Remembering Babuji

He was a loyal follower of Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophy of peace and non-violence. But as a student he indulged in violence of sorts at least once, that was in later years approved and even applauded by the Mahatma. The angry, young school boy was Babu Jagjivan Ram.

Jagjivan Ram joined Arrah Town School in 1922. Soon he came face to face with caste discrimination for the first time. The school had two water pots, one for Hindus and another for Muslims. When the young Jagjivan drank water from the Hindu pot, the matter was reported to the Principal, who placed a third pot for “untouchables.” A scandalised Jagjivan broke this pot twice, eventually leading the school to abandon the third pot.

The pot-breaking incident became an oft quoted path-breaking event in Jagjivan Ram's life — symbolising the valiant fight he waged all his life against discrimination on caste basis.

Distinguished career

Jagjivan Ram proved his mettle on his own and rose to be the nation’s Deputy Prime Minister. He still holds a record as a minister without a break for as many as 34 years. He became, at 38, the youngest minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's provisional government in 1946. He was also a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, where he ensured that social justice was enshrined in the Constitution. His ministerial innings came to an end in 1980 when he was in the Janata Party government of Prime Minister Morarji Desai.

Babuji, as he was popularly known, made his legislative debut at the age of 29, in 1937, as a member of the Bihar Legislative assembly. This was the time when popular rule was introduced under the 1935 Act and the scheduled castes were given representation in the legislatures. Interestingly, both the nationalists and the British loyalists sought him because of his first-hand knowledge of the social and economic situation in Bihar. He chose to go with the nationalists and joined the Congress.

Discrimination persists

His ministerial tenures in independent India proved momentous. He was Defence Minister during the Indo-Pak war of 1971 that ended in the liberation of erstwhile East Pakistan into an independent Bangladesh.

He was born at Chandwa near Arrah in Bihar in 1908. He went to Aggrawal Middle School in Arrah in 1920 at the age of 12, where the medium of instruction was English. No wonder, he was a facile speaker in English in Parliament and outside, proving that class was no barrier to accomplishments once the opportunity was given.

As the nation remembers and pays homage to Babu Jagjivan Ram on his 105th birth anniversary this Friday, more water pots remain to be broken in the cause of Dalits who continue to be discriminated in several parts of the country.

(The author, formerly with PTI, is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist)

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