Sea of blue and white in Dadar as a million throng Chaityabhoomi

Around a million Ambedkarites gathered at Chaityabhoomi in Mumbai to honor Dr. B R Ambedkar on Mahaparinirvan Divas, amidst vibrant activities and tributes.

MUMBAI: Chaityabhoomi buzzed with reverence, joy and activity as around a million Ambedkarites thronged the site to pay their annual tribute to Dr B R Ambedkar on his death anniversary or Mahaparinirvan Divas. From vendors and pilgrims to participants in a quiz on Ambedkar’s life to Ambedkar’s grandson’s political party members inviting people to join a signature campaign against the RSS, Shivaji Park was a sea of blue and white. Ambedkar was everywhere: on hoardings, lapels, posters and covers of books being sold.

Mumbai, India. Dec 06, 2025 - Aerial view of Shivaji Park. Ambedkar's followers across the country arrived at Shivaji Park in Dadar to pay their respects to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar on Mahaparinirvan Din, which marks the leader’s 69th death anniversary. Mumbai, India. Dec 06, 2025. (Photo by Raju Shinde/HT Photo) (Raju Shinde)

Manoj Dighade, 40, and his wife Manda, who have been coming to Chaityabhoomi for the past ten years to sell handcrafted rangoli stencils, some of them depicting Ambedkar and the Buddha, said it was a tradition started by Dighade’s mother decades ago. “After this, we will make a stop in Pune at Bhima Koregaon to mark the triumph of the Mahar army,” said Dighade.

A few stalls down the line, Saqid Gedam, 28, also from Nagpur, had come to help his uncle—a translator and publisher—sell his books on Ambedkar’s writings and speeches as well as copies of the Constitution. “The books are priced from only ₹10 onwards, as the aim is to try and inculcate Babasaheb’s teachings but not many take out time to read,” he said.

Books of Ambedkarite literature are a significant part of the day’s offering, of which copies of the Constitution sell like hot cakes. The BMC too released its annual magazine for the occasion, distributing at least 50,000 copies to those in the queue towards the memorial. Stalls and hawkers lined the roads selling the preamble of the country’s founding document, alongside portraits and busts of Ambedkar and Buddha, mementos and blue scarves.

After paying their respects, the hawkers and visitors loitered around to catch some rest. Some intended to stay a day or two more to sightsee. Anjali Jadhav, 26, had come with her family from Khopoli at 10 pm the previous day. Govind Yadav, 26, claimed to have made the trip from UP on his cycle, and had people line up to get a photo with him. Ratan Lal, 75, said he had come to Chaityabhoomi for the first time from Kanpur. “It has been a longtime dream of mine to land on these shores and pay my respects to the man we owe so much to,” he said.

Somnath Waghmare, who has made a documentary called Chaityabhoomi, said that what astounded him was the fact that the crowds kept growing every year without any invitation. Present the whole day with a stall of his own production with a few artworks from Dalit Ambedkarite artists, he said, “The place is a touchstone to the lakhs of people that continue to carry forward Ambedkar’s legacy.”

With local body elections nearing, political showmanship was not far away. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, deputy CM Eknath Shinde, Prakash Ambedkar and municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani among others paid their respects to Ambedkar in the early part of the day.

Ambedkarites forcefully take rickshaws to Dadar

Hundreds of Ambedkar followers, who were proceeding to Chaityabhoomi by autorickshaw, got into a spat with the traffic police who stopped them at Chembur, as three-wheelers are not allowed to ply beyond Sion. They then blocked the road, causing huge traffic congestion between Chembur and Sion, and tried to take their rickshaws forcefully to Dadar, injuring a policeman in the process. The blockade ended only after senior police officers arrived and allowed them to proceed towards Shivaji Park in their autorickshaws.

New deadline for Ambedkar memorial

After missing multiple deadlines, Ambedkar’s memorial at Indu Mills, Dadar, is likely to be completed in the next one year. “We have planned to erect Babasaheb’s statue by the coming monsoon, and if all goes well, the memorial will be inaugurated by the next Mahaparinirwas Diwas,” said Fadnavis at the Chaityabhoomi function.

The chief minister said that 50% of work on the memorial was complete. “The erection of the statue is a challenge, as it is a 350-foot statue which will be erected on a 100-foot tall pedestal,” he remarked. Envisaged over a decade ago, the memorial will be the second tallest structure in the world after the Statue of Unity, which is 597 feet tall.

(With inputs from Faisal Malik)