The Face of Liberty: Equality: Fraternity

personal details

Pronunciation – Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

Surname – Babasaheb

Born – 14 April 1891

Died – 6 December 1956 (aged 65) New Delhi, India

Ambedkar married twice, his first wife was Ramabai Ambedkar and his second wife was Savita Ambedkar.

Spouse- Ramabai Ambedkar (married 1906; died 1935)

Savita Ambedkar (born 1948)

Children – Yashwant Ambedkar

Qualification of Dr. Ambedkar?

Elementary Education, 1902 Satara, Maharashtra

Matriculation, 1907, Elphinstone High School, Bombay Persian, etc.

Inter 1909, Elphinstone College, Bombay-Persian & English

B.A., 1913, Elphinstone College, Bombay, University of Bombay, Economics and Political Science

MA, 1915 Majoring in economics with sociology, history philosophy, anthropology and politics

PhD, 1917, Columbia University awarded the degree of PhD.

M. Sc. 1921 Jun, London School of Economics, London. Thesis – ‘Provincial Decentralization of Imperial Finance in British India’

Barrister-at-Law 30-9-1920 Gray’s Inn, London

(1922-23, spent some time studying economics at the University of Bonn, Germany.)

D. SC Nov 1923, London School of Economics, London ‘The Problem of the Rupee – Its Origin and Its Solution’ was accepted for a degree in Economics

L.L.D (Honoris Causa) 5-6-1952 Columbia University, New York for his achievements, leadership and writing the Constitution of India

D.Litt (Honorary Degree) 12-1-1953 Osmania University, Hyderabad for his achievements, leadership and writing the Constitution of India

Struggle against untouchability

Ambedkar had said “untouchability is worse than slavery”. Ambedkar was educated by the princely state of Baroda, so he was bound to serve them. He was appointed military secretary to Maharaja Gaekwad, but was soon fired due to caste discrimination. He described the incident in his autobiography Waiting for a Visa. Thereafter he again tried to find a means of sustenance for his growing family, for which he worked as an accountant and a businessman. He also worked as a private tutor and set up an investment consulting business, but all these efforts failed when his clients learned that he was an untouchable. In 1918, he graduated from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics and became Professor of Political Economy. Although he was successful with the students, other professors objected to him sharing drinking utensils with them. While practicing law at the Bombay High Court, his first organized effort was the establishment of the central institution Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha, which aimed to promote education and socio-economic reform as well as the welfare of the “outcastes”, called Dalits. He tried to promote the education and upliftment of the untouchables.

Political Career

In 1935, Ambedkar was appointed principal of the Government Law College, a position he held for two years.

After settling in Mumbai, Ambedkar oversaw the construction of a large house and stocked his personal library with over 50,000 books.

His wife Ramabai died in the same year after a long illness. It was his long-standing desire to go on a pilgrimage to Pandharpur,

Despite a significant increase in momentum across India for the fight against untouchability, his own views and attitudes had hardened against orthodox Hindus.

Despite a large number of Hindu activists criticizing him, he began to criticize them.

In 1936, Ambedkar founded the Independent Labor 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 a thesis he had written in New York.

While achieving immense popular success, Ambedkar’s work strongly criticized Hindu religious leaders and the caste system in general. He opposed the Congress’s decision to call the untouchable community Harijans (children of God), a name coined by Gandhi. Ambedkar served on the Defense Advisory Committee and as Labor Minister on the Viceroy’s Executive Council.

Between 1941 and 1945, he published a large number of highly controversial books and pamphlets, including Thoughts on Pakistan, in which he supported 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 attacks, accusing Gandhi and the Congress of hypocrisy.

Ambedkar attempted to explain the formation of the Shudras, the lowest caste in the hierarchy of the Hindu caste system. He also emphasized how Shudras are different from untouchables. Ambedkar oversaw the transformation of his political party into the All India Scheduled Castes Federation, although it fared poorly in the 1946 elections to the Constituent Assembly of India.

 In 1948, Ambedkar criticized Hinduism in The Untouchables: A Thesis on the Origin of Untouchability:

Hindu civilization… is a diabolical ploy to suppress and enslave humanity. Its proper name would be infamy. What more can be said about a civilization that has created a group of people… who are treated as a unit beyond human contact

Ambedkar was also critical of Islam and its practices in South Asia. Apart from justifying the partition of India, he also condemned the practice of child marriage in Muslim society as well as the mistreatment of women.

He also wrote that the Muslim society was “even more fraught with social evils than the Hindu society”.

 He also criticized discrimination against the Arzal classes among Muslims who were considered “degraded”, as well as the oppression of women in Muslim society through the oppressive purdah system.

He alleged that while Purdah was also performed by Hindus, he criticized their fanaticism with regard to Islam on the grounds that their literal interpretation of Islamic doctrine made their society too rigid and impervious to change.

He further wrote that Indian Muslims have failed to reform their society unlike Muslims of other countries like Turkey.

Dr B R Ambedkar passed away

From 1948, Ambedkar was suffering from diabetes. He was very ill from June to October 1954, during which he suffered from failing eyesight. Troubled by political issues, Ambedkar’s health went from bad to worse and the continuous work done during 1955 broke him down. Ambedkar died in his sleep at his home in Delhi on 6 December 1956, three days after completing his last manuscript, Lord Buddha and His Dhamma. Then his age was 64 years and 7 months.