Tribute to Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

Tribute to Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar - Par Excellence Social  Reformer and Father of Indian Constitution, on his 132nd Birth anniversary. 

14th April  is connected with two distinguished Bharat Ratna Awardees and nation builders  of our nation - Dr B R Ambedkar, the father of Indian constitution, who was born on this day, 14 April, in 1891 at Mhow and Sir M Visvesvaraya, the legendary engineer who left for his heavenly abode on 14 April, 1962 in Bangalore. 

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, popularly known as BR Ambedkar, was one of the most prominent and influential social reformers of India. He was born on this day, April 14, 1891, in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh. Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, was born as Bhim to a family of untouchables, who originally hailed from Konkan region - part of present day Maharashtra. He was the 14th Child to his parents - Ramji Sakpal and mother Bheema Bai - and only three brothers and two sisters survived. Unfortunately, Bhim lost his mother when he was just 6 years old. This was the beginning of innumerable other challenges that awaited Ambedkar as he grew up, which he had to face with a steely grit. His father and his grandfather served in the British Indian Army, and perhaps this helped Ambedkar inherit his martial background that framed his steely grit. His father retired as the Subedar from the British Indian army from the Mahar regiment in 1893, when Ambedkar was just 2 years old. For managing his large family, Ramji Sakpal had to move from Mhow to settle at Dapoli in Konkan. It was here that Bhim started his academic journey when he was admitted in the school as he turned 5. In order to earn bread for his family, Ramji Sakpal, father of Ambedkar, was not with him during those early days since had taken up a job in Satara to sustain his family. Ramji Sakpal  was a strict disciplinarian and always wanted his sons, particularly Bhimrao, to do well in academics. 

During his early days in school, Ambedkar was confronted with the hard and bitter reality of his times. He witnessed several incidents of caste discrimination and untouchability that was rampant in those days in Indian society. He went to a government school where children from lower castes, regarded as untouchables, were segregated and given little attention or assistance by the teachers and not allowed to sit inside the classroom. Students from the community had to go without water if the peon did not report for duty. The social discrimination that Ambedkar faced in childhood days had a strong bearing on Ambedkar, later in his life. It helped him develop a steely frame of mind to spearhead a sustained campaign to eradicate untouchability and fight for the rights of the oppressed class of society. He was ably supported in this endeavour by several leaders of India including 

Veer Savarakar and Mahatma Gandhi, who too championed the cause for removing the menace of untouchability. However, Ambedkar differed largely with Gandhi on the ways of combating untouchability - that is a separate story for another essay. Despite facing numerous obstacles and rampant discrimination, Ambedkar rose to become a prominent lawyer, scholar, and political leader who fought tirelessly for the rights of the Dalits and other marginalized sections of society.

Bhimrao Ambedkar’s accidental birth in the family that belonged to the Mahar caste - considered an "untouchable" or Dalit community in India at that time - made him to experience some of the worst forms of humiliating and inhuman treatment of discrimination in his early days. Fortunately, he also had a good fortune to be helped, guided and mentored by some of the best teachers from the upper caste who did not believe nor practiced such caste discrimination. One of them was a Brahim teacher with the surname Ambedkar. It is said that Mahadev Ambedkar, one of the teachers of BR Ambedkar, treated him with kindness and warmth and it it was this teacher who replaced the original family surname of Bhimrao - Sakpal - with his own surname, Ambedkar in the school records. Thus the name of Ambedkar for Bhim, not only entered in his academic records but would go down in the history as one of best remembered names in the annals of Indian history.

After competing his early school in his native village in Konkan, Bhimrao Ambedkar and his family moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) and it was here that Ambedkar laid the foundation for his tryst with his strong academic achievements. As was the practice during those days, Ambedkar married Ramabai in 1906 when he was 15 and Ramabai nine years old. This however, did not deter him in his academic pursuits as he passed the matriculation examination in 1907 and entered the Elphinstone College the following year, becoming the first person from an untouchable community to do so. Despite his interest in Sanskrit, Ambedkar was not permitted to study Sanskrit by his upper class teacher and instead he was compelled to chose Persian. Genius that Bhimarao was, he ended up scoring highest marks in Persian. He passed his matriculation in 1907, creating a milestone for untouchables in India. This was the beginning of his innumerable other achievements that were to follow to inspire his people. 

Although Ambedkar wanted to continue his studies financial constraints of his family had compelled Ambedkar to take up a job in textile mills, which had come up in large numbers in Bombay. Fortunately, Mr Krishna Arjun Keluskar, one of his early benefactors, who was the Principal of Wilson High School helped Ambedkar to get a personal meeting with the Maharaja of Baroda, Sir Sayaji Rao Gaekwad. This was a turning point in the life of Ambedkar. Inspired by the intellect of the boy, the Maharaja of Baroda gave him a scholarship of Rs 25 per month, a large amount during those days. This scholarship not only helped young Ambedkar but also his family, which soon shifted to a relatively larger chawl - a 2 room apartment in Parel. Ambedkar, helped with this scholarship, passed his BA in 1912 from the Elphinstone college.  This achievement automatically earned him a position of a Lieutenant in the Baroda State Army. But then destiny had different plan for Ambedkar, who had gladly accepted this position and had gone and joined this job in Baroda. 

Within a fortnight of his joining for the job in Baroda, Ambedkar received a telegram that his father had become critically ill in Bombay. His love for his father. made him to leave his job in Baroda to be with his father. His father could not survive for long and died soon thereafter in February 1913. It is said that Ambedkar was inconsolable on that day. Ambedkar then got the best break of his career.  In June 1913, the Maharaja of Baroda announced that he will be sponsoring some deserving students to the United States of America for higher studies at the Columbia University at state expense. This award included a handsome scholarship of £11.50 (Sterling) per month for three years. On hearing this, Ambedkar took the earliest opportunity of meeting the Maharaja to express his desire to be given a chance to avail of this opportunity. He was selected along with three others to study in Columbia University, USA. He studied diverse subjects, political science, moral philosophy, anthropology, sociology and economics and it is believed that he put in 18 hours a day. He passed his MA exam in June 1915 from the Columbia University, majoring in Economics, with Sociology, History, Philosophy and Anthropology as other subjects of study. His thesis was titled ‘ Administration and Finance of the East India Company’. He also presented a paper entitled ‘ Castes in India, their mechanism, Genesis and Development’, during his study in US. 

It was at the Columbia University that much of his political thought took form, particularly under the influence of Professor John Dewey, one of Americas premier intellectuals during the first half of the twentieth century, whose writings ‘about democratic theory and practice’ have shaped and influenced debates in academic and practical quarters across the world. for Dr Ambedkar in one of his writings has said that ‘ the best friends I have had in life were some of my classmates at Columbia and my great professors John Dewey, James Shitwell, Edwin Seligman, and James Harvey Robinson’. This was a golden period for Ambedkar, at the Columbia University. Besides his thesis, it is said that Ambedkar started his doctoral thesis ‘ National Dividend of India - A Historic  and Analytical study’, while he was still at the Columbia university. Unfortunately, he lost whatever he had written when he was returning back to India, since his ship was hit by a torpedo during the World War I. Ambedkar eventually reworked on the same thesis which he submitted as his PhD thesis in economics in 1925 under Prof Seligman. His thesis was titled titled ‘ The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India : A study in the provincial decentralisation of imperial finance. 

After completing his MA in US he left for England in 1916 for doing his Bar at Law and also enrolled at the London School of Economics. His stay in London too was made possible courtesy the Maharaja of Baroda who had allowed him to continue his study in England at the state cost. Unfortunately the Deewan of Baroda stopped his scholarship and he was forced to come back to India and serve in Baroda. Fortunately, Dr Ambedkar had managed to get permission to join back within next four years to study in the LSE and also complete his law degree. Ambedkar became the first Dalit to receive a doctorate in economics from a foreign university and he also earned a law degree and was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1922

The World War I, perhaps, had forced the Diwan of Baroda to call back Ambedkar to India. On his return to India Ambedkar was obliged to work for Baroda. The social discrimination and isolation followed him at his work in Baroda even in the hotel where he was staying. This forced Ambedkar to return back to Bombay in November 1916. After serving for some time in Bombay, Ambedkar became a Professor of Political Economy in the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics in 1916. He was very popular with his students, yet he continued to face discrimination from his colleagues. It was during this period that Dr BR Ambedkar started taking greater interest in politics since he was invited to testify before the Southborough Committee, which was preparing the Government of India Act 1919. It was during this hearing that Dr Ambedkar argued with passion for creating separate electorates and for introducing reservations for untouchables and other religious communities. This experience to work for the social welfare of the oppressed class helped him to begin a publication of the weekly ‘Mooknayak’ in Mumbai which he started in 1920 with the help of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, the Maharaj of Kolhapur.

A social reformer, the Maharaja of Kolhapur played a pioneering role in opening up education and employment to people of all castes. Ambedkar continued to fight for justice for the untouchables in the years that followed, as a practicing lawyer and so also as a social reformer. In 1924, Ambedkar founded the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha, a social organization that worked for the upliftment of the Dalits. The organization provided education and employment opportunities for the Dalits and worked to eradicate caste-based discrimination. Ambedkar also founded a newspaper, Mooknayak, to spread awareness about the issues faced by the Dalits. By 1927, he decided to launch an active movement against untouchability by demanding rightful access to public drinking water resources and the right to enter Hindu temples. He led a satyagraha in Mahad to fight for the right of the untouchable community to draw water from the main water tank of the town. His fight for social justice for the untouchables and other oppressed class did not go unnoticed by the British. He was appointed to the Bombay Presidency Committee to work with the Simon Commission in 1925.

While the Simon Commission had faced protests across India and its report was largely ignored, Dr Ambedkar himself wrote a separate set of constitutional recommendations for the future. The scholarship of this recommendation ensured that Dr Ambedkar earned an invite to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London in 1932. Mahatma Gandhi had a differing opinion to Dr Ambedkar and he was opposed to a separate electorate for untouchables believing that this would split the nation. In the same year, 1932, the British announced a Communal Award of a separate electorate, Gandhi ji protested by fasting while imprisoned in the Yerwada Central Jail of Poona. India’s politics was at an impasse over separate electorates for the depressed classes, a demand by Ambedkar that Gandhi was strongly opposed to and so did the Congress. In order to create fissure among the Dalits, the Congress party pitted a highly popular Cricket player from Bombay, Mr apakva kar Baloo, a Chamar, who was a Gandhian, against Ambedkar. Baloo supported Gandhi’s fast and opposed Ambedkar. When Gandhi’s health deteriorated, Baloo and Tamil leader MC Rajah pressed on Ambedkar to accept a compromise, that of reserved electorates. Ambedkar relented, and Baloo, an unlikely leader, signed on the landmark 1932 Poona Pact. With the signing of Poona Pact Gandhi ji ended his fast and Dr Ambedkar dropped his demand for a separate electorate. This whole episode had created a simmering discontent between the Congress and Dr Ambedkar and so also the difference between him and Gandhi ji. 

This divide between Dr Ambe and Gandhi and the Congress party once again came to the fore during the elections to the Bombay Assembly. Baloo was pitted against Ambedkar in this election. By then, the cricketer had also publicly opposed Ambedkar’s decision to convert out of Hinduism, calling it a suicidal move. The Congress believed that the popularity of the game of Cricket, and the achievements of the Baloo brothers in cricket would result in a lot of the votes splitting between Baloo and Ambedkar. Ramachandra Guha highlights this in one of his books - ‘The Corner of Foreign Field’. He adds that Baloo appeared deeply reluctant to fight Ambedkar, according to his nephew and son. According to the Bombay Chronicle, Baloo told a rally in January 1937 that he wasn’t interested in fighting elections and that he agreed without knowing which seat he would contest from. In the end, Baloo lost narrowly, 11,225 votes to Ambedkar’s 13,245. All these machinations of the Congress to oppose and defeat Ambedkar though were foiled but the difference between Gandhi, Congress and Ambedkar continued to live on. 

In the meantime Babasaheb was appointed principal of the Government Law College in Mumbai in 1935. He continued in that position for two years. It was during this period that Ambedkar lost his wife Ramabai. This opened up a  beginning of a new chapter in Ambedkar’s life. His wife was a believer and practitioner of the Hindu traditions and rituals. Tired of fighting for the equal rights and for removal of untouchability from the Hindu society, in which his wife had great faith, Dr Ambedkar took a major decision to convert. On 13 October, 1935, Dr Ambedkar announced his intention to convert to a different religion. He also exhorted his followers to leave Hinduism, while speaking at the Yeola Conversion Conference in Nasik and repeated his message all through the country. In the very next year, 1936, he founded his own political party called the Independent Labour Party. His party contested the 1937 Bombay election to the Central Legislative Assembly for the 13 reserved and 4 general seats, securing 11 and 3 seats respectively. He served on the Defence Advisory Committee and the Viceroy's Executive Council as minister for Labour during this period. This is also the period when Babasaheb wrote extensively on the condition of Dalits and the caste system in Hindu society. During this period, Babasaheb renamed his party as the Scheduled Castes Federation, which later evolved into its current form the Republican Party of India. Dr Ambedkar was initially elected to the Constituent Assembly from Bengal but his seat went to Pakistan following the Partition of India. He was subsequently elected from the Bombay Presidency in place of a senior jurist Jaykar, ahead of Shri GV Mavalankar. All through this period of his political involvement, Dr Ambedkar had differing opinion with that of Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress. 

India became an Independent nation on 15 August, 1947 and Babasaheb Ambedkar was appointed as the Union Law Minister and Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, which was given the responsibility to write India's new Constitution. Dr Ambedkar  served as the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly. He was primarily responsible for the drafting of the Constitution and ensuring that it provided equal rights and opportunities for all citizens, regardless of their caste, religion, or gender. His contribution to the Constitution is widely regarded as one of the most significant in Indian history and therefore he is regarded as the father of our constitution. 

The Constitution of India - the connect of which resonates with all of us since it is ‘of the people, for the people and by the people’ - was framed by the Constituent Assembly of India, established by the members of the provincial assemblies elected by the people of India. Dr Sachidanand Sinha was the first president of the Constituent Assembly. Later, Dr Rajendra Prasad was elected its president. Dr BR Ambedkar, was chosen to be the chairman of its Drafting Committee, and is therefore befittingly considered the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. The Constituent Assembly began its primary objectives of framing of the constitution with its first sitting on 9th December, 1946. It took nearly three years  (2 years and 11 months) during which the Constituent Assembly sat for 11 sessions spread over a period of 166 days in finalising the Indian Constitution which was drafted by the Constitution Drafting Committee, under the chairmanship of Dr BR Ambedkar. On 26 November 1949, the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution of India which came into force on 26 January 1950.  The original text of our constitution was made up of 395 articles in 22 parts and eight schedules.

Our Constitution provides a comprehensive and dynamic framework to guide and govern our country, keeping in view the extraordinary diversity of our vast nation with her unique social, cultural, religious and innumerable other diversities which are central to our motherland. 

All through this period Dr Ambedkar continued to work tirelessly even though he was suffering from Diabetes. This took a heavy toll on his health. Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar, died in his sleep on 6 December 1956 at Delhi. He was cremated according to the Buddhist tradition and his cremation was attended by about 5 lakh people. It was of great satisfaction to Dr Ambedkar that the Constitution that he had drafted had started bringing about changes on the ground and the Dalits and Adivasis had started getting reservations as a matter of right while Dr Ambedkar was alive. He was happy to witness Dalits and Adivasis becoming Members of Parliament. In the passing away of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar India had lost one of its greatest great heroes, who notwithstanding the unending adversities and caste discrimination that he faced and fought all his life, he never gave up. The fruits of his unending struggle are being reaped by the people and the nation, which will remain eternally grateful to this great son of India. It was no wonder that when his mortal remains reached Mumbai, a sea of humanity spilled on to the streets. The crowd was so big that the administration found it impossible to control it. A record 500 thousand plus people attended the last rites of Dr Ambedkar, who continues to be literally worshipped in India. 

Long live Dr Ambedkar.