The Grand Beginning: A Daughter's Tribute to her Father
by Meira Kumar
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In this moving personal memoir, Meira Kumar, diplomat, politician and the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha, pays tribute to her father, the legendary Dalit leader Babu Jagjivan Ram ('Babuji'), tracing his journey from an impoverished, untouchable boy in Bihar to a towering champion of social justice. She recalls the picturesque bed-time tales of his early life in Chandwa village, told by her grandmother Vasanti Devi and uncle Barka Baba. Born on April 5, 1908 amid extreme poverty and the cruel oppression of untouchability, Babuji was made of 'sterner stuff'; on Basant Panchami, aged six, he entered the village school in a yellow dhoti and velvet cap with jaggery in his mouth for luck. At the Arrah high school he faced caste discrimination: beside the Hindu and Muslim water pitchers, the authorities added a third 'untouchable' pitcher for him. In a revolutionary act of defiance the boy smashed it with a stone, and kept smashing each replacement until the exasperated headmaster removed it and kept one pot for all. Kumar calls this early victory the 'grand beginning' of her father's lifelong crusade to restore dignity and constitutional rights to India's downtrodden millions.
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Meira Kumar (b. 1945), a prominent Indian diplomat, politician and the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha, is the daughter of the legendary Dalit leader and former Deputy Prime Minister, Babu Jagjivan Ram. In this deeply personal memoir she pays a heartfelt tribute to her father (popularly known as Babuji), tracing his journey from an impoverished, untouchable boy in Bihar to a towering champion of social justice.
The picturesque tales of grandmother
Kumar begins by explaining the difficulty of writing dispassionately about a father when the emotional bonds are so deep. As a child she loved the bed-time stories narrated by her grandmother, Vasanti Devi, and her uncle, Barka Baba, stories that painted a detailed picture of Babuji's early life in Chandwa, a small, impoverished village in Bihar.
The struggle against poverty and untouchability
Babu Jagjivan Ram was born on April 5, 1908, amid extreme poverty and the cruel social oppression of untouchability. For centuries Indian society had treated the untouchables with utter scorn and contempt, crushing their spirit. But Babuji was made of 'sterner stuff'. At the age of six, on the auspicious day of Basant Panchami, he was admitted to the village school, wearing a simple yellow dhoti and a velvet cap, with a piece of jaggery in his mouth for good luck.
The three pitchers of Arrah school
When Babuji joined the high school in Arrah town, he met severe caste discrimination. On the school verandah stood two earthen water pitchers, one for Hindu students and one for Muslim students. To keep the low-caste Jagjivan from defiling these pots, the authorities added a third pitcher: the 'untouchable' pitcher.
This public humiliation stung the young boy. In a revolutionary act of defiance, Jagjivan picked up a stone and smashed the untouchable pitcher to pieces. The next day, when it was replaced, he smashed it again, continuing the protest until the exasperated headmaster gave in and removed the third pitcher permanently, establishing a single verandah pot for all students. Kumar concludes that this early victory was the grand beginning of her father's lifelong, unyielding crusade to restore dignity, pride and constitutional rights to the millions of downtrodden citizens of India.