by ANILKUMAR PAYYAPPILLY VIJAYAN
They did not build the house of the Republic, but they now offer guided tours – all while chiselling away at its foundation with a smile and a flag.
There’s a classic paradox from vaudeville. Someone says to Emanuel Ravelli, “I used to know an Emanuel Ravelli who looked exactly like you.” Ravelli replies, “I am Emanuel Ravelli!” The other nods: “No wonder you look like him” (Animal Crackers (1930) Movie Script).
Circular logic dressed as insight – not unlike the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s approach to the Indian Constitution. The RSS says, “We don’t like this Constitution.” The marginalised reply, “But it guarantees equality and religious neutrality.” The RSS responds, “Exactly – that’s why we don’t like it.” Their posturing has all the guile of a child hiding behind its fingers, convinced no one can see it. Current Time 0:05/Duration 2:04 Advertisement
I like their innocence. It is so transparent, so childish. It lacks even the cunning of a Gandhi or the sinister depth of a Heidegger.
They seem to believe – in all seriousness – that Ambedkar fought to become an untouchable again, to proudly become what he was born into. That the child made to pull the bullock cart himself – then left bleeding by the roadside when it overturned – was not resisting caste, they say, but merely asking to be abandoned more politely. For a gentler fall.
A more dignified humiliation. That the man who was denied water, dignity, and humanity wanted a cleaner corner on the school floor, not the annihilation of the system that put him there. That the Constitution he drafted was not a weapon against graded inequality, but a kind of accommodation letter – a folded note of apology to Hindu society.
“One should become what one was!” – that seems to be the RSS’s dream for Dalits, Adivasis, and minorities. A return, not to dignity, but to assigned place. I’m not sure what the philosophical term is. Hegel’s teleological becoming? Or Heidegger’s authenticity? Or just ritualised regression dressed up as destiny?
Ambedkar stuffed and displayed
This is not misreading. This is a ritual purification of revolt, recasting fire as submission and rage as obedience. This is ideological taxidermy – hollowing out Ambedkar and stuffing him with docility. They preserve the external form (his image, his name, maybe a quote or two), but remove the substance – his radical anti-caste, anti-Hindu, pro-Constitution stance – and replace it with something completely tame and unthreatening. A lifeless, decorative version of a revolutionary.
The Wire for more