From animated tributes to video calls to online essay and poster-making competitions, Bharat Ratna Dr. BR Ambedkar’s 129th birthday was celebrated digitally across India and abroad.
This comes on a day when PM Narendra Modi invoked Ambedkar while announcing an extension of a nationwide lockdown in view of Covid-19. There are severe restrictions on gathering of people but that didn’t stop the celebrations for Babasaheb’s birthday. His followers decided to mark the occasion digitally through websites, video calling apps and social media contests.
Garland Ambedkar’s Statue, Light a Lamp, Cheer With Jai Bheem: All With a Click
National Confederation of Dalit and Tribal Organisatons, a media platform focussing mainly on Dalit and Adivasi issues, created a dedicated page on their website through which people from across the world can pay online tributes to Ambedkar.
Once someone opens the website, a link directs you to a page where you can fill some basic personal information. On completion, it opens a new page where in four steps, one can garland Ambedkar's statue, light lamps and even hear chants like "Ek do teen chaar, Babasaheb ki jai jai kar".
Songs, Poems, Speeches: Ambedkarites Get Together on Video Call
Supreme Court lawyer Nitin Meshram and journalist Sumit Chauhan had conceived a meeting of Dalit activists and Ambedkar followers on video conferencing app, WebX. Meshram said, “The response was overwhelming. Close to 100 people from India and abroad joined the meeting on a very short notice. The meeting went on for 4-5 hours.”
“Everyone wished each other, paid tributes to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. Some sang songs of Ambedkar, some recited poems and some delivered speeches.”Nitin Meshram, SC Lawyer
You can get a glimpse of what went down at the meeting here:
Insta Lives, Online Essay/Drawing Contests
Anti-caste activist Tejas Harad discussed Ambedkar’s ‘Castes in India’ paper on an Instagram Live. He says, “ The discussion was really good. There were more than 100 viewers even though the discussion was in Marathi. After my comments on the paper, I took questions from the audience.”
There were also online contests held for writing essays and making posters on Ambedkar. Online panel discussions were also held to mark his birthday.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)