Birthday, Babasaheb! Here’s a gift of books

Everyone has at one time or other heard the Beatles’ 1968 bubblegum pop song Birthday:

You say it’s your birthday/

It’s my birthday too, yeah/

They say it’s your birthday/

We’re gonna have a good time

April 14 was Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birthday, and judging by the pictures flitting all over social media, a good time was indeed had by many.

One photo I was surprised to see circulating on twitter was a collection of six new books about Ambedkar, all published within the last six months — an average of one new book per month on various aspects of his life and times.

Read | RSS chief cites Ambedkar, urges to break ‘trap’ of differences

Such an inundation is not common. It signals a new moment: the rising global awareness of Ambedkar and his mission. We have seen this newness manifest in other ways, too. Think of the many anti-caste discrimination laws on the table in the US and Canada, after having already been put into effect in the UK. Hence, perhaps, the overwhelming joy and celebration amongst Ambedkarite communities yesterday: everywhere and all at once.

Yes we’re going to a party party/

Yes we’re going to a party party/

Yes we’re going to a party party.

What an apt way to celebrate Ambedkar, with the production of one of the things he cherished most in the world: books. Ambedkar was an obsessive book collector, and over the course of his lifetime amassed one of the largest and finest libraries in India — indeed, he built a house, Rajgruha, with the specific design of accommodating his massive library.

The unique thing about these six new books is that they scarcely overlap at all. Ambedkar’s life was so eventful, his personality so complex, his tribulations and triumphs so multifarious, that volume after volume can be written exploring each of these various dimensions without repetition of material.

Savita Ambedkar’s autobiography, Babasaheb (an English translation of her earlier Marathi book), covers especially the period of their marriage – from 1947 to Babasaheb’s death in 1956. It is an inside look at Ambedkar as a man, a husband, packed with intimate details that most readers would never have heard about him. Shashi Tharoor’s biography, Ambedkar: A Life, on the other hand, steers very clear of the personal, and is instead preoccupied with the evaluation of Ambedkar’s legacy — one junior statesman looking at another giant statesman.

Scout Stroud’s book, The Evolution of Pragmatism in India: Ambedkar, Dewey…, can be paired with the co-edited volume, Ambedkar in London; for, the first deep dives into the lasting impact of Ambedkar’s early education in New York, while the second explores the influence that London had on a young Ambedkar, and the later influence that Ambedkar has had on London.

The final pair would be Ashok Gopal’s massive new biography, A Part Apart: The Life and Thought of B R Ambedkar, along with my own new two-part biography, Becoming Babasaheb. These two biographies naturally treat of Ambedkar’s life overall, but they do so in such different ways that even here there is, in a way, little material overlap. Gopal’s book is an intellectual biography, focusing on Ambedkar’s body of writings, whereas mine is a personality-driven narrative, focusing on Ambedkar as a flesh-and-blood person. That is, on how — despite the odds — this young Bhiva Ambadawekar evolved, first to Bhimrao Ambedkar, then to Barrister Ambedkar, then to Dr Ambedkar, and finally to Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Given the rising international appetite for learning ever more about Babasaheb, these recent six books are only the first wave of a coming tide. Ambedkar Jayanti 2023 has been a splendid opportunity to watch it ushered in.

I’m glad it’s your birthday/

Happy birthday to you!

(Aakash Singh Rathore as Dr Jekyll is a Professor of Philosophy, Politics and Law, author and editor of over 20 books and counting, and as Mr Hyde, one of India’s top-ranking Ironman triathletes. @ASR_metta)