REFORM

We are seized by a spirit of rebellion at different times… some as a child, some as a teenager, some as a youth, some for life, some for occasion and some for emotion… Such rebellion moves from disobedience to actions more severe… Invariably, the rebel seeks to challenge the situation as it is and change it in alignment with his own perception as to what is better.

Reform is rebellion with a noble purpose. It is about positive change. However, it can include a reversion to the basics to what is distinguished to be an unadulterated, original state. While rebellious revolutions seek radical change, the scope of reformation is careful not to throw the baby out with the dirty bathwater. Given such an affirmative outlook, reform is rooted in the principles of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity… all familiar words. They are penned in the preamble to the Constitution of India by the person whose birth anniversary we celebrate today.

Dr B R Ambedkar with a Ph.D from Columbia University returned to India to lead what is today considered to be the greatest battle for human dignity on planet earth. He could have launched a violent revolution. Instead he asked people to find dignity, strength and prosperity by converting to Buddhism and its tenets of rationalism and humanism. He described his movement thus… "Ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality."

50 years after his death, Ambedkar’s vision of for reclaiming the human personality remains far from being accomplished. And the reasons lie with the rest of us. We speak about reform, yet we do not begin reforming our own regressive attitudes which are born out of social conditioning. Never mind how much we progress technologically, we must halt our regression as human beings by personal reformation followed by social renovation.

Reform is an expedition to BE BETTER as human beings
First we have to transform ourselves… then, other things

regards
Pravin-da