Welcome address by the Director

Honorable Chief Guest, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khosa, the senior Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab. Sardar Sahib is also a former governor of Punjab, and an eye witness, during most crucialperiod of Pakistan’s political history in 1999. Let me add here that credit also goes to Sardar Sahib for being the youngest member of the West Pakistan Assembly, when in 1962, he was elected at the age of 26.

I and the staff of Sir Ganga Ram Heritage Foundation are honored that scholars from India – Dr. Anand Teltumbde, a relation of Dr. Ambedkar; Professor Rajivlochan, Chairman, Department of History, Punjab University, Chandigarh; and Nepal, Mr. Chakarman, Advocate and President Dalit Welfare Organization, Kathmandu, graced this occasion, and we welcome them to participate in the celebrations in honour of Dr. Ambedkar.

I also welcome scholars from Pakistan, ladies and gentlemen.

This is the sixth time that Sir Ganga Ram Heritage Foundation is celebrating the birthday of a great revolutionary thinker, and champion of the oppressed and underprivileged sections of any society, Dr. Baba Sahab Ambedkar, by paying homage to his services for humanity, equality, freedom, and resentment against tyranny and oppression. In the past eminent scholars from all over the world ranging from U.K.; USA; Canada; Europe; India; Burma; Bangladesh; Nepal; Sri Lanka and Pakistan presented their well research papers and spoke on the occasions of the birthday celebrations of the great personality Dr. Ambedkar.

Dr. Ambedkar does not only belongs to India or to the Indian Dalit community, we in Pakistan also consider him as one of our own, for his great services to the human race, fighting for their rights, respect and honour. The whole complexity of divisions on the basis of caste, in particular is embedded in centuries old socio-cultural foundations of the Indian society and the mindset which it throws up is not easy to erase or not even to manage at times. That does not mean that the saner members of the Indian society or those who live elsewhere and are concerned about the basics of human dignity should not put their heads together to find out a remedy for this chronic and cruel gross inequality and injustice. No doubt the whole dynamics of caste system is highly complex, as it crisscrosses regions, languages, vested interests and expediency and needs a detailed analysis first the understand the phenomena and then to suggest remedies – It remains a challenge for the social scientists and human rights activists to develop a paradigm, a solution oriented model, through which the struggle for granting dignity and respect for the Dalits and other oppressed classes of a society can be presented.

Today our learned speakers would educate us still further about the noble deeds and message of this great theorist. Therefore, I will be brief in pointing out the basics of this noble personality’s thinking. According to Dr. Ambedkar, his social philosophy revolves around six words: Educate; Agitate; Organize; Liberty; Equality and Fraternity. Dr. Ambedkar, a Dalit or untouchable himself, rose to great intellectual heights, in spite of extreme handicaps and obstructions by the high caste Hindu establishment. He broke the barriers constructed by the cruel and inhuman caste system of the Indian society and challenged those who were responsible for it. He said and I quote, “Thekeynote of my policy is that we are not a sub-section of the Hindus but a separate element in the national life as separate and distinct as Muslims”. On another occasion he talked about the permanence of the exploited sections of the Indian society by saying, “Mahatmas have come, Mahatmas have gone but the Untouchables have remained as Untouchables”.

Another great personality of South Asia, Sir Ganga Ram, shared the thinking of Dr. Ambedkar, although in a different manner. He too was a champion of the needy and made efforts to redress the pains of those who could not help themselves. His biggest achievement being the immortalized hospital of Lahore, known as Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, apart from his other numerous public service deeds.

Let me now briefly introduce the organization which is hosting this great occasion. Sir Ganga Ram Heritage Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization or NGO, established in Lahore in 2006.

The objects and agenda of Sir Ganga Ram Heritage Foundation is to promote Sir Ganga Ram’s contributions towards humanity as such and towards the downtrodden people of this region in particular. The objective of this foundation is to highlight his services. In this regard we have various activities and agendas in order to generate a dialogue between the oppressed communities of South Asia. For example we are concerned about the conditions of the Dalits in India. We are also concerned about the welfare of the minorities in Pakistan, especially in the context of providing them with equal rights and opportunities. It is our agenda to provide forums, such as this seminar, where we can talk to each other, and have more information and understanding regarding the affairs and matters of various such less privileged communities. I am sure collectively, through sharing of information and exchange of views we can come up with a methodology for ultimate remedy to eliminate discrimination, bigotry, and hatred on the basis of caste, religion and creed.

As part of our activities we established a well-attended medical camp at the birth place of Sir Ganga Ram, Ganga Nagar, which is about two hours journey from Lahore, in which the doctors and paramedical staff of Sir Ganga Ram hospital spent a day seeing hundreds of people that had visited the camp. This was in fact to pay a tribute to the great personality of Sir Ganga Ram and to show to the world Sir Ganga Ram’s efforts to minimize the sufferings of those affected. I am sure we were able to establish that regardless of religion and caste, whoever serves humanity should be remembered, admired and loved, like Dr. Ambedkar.

The message of Sir Ganga Ram Heritage Foundation is that lets get together and try to understand the problems of various communities which are deprived of their due rights, like Sir Ganga Ram did. He served the humanity regardless of religion, caste, creed and language. He served everybody around him. That is the message that we would like to promote to the world in general and for the region in particular –come on let’s get together and serve the needy people and treat all humans as equal.

In the end I must say that we would also like to promote Sir Ganga Ram’s message of self-help. Instead of looking at the government institutions and looking at the state to solve all our problems and all our ills, we should stand up and try to resolve our difficulties ourselves, to the best of our ability, like Sir Ganga Ram did. This Foundation would also like to say to the people in general, let’s get together as a community and through community service solve our problems, which we can – and I think that will be the best answer to resolve our difficulties.