Houghton St, Holborn, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (first from right in the second line) with his professors and friends from the London School of Economics and Political Science, 1916-1917.
M.R. Jayakar, Tej Bahadur Sapru, and Ambedkar at Yerwada jail, in Poona, on 24 September 1932, the day the Poona Pact was signed.
Gallery of Bhimrao Ambedkar
1934
Rajgraha, India
Ambedkar with his family members at Rajgraha in February 1934. From left – Yashwant (son), Ambedkar, Ramabai (wife), Laxmibai (wife of his elder brother, Balaram), Mukund (nephew), and Ambedkar’s favorite dog, Tobby.
Gallery of Bhimrao Ambedkar
1946
India
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar relaxing on his veranda at home.
Gallery of Bhimrao Ambedkar
1948
New Delhi, India
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the Indian Minister for Law and leader of the Untouchables, marries Dr. Sharda Kabir of the Brahmin caste in New Delhi, 15th April 1948.
Gallery of Bhimrao Ambedkar
1949
New Delhi, India
Ambedkar, chairman of the Drafting Committee, presenting the final draft of the Indian Constitution to Rajendra Prasad on 25 November 1949.
Gallery of Bhimrao Ambedkar
1956
Nagpur, India
Ambedkar delivering a speech during mass conversion.
Achievements
2016
Sansad Marg, Gokul Nagar, Janpath, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Delhi 110001, India
The Citizens paid tributes to Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on the occasion of his 125th birth anniversary, at Parliament House, in New Delhi on April 14, 2016.
Ambedkar with his family members at Rajgraha in February 1934. From left – Yashwant (son), Ambedkar, Ramabai (wife), Laxmibai (wife of his elder brother, Balaram), Mukund (nephew), and Ambedkar’s favorite dog, Tobby.
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the Indian Minister for Law and leader of the Untouchables, marries Dr. Sharda Kabir of the Brahmin caste in New Delhi, 15th April 1948.
Sansad Marg, Gokul Nagar, Janpath, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Delhi 110001, India
The Citizens paid tributes to Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on the occasion of his 125th birth anniversary, at Parliament House, in New Delhi on April 14, 2016.
Houghton St, Holborn, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (first from right in the second line) with his professors and friends from the London School of Economics and Political Science, 1916-1917.
Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development
(The caste system as it exists today is thought to be the ...)
The caste system as it exists today is thought to be the result of developments during the collapse of the Mughal era and the British colonial regime in India. The collapse of the Mughal era saw the rise of powerful men who associated themselves with kings, priests, and ascetics, affirming the regal and martial form of the caste ideal, and it also reshaped many apparently casteless social groups into differentiated caste communities. The British Raj furthered this development, making rigid caste organization a central mechanism of administration. Between 1860 and 1920, the British segregated Indians by caste, granting administrative jobs and senior appointments only to the upper castes. Social unrest during the 1920s led to a change in this policy. From then on, the colonial administration began a policy of positive discrimination by reserving a certain percentage of government jobs for the lower castes.
(Preface to the second edition: The Problem of Rupee was f...)
Preface to the second edition: The Problem of Rupee was first published in 1923. Ever since its publication, it has had a great demand: so great that within a year or two the book went out of print. The demand for the book has continued, but unfortunately, I could not bring out a second edition of the book for the reason that my change-over from economics to law and politics left me no time to undertake such a task. I have, therefore, devised another plan: it is to bring out an up-to-date edition of the History of Indian Currency and Banking in two volumes, of which The Problem of the Rupee forms volume one. Volume two will contain the History of Indian Currency and Banking from 1923 onwards. What is therefore issued to the public now is a mere reprint of The Problem of the Rupee under a different name. I am glad to say that some of my friends who are engaged in the field of teaching economics have assured me that nothing has been said or written since 1923 in the field of Indian Currency which calls for any alteration in the text of The Problem of the Rupee as it stood in 1923. I hope this reprint will satisfy the public partially if not wholly. I can give them an assurance that they will not have to wait long for volume two. I am determined to bring it out with the least possible delay.
Evolution of provincial finance in British India: A study in the provincial decentralization of imperial finance
(An Informative book by the author of "The Problem of the ...)
An Informative book by the author of "The Problem of the Rupee," "Castes in India," "Small-Holdings in India and their Remedies," also called a Father of Constitution of India. Every student must read this book written by the world-famous economist.
(Annihilation of Caste is an undelivered speech written in...)
Annihilation of Caste is an undelivered speech written in 1936 by B. R. Ambedkar who fought against the country's practice of untouchability. In a letter dated 12 December 1935, the secretary of the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal (Society for the Abolition of Caste system), an anti-caste Hindu reformist group organization based in Lahore, invited B. R. Ambedkar to deliver a speech on the caste system in India at their annual conference in 1936. Ambedkar wrote the speech as an essay under the title "Annihilation of Caste" and sent in advance to the organizers in Lahore for printing and distribution. The organizers found some of the content to be objectionable towards the orthodox Hindu religion and They wrote to Ambedkar seeking the removal of sections which they found, in their words, "unbearable." Ambedkar declared in response that he "would not change a comma" of his text. After much deliberation, the committee of organizers decided to cancel their annual conference in its entirety, because they feared violence by orthodox Hindus at the venue if they held the event after withdrawing the invitation to him. Ambedkar subsequently published copies of the speech as a book on 15 May 1936 at his own expense.
(Waiting for a Visa is an autobiographical life story of B...)
Waiting for a Visa is an autobiographical life story of B. R. Ambedkar written in the period of 1935-1936. It consists of reminiscences drawn by Ambedkar, related to his experiences with untouchability.
(Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was a great Indian statesman, writ...)
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was a great Indian statesman, writer, and architect of the Indian Constitution. Here are his speeches in the Bombay Legislature.
The Untouchables Who Were They And Why They Became Untouchables?
(This book is a sequel to my treatise called The Shudras -...)
This book is a sequel to my treatise called The Shudras - Who they were and How they came to be the Fourth Varna of the Indo-Aryan Society which was published in 1946. Besides the Shudras, the Hindu Civilisation has produced three social classes whose existence has not received the attention it deserves.
Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men: An Annotated Critical Selection from The Untouchables
(One of twentieth-century India’s great polymaths, statesm...)
One of twentieth-century India’s great polymaths, statesmen, and militant philosophers of equality, B. R. Ambedkar spent his life battling Untouchability and instigating the end of the caste system. In his 1948 book The Untouchables, he sought to trace the origin of the Dalit caste. Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men is an annotated selection from this work, just as relevant now, when the oppression of and discrimination against Dalits remains pervasive. Ambedkar offers a deductive, and at times a speculative, history to propose a genealogy of Untouchability. He contends that modern-day Dalits are descendants of those Buddhists who were fenced out of caste society and rendered Untouchable by a resurgent Brahminism since the fourth century BCE. The Brahmins, whose Vedic cult originally involved the sacrifice of cows, adapted Buddhist ahimsa and vegetarianism to stigmatize outcaste Buddhists who were consumers of beef. The outcastes were soon relegated to the lowliest of occupations and prohibited from participation in civic life. To unearth this lost history, Ambedkar undertakes a forensic examination of a wide range of Brahminic literature. Heavily annotated with an emphasis on putting Ambedkar and recent scholarship into a conversation, Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men assumes urgency as India witnesses unprecedented violence against Dalits and Muslims in the name of cow protection.
(Unique book among all books present in the online market....)
Unique book among all books present in the online market. The Buddha and His Dhamma, a treatise on Buddha's life and Buddhism, was the last work of Indian statesman and scholar B. R. Ambedkar. The book is treated as a holy text by Indian Buddhists. It was first published in 1957 after Ambedkar's death on 6 December 1956. It was again Published in 1979 by the Education Department of the Government of Maharashtra as the eleventh volume of Ambedkar's collected writings and speeches, with a list of sources and an index. Written in English, the book has been translated to many languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, and Kannada. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar mentioned that it is one of the three books which will form a set for the proper understanding of Buddhism. The other books are: (i) Buddha and Karl Marx; and (ii) Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Ancient India.
Riddles in Hinduism: The Annotated Critical Selection
(Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, popularly known as Dr. Babasaheb ...)
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, popularly known as Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, was an Indian jurist, economist, politician, and social reformer who inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement and campaigned against social discrimination towards the untouchables, while also supporting the rights of women and labor.
(If somebody really wants to study the causes behind the P...)
If somebody really wants to study the causes behind the Partition of India and the plague of Communalism, then this book is indispensable. This is very well-argued work and will surely provoke readers to think differently. A book by the Father of Constitution of India Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.
(One of the pillars of Indian democracy who played a pivot...)
One of the pillars of Indian democracy who played a pivotal role in shaping the Indian Constitution, Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is also known for his radical, no-holds-barred views on the discrimination against the backward classes, particularly the Untouchables, and the caste politics practiced by Hindus. His path-breaking ideas, most of which are relevant even today, are reflected in his writings. In The Essential Ambedkar, the finest extracts from Ambedkar’s impressive body of work have been selected and thematically arranged, covering issues such as caste and untouchability, the philosophy of the Hindu religion, the making of the Indian Constitution, the emancipation of women, India’s education policy, the Partition and much more. Both a handy reference guide as well as a useful introduction to readers unfamiliar with Ambedkar’s works, The Essential Ambedkar is a befitting tribute to the legacy of Babasaheb.
(Essays on Untouchables and Untouchability by B.R.Ambedkar...)
Essays on Untouchables and Untouchability by B.R.Ambedkar philosophy, religious, political terms. Untouchability is a status of certain social groups confined to menial and despised jobs. It is associated with the Hindu caste system. But similar groups exist outside Hinduism, for example the Burakumin in Japan and the Hutu and Twa in Rwanda. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, there were over 160 million untouchables on the Indian subcontinent. The British had granted special political representation to the Untouchables and also started a system of reservations in government jobs in the early 1940s. The scheduled castes became politically distinct under the leadership of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. Ambedkar, who converted from Hinduism to Buddhism at the end of his life in 1956, held that the Untouchables had been Buddhists isolated and despised when Brahmanism became dominant about the fourth century. While Ambedkar, supported by the British, pursued all means of securing special rights for Untouchables, Gandhi opposed those measures as too divisive, condemning untouchability without renouncing Varna (Hinduism).
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was an Indian lawyer, economist, politician, and social reformer. He was a leader of the Dalits (Scheduled Castes; formerly called untouchables) and law minister of the government of India.
Background
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was born in the British-founded town and military cantonment of Mhow in the Central Provinces (now in Madhya Pradesh). He was the 14th and last child of Ramji Maloji Sakpal and Bhimabai Murbadkar. His family was of Marathi background from the town of Ambavade in the Ratnagiri district of modern-day Maharashtra. They belonged to the Hindu Mahar caste, who were treated as untouchables and subjected to intense socio-economic discrimination. Ambedkar's ancestors had long been in the employment of the army of the British East India Company, and his father served in the Indian Army at the Mhow cantonment, rising to the rank of Subedar. He had received a degree of formal education in Marathi and English and encouraged his children to pursue education. Ramji Sakpal retired in 1894, and the family moved to Satara two years later. Shortly after their move, Ambedkar's mother died. The children were cared for by their paternal aunt and lived in difficult circumstances. Only three sons - Balaram, Anandrao, and Bhimrao - and two daughters - Manjula and Tulasa - of the Sakpals would go on to survive them. Bhimrao later changed his name from "Sakpal" to "Ambedkar" with the encouragement of a Brahmin teacher. Ramji Sakpal remarried in 1897, and the family moved to Mumbai (then Bombay).
Education
Belonging to the Kabir Panth, Ramji Sakpal encouraged his children to read the Hindu classics, especially the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. He used his position in the army to lobby for his children to study at the government school, as they faced resistance owing to their caste. Although able to attend school, Ambedkar and other untouchable children were segregated and given no attention or assistance from the teachers. They were not allowed to sit inside the class. Even if they needed to drink water somebody from a higher caste would have to pour that water from a height as they were not allowed to touch either the water or the vessel that contained it. Of his brothers and sisters, only Ambedkar succeeded in passing his examinations and graduating to a higher-level school. In Bombay, Ambedkar became the first untouchable student at the Government High School near Elphinstone Road.
In 1907, Ambedkar passed his matriculation examination and entered the University of Bombay, becoming one of the first persons of untouchable origin to enter college in India. This success provoked celebrations in his community, and after a public ceremony, he was given a biography of the Buddha by his teacher Krishnaji Arjun Keluskar also known as Dada Keluskar, a Maratha caste scholar. Ambedkar's marriage had been arranged the previous year as per Hindu custom, to Ramabai, a nine-year-old girl from Dapoli.
In 1908, Ambedkar entered Elphinstone College and obtained a scholarship of twenty-five rupees a month from the Gayakwad ruler of Baroda, Sahyaji Rao III, for higher studies in the United States. By 1912, he obtained his degree in economics and political science and prepared to take up employment with the Baroda state government.
A few months later, Ambedkar was selected by the Gayakwad ruler to travel to the United States where he enrolled at Columbia University, with a scholarship of $11.50 per month. Arriving in New York City, Ambedkar was admitted to the graduate studies program at the political science department. At Columbia, Ambedkar studied under John Dewey, who inspired many of his ideas about equality and social justice. In 1916, he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy for his thesis, which he eventually published in book form as The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India. His first published work, however, was a paper titled Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development. Winning his degree and doctorate, he traveled to London and enrolled at Gray's Inn and the London School of Economics, studying law and preparing a doctoral thesis in economics. The expiration of his scholarship the following year forced him to temporarily abandon his studies and return to India amidst World War I.
Returning to work as a military secretary for Baroda state, Ambedkar was distressed by the sudden reappearance of discrimination in his life, and left his job to work as a private tutor and accountant, even starting his own consultancy business that eventually failed. With the help of an English acquaintance, the former Bombay Governor Lord Sydenham, he won a post as professor of political economy at the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai. He was able to return to England in 1920 with the support of the Maharaja of Kolhapur, a Parsi friend, and his own savings. By 1923 he completed a thesis on The Problem of the Rupee. He was awarded a Doctor of Science by the University of London and after finishing his law studies, he was simultaneously admitted to the British Bar as a barrister. On his way back to India, Ambedkar spent three months in Germany, where he conducted further studies in economics at the University of Bonn. He was formally awarded a Doctor of Philosophy by Columbia University on June 8, 1927.
As a leading Dalit scholar, Ambedkar had been invited to testify before the Southborough Committee, which was preparing the Government of India Act of 1919. At this hearing, Ambedkar argued for creating separate electorates and reservations for Dalits and other religious communities. In 1920, he began the publication of the weekly Mooknayak (Leader of the Silent) in Bombay. Ambedkar used this journal to criticize orthodox Hindu politicians and a perceived reluctance of the Indian political community to fight caste discrimination. His speech at a Depressed Classes Conference in Kolhapur in March 1920, impressed the local state ruler Shahu IV, who shocked orthodox society by dining with Ambedkar and his untouchable colleagues. Ambedkar exhorted the Mahar community, which had eighteen sub-castes, to hold a joint communal dinner in which they all participated.
Upon his return from studies in Europe in 1924, Ambedkar established a successful legal practice, and also organized the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha (Group for the Wellbeing of the Excluded). Its motto was Educate, Agitate, Organize.
In 1926, Ambedkar became a nominated member of the Bombay Legislative Council. By 1927, Ambedkar decided to launch active movements against untouchability. He led the satyagraha at Mahad to exercise the right of untouchables to draw water from the Chavdar Tank. He ceremonially took a drink of water from the tank, after which local caste Hindus rioted, and Brahmins took elaborate measures for the ritual purification of the tank.
On January 1, 1927, Ambedkar organized a ceremony at the Koregaon Victory Memorial near Pune, which commemorates the defeat of the Peshwa's forces and the inauguration of British rule. The names of Mahar soldiers who fought with the British are inscribed on a marble tablet. Later that year in a Depressed Classes Conference on December 24, he condemned the ancient Hindu classical text, the Manusmriti (Laws of Manu), for justifying the system of caste discrimination and untouchability. Ambedkar and his supporters caused a public scandal by burning copies of the texts.
Ambedkar was appointed to the Bombay Presidency Committee to work with the all-European Simon Commission in 1928. This commission had sparked great protests across India, and while its report was ignored by most Indians, Ambedkar himself wrote a separate set of recommendations for future constitutional reforms.
In 1929, Ambedkar ended his second journal, Bahiskrit Bharat (Excluded India), and rechristened it Janata (The People).
Despite his increasing unpopularity, controversial views, and intense criticism of Gandhi and the Congress, Ambedkar was by reputation an exemplary jurist and scholar. Upon India's independence on August 15, 1947, the new Congress-led government invited Ambedkar to serve as the nation's first law minister, which he accepted. On August 29, Ambedkar was appointed chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, charged by the Assembly to write free India's new Constitution. Ambedkar won great praise from his colleagues and contemporary observers for his drafting work.
Ambedkar's study of sangha practice among early Buddhists and his extensive reading of Buddhist scriptures played a significant role in this work. Sangha practice incorporated voting by ballot, rules of debate and precedence, and the use of agendas, committees, and proposals to conduct business. Sangha practice itself was modeled on the oligarchic system of governance followed by the tribal republics of ancient India like the Shakyas and the Lichchavis. As a result, even though Ambedkar used Western models to give his Constitution shape, its spirit was Indian with tribal influences.
Ambedkar resigned from the cabinet in 1951 following the stalling in the parliament of his draft of the Hindu Code Bill, which sought to expound gender equality in the laws of inheritance, marriage, and the economy. Although supported by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the cabinet, and many other Congress leaders, it received criticism from a large number of members of parliament. Ambedkar independently contested an election in 1952 to the lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, but was defeated. He was appointed to the upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha in March 1952 and would remain a member until his death.
In 1935, Ambedkar was appointed principal of the Government Law College, a position he held for two years. Settling in Bombay, Ambedkar oversaw the construction of a large house and stocked his personal library with more than 50,000 books. His wife Ramabai died after a long illness in the same year. It had been her long-standing wish to go on a pilgrimage to Pandharpur, but Ambedkar had refused to let her go, telling her that he would create a new Pandharpur for her instead of Hinduism's Pandharpur which treated them as untouchables. His own views and attitudes towards orthodox Hindus hardened even though momentum for the fight against untouchability was increasing. Later that year, speaking at the Yeola Conversion Conference, Ambedkar announced his intention to convert to a different religion and exhorted his followers to leave Hinduism. He vowed, "I solemnly assure you that I will not die a Hindu. He would repeat his message at numerous public meetings across India."
Ambedkar was also critical of Islam and its practices in South Asia. While justifying the Partition of India, he condemned child marriage, the mistreatment of women, caste practices, and slavery in Muslim communities. He wrote that Muslim Society is "even more full of social evils than Hindu Society is" and criticized Muslims for sugarcoating their sectarian caste system with euphemisms like "brotherhood." He also criticized discrimination against the Arzal classes among Muslims who were regarded as "degraded." He criticized their fanaticism on the grounds that their literalist interpretations of Islamic doctrine made their society very rigid and impermeable to change. He further wrote that Indian Muslims have failed to reform their society unlike Muslims in other countries like Turkey.
In the 1950s, Ambedkar turned his attention to Buddhism and traveled to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) to attend a convention of Buddhist scholars and monks. While dedicating a new Buddhist vihara near Pune, Ambedkar announced that he was writing a book on Buddhism and that as soon as it was finished, he planned to make a formal conversion to Buddhism. Ambedkar twice visited Burma in 1954; the second time in order to attend the third conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists in Rangoon. In 1955, he founded the Bharatiya Bauddha Mahasabha or the Buddhist Society of India. He would complete his manuscript and final work The Buddha and his Dhamma in 1956, although it would be published posthumously.
Ambedkar organized a formal public ceremony for himself and his supporters in Nagpur on October 14, 1956. Accepting the Three Refuges and Five Precepts from a Buddhist monk in the traditional manner, Ambedkar completed his own conversion. He then proceeded to convert an estimated 380,000 of his supporters who were gathered around him. Taking the 22 Vows, Ambedkar and his supporters explicitly condemned and rejected Hinduism and Hindu philosophy, urging low caste Indian Dalits to convert to his Marxism-inspired reinterpretation. He then traveled to Kathmandu in Nepal to attend the Fourth World Buddhist Conference.
Ambedkar's Buddhism, which he called the Navayana tradition, literally "new vehicle," rejects the foundational doctrines and historic practices of traditional Theravada and Mahayana traditions, such as monk lifestyle after renunciation, karma, rebirth, samsara, meditation, nirvana, Four Noble Truths, and others. Ambedkar considered these as superstitions and re-interpreted the original Buddha as someone who taught about class struggle and social equality.
Politics
Ambedkar grew increasingly critical of mainstream Indian political parties for their failure to address the inequities of the caste system. He criticized the Indian National Congress and its leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, whom he accused of reducing the untouchable community to objects of pity. Ambedkar was also dissatisfied with the failures of British rule and advocated a political identity for untouchables separate from both the Congress and the British. At a Depressed Classes Conference on August 8, 1930, Ambedkar outlined his political vision, insisting that the safety of the Depressed Classes hinged on their being independent of the Government and the Congress both.
In this speech, Ambedkar criticized the Salt Satyagraha launched by Gandhi and the Congress. Ambedkar's criticisms and political work had made him very unpopular with orthodox Hindus because Gandhi had been one of the first Indian leaders to call for the abolition of untouchability and discrimination. Ambedkar felt their efforts were too superficial and he increasingly found prominence and popular support amongst the untouchable community.
Ambedkar was invited to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London in 1931. Here he sparred verbally with Gandhi on the question of awarding separate electorates to untouchables. A fierce opponent of separate electorates on religious and sectarian lines, Gandhi feared that separate electorates for untouchables would divide Hindu society for future generations.
In August 1932, the British Government's passed the Communal Award which granted separate electorates to minority communities, including Muslims, Sikhs, and the Dalit. To oppose this decision Gandhi then began a fast-unto-death while imprisoned in the Yeravada Central Jail of Pune in 1932. Exhorting orthodox Hindu society to eliminate discrimination and untouchability, Gandhi asked for the political and social unity of Hindus. Gandhi's fast provoked great public support across India, and orthodox Hindu leaders, Congress politicians, and activists such as Madan Mohan Malaviya and Pawlankar Baloo organized joint meetings with Ambedkar and his supporters at Yeravada.
Fearing a communal reprisal and killings of untouchables in the event of Gandhi's death, Ambedkar agreed to drop the demand for separate electorates and settled for a reservation of a specific number of seats. The agreement was known as the Poona Pact. Ambedkar was later to criticize Gandhi's fast as a gimmick to deny political rights to the untouchables.
In 1936, Ambedkar founded the Independent Labour Party, which won 15 seats in the 1937 elections to the Central Legislative Assembly. He published his book The Annihilation of Caste in the same year, based on the thesis he had written in New York. Ambedkar's book, strongly criticizing Hindu religious leaders and the caste system in general, won great support. He protested the Congress decision to call the untouchable community Harijans (Children of God), a name coined by Gandhi. Ambedkar served on the Defence Advisory Committee and the Viceroy's Executive Council as minister for labor.
Between 1941 and 1945, he published a large number of highly controversial books and pamphlets, including Thoughts on Pakistan, in which he criticized the Muslim League's demand for a separate Muslim state of Pakistan. With What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables, Ambedkar intensified his criticisms of Gandhi and the Congress, charging them with hypocrisy.[6] In his work, Who Were the Shudras? Ambedkar attempted to explain the formation of the Shudras, the lowest caste in the Hindu hierarchy. He also emphasized how Shudras are separate from Untouchables. Ambedkar oversaw the transformation of his political party into the All India Scheduled Castes Federation, but it performed poorly in the elections held in 1946 for the Constituent Assembly of India.
While Ambedkar was extremely critical of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the communally divisive strategies of the Muslim League, he argued that Hindus and Muslims should segregate and the State of Pakistan be formed, as ethnic nationalism within the same country would only lead to more violence. He cited precedents in historical events such as the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and Czechoslovakia to bolster his views regarding the Hindu-Muslim communal divide.
However, Ambedkar questioned whether the need for Pakistan was sufficient and suggested that it might be possible to resolve Hindu-Muslim differences in a less drastic way. He wrote that Pakistan must "justify its existence" accordingly. Since other countries such as Canada have also had communal issues with the French and English and have lived together, it might not be impossible for Hindus and Muslims to live together.
Ambedkar also warned that the actual implementation of a two-state solution would be extremely problematic with massive population transfers and border disputes. This claim would prove to be almost prophetic when the violent Partition of India took place after Independence.
Views
Ambedkar rejected the more traditional approach of changing a caste's habits and image so that they resembled the norms associated with high castes. Instead, he tried to supplant such norms with the Western-based notion that all men, including Mahars, have rights of liberty and equality. Ambedkar made it his mission to create circumstances in which those rights could become fact. Sophisticated, articulate, with a political sense and an independent spirit bordering on egotism, Ambedkar set out to modernize untouchable castes.
The text of the Constitution prepared by Ambedkar provided constitutional guarantees and protections for a wide range of civil liberties for individual citizens, including freedom of religion, the abolition of untouchability, and the outlawing of all forms of discrimination. Ambedkar argued for extensive economic and social rights for women, and also won the Assembly's support for introducing a system of reservation of jobs in the civil services, schools, and colleges for members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, a system similar to affirmative action. India's lawmakers hoped to eradicate the socio-economic inequalities and lack of opportunities for India's depressed classes through this measure, which had been originally envisioned as temporary and on an as-needed basis. The Constitution was adopted on November 26, 1949, by the Constituent Assembly.
Quotations:
"I personally do not understand why religion should be given this vast, expansive jurisdiction, so as to cover the whole of life and to prevent the legislature from encroaching upon that field. After all, what are we having this liberty for? We are having this liberty in order to reform our social system, which is so full of inequities, discriminations, and other things, which conflict with our fundamental rights."
Personality
Ambedkar was a strong and dynamic personality having inspirational life from childhood till the last movement. He had various qualities like efficiency, honesty, revolutionist, long visionary attitude, leadership, non-violent attitude, and ambitious thoughts. These qualities made him an ideal for the young generation of his time. Ambedkar collected more than 50,000 books during his time at Rajgruha, which made it one of the largest personal libraries in the world at the time of his death.
Physical Characteristics:
Since 1948, Ambedkar had been suffering from diabetes. He was bed-ridden from June to October in 1954, owing to clinical depression and failing eyesight. He had been increasingly embittered by political issues, which took a toll on his health. His health worsened as he continued to try to keep a full schedule through 1955. Shortly after completing his final manuscript The Buddha and His Dhamma, Ambedkar died on December 6, 1956, at his home in Delhi.
Interests
reading, writing, cooking, travelling, listening to songs
Philosophers & Thinkers
John Dewey, Karl Marx
Politicians
Shahu of Kolhapur
Writers
Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, Thomas Hardy, Kabir Das
Artists
John Ruskin
Sport & Clubs
cricket
Athletes
Palwankar Baloo
Music & Bands
Buddham Saranam Gacchami
Connections
Ambedkar's marriage was arranged in 1906 as per Hindu custom, to Ramabai, a nine-year-old girl from Dapoli. His wife gave birth to his first son, Yashwant, in 1912. Ambedkar had just moved his young family and started work, when his ailing father died on February 2, 1913. His wife Ramabai died after a long illness in 1935. Ambedkar was survived by his second wife Savita Ambedkar. Born as a Caste Brahmin she converted to Buddhism with him. Her name before marriage was Sharda Kabir. Savita Ambedkar died in 2002. Ambedkar's grandson, Prakash Yashwant Ambedkar leads the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangha and has served in both houses of the Indian Parliament.