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B. R. Ambedkar is best known as the principal architect of the Indian Constitution. He is also called the ‘Father of the Indian Constitution and ‘The Architect of Independent India.’
Who Was B.R Ambedkar?
B.R Ambedkar was the last child of Ramji Maloji Sakpal. His family belonged to Mahar(Dalit) caste which was treated as untouchables. However, his ancestors had worked for the British East India Company and his father served in the British Indian Army.
While studying at Columbia University College in the USA, he discovered many untouchables among the students. He decided to fight against untouchability and became very active in the social reform movement in India.
Later on, Ambedkar was appointed as the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution. He introduced a system of reservation for backward classes of society and led many reformative movements.
B.R Ambedkar Early Life
He was born into a Dalit Mahar family on April 14, 1891, in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh. His high-caste schoolmates made fun of him. Ramji Maloji Sakpal was the name of his father. He was a subedar-level army officer. B.R Ambedkar’s father retired in 1894, and the family relocated to Satara two years later. His mother passed away very shortly after that. Bhimabai Sakpal was his mother. His family had Marathi ancestry.
Baroda’s Gaekwar (ruler) gave him a scholarship (now Vadodara). He attended institutions in Germany, Britain, and the United States for his studies. After that started practising law and lecturing, he built Dalit leadership and published several periodicals on their behalf. Additionally, he successfully got them special representation in the government’s legislative councils. Additionally, he wrote What Gandhi and Congress Have Done to the Untouchables (1945).
B.R Ambedkar Political Career
By 1927, B.R. Ambedkar actively started a movement against untouchability. In addition to allowing untouchables to collect water from the town’s main water tank, he organised public marches and rallies to expand public access to drinking water supplies. He fought for the ability to go inside Hindu temples as well. He denounced Manusmriti for morally supporting caste prejudice and untouchability at a convention in late 1927. He emphasised that because employment in India is determined by birth, there is less labour mobility in other industries, negatively influencing India’s economic development.
As a labour minister, he participated in the Viceroy’s Executive Council and the Defence Advisory Committee. He authored a 400-page tract titled “Thoughts on Pakistan” in 1940 in response to the Muslim League’s Lahore Resolution, which demanded Pakistan and examined the idea of “Pakistan” from all angles. Who Were the Shudras?, a work of his, Babasaheb tried to explain how the untouchables came to be. The Scheduled Castes Federation replaced his political party. In the 1946 elections for the Indian Constituent Assembly, it did poorly. Later, when the Muslim League was in power in Bengal, Babasaheb was chosen to serve in the constituent parliament.
After the passing of the college’s founder, Shri Rai Kedarnath, he assumed the chairmanship of the Ramjas College governing board at the University of Delhi. Ambedkar revealed his decision to change his faith and urged his supporters to do the same on October 13 at the Yeola Conversion Conference in Nasik. He ran in the first Indian general election for Bombay North in 1952 but was defeated. He was officially assigned to the Rajya Sabha when he joined. He tried to run for the Lok Sabha again in the 1954 by-election from Bhandara, but he finished third. Babasaheb died by the time of the second general election in 1957.
