Hindu Code Bill Controversy: Missing the Mission
7 Pages Posted: 11 Aug 2011
Date Written: August 1, 2011
Abstract
In his struggle for combating ‘graded inequality’, Dr. Ambedkar opted a strategy to remain the part of process in reformation rather than agitating or complaining from outside. Probably, the ‘Hindu Code Bill’ was last an attempt of Dr. Ambedkar to reform ‘graded inequality’ of Hinduism from within. Since from the beginning of his political career, Dr. Ambedkar was criticizing Hinduism for inbuilt inequality, but tried to bring reformation. There occurred the incidences where his movement had reached at crossroad and in clear conflict with two Congress leaders. First at Poona-pact with Mahatma Gandhi which ended with ‘Consensus compromise’, and second at ‘Hindu Code Bill’ with Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru which ended with ‘fractured faith’ of Dr. Ambedkar.
The author has attempted to analyze the struggle of Dr. Ambedkar against the ‘graded inequality’ comparing the major two events of his campaign i.e., the Poona-Pact & Hindu Code Bill. It has further examine with his strategic approach he adopted in Poona-pact of reaching to ‘consensus compromise’ and remaining for transformation from within, and finally he forced to adopt in Hindu Code Bill controversy to ‘opt-out’ and have non-optional ‘conversion’ and reformation from outside the system. At both these incidences, his movement was at crossroad with other the then eminent leaders, but in former, the outcome was not much harsh and adverse but in latter, it was too harsh to rectify the loss in reaching the common consensus of eliminating ‘graded inequality’. The author has also tried to make appraisal of impact of Hindu code Bill controversy on the further of struggle against the ‘graded inequality’ in Hinduisms and Indian politics. The conclusions in this respect are self-explanatory.
Keywords: Poona Pact, Dr. Ambedkar, Hindu Code Bill, Mahatma Gandhi, congress, conversion, round table conference, equality, graded inequality, preamble, Constitution, constituent assembly debate, independence
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