Rahul M.

Sharmila Joshi

Editor

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A new garland adorns
Dr. Ambedkar’s statue in Anantapur nearly every day. At around 8:30 a.m., A. Subhan,
a flower seller, climbs up the steps to the gold-painted statue with a
garland of red roses or lilies woven by his family. Either Subhan or his
17-year-old nephew Bablu make sure this is done regularly.

The ritual
started around 2010, after an old statue of Dr. Ambedkar, apparently in the way
of traffic, was demolished and the present one came up. The statue is located around a kilometre south of the clock tower in the central part of
Anantapur town in Andhra Pradesh, within walking distance of Subhan’s flower
stall. 

Other statues
close by are rather less fortunate. The first after the clock tower, on the same stretch of road, is of
Indira Gandhi. It is covered in jute cloth now, but has seen better days when
the Congress was in power in Andhra Pradesh (from 2004 to 2014). In 2013, an
earlier version of the statue was smashed and burned down by protesters opposing
the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana. A new statue was later installed,
but it continues to be shrouded. A statue of Rajiv Gandhi on this stretch is
also covered. Perhaps these reflect the Congress party’s subdued fortunes in
the state.

Several other
statues stand on that road – Potti Sreeramulu (who died in 1952 fasting
for a separate Telugu state of Andhra Pradesh), Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Y. S.
Rajashekhar Reddy, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Kanshi Ram and
Mother Teresa. Occasionally, these too are garlanded. But their flowers soon start
decaying, and the leaders seem to be forgotten after commemorative events.

Babasaheb Ambedkar’s
statue though is remembered every day. A. Mallesh, a cashier at an Andhra Bank
branch near the clock tower, pays Subhan at the beginning of every month for
the garlands. “He pays me 1,000 rupees,” 36-year-old Subhan, a Muslim, says. “We
don’t make any profit, but we do it because we admire Ambedkar.” A garland in
Subhan’s shop costs Rs. 60 to 130, depending on the flowers used. 


















Mallesh’s
reverence for Dr. Ambedkar is rooted in
his own experience of caste discrimination. “There was no food, no water, no
oil for the head, no books to read, no slate to write on [in my village],” he
says. “Now the god has provided us with everything – god meaning Ambedkar.” Mallesh
is a Madiga Dalit from Atmakur
village of Anantapur district. “In our village, there was only one well for drinking
water,” he recalls. “We were only allowed to take water when the [land-owning] farmers
came to draw water. Otherwise there was no water. Madigas couldn’t touch [the well].”

At school in Anantapur town, Mallesh and other children from Dalit and tribal communities had to sit at a corner of the classroom, while the upper caste students sat in the front. “We had to carry mud from outside [and spread it on the floor] for writing. We didn’t have slates,” he remembers. “If someone said ‘Hey Madiga! Take the mud out’ we had to throw it out.” The teacher too often insulted the Dalits by referring to their caste, and would beat them with palm canes. Mallesh, now 59, had to drop out of the school after Class 7 to support his mother when his father, an agricultural labourer, died. He worked as a helper at a government hostel in Anantapur, and started applying for government jobs. In 1982, he found work as an attendant at Andhra Bank for a monthly salary of Rs. 500. By 1985, after an interview at the bank, he got a better-paid post as clerical assistant.

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Mallesh has also
worked in various Dalit unions and organisations, and was until recently the
zone-wide president of the SC &amp; ST Employees Welfare Association at his
bank. He has participated in various protests against caste discrimination. Around
1995, he recalls, he went on a 10-kilometre march from Anantapur to Alamur with left parties and other
activists to protest an instance of caste discrimination. Mallesh was also the
president of Dandora, a Dalit group formed in the 1990s, but moved out of it by
the 2000s due to political differences.  Around 1996, Mallesh
prepared for and passed his Class 10 exams. Eventually, this helped him move up
from his clerical assistant’s post to his present job as a cashier in 2013 –
which now pays him a salary many times more than his initial Rs. 500. In 2010, while
still a clerical assistant, Mallesh
decided “just like that” to garland Dr. Ambedkar
for as long as he could. He remembers a small informal meeting of bank employees
and others from Dalit communities, where they volunteered to pool donations for
the garlands. But Mallesh didn’t want to chase people for money every month, so
he and M. Gopal, an attendant at another branch of Andhra Bank, decided
to share the cost. Gopal stopped contributing last year and now only Mallesh pays
for the garlands.

Mallesh doesn’t like reading or being lectured about Ambedkar. He says he learnt about Ambedkar by just living the life of a Dalit: “I can imagine the kind of hardships he would have faced, based on the hardships I experienced. We can learn just by looking at what he has done for us. Isn’t he the one who wrote our Constitution?”On weekends or
festival days Mallesh sometimes garlands the statue himself. He is
planning to petition the district administration to install a shade to protect it from sunlight, wind and bird droppings. “First we will try
to get it for Ambedkar,&quot; he says, &quot;then we will ask the same for Jagjivan Ram and then for
Kanshi Ram.” 

Although the flowers
on Dr.  Ambedkar’s statue might not be noticed
by many in Anantapur, the sweepers who clean the roads in the early mornings
know about it. “Someone, probably someone big, garlands the statue every day. I
don’t know who does it,” says G. Ramalakshmi, a Dalit woman employed by the town’s
municipal corporation to clean the streets. As she says this, she touches her
fingers to either side of her chin, in a gesture of devotion, “When I see the
statue with the garland I think that the god [Ambedkar] is doing well. We pray
to him while coming to work every day.”

The garland on Anantapur’s Ambedkar statue

অনন্তপুরে নিত্য তরতাজা পুষ্পহারে সেজে ওঠেন বাবাসাহেব

അനന്തപൂരിലെ അംബേദ്ക്കർ പ്രതിമയ്ക്ക് ഒരു മാല

அனந்தப்பூர் அம்பேத்கர் சிலை மீதான மாலை

اننت پور میں پھولوں کی مالا سے سجا امبیڈکر کا مجسمہ

अनंतपुर: अंबेडकर की प्रतिमा पर चढ़ी माला

ଅନନ୍ତପୁରରେ ଆମ୍ବେଦକରଙ୍କ ପ୍ରତିମୂର୍ତ୍ତିରେ ମାଳ

आंबेडकरांच्या पुतळ्यावरचा ताजा हार, मु.पो. अनंतपूर

অনন্তপুৰৰ আম্বেদকাৰৰ প্ৰতিমূর্তিত মালা

Anantapur

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The garland on Anantapur’s Ambedkar statue

A Dalit bank cashier and a Muslim flower seller in Anantapur town in Andhra Pradesh have ensured for years that the statue of their revered leader gets fresh flowers every day

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