What Babasaheb Ambedkar Means to Me

Celebrating Babasaheb’s life and achievements needs no particular occasion, he has emerged as a consciousness, a moral anchor for the masses. A musical tradition of rendering his life events from birth onwards, winding through Mahad, Poona Pact, Kalaram Mandir, Round Table conferences, the constitution itself, the conversion and his death was the foremost in the archiving of Babasaheb’s memory and multiple legacies. This people’s music in turn inspired artists, painters, writers and sculptors resulting in a vibrant visual rendering by people historians–men, women, young and old, who weave a tapestry of universal values of justice, equality, liberty and fraternity.
In a society that excludes at every turn, the excluded have claimed the public sphere with the physical shape of a bust or statue of Babasaheb. Can we even begin to fathom the processes that lead to seeing this physical manifestation of Babasaheb’s consciousness at narrow street corners and busy market places

On his 125th birth anniversary, in the act of remembering Babasaheb Ambedkar, The Shared Mirror invited young writers to send in articles on the theme of ‘What Babasaheb Ambedkar Means to Me’.

How do we embrace our roles in annihilating caste to create the foundation of a humane society? How do we celebrate his legacy and join his followers as workers laboring for an equal world?

The collection of essays in this book captures the writers’ thinking on visions for a better and just world through their engagement with Babasaheb Ambedkar. As an eminent writer, thinker, statesman and a formidable symbol of resistance, he occupies a position of highest integrity. It is a book that will make readers think with the writers: Is Ambedkar an idea or an ideal? Is he a path or a journey? The readers get to engage in the dynamic process of viewing personal struggles alongside a benchmark of lofty human values, seen and understood through his incorruptible persona in life, words and accomplishments.