Bhagwan Das As I Knew Him

                                            Bhagwan Das As I Knew Him
                                                - S.R.Darapuri I.P.S.(Retd)

I had known Bhagwan Das for the last forty-two years. He was known in Delhi as one of the most learned and dedicated followers of Baba Saheb Ambedkar.
I heard him for the first time in 1968 in the weekly meetings of the Baudha Upasak Sangh in Lakshmi Bai Nagar, New Delhi. Ambedkar Bhavan was the centre of Buddhist activities for some years. The Buddhist society of India organized weekly religious meetings. Two Shastries, Mr. Y.C.Shaankranand Shastri and Mr. Sohan Lal Shastri, both products of the Braham Vidyalaya, an Arya Samajist institution of Punjab, were the leaders of the Buddhist movement. They organized these weekly meetings on the pattern of the Arya Samaj meetings. For some reason, some differences developed between the two Shastries and they parted company. Mr.Shankranand Shastri along with some of his friends formed the Baudha Upasak Sangha and began to hold weekly meetings in the front yard of one room flat owned by Mr. Rama Rao Bagde, an employee of the reserve Bank of India. He and his wife devotedly made the preparations, cleaned the floor, and provided flowers, incense etc. Mr. Das was one of the prominent speakers at these meetings.
He was interested in the unity of Dalits and had tried to bring in many castes like Dhanuks, Khatiks, Balmikis, Helas, Kolis into the movement.
Besides working at grass root level he contributed articles on diverse problems of the Dalits and minorities which were published in the Sarita, Milap, Naya Zamana, Ujala, Bheem Patrika etc. He has good command over English and Urdu. He can read and write in simple Hindi and Punjabi in Gurmukhi script, Bengali which he learnt while serving in the Air force in Bengal and Arakan, but he has forgotten.
I have travelled throughout India and know many officers, professors, teachers and leaders belonging to the Scheduled Castes. I believe Mr. Das owned the largest collection of books and journals. He was a voracious reader and spent most of his working hours in reading. He spent a good deal of money on purchasing books and journals. In his collection, one finds some very rare books written by foreign and Indian writers. In his files lie many good articles and booklets on diverse subjects which he could not get printed or just forgot about them.
From the talks I had with him, I had come to the conclusion that although he was brought up in a Cantonment near Shimla, the summer capital of India, and the family was well-to-do, he suffered from insults and humiliations owing to his birth in an untouchable family. He was proud of his father who had contributed a great deal in moulding his character. He was an admirer of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and was very fond of reading newspapers. Study of Ayurveda was his hobby besides reading scriptures of Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism. Mr. Das had inherited a love for knowledge from his father.
It seems Mr. Das was influenced by Christianity like most Untouchables of his times. Later on, he studied Arya Samajists literature and Koran and other books on Muslim theology. For a considerable time, he had been reading Marxist literature and wrote on Marxism. The Class character of Communist leaders, however, deterred him. To cap it all he read Ingersoll, Tom Paine, Voltaire, Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell. He developed his own ideas about religion before he came in direct touch with Baba Saheb Ambedkar.
He was introduced to Baba Saheb Ambedkar by the late Mr. Shiv Dayal Singh Chaurasia, an imminent leader of the Backward Classes who served as a Member of Kaka Kalekar Commission and also as a Member of Rajya Sabha.
Mr. Das had no plan to marry but it was Mr.Chaurasia who got him married to a well-educated girl belonging to the Dhanuk caste of Lucknow. Mr. Das was sixteen when his father died. He had to brave another calamity. Immediately one month after the death of his father, his house caught fire on the 14th of May 1943 and in the evening of that fateful day he was reduced to the level of a pauper. He had to support a large family of six members of his family getting them reasonable high school education and later on they themselves improved their acquisitions and status.
Mr. Das has written many books besides compiling and editing the speeches and writings of Baba sahib Ambedkar long before this work was undertaken by the Government of Maharashtra. He wrote four books on the Sweepers and Scavengers and a booklet on the Dhobies. His books on Buddhism and caste and the seminar papers which he has presented in the seminars and conferences in India and abroad give an idea of how deep is his study and how dedicated he was to the cause of the downtrodden and discriminated against people of the world. If Marx gave a call to the workers of the world to unite, Das’s call has been Dalits of India Unite, and Dalits of Asia Unite. I do not think there is anybody who has tried to bring all Dalits of Asia on a common platform and struggle for liberation and for the right to live with dignity. At the time of his death, Mr. Das had 23 books to his credit. He had three books in hand: Untouchability in Asia, History of Reservation and Balmiki but his failing health and memory were the biggest impediments and he could not complete them.

He lead a very simple life; ate little, just enough to do the work which he had chosen to do. He was modest and in the words of the late Bhadant Anand Kausalyaayan, “You have too much of humility”. He had very strong ascetic tendencies. As a lawyer, he worked hard when he accepted a brief but was choosy about the kind of cases he would like to handle. Avarice was certainly not his weakness. Mr. Das did not have many friends nor did he happily attend social functions. He felt more at home in the libraries or in the company of the intellectuals and people who were working for the upliftment of the oppressed and the discriminated against people.
Mr. Das visited many countries of the world and addressed public meetings or read papers on Human Rights, discriminated nations, problems of women and disadvantaged people, and the revival of Buddhism in India. He did not only preach Buddhism but also practised Buddhism.
There are few people in India having vision, courage, intelligence, commitment and dedication to the cause of the deprived and disadvantaged people – Untouchables, indigenous people, other backward classes, unorganized labour, victims of the violation of human rights and women as Mr. Das had.
His contribution towards the propagation of the ideology of Baba Saheb Ambedkar whether it was appreciated in India or not, officially recognized or not is great and had attracted the attention of scholars and leaders in the sub-continent and abroad. He was by nature quiet and unassuming and avoids publicity.
He was a crusader against "Untouchability". He was the first person after Dr. Ambedkar who took up the issue of untouchability to the international forums. He presented the problem of Untouchability in Asian countries and that of Burakumin of Japan in the U.N.O. in 1983. He earlier took up this issue at various international forums and prepared the background for taking up this issue to U.N.O. He went to U.N.O. to participate in Durban Conference in 2001 and then in 2003 also. He was instrumental in internationalising the issue of untouchability.
One wishes that there were a few more followers of Baba Sahib Ambedkar with the same qualities, commitment, knowledge, courage, and character as Mr. Das has the caravan of Baba Saheb would have covered great distances and attained great heights. One wished he lived longer but those who knew him intimately knew he lived as he liked and died according to his wishes. Euthanasia had great attraction for him.
We wished him a long life to finish his books but he suddenly passed away on 18th November 2010. I feel it is our duty to carry forward his mission of emancipation of Dalits through the spread of  Ambedkarism and Buddhism to pay a tribute to Bhagwan Das, a "True Ambedkarite."  -