hidden image

Thus Spoke Ambedkar

Dr Suryaraju Mattimalla Dr Suryaraju Mattimalla
19 Jan 2026

Oh my follower,
You named yourself mine.
To gain convenience
Personal, professional, political
Without ever touching
A spine stamped with ink.
You reduced my identity.
From a social theorist
To a mere political leader,
Misunderstanding my words
"Political power is the master key."
As ambition,
Not analysis.
I was never a politician first;
I was a political theorist.
A restless mind like Gopal Guru's,
Seeking dialogue over dogma,
Conversation over the Sanatan way of life
That crushes the individual.
Beneath inherited truth.
I learned individualism.
In Colombia's corridors,
At the LSE's walls.
I saw freedom of thought.
In Western Christian worlds
Not oppression,
But the courage to cherish individualism.
I wanted the same for my people:
Individualism unafraid,
Voices unthreatened,
Opinions spoken without
The shadow of intimidation.
I loved dialogue.
Debate, discussion,
Critical thinking,
Freedom of expression,
Like Gopal Guru and Sundar Sarukkai
More than silenced mouths.
I loved truth.
Honest,
Reading a book,
Producing ideas,
I loved the factory of ideas.
That's what my Gopal Guru and Sundar Sarukkai are producing now.
I did not have a Sundar Sarukkai in my days.
People like him were not around when I was growing up.
No patient voice trained in listening,
No guru who treated thought as something sacred.
I met him only later in life.
As an absence I could finally name.
There was no table for academic dialogue.
No place where ideas could sit together,
Not to conquer one another,
Like Arabs, the EU, and the UN conquered lands,
But to be handled with care.
The table was never meant for victory.
It was meant for shared thinking.
Degrees came to us from distant shores.
They arrived polished, stamped, and certified.
But thought itself never travelled.
It remained unvisited, unwalked, unexplored.
Titles shone brilliantly.
Yet the minds beneath them stayed unlit.

I look at civilisations.
Vast, crowded, and sacred in scale.
Sanatan, Sharia, systems, populations.
But size alone does not explain civilisations.
From Varanasi to the Indian Ocean
From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea
From Antisemitism to the Holocaust
From the Holocaust to October 7
From October 7 to Bondi Beach
From Human to Untouchable
From Untouchable to Kanchikacherla Kotesu
From Karamchedu to Khairlanji
From the age of 609 CE to the present
From MENA to the UN,
From Scarf to Saree,
From Asylum to Mamdani
From Alien to Ruler
From Brown to Black
From Wheatish to Brown
From Aryan to Dravidian
From twice born to Shudra
From Ram to Mohammed
From Saraswathi to Aisha
From Sanatan to Sharia
From antiquity to the present
I see centuries weighed down.
By inherited certainty and
Sanatan and Sharia habits of mind.
Why does the labour of knowledge,
So often surrender to the noise of Hindu or Islamic ideologies?

Recent Posts

The 2026 West Bengal elections exposed how democratic institutions can be weakened without a formal suspension of democracy. Through voter deletions, administrative filtering, heavy enforcement deploy
apicture Oliver D'Souza
11 May 2026
The proposed School Management Committees mark an unprecedented Union encroachment into school governance, threatening state powers and minority rights. The guidelines lack constitutional backing, und
apicture Joseph Maliakan
11 May 2026
I first heard your name when my friend, an IAS officer, now retired, served under you in the Petroleum Ministry. Recently, I had occasion to write an editorial on the reforms that you introduced in th
apicture A. J. Philip
11 May 2026
The Assembly election results underline a stark warning for India's opposition: disunity is strengthening the BJP's expanding dominance and weakening democratic pluralism. Critics argue that fragmente
apicture Jacob Peenikaparambil
11 May 2026
The 2026 Assembly elections showed that Christian voters remain influential in areas where communities are concentrated and institutionally organised, especially in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Vijay's rise
apicture John Dayal
11 May 2026
When flames tore through the fragile shanties along the Narkeldanga canal one humid evening in February 2025, families lost everything in minutes. Bamboo poles, tin sheets, plastic and tarpaulin roofs
apicture CM Paul
11 May 2026
To split human beings into Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, Untouchable: To place some at the summit of heaven And bury untouchables below the floor of hell Is not just a mistake of history;
apicture Dr Suryaraju Mattimalla
11 May 2026
Francis Fukuyama, quoting Hobbes, says, people usually fight over necessities, but often enough they contend over trifles. That is to say, many quarrels arise over non-issues. They are expressions
apicture Thomas Menamparampil
11 May 2026
Many of us grew up hearing a sentence repeated by parents, teachers, coaches and even old uncles sitting with cups of tea after a cricket match. "Learn to lose gracefully." We were told that being a g
apicture Robert Clements
11 May 2026
The defection of seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs simultaneously crossed the anti-defection law's two-thirds merger threshold, exposing how constitutional safeguards themselves can be used to legitimise mass
apicture Jacob Peenikaparambil
04 May 2026