The Light from the Dark

Who does not remember Dr B.R. Ambedkar? A man of a high stature from a 'lowly' caste who was one of the most prominent figures in the writing of the constitution as well as shunning caste discrimination and a lot more.

Baba Saheb Ambedkar during his speech; Source: Public Domain

On 14th April 1891, B. R. Ambedkar was born in a family of Mahars, a caste that was considered "untouchable". Growing up, he had to face the evil of discrimination and pollution by touch. His father was a Subedar in the Indian Army, so he received a decent education, but that too while dealing with a tremendous amount of humiliation. As a young boy, he would be troubled by other students due to his caste, and even teachers will make him sit outside classrooms to get an education. He survived all this and passed the Matriculation exam, becoming the first one in the community to do so.

He went on to graduate from Bombay University and was offered a scholarship by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad of Baroda. This scholarship brought him to New York for the Masters. He even took admission in Law.

He returned to India when his scholarship ended and started working as Defence Secretary with Baroda State. No matter how educated he had become, humiliation awaited him. Even an illiterate peon won't serve him water due to his caste, and his neighbours shoved him off after finding he was from a low caste! He returned to Bombay and started teaching as a Professor in Economics.

But the urge to do something for his community always kept him up, and he wanted to bring his people out of their misery. In 1920 he launched a weekly "Mooknayaka" (leader of the dumb) with support from Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur. He went back to London to complete his studies and returned with much more skills and vigour to fight this caste system's evil.

He founded the Bahishkrit Hitkarni Samaj for the untouchables, his movements for access to public drinking water and the Kalaram Temple entry movement made headlines and he was duly recognized as the leader of Dalits.

Always suspicious about Gandhi and Congress, he accused them of not doing anything for the Dalits. A strong dual ideological between Gandhi and Ambedkar started when conversations for a separate electorate for Dalits began. Gandhi began a fast against the demands of a separate electorate. In vain, Ambedkar gave in. Following this, the Poona Pact was signed, and Dalits were given reservations.

In 1936 he founded the Independent Labour party and fought assembly elections of 1937 with some success. On Gandhi's recommendation, he was made Independent India's 1st Law Minister.

He is even called the Father of the Constitution as he chaired the Drafting Committee and strongly fought for the values of equality, secularism and justice in the constitution.

But his fight against untouchability was still incomplete. After a lot of efforts, he finally gave up the task to reform the Hindu society. Instead, he started looking for a new alternative religion and found his peace in Buddhism (after reforming it considerably).

In 1956 in a public ceremony, he converted to Buddhism. Around 5 lakh people attended this function, and they followed their leader. He passed away just a few months later, leaving with us his own version of Smritis, a lot different than the one he burnt earlier.