, a common will in the present: to have done great things together, to will to do the like again, – such are the essential conditions for the making of a people ...In the pastan inheritance of glory and regrets to be shared, in the future a like ideal to be realized; to have suffered, and rejoiced, and hoped together; all these things are worth more than custom houses in common, and frontiers in accordance with strategically ideas; all these can be understood in spite of diversities of race and language... for indeed, suffering in common is a greater bond of union than joy. As regards national memories, mourning’s are worth more than triumphs; for they impose duties, they demand common effort. (Ambedkar 1990: 35).

Ambedkar and Nationality

Ambedkar also explained the meaning and function of nationality:

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