Ambedkar Jayanti

Ambedkar jayanthi 2015- April 14 (Tuesday)

Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar or simply B.R. Ambedkar was born on April 14, 1891 at MHOW (Military Headquarter of War) in Madhya Pradesh. He was the architect of Indian Constitution and is also known as the "Father of Indian Constitution."

He had dedicated his entire life for uplifting the deprived section of the society. Hence, many Indians and even people from other countries revere him as a great social reformer. He also played a significant role in India’s freedom struggle.

Dr. Ambedkar was one of the first 'untouchables' to obtain a college education in India. He went on to United States and England to pursue higher studies, where he earned a law degree and multiple doctorates for his study and research in law, economics and political science.

Returning home as a famous scholar, Ambedkar practiced law for a few years before he began publishing journals advocating political rights and social freedom for India's untouchables.

Dr. Ambedkar spent his life fighting against the system of untouchability and the caste system. He is also credited for having sparked the Dalit Buddhist movement. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was the chairman of the drafting committee that was constituted by the Constituent Assembly to draft a constitution for the independent India; he was also the first Law Minister of India.

He was honored with Bharat Ratna in 1990, India's highest civilian award. The day, 14th April is celebrated all over the country as his birthday (Jayanti) and it is also declared as a public holiday.

Various Dalit organizations carry out huge processions on this day in the memory of this great soul. On this very day various organizations organize several activities including rally and cultural programs.

Dalit Melas are held in various parts of the country. Ambedkar Jayanti is observed both in government and private organizations. Prayers, meetings and memorial speeches are organized in various state capitals.

Contributions of B. R. Ambedkar

• He worked to eliminate the social belief of untouchability for the lower group of people. He protested to uplift the untouchables in the society to enhance their social status during law practice in the Bombay High Court. He had organized an event called Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha to encourage the education among untouchables for their socio-economic improvement and welfare of the outcastes people of depressed classes. He also protected the Dalit rights by organizing various programs like “Mook Nayak, Bahishkrit Bharat and Equality Janta”.
• He had started an active public movements and marches in 1927 against untouchability to remove the untouchability for water resources as well as enter to the Hindu temples (Kalaram Temple movement in 1930). He has demanded for the separate electorate through the Poona Pact to reserve seats for untouchable people of depressed class.
• He was invited by the Congress government to serve as a first Law Minister after the independence of India on 15^th of August in 1947 and appointed as a “Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee” on 29^th of August in 1947 where he drafted the new Constitution of India which was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26^th of November in 1949.
• He had played his great role in establishing the Reserve Bank of India as he was a professional economist. He became successful in forming the Reserve Bank of India in 1934 after giving his ideas to the Hilton Young Commission through his three successful scholarly books on economics such as “Administration and Finance of the East India Company, The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India, and The Problem of the Rupee: Its Origin and Its Solution”.
• He also played his role in planning the Indian economic as he got his Economics doctorate degree from abroad. He encouraged people for the growth and development of the industrialization and agricultural industry to enhance the economy of country. He had given ideas to the government for accomplishing the food security goal. He encouraged people for good education, hygiene and community health as their basic requirement. He had established the Finance Commission of India.
• He had opposed the Article 370 in the Constitution of India in order to provide the special status to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Jalianwala Bagh Massacre Day

Jalianwala Bagh Massacre

Massacre of Amritsar, also called Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre, Jallianwalla also spelled Jallianwala,  incident on April 13, 1919, in which British troops fired on a large crowd of unarmed Indians in Amritsar in the Punjab region (now in Punjab state) of India, killing several hundred people and wounding many hundreds more. It marked a turning point in India’s modern history, in that it left a permanent scar on Indo-British relations and was the prelude to Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi’s full commitment to the cause of Indian nationalism and independence from Britain.

During World War I (1914–18) the British government of India enacted a series of repressive emergency powers that were intended to combat subversive activities. By the war’s end, expectations were high among the Indian populace that those measures would be eased and that India would be given more political autonomy. The Montagu-Chelmsford Report, presented to the British Parliament in 1918, did in fact recommend limited local self-government. Instead, however, the government of India passed what became known as the Rowlatt Acts in early 1919, which essentially extended the repressive wartime measures.

The acts were met by widespread anger and discontent among Indians, notably in the Punjab region. Gandhi in early April called for a one-day general strike throughout the country. In Amritsar the news that prominent Indian leaders had been arrested and banished from that city sparked violent protests on April 10, in which soldiers fired upon civilians, buildings were looted and burned, and angry mobs killed several foreign nationals and severely beat a Christian missionary. A force of several dozen troops commanded by Brigadier General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer was given the task of restoring order. Among the measures taken was a ban on public gatherings.

On the afternoon of April 13, a crowd of at least 10,000 men, women, and children gathered in an open space known as the Jallianwalla Bagh, which was nearly completely enclosed by walls and had only one exit. It is not clear how many people there were protesters who were defying the ban on public meetings and how many had come to the city from the surrounding region to celebrate Baisakhi, a Hindu and Sikh spring festival. Dyer and his soldiers arrived and sealed off the exit. Without warning, the troops opened fire on the crowd, reportedly shooting hundreds of rounds until they ran out of ammunition. It is not certain how many died in the bloodbath, but, according to one official report, an estimated 379 people were killed, and about 1,200 more were wounded. After they ceased firing, the troops immediately withdrew from the place, leaving behind the dead and wounded.

The shooting was followed by the proclamation of martial law in the Punjab that included public floggings and other humiliations. Indian outrage grew as news of the shooting and subsequent British actions spread throughout the subcontinent. The Bengali poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore renounced the knighthood that he had received in 1915. Gandhi was initially hesitant to act, but he soon began organizing his first large-scale and sustained nonviolent protest (satyagraha) campaign, the noncooperation movement (1920–22), which thrust him to prominence in the Indian nationalist struggle.

The government of India ordered an investigation of the incident (the Hunter Commission), which in 1920 censured Dyer for his actions and ordered him to resign from the military. Reaction in Britain to the massacre was mixed, however. Many condemned Dyer’s actions—including Sir Winston Churchill, then secretary of war, in a speech to the House of Commons in 1920—but the House of Lords praised Dyer and gave him a sword inscribed with the motto “Saviour of the Punjab.” In addition, a large fund was raised by Dyer’s sympathizers and presented to him. The Jallianwalla Bagh site in Amritsar is now a national monument.