Excerpts
from the Speech of Dr Ambedkar
Why Indian Labour is Determined
to Win the War Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s Broadcast from Bombay Station of All India
Radio Dec 1942 Ambedkar Vol 10 pages 36-43
Labour
And Nationalism
More serious opponents of
Labour are, of course, the Nationalists. They accuse Labour of taking an
attitude which is said to be inconsistent with and injurious to Indian
nationalism. Their second objection is that Labour agrees to fight for the war
without getting any assurances about India’s independence. These are questions
so often posed and so seriously argued that it is necessary to state what
labour thinks of them.
As to nationalism, Labour’s attitude is quite
clear. Labour is not prepared to make a fetish of nationalism. If nationalism
means the worship of the ancient past—the discarding of everything that is not
local in origin and colour—then Labour cannot accept nationalism as its creed.
Labour cannot allow the living faith of the dead to become the dead faith of
the living. Labour will not allow the ever expanding spirit of man to be
strangled by the hand of the past which has no meaning for the present and no
hope for the future : nor will it allow it to be cramped in a narrow jacket of
local particularism. Labour must constantly insist upon renovating the life of
the people by being ever ready to borrow in order to repair, transform and
recreate the body politic. If nationalism stands in the way of this rebuilding
and reshaping of life, then Labour must deny nationalism.
Labour’s creed is
internationalism. Labour is interested in nationalism only because the wheels
of democracy—such as representative Parliaments, responsible Executive,
constitutional conventions, etc.—work better in a community united by national
sentiments. Nationalism to Labour is only a means to an end. It is not an end
in itself to which Labour can agree to sacrifice what it regards as the most
essential principles of life.
Independence means nothing
more than that a nation has liberty to determine its form of government and its
social order without dictation from outside. The worth of independence depends
upon the kind of government and the kind of society that is built up. There is
not much value in independence if the form of government and the order of
society are to be those against which the world is fighting today. Labour
thinks that more emphasis ought to have been placed on New India—and less on
‘Quit India’. The appeal of a New India with a New Order is bound to be greater
than the appeal of independence. Indeed the vision of a New Order in a New
India would very greatly strengthen determination to win freedom. Such an
approach would certainly have stopped the many embarrassing questions which are
being asked, namely, freedom for what and freedom for whom.
Labour is aware that it is
not enough to defeat the Nazis and to destroy the possibilities of the New Nazi
Order, it is not a war for the Old Order. It is a war on both the Old Order and
the Nazi Order. Labour is aware that the only compensation for the cost of this
war is the establishment of a New Order in which liberty, equality, and
fraternity, will not be mere slogans but will become facts of life. But the
question of all questions is how can the hope of this New Order materialise ?
On this question Labour is quite emphatic. Labour insists that for the
materialisation of all these ideals there is one condition that is primary—and
that is success in the war. Without success in the war there can be no
self-government and self-determination for India. Without victory in the war,
independence will be idle twaddle. This is the reason why Labour is determined
to win this war….
Labour, therefore, has a
very distinct contribution to make in bringing about a return to the sane and
safe ways of the past which Indians had been pursuing to reach their political
destiny. Labour’s lead to India and Indians is to get into the fight and be
united. The fruits of victory will be independence and a New Social Order. For
such a victory all must fight. Then the fruits of victory will be the patrimony
of all, and there will be none to deny the rights of a united India to share in
that patrimony.
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