My first attentive introduction to the person Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar is, is with the Constitutional Observer, I am learning who he was, and what he is now to people from the places I visit. I did not grow up with such a consciousness, so I must learn now. I must also learn what he means to my own politics. This is simply a collection of my own experiences during the Ambedkar jayanti Celebrations this year. Of course it is a lot of questions and observations that only people who have lived in Bidar may fully understand.
I attended the celebrations of Jayanti for the first time. I have not seen such a large, city-wide celebration ever, in any other city. Ofcourse I’ve seen very less of my own cities. I have seen cities turn saffron, saffron is prominent in many celebrations, for all sorts of hindu events, they make an appearance. It is the most bold colour. When it appears, it appears all over the city. But the amount of ambedkarite Blue I saw here, I have not seen in my own cities.
The jayanti is split between the day and the night. And the jayanti starts many days before. This time, banners are all over the city, they were up many days before. They were often AI generated, and had Ambedkar appear in the style of The Godfather scenes.
The night before, the lights and screens had been set up. The circle was no longer a traffic circle, but was full with people standing and looking up into the statue. There is smoke rising. There are lights projecting onto the sky. You can smell burnt rubber from quite a distance, it was the smell of burning male egos we would realise as we walked into the crowd. There were a lot of young boys, men, on their bikes, revving and burning their tyres in competition. V tells me that it used to be families who walked in and stood at midnight in celebration. This time, the bikes and egos had filled the road, they filled our ears: with crying two strokes, exhausts that sounded like bombs and filled our noses with sad rubber… Who is this for?
I’m surrounded by people who have been viewers for decades and organising in some capacity for years, and so for everything I see, there is a story of change, I understand why they are new even to the people who are from Bidar. This Jayanti, T says, is particularly loud. It is not as creative as it used to be, V commented. The sounds also sound all the same, the displays are all the same.
The morning of the jayanti, MLAs, the District Commissioner, and a few other people garland the statue. The statue over fills, hiding Ambedkar’s face, somebody clears them away, and people continue to climb the stairs and garland him. The Minister talks about Educate, Agitate, Organise, and how we must read Ambedkar, not just say his name. The DC talks about the value of the constitution, and how the best parts of other constitutions have come in to ours. There are multiple stages, the minister is invited to each stage, each eager to host him for cake, for food, for a shawl.
By evening, from Ambedkar Circle, through Naya Kaman DJ trucks and crowds enter old city on a procession. DJ trucks are collectively hired by neighbourhoods for the procession on the evening of the Jayanti. At the same time, there are speeches happening, but the loudness drowns everything out. Sirens are forced to rhyme with dance numbers. Quite literally, the DJs blast out siren-like arrangements. Those sirens replace the loudness of other forces in the city, the speeches, the kids crying, parents talking to their children in the procession.
The sounds are louder than anything else I have ever heard before. I could feel the tissue paper vibrate inside my ear, then touching my eardrum.
I felt a lot of anger from my peers, how could the jayanti be celebrated this way?