(Image source from: More to know about Ambedkar })

RSS has decided to bring out what it calls "lesser known facets" about Ambedkar on his 125th birth anniversary. RSS mouthpiece Organiser and Panchjanya will issue collector's editions, 200-page bumper issues on Ambedkar, where he would be celebrated as a 'purifier' who vehemently spoke against Islamic 'aggression', conversion to Islam, communism and Article 370. Till now, Sangh publications have never had a 'collector's edition' but only special issues limited to RSS founder KB Hedgewar and the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. At the recently-held Nagpur conclave, the Sangh reiterated its 'one well, one temple, one crematorium for all' policy and decision to project Ambedkar as a unifier of people to show its emphasis was on creating an inclusive society.

Ambedkar was a nationalist; the special editions would say and have pieces by Sangh's Dalit leaders and even joint secretary Krishna Gopal. The books will be launched by the Sangh organising secretary Bhaiyyaji Suresh Joshi.

The focal point will be Ambedkar's views on Pakistan. "He saw the universal brotherhood of Islam uniting just Muslims. He was critical of the spirit of aggression of political Islam that takes advantage of the weakness of Hindus and follows gangsterism," said Prafulla Ketkar, Organiser's editor. "Also, when in Pakistan and in some provinces such as Hyderabad, Scheduled Caste Hindus were forcibly converted, Ambedkar warned them against it and told, the converted Hindus would be welcomed back. In a way, he also supported ghar wapsi," he added.

He was a national leader, not just a Dalit icon and that is what we are trying to say by bringing out his various facets," Ketkar said. He added that the collector's edition has referred only to Ambedkar's original speeches and writings and a biography written by Dhananjay Keer that Ambedkar was himself witness to. "Marxists celebrate Ambedkar but he had dismissed class struggles and declared himself as 'a confirmed enemy of communists' and knew the power of religion. He may have taken strategic political decisions, but he was a nationalist to the core, never a casteist which most writings on Ambedkar choose to hide," he added. RSS will hold programs in all its 55,000 shakhas on April 14, where Ambedkar will be remembered for his writings on nation-building.

“The Sangh has often taken stray sentences from the book and projected Ambedkar as anti-Muslim which he clearly was not." Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of BR Ambedkar, said. "The Sangh is in a catch 22 situation. It wants to galvanise the Hindu community to further its agenda of Hindu rashtra but is aware of its limitations as it has never believed in a caste-free society, unlike Ambedkar who believed in the abolition of caste."

By Premji