Mourning the Loss of a Noble Soul

Weekly Editor-in-Chief: Prem Kumar Chumber Contact: 001-916-947-8920 Fax: 916-238-1393 E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] VOL- 12 ISSUE- 22 August 12, 2020 California (USA) www.ambedkartimes.com www.deshdoaba.com On India’s Independence Day DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE Mourning the lossso moovefd byaTay ajin’s coir - ble soul Prem K. Chumber I had slept the previous night talking to my parents Editor-in-Chief: www.ambedkartimes.com knowing my family back home was healthy and cumstancesthat he Democracy and social justice are interrelated social happy. As I was finishing my early morning walk, I asked whetherhe would processes. The one is incomplete in the absence of got a text saying my eldest uncle had passed away. come to our village as their adopted son. the other. Democracy offers freedom space to re - His name was Sitaram, we used to call him On 23rd July alize equality and experience fraternity. Equality “Sitaram Tayaji”. I was baffled and was unable 1963, Sitaram Tayaji and fraternity are the two essential ingredients of toprocess the news, after all, I had called them a few hours ago before I went to sleep. My brain and came to our village. It social justice, which achieves its true form with the heart were at a war with each other- “how could a was serendipity that addition of liberty. Thus the trinity of liberty, equal - healthy person just pass away all of a sudden”? I Sitaram Tayajibecame ity and fraternity constitutes the essence of social broke down in the middle of the street sobbing, part of my family. He justice and the institution of democracy provides knowing I had lost someone who was irreplaceable. spent 57 years of his life the requisite realm for its realization. Though many It felt like I woke up on the wrong side of with us and raised two scholars’ boasts of ancient origins of democracy in the bed that morning. generations of my family. India but it would be prudent to argue that democ - He was my oldest uncle, he was a little shy In his early years he racy achieves its roots in the real sense of the term of my grandfather’s age but was older than my dad looked after my dad and Mansimran Kaur Benipal with the adoption of the constitution in independ - by many years. We weren’t related by blood but by his brothers and after [email protected] ent India. Bodhisattva Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao destiny. On July 2nd 1963, my dad who was 10 about three decade later Ramji Ambedkar, Chairman of Constitutional Draft - years old, lost his right arm in an accident while he raised me and my San Jose, CA ing Committee, worked very hard to incorporate working afodder cutting machine in his village. My cousins. He was loved various provisions for the realization of social jus - grandfather and dad waited by the side of the road, and respected by everyone in our family. tice in the Indian society. He was of the firm views looking for a ride My mom has three kids, me being that if social and economic parity remains an elu - along. In 1963 it was the youngest of a set of twins. sive to the multitude of poor and historically so - rare for someone to Sitaram Tayaji and my aunts took cially excluded people in the country, then the very own a car in an Indian care of me, my siblings and our purpose of having parliamentary democracy would village. After a few cousins while my mom went back to not be served efficiently. He reiterated the seminal hours, they were work after her maternal leave fin - point during his engaging discussions at various im - helped by a car which ished. He learnt how to change baby portant forums within and outside the Indian par - was passing by. My nappies, he cooked food for us and liament that for social justice to prevail in the father was brought even lulled us to sleep. He raised me country, India needs effective participation of the toCMC Hospital in and my siblings and loved us as his own. He was more than a parent, he downtrodden in all the different spheres of the Ludhiana where he was our godparent. society. was being treated for When we moved from our village to The demand for social justice was also his arm amputation. My grandmother used Patiala, he moved with us. He raised at various platforms during the freedom to cook food for those walked us to andfrom school. He struggle movement in colonial India. Ad-Move - hospital visits, and used to treat us to an ice-cream on ments in North and South India, Justice Party in often the food used to a scorching day in the summer heat. South India, Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia from bemore than my dad He used to make lemonade for us Punjab, Swami Achhuta Nand Ji from Uttar could manage to eat. when we came back. We used to Pradesh, Baba Ghasi Das Ji from Madhya Pradesh, Grandma used to dis - eat lunch together. He was very fond Sri Narayana Guru from Kerala raised a consistent tribute the excess of cooking and he was very good at campaign for the prevalence of social justice in the food to other people it too. I was his connoisseur, after Indian society. Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia pre - who werevisiting the every meal he used to ask me to sented a number of resolutions to the British Gov - hospital. One day she taste test the dish. Whenever I com - ernment for the removal of untouchability and came across a guy named “Sitaram”. She offered plimented his dish,his eyes would sparkle and he special provisions for the inclusion of socially ex - him food, but he refused to accept it saying he would have a bright smile glued toon his face. In cluded sections of the society in the public realm wasn’t comfortable receiving food from people those formative years, he inculcated in us virtues of power and social domain. without earning it. My grandparents then asked to live our entire life by. He taught us kindness, hard Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia joined hands him if he would take care of my dad who was still work and perseverance. He made us the people we with Bodhisattva Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ramji healing from his accident and break bread with are today. He was a gem of a person. A Rare Gem. Ambedkar in his struggle for equal rights for the their family in return. I moved far away from home for undergrad socially excluded people of India. When Dr. Ambed - Over the next few weeks my grandparents and moved out of the country for my grad school. kar spreaded its movement into the political agile got to know more about Sitaram Tayaji’s back - Even though we were continents apart, I lands of Punjab with the formation of Punjab chap - ground. His dad was in the Indian Railways. He had used to call and FaceTime him every week. Towards ter of Scheduled Castes Federation, there was a lost his parents when he was young. He grew up the latter years he couldn’t hear us very well so I tremendous response from the grassroots. That to work in Indian Railways too, he got married and used to ask my mom to let him know how much I loved and missed him. When I used to recreate his was precisely the contributions of Ad Dharm move - was blessed with a baby boy. In his adult life he food, I used to tell him it wasn’t as good ashis ment which laid the foundation stone of social jus - had lost his brothers. Series of unfortunate events cooking, and it always brought back the same old tice campaign in the Punjab state in the unfolded in his married life one after the other- his wife fell down from their house rooftop and lost beautiful smile. mid-1920s. But the irony of the matter is that even her lifeand following her untimely loss, his kid died I couldn’t wait to go back home and show after more than seven decades of India’s independ - prematurely in a house fire. He had lost his mental him the new dishes I had learnt over the years. But ence, Dalits in the country are still subjected to var - stability having his entire family taken away from kismet had other plans, I woke up to find that he ious types of atrocities and social discriminations. him. His memory was foggy on how he travelled had left for his heavenly abodeand a pain seared Though the Indian state, while making the optimum from his village in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh to Lud - my heart. He wasn’t feeling well that day and as use of various anti untouchability clauses of the hiana, Punjab where some benevolent guy admit - my parents were on their way to take him to the constitution, is doing its best to bridle the monster ted him to CMC. He recovered in the very same hospital, he took his last breath on my mom’s of caste, but still is more needed to be done at the hospital and eventually regained his mental stabil - shoulder. In his last minutes, he didn’t suffer more social level where the people should come forward ity.He had lost everything at that point, but he de - than the few minutes of uneasiness. Maybe all the to internalize the values of liberty, equality and fra - cided to stay back in the hospital and help others goodwill he earned all his life did surmount to his ternity in order to realize the true sense of democ - who were suffering.

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