Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar and His Legacy

 Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar and His Legacy and movements

B R Ambedkar (1891- 1956)

Bhimarao Ramji was born in the Mahar untouchable community at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh. His father, a subedar in the army, hailed from Ambad in Ratnagiri district of the then Bombay presidency. He took his surname 'Ambavadekar' from the name of his native village; it was, however, changed to Ambedkar in the school records.

In 1913, he joined Columbia University in New York, where two years later he took his M A in Economics. In 1926, he obtained a doctorate from the same university. Meanwhile, in 1916 he had moved to the London School of Economics and prepared for the Bar. A year later, however, he had to discontinue his studies owing to financial exigencies. In 1921 he resumed his studies in London and obtained an M. Sc. (1921) and D. Sc (1923).

1924 saw Ambedkar returning home to start legal practice at the Bombay High Court. In the same year he established the Depressed Classes Institute (Bahishkrit Hitkarnini Sabha) in Bombay for the moral and material progress of untouchables. In 1927, he started a Marathi fortnightly, Bahishkrit Bharat and in November 1930, a weekly, the janata. Another institution that Ambedkar founded, in 1927, was the Samaj Samata Sangh, its objective being to propagating the gospel of social equality among untouchables and caste Hindus.

In 1927 Ambedkar launched a satyagraha to assert the right of untouchables to draw water from a public tank at Malad, in Kolaba district. In 1930 he led another satyagraha to claim his community's right to enter the famous temple of Kalaram at Nashik.

Meanwhile he was emerging as a leader of the depressed classes, in which capacity he continued to be a nominated member (1926-34) of the Bombay Legislative Council. He was also an official nominee to the Round Table Conference. Following the British government's 'Communal Award', Ambedkar and Gandhi signed an accord called the 'Poona Pact' which provided for reservation of seates for the community in the general (Hindu) constituencies.

He founded the Independent Labour Party in 1936 which captured all the scheduled caste seats in Bombay presidency in the 1936-37, he organised the All India Scheduled Castes Federation as a political party. To promote the interests of his community he established the Peoples Education Society in July 1945.

Ambedkar served on the Government-General's Executive Council as member for Labour during 1942-46. Later, the Congress nominated him to the Constituent Assembly in whose deliberations he was to play a prominent role. Apart from being the law minister of the Constituent Assembly's drafting committee. He also made a signal contribution towards the drafting of the Hindu Code Bill, which made him known as 'a modern Manu'. His prominent works included Castes in India: their mechanism, genesis and development (1916) and Pakistan or Partition of India (1946).

In the late 19th century also the Mahars organised themselves under Gopal Baba Walangkar, an exserviceman and demanded more jobs in the army and other government services.