So a Prize winning Crystallographer, a peace activist and a storyteller walk in to a bar. Actually they probably don't but they do share one thing - a geograhical proximity to Camden High Street.
M and I visited Camden on Saturady as a breath of fresh air following the completion of my flat sale. We took the tube up to Chalk Farm and walked back through the Stables market without seeing a whole lot that really took our fancy. Yes there was some lovely reconditioned oak furniture but sadly at camden prices and some javanese masks that I would have loved but really need to be bought on the road. The Stables market is nice in that the worst of the tourist hordes dont make it that far from the tube station and lo and behold the closer we got to Camden tube the worse the crush of gawping lollygaggers became. We took a bit a a detour through the new reopened lock markewt and M picked up a new nurses watch complete with silicon holder so her late allergy wouldnt come into play. Once over the lock we headed west down Arlington St and thence on to Albert St one time home to John Desmond Bernal (1901-1971) Peggy Duff (1910-1981) and George MacDonald (1824-1905)interesting charactors al. I know bernal through my previous life with the MRC - portraits of their most prominent alumni peppering the walls but didnt know much of him - a controversial figure and outspoken supporter of Soviet Russia not to mention a Cambridge man he worked with both Aaron Klug and Max Perutz.
Next up at number 11 is Peggy Duffs blue - or rather brown plaque. She was a labour local councillor from 1956 until she resigned from the party in 1967 over Wilson's support for US involvement in Vietnam and their refusal to condemn the Greek colonels choosing to persue her political aims outside the party arena. She became the first secretary-general of CND and Noam Chomsky is and admirer.
Then at number 20 is George MacDonald the storyteller refered to earlier who in the latter half of the 20th centrury began a career that influenced Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis (particularly Lewis), E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle with fairy tales like the Princess and the Goblin. He was as C.S. Lewis or rather Charles Lutwidge Dodgson a christian theologian, he came from a Calvinist background but rejected some of its harsher doctrines.
Showing posts with label camden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camden. Show all posts
Monday, 31 October 2011
Monday, 24 January 2011
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956)
So we wandered through the assorted overpriced artyness that is camden Market getting away relatively unscathed - M got a ringing charm for her necklace but besides that our bank balances remained intact. I will admit that I was tempted by memories of Istanbuls Grand Bazaar and a stall festooned with glowing multihued orbs but resisted.
We set off past the rubyhued tiles of Chalk Farm tube and crossed over the railway into the big money of primrose Hill - there are a couple of rather incongruous plaques there but I wanted to yap about Babasaheb.
A couple of days before I left India for home the rather antiseptic environs of New Delhi was invaded by truckloads of loudhailer toting sari swathed peeps. It was only afterwards that I learnt that it was Ambedkar Jayanti - the anniversary of his birth.
He was of that generation that made India - modern India. He was instrumental in formulating Indias constitution but many of his ideas have yet to be implemented.He was a jurist, political leader, Buddhist activist, philosopher, anthropologist, historian, orator, writer, economist, scholar and editor - so a bit of a renaissance man!
I came away from India more disenchanted with religion than Id ever been - or at least more disgusted with religions place in social injustice. And boy do they have previous...
He came into conflict with Gandhi as his belief that the Untouchables should have their own electorate would shatter Gandhis idea of a politically united Hindu society. It was to enforce his ideas that Gandhi embarked on a hunger strike at which under intense pressure from other Hindu leaders and fearful of attacks on the untouchable society he decided to drop his demands.
He became Principal of the Government Law College and wrote multiple books on the upcoming Hindu/Muslim schism noting that if their was a demand for a seperate Muslim state there would be little choice but to accept.
He was a major mover and shaker in the formation of the Indian constitution and implemented a series of reserved occupations - an early form of positive discrimination that granted a percentage of civil service posts for untouchables and also instituted a series of civil liberties that protected the rights of individuals.
After Independece disgusted by the opposition to equality for untouchables and after a lifetime of researching Buddhism he renounced Hinduism and converted to Buddhism - but more than that he encouraged his followers to do likewise.
It seems suitable yo echo his rallying call "Educate! Agitate! Organise!"
We set off past the rubyhued tiles of Chalk Farm tube and crossed over the railway into the big money of primrose Hill - there are a couple of rather incongruous plaques there but I wanted to yap about Babasaheb.
A couple of days before I left India for home the rather antiseptic environs of New Delhi was invaded by truckloads of loudhailer toting sari swathed peeps. It was only afterwards that I learnt that it was Ambedkar Jayanti - the anniversary of his birth.
He was of that generation that made India - modern India. He was instrumental in formulating Indias constitution but many of his ideas have yet to be implemented.He was a jurist, political leader, Buddhist activist, philosopher, anthropologist, historian, orator, writer, economist, scholar and editor - so a bit of a renaissance man!
I came away from India more disenchanted with religion than Id ever been - or at least more disgusted with religions place in social injustice. And boy do they have previous...
He came into conflict with Gandhi as his belief that the Untouchables should have their own electorate would shatter Gandhis idea of a politically united Hindu society. It was to enforce his ideas that Gandhi embarked on a hunger strike at which under intense pressure from other Hindu leaders and fearful of attacks on the untouchable society he decided to drop his demands.
He became Principal of the Government Law College and wrote multiple books on the upcoming Hindu/Muslim schism noting that if their was a demand for a seperate Muslim state there would be little choice but to accept.
He was a major mover and shaker in the formation of the Indian constitution and implemented a series of reserved occupations - an early form of positive discrimination that granted a percentage of civil service posts for untouchables and also instituted a series of civil liberties that protected the rights of individuals.
After Independece disgusted by the opposition to equality for untouchables and after a lifetime of researching Buddhism he renounced Hinduism and converted to Buddhism - but more than that he encouraged his followers to do likewise.
It seems suitable yo echo his rallying call "Educate! Agitate! Organise!"
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