About Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar was born on Village Mao or Mhow in District Ratnagiri, which was in Madhya Pradesh at that time, but after redemarcation of boundaries and reorganisation of Indian States, now it falls in Maharashtra. He was youngest of his five surviving siblings. He and his family had to face a lot of humiliation and exploitation to get him admitted in school because of his low caste birth and untouchability being at the peak during those times. He was admitted in school with the strict conditions that – “He will sit separate from all his class fellows, bring his own mat from house daily to sit on, he will not touch chalks, black-board, pitcher of water placed behind the black-board and any other item of the school, lest it also gets polluted and thereby become untouchable like him.”
 
In spite of all these adverse and inhuman conditions and circumstances working contrary to his interest, he stunned his Head Master by standing first in his Class Xth Final exams. One day, the Head Master of the school sarcastically asked him, “Bhim ! What you do after getting education, as you a Mahar by caste and nobody shall give you a job?”  Bhim Rao again stunned and surprised him by replying with confidence and conviction – “Sir! I shall become a lawyer and make such a law that even government shall have to abide by.” 
 
Dr.  Ambedkar had a Christian friend called Caluskar who often helped him and always gave him seasoned advice.  As he did not had sufficient money to continue study in college, his friend Caluskar advised him to go to Baroda province and seek financial help from Maharaja Gaekwad, as he is really very kind-hearted and generous fellow. Thus, Bhim Rao went to Baroda and explained his position to the Maharaja Gaekwad, who after having been convinced, sanctioned a monthly scholarship of Rs. 25/- to him with the condition that after completing his higher studies, Bhim Rao shall have to serve his province at least for a period of ten years.  
 
With his nerves of steel and lot of determination enshrined in his heart, Dr. Ambedkar passed his B.A. in 1911 from Bombay and for his higher studies, he went to America and joined Columbia University and passed his M.A. in first division. He returned to India after completing his Ph.D. from England in 1915. Now, as per the bond already signed him, he went  to the Maharaja Gaekwad for some suitable job and the Maharaja Gaekwad after going through his educational credentials, appointed him Military Secretary to the King. 
 
Even after such a higher qualification and having become such a high officer, untouchability and shadow of castism did not desert him, as wherever he went, every body saw and assessed him through the prism of castist outlooks. Nobody was willing to give him a house on rent, serve food to him, even his own peon refused to offer him  a glass of water.  Not only that, every body treated him with sarcasm, ridicule, disrespect and contempt. He had to sleep on roads or pavements, cook his own food and life became very cruel and unbearable. Somehow, he spent six months hoping that circumstances shall start changing for the better with the passage of time, but when in spite his best efforts even Munim ji of Maharaja declined to give him a room on rent, one day he mustered courage and revealed everything to the Maharaja. He also explained that though as per the bond signed by him some years ago for availing of scholarship from him, he really wanted to serve the Baroda province, but life is simply very difficult and intolerable here due to the prevailing caste system and the fear of dogma of unrealistic and unscientific untouchability. Maharaja Gaekwad, after listening to his genuine problems, exonerated him of his liabilities towards Baroda Province and thus, Dr. Ambedkar returned to Bombay.
 
After remaining jobless for a few years, ultimately Dr. Ambedkar was selected Prof. of Economics in Bombay University in 1918. In 1923, he was appointed Principal of Law College Bombay. And by this time, he had become a very popular amongst the poorer sections of society in the whole region and an enlightened leader. In 1930, he was invited to attend Round Table Conference held at Ahmedabad where he met Mahatma Gandhi for the first time. As Mahatma Gandhi did not had any clear-cut plan to eradicate castism, provide right to property and education to the Dalits, exploitation of the poor and down-troddens, schemes for their upliftment  and betterment and representation of the Dalits at various political and governmental forums, Dr. Ambedkar raised his demand for separate state for his people based on percentage of their population. His battle for this political separate state was accepted by the British Prime Minister in 1932 and Mahatma Gandhi felt defeated. He also raised objections to Mahatma Gandhi’s word “Harijan” given to the Dalits as he asked him, “If only Dalits are Harijans, are all others people belonging to higher castes the children of demons?” In fact, he laid emphasis that not only Dalits, all the people are Harijans (children of one omnipotent and omnipresent God) whereas, the system of caste based on birth started by some clever and mischievous people thousands of years ago, is altogether wrong, bogus and this is the very root cause of discrimination of one person by another.
 
When Dr. Ambedkar did not budge even an inch from his demand for separate state for the Dalits  and other oppressed sections of society, Mahatma Gandhi sat on indefinite Dharna (fast-unto-death). The situation became very serious and alarming after a few days, Kasturba Gandhi, wife of Mahatma Gandhi visited Dr. Ambedkar and requested him with folded hands to change his mind, lest her husband ultimately dies while on fast. Many other Congress leaders also pleaded with him to try to think about some via-media to solve this ongoing problem. That is how the concept of ear-marking separate seats for the Dalits and other oppressed sections came into being.
 
Later on, he launched a political party called Swatantar Majdoor Dal, which was later on rechristened as Republican Party of India in 1946. He was one of ten most learned scholars of the world of his times, and certainly most learned personalty of India. (He was MA, Ph.D., D.Sc., L.L.D., D. Lit. and Bar-at-Law) He was a great scholar and wrote many books and always worked for reforming and upliftment of the poorer and exploited sections of society and that is why he was given the epithets like “The Iron Man and The Dalit Messiah” etc. He knew many languages like Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Persian, English, German, French and Russian. When India attained freedom in 1947, he was made first Union Law Minister of India and for writing the constitution of India, Constitution Drafting Committee was made  and he was made its Chairman. The Constitution was finally prepared in November, 1949, but was chosen to be implemented on the 26th January, 1950 for some historical reasons.
 
But, in spite of his such high qualification and the gigantic task of writing the constitution and many books, he was not bestowed due respect and regards to him; he announced his decision to quit Hinduism. He studied all the prevailing big religions and ultimately decided to embrace Buddhism  on the 14th August, 1954. During next two years, around six lakh people through out India also renounced Hinduism and embraced Budhhism. After this historic event, he started writing a book called Buddhism and other Religions, which was completed just a few days before his death, on the 6th December, 1956, in Delhi.
 
He was awarded the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna after 35 years of his death and his statue was installed inside the Parliament House on the 14th April, 1990, when late Shri V.P. Singh was the Prime Minster of India.

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By :  R.D. Bhardwaj "Noorpuri"