The Blue Warriors

Waiting For A Visa Writer :  Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Part :  SIX [A young clerk is abused and threatened until he gives up his job]     There is one other incident more telling than this. On the 6th of March 1938, a meeting of the Bhangis was held at Kasarwadi (behind Woollen Mills), Dadar, Bombay, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Indulal Yadnik. In this meeting, one Bhangi boy narrated his experience in the following terms : "I passed the Vernacular Final Examination in 1933. I have studied English up to the 4th Standard. I applied to the Schools Committee of the Bombay Municipality for employment as a teacher, but I failed, as there was no vacancy. Then I applied to the Backward Classes Officer, Ahmedabad, for the job of a Talati (village Patwari [=scribe]), and I succeeded. On 19th February 1936, I was appointed a Talati in the office of the Mamlatdar of the Borsad Taluka in the Kheda District.Although my family originally came from...

Waiting For A Visa Writer :  Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Part :  FIVE [A doctor refuses to give proper care, and a young woman dies]     The next case is equally illuminating. It is a case of an Untouchable school teacher in a village in Kathiawar, and is reported in the following letter which appeared in the  Young India , a journal published by Mr. Gandhi, in its issue of 12th December 1929. It expresses the difficulties he [=the writer] had experienced in persuading a Hindu doctor to attend to his wife, who had just delivered, and how the wife and child died for want of medical attention. The letter says: "On the 5th of this month a child was born to me. On the 7th, she [=the writer's wife] fell ill and suffered from loose stools. Her vitality seemed to ebb away and her chest became inflamed. Her breathing became difficult and there was acute pain in the ribs. I went to call a doctor--but he said he would not go to the house...

Waiting For A Visa Writer :  Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Part :  FOUR [Polluting the water in the fort of Daulatabad]     In the year 1934, some of my co-workers in the movement of the depressed classes expressed a desire to go on a sight-seeing tour, if I agreed to join them. I agreed. It was decided that our plan should at all events include a visit to the Buddhist caves at Verul. It was arranged that I should go to Nasik, and the party should join me at Nasik. To go to Verul we had to go to Aurangabad. Aurangabad is a town in the Mohammedan State of Hyderabad, and is included in the dominion of His Exalted Highness, the Nizam.     On the way to Aurangabad we had first to pass another town called Daulatabad, which is also in the Hyderabad State. Daulatabad is a historical place and was, at one time, the capital of a famous Hindu King, by name Ramdeo Rai. The fort of Daulatabad is an ancient historical monument,, and ...

Waiting For A Visa Writer :  Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Part :  THREE [Pride, awkwardness, and a dangerous accident in Chalisgaon]     The year was 1929. The Bombay Government had appointed a Committee to investigate the grievances of the untouchables. I was appointed a member of the Committee. The Committee had to tour all over the province to investigate the allegations of injustice, oppression and tyranny. The Committee split up. I and another member were assigned the two districts of Khandesh. My colleague and myself, after finishing our work, parted company. He went to see some Hindu saint. I left by train to go to Bombay. At Chalisgaon I got down to go to a village on the Dhulia line, to investigate a case of social boycott which had been declared by the caste Hindus against the untouchables of that village.     The untouchables of Chalisgaon came to the station and requested me to stay for the night with them. My o...

Waiting For A Visa Writer :  Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Part :  TWO [Back from the west--and unable to find lodging in Baroda]   In 1916 I returned to India. I had been sent to America by His Highness the Maharaja of Baroda for higher education. I studied at Columbia University in New York from 1913 to 1917. In 1917 I came to London and joined the post-graduate department of the School of Economics of the University of London. ln l918 I was obliged to return to India without completing my studies. Since I had been educated by the Baroda State, I was bound to serve the State. [Note: the dates here appear to be a bit confused.]     Accordingly, on my arrival I straightway went to Baroda. The reasons why I left Baroda service are quite irrelevant to my present purpose. I do not therefore wish to enter into them. I am only concerned with my social experiences in Baroda, and I will confine myself to describing them.   ...

Waiting For A Visa Writer : Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Part : ONE [A childhood journey to Koregaon becomes a nightmare]     Our family came originally from Dapoli Taluka of the Ratnagiri District of the Bombay Presidency. From the very commencement of the rule of the East India Company, my fore-fathers had left their hereditary occupation for service in the Army of the Company. My father also followed the family tradition and sought service in the Army. He rose to the rank of an officer, and was a Subhedar when he retired. On his retirement my father took the family to Dapoli with a view to settling down there. But for some reason my father changed his mind. The family left Dapoli for Satara, where we lived till 1904.  The first incident, which I am recording as well as I can remember, occurred in about 1901, when we were at Satara. My mother was then dead. My father was away on service as a cashier at a place called Koregaon in Khatav Taluka...

Waiting For A Visa Writer : Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Source:  Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Vol. 12 , edited by Vasant Moon (Bombay: Education Department, Government of Maharashtra, 1993), Part I, pp. 661-691. Foreigners of course know of the existence of untouchability. But not being next door to it, so to say, they are unable to realize how oppressive it is in its actuality. It is difficult for them to understand how it is possible for a few untouchables to live on the edge of a village consisting of a large number of Hindus, go through the village daily to free it from the most disagreeable  of  its  filth  and  to  carry  the  errands  of  all  the sundry,  collect  food  at  the  doors  of  the  Hindus,  buy  spices  and oil  at  the  shops  of  the  Hindu  Bania  from  a  di...