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| Dr.Ambedkar Manimandapam Front View Pondicherry |
The "Dr Ambedkar Manimandapam (memorial)" constructed by the
Puducherry Government on the Beach Road here would be declared open on April 14
synchronising with the celebration of birth anniversary of the late leader,
Welfare Minister M.Kandasamy today said.
The memorial was built at
an estimated cost of Rs two crores. It would be a centre for various research
and literary activities relating to the life of Dr Ambedkar, he told PTI.
Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar
Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, a fighter in the cause of Annihilation of Caste, was born in a low-caste Mahar family on 14th April, 1891, at Mhow cantonment, where his father served in the Army. Dr B R Ambedkar was born in a caste which was considered as the lowest of the low. But this very man framed the Constitution for the country. His life was one of struggles, as his radical proposals to deal with the Caste System met with overt hostility from the Upper Castes. Not only did the great Doctor fight against all institutional and social odds to keep studying, but spectacularly earned a Doctorate in Economics from Columbia University in 1917. The boy who suffered bitter caste humiliation became the first Minister for Law in free India, and shaped the country’s Constitution. Dr. Ambedkar's struggle against Brahmanical Patriarchy, his radical proposals for the Hindu Code Bill, and his suggestions for a radical restructuring of property relations, alert us to his challenging of the status-quo. Dr. Ambedkar, perhaps India’s most radical thinker, transformed the social and political landscape in the struggle against British Colonialism, by making the downtrodden politically aware of their own situation. Ambedkar famously said to Dalits something that bears immense importance even today – “Educate, Agitate, and Organise”.. . Clearly, he laid a great emphasis on education, specially where it was tradionally denied.In fact, he is known to have said once that education was more important than Temple entry for the downtrodden.He saw Education as a potent tool which could equally empower every citizen to build an egalitarian society as also to help break the age-old restrictive shackles of discriminatory social practices. As a college bearing his name we continually strive to to emulate his vision and help empower the future generation build a holistic, inclusive and progressive society of Modern India.
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| Dr.Ambedkar Statue |
Ambedkar considered converting to Sikhism, which encouraged opposition to oppression and so appealed to leaders of scheduled castes. But after meeting with Sikh leaders, he concluded that he might get "second-rate" Sikh status. Instead, around 1950, he began devoting his attention to Buddhism and travelled to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to attend a meeting of the World Fellowship of Buddhists While dedicating a new Buddhist vihara near Pune, Ambedkar announced he was writing a book on Buddhism, and that when it was finished, he would formally convert to Buddhism. He twice visited Burma in 1954; the second time to attend the third conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists in Rangoon. In 1955, he founded the Bharatiya Bauddha Mahasabha, or the Buddhist Society of India. In 1956, he completed his final work, The Buddha and His Dhamma, which was published posthumously.
After meetings with the Sri Lankan Buddhist monk Hammalawa Saddhatissa, Ambedkar organised a formal public ceremony for himself and his supporters in Nagpur on 14 October 1956. Accepting the Three Refuges and Five Precepts from a Buddhist monk in the traditional manner, Ambedkar completed his own conversion, along with his wife. He then proceeded to convert some 500,000 of his supporters who were gathered around him He prescribed the 22 Vows for these converts, after the Three Jewels and Five Precepts. He then travelled to Kathmandu, Nepal to attend the Fourth World Buddhist Conference. His work on The Buddha or Karl Marx and "Revolution and counter-revolution in ancient India" remained incomplete.
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| Buddha Statue Front of Dr.Ambedkar Statue |
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