Stating
that Dr Ambedkar was for modern technology in farm sector, industry
and services,
Chandra Bhan
Prasad,
who is widely regarded as an important Dalit thinker and political
commentator,
was giving his key note address at the ‘India
of Ambedkar’s Dreams’ talk held under the aegis of ‘Dakshinayan
Abhiyan’ at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao.
Dakshinayan
Abhiyan,
an organization
of progressive authors and activists in Goa had organized
the 125th birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.
“Globalization
has democratized
the flow of capital and shattered the monopoly over manufacturing.
People knew that the new economy would improve the lot of the
downtrodden,” said Prasad,
while speaking to the audience. He remarked that Mechanization
ended hunger strike in Europe and spoke about how Ambdekar was a
votary of mechanized
farming and replacing small land holdings with larger ones
Prasad
claimed that Dr Ambedkar asked the villagers to leave villages and
migrate to the cities as he wanted to dismantle village society. In
that regard, the author referred
to how Globalization
has turned out to be a boon given that its onset in the country
resulted in new people like Dalits securing an opportunity in
different sectors such as manufacturing etc.
Describing
issues related to the caste order in his village, Prasad spoke about
how globalization
had helped the Dalits in his hometown by ushering in equality with
regards to clothing, food source even though income and asset based
inequality still persists.
Prasad
also emphasized
there were positive trends and the people living in India are lucky
that the country is changing while giving examples of Rohith
Vemula and Kanhayia Kumar.
Prasad also
informed the audience that Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar spoke only in
English at the Parliament and Maharashtra assembly. He further
observed that language and social hierarchy are interlinked and
called for the need to establish language equality. He referred again
to his village and described the existing language inequality in
Hindi among upper caste and Dalit villagers and pointed out that
these are the things that need the public’s attention.
