Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
- Also called:
- Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Father of the Indian Constitution
- Died:
- December 6, 1956, New Delhi (aged 65)
- Role In:
- Poona Pact
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Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (born April 14, 1891, Mhow, India—died December 6, 1956, New Delhi) was an Indian political leader who played a pivotal role in drafting the Constitution of India. As a social reformer, he championed the rights of the Dalits (Scheduled Castes; formerly called untouchables) and was instrumental in the constitutional abolition of the discriminatory practice of “untouchability.” For his role in drafting India’s supreme legal document, Ambedkar is popularly referred to as the “Father of the Indian Constitution.” He served as the first law minister of the government of India (1947–51). In his later life he rejected Hinduism and converted to Buddhism.
Early life
Born of a Dalit Mahar family of western India, Ambedkar was the son of an army officer. As a boy, he was humiliated by his high-caste schoolfellows. Awarded a scholarship by the Gaekwar (ruler) of Baroda (now Vadodara), he studied at universities in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. During this period he qualified as a lawyer. He entered the Baroda Public Service at the Gaekwar’s request, but, again ill-treated by his high-caste colleagues, he turned to legal practice and to teaching.
Dalit leadership and conflict with Gandhi
Ambedkar soon established his leadership among Dalits, founded several journals on their behalf, and led protests against the social prohibitions established by the Hindu caste system. On one such occasion—a satyagraha in 1927 to challenge the ban on Dalits drinking water from a lake in the town of Mahad, Maharashtra—he said in a speech:
...untouchability is not a simple matter; it is the mother of all our poverty and lowliness and it has brought us to the abject state we are in today. If we want to raise ourselves out of it, we must undertake this task (abolition of untouchability). We cannot be saved in any other way. It is a task not for our benefit alone; it is also for the benefit of the nation.
Ambedkar agitated for increased visibility of Dalits in public life, and succeeded in obtaining special representation for them in the legislative councils of the government. During his efforts to reform the status of the marginalized sections of Hindu society, he came into conflict with Mahatma Gandhi despite the two men sharing a similar commitment to social equity. In August 1932 Gandhi, then in prison, went on a fast to death to protest against the British raj’s allotment of a separate electorate for the Dalit community, believing that it would diminish Hindu unity and negatively impact the Indian independence movement. Ambedkar, who supported the separate electorate for Dalits, agreed to a compromise in order to save Gandhi’s life. As a result, the Poona Pact was signed in September 1932, which provided for reserved seats for Dalits within the Hindu electorate. In 1936 Ambedkar formed the Independent Labour Party and remained bitterly critical of Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. Contesting Gandhi’s ’s claim to speak for Dalits (or Harijans, as Gandhi called them), Ambedkar wrote What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables (1945).
Post-independence life and career
“I Will Not Die as a Hindu”
Ambedkar was fiercely critical of Hinduism and Brahminical supremacy in the caste hierarchy. In 1935, while addressing a rally in Yeola, Maharashtra, he declared: “I was born in Hinduism but I will not die as a Hindu.” Two decades later, in October 1956, he converted to Buddhism. He died in December that same year.
In 1947 Ambedkar became the law minister in the cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first prime minister. He was elected to the Constituent Assembly, a body that was formed to create the country’s constitution, and chaired its drafting committee. He took a leading part in the framing of the constitution, outlawing discrimination against untouchables, and skillfully helped to steer it through the assembly. The constitution came into effect on January 26, 1950, which is today celebrated as Republic Day, a national holiday in India. Ambedkar’s ideas on economic policy significantly influenced the establishment of the Reserve Bank of India.
Ambedkar resigned as law minister in 1951, disappointed at his lack of influence in the government. In October 1956, in despair because of the perpetuation of untouchability in Hindu doctrine, he renounced Hinduism and became a Buddhist, together with about 200,000 fellow Dalits, at a ceremony in Nagpur. Ambedkar’s book The Buddha and His Dhamma appeared posthumously in 1957.
Ambedkar was awarded India’s highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1990. His birthday, April 14, is celebrated as a holiday in several Indian states. His death anniversary on December 6 is marked across the country as Mahaparinirvan Diwas (“mahaparinirvana” referring to the Buddhist concept of nirvana; “diwas” meaning day)