(Following is a letter written by Dr. B.R Ambedkar to Laxmi Kabir (Savitri Ambedkar), whom he later married. He expressed his views on the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi)
When Ambedkar wrote that the assassination of Gandhi would be good for the Countryhttps://heritagetimes.in/about-us/
Alipur Road
February 8, 1948
I have been the greatest champion of the elevation and emancipation of women … I have done my best to raise the status of women and I am very proud of it.
I entirely agree with you that Gandhi should have not met his death at the hands of a Maharashtrian. I May go further and say that it would have been wrong for anybody to commit such a foul deed. You know that I owe nothing to Gandhi and he has contributed nothing to my spiritual, moral and social make-up. The only person to whom I owe all my being is Gautama Buddha. Nonetheless, I felt very sad on hearing of his assassination. Notwithstanding his antipathy to me, I went to the Birla House on Saturday morning and was shown his dead body. I could see the wounds. They were right on the heart. I was very much moved on seeing his dead body. I went with the funeral procession for s short distance as I was unable to walk and then returned home and again went to the Rajghat on the Jamuna but could not get to burning place being unable to break the ring formed by the crowd.
My own view is that great men are of great service to their country but they are also at certain times a great hindrance to the progress of their country. There is one incident in Roman History which comes to my mind on this occasion. When Caesar was done to death and the matter was reported to Cicero, Cicero said to the messenger, “Tell the Romans your hour of liberty has come”
While one regrets the assassination of Gandhi, one can’t help finding in his heart the echo of the sentiments expressed by Cicero on the assassination of Caesar. Gandhi had become a positive danger to this country. He has choked all free-thought. He was holding together the Congress, which is combination of all the bad and self-seeking elements in society who agreed on no social or moral principles governing the life of society except the one of praising and flattering Mr. Gandhi. Such a body is unfit to govern a country. As the Bible says ‘that sometimes good cometh out of evil,’ so also I think that good will come out of the death of Mr Gandhi. It will release people from bondage to a superman. It will make them think for themselves and it will compel them to stand on their own merits.
Yours,
Bhimrao Ambedkar
I re-read the above letter of Ambedkar at least thrice and it still left me in a state of numb, unbelieving shock.
It’s truly startling to read Ambedkar’s line …. “Gandhi should have not met his death at the hands of a Maharashtrian….”. That’s the only regret he has! That a fellow citizen of his own province of Maharashtra committed the crime! It shows the parochial Maratha ‘manoos” mentality that even the great Constitutionalist and Indian freedom-fighter harboured deep inside his spirit. If only the same crime had been committed by any Indian other than a Maharashtrian, it would’ve made it seem, in Ambedkar’s eyes, so much easier to condemn so much more harshly.
But does Ambedkar condemn Gandhi’s assassination? Not at all … at least not in the letter he wrote privately to his wife or wife to be.
When Ambedkar recalls Cicero saying what he is said to have said when informed that Caesar had been murdered, and Ambedkar uses that recollection to imply that Gandhi’s own murder arouses similar feelings of relief in him, one does wonder how much could have been the difference in the degree of ill-feeling if not anathema that might have been harboured towards Gandhi between Nathuram Godse, the man who shot him dead and Ambedkar, the man who for so many decades had been a long-time colleague and compatriot of M. K. Gandhi, but who in the end said that the Mahatma meant really nothing to him and in fact, “contributed nothing to my spiritual, moral and social make-up.” A thought like that one as Ambedkar voiced about a man like Gandhi is indeed surely and tragically the “unkindest cut of all” ! What kind of a man is he who, in the tacitness of his heart even while penning a private letter to his wife, all but admits that in a rather Ciceronian way he has “come only to bury Caesar not to honour him!”.
That he was eager to “bury” Gandhi and “not honour him” is made very clear indeed when Ambedkar goes on to write this too… “While one regrets the assassination of Gandhi, one can’t help finding in his heart the echo of the sentiments expressed by Cicero on the assassination of Caesar.” Mark the words — the great Constitutionalist only “regrets” Gandhi’s assassination but finds no urge or even just a few token words to condemn it!
And then comes out pouring in the letter from Ambedkar, in what is perhaps a Freudian slip — given the sombre occasion on which his letter was penned — but which is unmistakably a torrent of abusive, unapologetic and unrestrained assessment of not only Gandhi’s legacy to a free and new India but also an expression of sheer and haughty contempt for his other freedom-struggle co-workers and comrades i.e. Nehru et al who then comprised the Indian National Congress. …. “Gandhi had become a positive danger to this country. He has choked all free-thought. He was holding together the Congress, which is combination of all the bad and self-seeking elements in society who agreed on no social or moral principles governing the life of society except the one of praising and flattering Mr. Gandhi. Such a body is unfit to govern a country.”
One wonders if such intemperate, unkind and ungracious words could’ve been ever written by “one of the most illustrious sons of India” , the “author of its Constitution”… who had it seems been all along nurturing in his heart such supreme contempt and derision for the Party that had given him so much indeed by way of a brilliant political career in his life and conferred upon him a high place too in the history of the country.
In my humble opinion, this private letter of Ambedkar to his wife should’ve remained private forever for the plain and simple reason that it is as hateful as it uncharitable and mean-spirited. It reflects so unfavourably on the public memory we citizens of India otherwise have of the man, his work and his legacy. Reading this letter in one fell swoop destroys for someone like me the respect I had for Ambedkar the man who I had always thought had had a heart as prodigious as his intellect. Alas, this letter of his to his wife disabuses me now of such full-measured esteem I had for him.
I go one step further to say that I truly fear very much that this letter might get read somewhere in this vast country by some mentally deranged person who, out of misplaced and misguided sense of political fanaticism, might misunderstand and misinterpret Ambedkar’s terrible words —- “I think that good will come out of the death of Mr Gandhi. It will release people from bondage to a superman.” … And furthermore that … “My own view is that great men are of great service to their country but they are also at certain times a great hindrance to the progress of their country.”
And finally, I do sincerely hope no mad man somewhere reads these chilling, messianic words of Ambedkar and, God Forbid, starts to believe that they afford more than sufficient religious inspiration to warrant them being put to deed: “As the Bible says ‘sometimes good cometh out of evil! “
Sudarshan Madabushi