(Samajweekly) Chakravarty Gautam is one of the founders of Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organizations in the United Kingdom (FABO UK). He was born in Gujarat and migrated to the UK in 1969. He established himself as a business person and also linked to various Ambedkarite groups working in the UK. He became one of the leading figures of the Ambedkarite movement in the United Kingdom. In 1993 he also founded Ambedkar Centre and Buddha Vihara at Southall, West London along with other Ambedkrite friends, which has become the pilgrimage for most of the Ambedkrite who visit the United Kingdom, particularly London. He also founded Dr. Ambedkar Memorial Trust in Valod district Tapi which is running a school for adivasi children and various social welfare projects in the remote tribal area. This has brought hope and aspirations in the lives of hundreds of Adivasi childrens in this remote region where not many schools are available for the Adivasi and Dalit children. Gautam Ji connected Ambedkar mission to a large number of Ambekarites in India as well as Western World. The Federation of Ambedkarites and Buddhist organisations is one of the biggest Ambedkarite organisations in the UK and has raised the issues of Ambedkarites in UK. The Center has hosted a large number of political leaders, intellectuals and activists on various important occasions such as Ambedkar Jayanti or Baba Saheb’s Parinirvana Divas. One of the important parts of these celebrations is that Gautam ji started a silent walk along with Ambedkarites from Baga Saheb’s residence in London to London School of Economics, every year. This was their way of remembering Baba Saheb’s struggle and then monumental contribution to the entire Indian nation.
FABO has also helped strengthen the Ambedkarite movement in other parts of the Western world particularly the United States, Canada, France, Germany and Italy. On April 14th, 1994, FABO donated a beautiful statue of Baba Saheb Ambedkar to London School of Economics and it was inaugurated by Dr John Ashworth, Director, LSE. FABO has donated such statues to other leading Universities of the world too.
Mr Chakrawarty Gautam discusses his struggles, ideas and history of Ambedkarite movement in UK with Vidya Bhushan Rawat in this conversation below. We look forward to your responses.
