Reading day and a man about whom you wouldn’t want to miss reading
Today, on June 19 India celebrates ‘National Reading Day’ on the death anniversary of social reformer PN Panicker. Known as the Father of the Library Movement in India, Panicker passed away on 19 June in 1995 after revolutionizing the practice of reading in the country.
Born on 1 March, 1909, Panicker contributed to the literacy movement in Kerala. It became the first total literate state of the country in 1991.
Now, here is to a time we can rethink upon how ‘words’ keep shaping our life and world.
Here is to a day, I take a moment to commemorate a man whom you shouldn’t miss reading about, for he is the man who revolutionized his pen as a weapon and words as darts to speak for the voiceless, who strived for the unheard to get heard, to rewrite the course and history of India. Reading about him is about knowing your social reality, about yourself and the country you live in. It is about a journey and striving for peace, justice and equality. I came across a post by a social media account named bali_mahabali and felt inspired to share it here.
“Each of us needs to think about the importance of reading Ambedkar on this reading day.
It is high time for us to realize that Ambedkar is not just an architect of the constitution, who goes unnoticed and unread in school and college education or at the academic level but as the Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer, who had done great contributions to India’s economic, social, educational, legal, political and constitutional spheres.
Kunjunni mash once said “വായിച്ചാൽ വളരും വായിച്ചില്ലെങ്കിലും വളരും, വായിച്ചാൽ വിളയും, വായിച്ചില്ലെങ്കിൽ വളയും” which roughly translates to “You grow whether you read or not, but if you read and grow you mature, but if you grow without reading you become crooked or bent” and this couldn’t be more true for Babasaheb.
You may read in-depth on Gandhiji, Nehruji or Karl Marx but until and unless you read on Ambedkar, you will never understand what the real India is.”
The history of India is certainly not black and white but grey. The story of oppression and the repeated cycles of injustice and the loop of social events keep reminding us of the far-seeing vision he possessed as a visionary.
“If equality, peace and justice are to flourish on Indian soil, each of us must take out time from our busy schedules and read upon Ambedkar. We have to grow by seeing the India in its truest form. Each moment when we ignore to read about him, justice gets denied to someone. We get estranged from the precious knowledge and its an attempt on our behalf to turn our faces away from reality.
Before embarking on a journey into the world of fantasy rejoicing in our privileges, we must look back to the bottom of our country where people of sweat and blood live through stories. Ambedkar takes us by the hand towards the realities on the ground.
If you have not read about Ambedkar yet, you still had not known about the real India.”
In a world, which still accounts for the presence of systemic oppression, institutionalized murders, where civilians fights continue for their basic right to survive, with people who still face various forms of structural oppressions, casteism and racism, for the world that’s trying to raise towards greater equality and equity from a pit built in deep-rooted patriarchy and hierarchy, here is to a man who sets precedent for a whole new generation to dream for change and to question the injustices.
Let’s make one such generation that knows its way forward through unlearning, learning and relearning.
Ref : firstpost , bali_mahabali