Remembering Baba Ambedkar
By Dr Arvind Kumar
14th April marks the Birth Anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the Father of the Indian Constitution. Popularly known as Babasaheb Ambedkar, he was an eminent jurist, a revolutionary social thinker and a charismatic leader of the masses. As the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, Ambedkar imbued the nation’s founding document with visionary prescience. Ambedkar’s life was a tribute to the nation’s founding vision of inclusion and secularism for he fought throughout his life against social evils like untouchablity. He ably campaigned for the rights of the Dalits and other socially backward classes. For his extraordinary breadth of vision and erudition, Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru appointed Dr. Ambedkar as the nation’s first Law Minister. Ambedkar was born on 14 April 1891 in Madhya Pradesh and subsequently his family to Satara in Maharashtra.
Ambedkar’s early experiences were life changing and would later influence the destiny of a young nation. After graduating in Political Science and Economics from Bombay University in 1912, Ambedkar went to the United States for higher studies. In 1920, he went to England where he earned a D.Sc at the London School of Economics. In 1927, the brilliant academician earned a doctorate from the University of Columbia.
Amidst the brilliance of his academic accomplishments, he was deeply troubled by the legacy of discrimination against the weaker classes of society. It was also a time of great political and nationalist churning with Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose leading the freedom struggle. Bhimrao decided to take on the fight against discrimination that was threatening to divide the nation. He began to reach out to people and enlighten them about the prevalent social evils. Much of the credit in making the Constitution an instrument of national vision, inclusion and transformation goes to Dr. Ambedkar. In that sense, he sought to unify India’s society and redefine and transform relationships between people of all races, faiths and creed.
On 6 December 1956, Dr. Ambedkar breathed his last. In 1990, he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s intellectual legacy continues to inspire social scientists, thinkers and nation builders.
