-
The Scholar.“Nothing is infallible. Nothing is binding forever. Everything is subject to inquiry and examination.” -
The Jurist.“For a successful revolution it is not enough that there is discontent. What is required is a profound and
thorough conviction of the justice, necessity and importance of political and social rights.” -
The Economist.“History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics.
Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them.” -
The Politician.“It is not enough to be electors only. It is necessary to be law-makers;
otherwise those who can be law-makers will be the masters of those who can only be electors.” -
The Social Reformer.“Political tyranny is nothing compared to the social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies Government.”
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956), also known as Babasaheb Ambedkar, was an Indian scholar, jurist, economist, politician and social reformer, who inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement and campaigned against social discrimination towards the untouchables (Dalits), while also supporting the rights of women and labour. He was independent India's first Minister of Law and Justice, the chief architect of the Constitution of India, and a founding father of the Republic of India.
TIMELINE OF AMBEDKAR'S LIFE
- 1891, April 14
The Birth
Bhimrao Ramji Ambavadekar was born in the British-founded town of Mhow near Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He was the fourteenth and last child of Ramji Sakpal and Bhimabai Murbadkar Sakpal.
- 1891-1906
CHILDHOOD & TEENAGE
• 1896 - The family moved to Satara.
• 1900 - Ambedkar entered the Government Middle School at Satara.
• 1903 - Ambedkar entered in Elphinstone High School in Bombay.
• 1906 - Ambedkar's marriage was arranged with Ramabai, nine-year-old daughter of Bhiku Dhutre of Wanand, near Dapoli.
• 1907 - Bhimrao passed the Matriculation Examination that entitled him to enroll in a college affiliated with Bombay University.
- 1908-1912
INTERMEDIATE & GRADUATION
• 1908 - Ambedkar entered Elphinstone College, which was affiliated with Bombay University.
• 1912 - Ambedkar passed the B.A. Examination (special subjects: Economics and Politics) from Bombay University.
- 1912- 1915
POST GRADUATION
• 1912 - Took position in the administration of Baroda State.
• 1913 - Receives Baroda State Scholarship to join the Political Science Department of the Columbia University as a Post Graduate Student.
• 1915 - Ambedkar passed his M.A. exam in June, majoring in Economics, with Sociology, History, Philosophy, and Anthropology as other subjects of study.
- 1916-1917
FURTHER STUDIES
• 1916 - On May 9, he presented his paper "Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis, and Development" before a seminar conducted by the anthropologist Prof. Alexander Goldenweiser (1880-1940).
• 1916 - In October he was admitted to Gray's Inn for Law, and to the London School of Economics and Political Science for Economics, where he was allowed to start work on a doctoral thesis.
• 1917 - Ambedkar's scholarship from Baroda ended, so that he was obliged to go back to India in June with his work unfinished; he was, however, given permission to return to London and finish it within four years.
• 1917 - He was appointed Military Secretary to the Gaikwar of Baroda.
- 1918- 1920
TEACHING AND FIRST WEEKLY PAPER
• 1918 - He became Professor of Political Economy in the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics in Bombay.
• 1918 - He reviewed a book by Bertrand Russell: "Mr Russell and the Reconstruction of Society" in Journal of Indian Economics (1,1) and in the Journal of the Indian Economic Society (1,2-3) he published "Small Holdings in India and Their Remedies".
• 1920 - Ambedkar started a weekly paper, "Mooknayak" (Leader of the Voiceless) in Marathi.
- 1920-1925
DOCTORAL STUDIES
• 1920 - In July he returned to the London School of Economics, and to Gray's Inn to read for the Bar.
• 1922 - He planned to do further research in economics at the University of Bonn (and also toyed with the idea of studying Sanskrit there) but the whole project didn't work out.
• 1923 - His Ph.D. thesis at the University of London, "The Problem of the Rupee", was challenged on political grounds (for its allegedly subversive, anti-British implications), but was resubmitted and finally accepted.
• 1924 - Back in India, Dr. Ambedkar began to practice as a barrister in Bombay.
• 1925 - He published his London School of Economics M.A. thesis as "The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India".
- 1926- 1927
Struggle for Political Rights and Social Justice
• 1926 - Nominated as member of Bombay Legislative Council.
• 1926 - He led the satyagraha at Mahad to exercise the right of Untouchables to draw water from the Chavdar Tank.
• 1927 - On January 1, he held meeting at the Koregaon Victory Memorial, which commemorates the defeat of Peshwa's forces and inauguration of British rule.
• 1927 - On June 8, formally awarded Ph.D. degree from Columbia University. His Ph.D. thesis was "The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India".
• 1927 - On December 24, he addressed a 2nd Depressed Classes Conference in Mahad; he attacked the Laws of Manu & publicly burned a copy of that text.
- 1928-1931
• 1928 - Dr. Ambedkar was appointed Professor at the Government Law College, Bombay; his term of appointment ended in 1929.
• 1928 - Dr. Ambedkar was selected as a member of the Bombay Presidency Committee to work with the Simon Commission, drafting guidelines for political change in India.
• 1929 - Dr. Ambedkar closed his second journal, "Bahiskrit Bharat" ("Excluded India"), which he had started in 1927, and replaced it with the "Janata" ("The People"), which was published until 1956, when it took on the name "Prabuddha Bharata"(after his conversion).
• 1930 - Dr. Ambedkar was invited by the Viceroy to be a delegate to the Round Table Conference, he left for London in October and participated extensively in the work of the Round Table Conference.
- 1932- 1935
Struggle for Social Justice Continued
• 1932 - The All-Indian Depressed Classes Conference, held at Kamtee near Nagpur on May 6, backed Dr. Ambedkar's demand for separate electorates, rejecting compromises proposed by others.
• 1932 - Gandhi, in Yeravda jail, started a fast to the death against the separate electorates granted to the Depressed Classes by Ramsay MacDonald's Communal Award. By September 23, a very reluctant Dr. Ambedkar was obliged by the pressure of this moral blackmail to accept representation through joint electorates instead. The result was the 'Poona Pact'.
• 1935 - Dr. Ambedkar was appointed Principal of the Government Law College, and became a professor there as well; he held these positions for two years.
- 1936-1943
• 1936 - In August, he founded his first political party, the Independent Labour Party, which contested 17 seats in the 1937 General Elections, and won 15.
• 1937 - Dr. Ambedkar published second edition of "The Annihilation of Caste", adding a concluding appendix that featured a debate with Gandhi over speech.
• 1939 - In January, he delivered to the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics a lecture called "Federation versus Freedom".
• 1942 - He founded his second political party, the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation, which didn't do so well in the elections of 1946.
• 1942 - Dr. Ambedkar was inducted into the Viceroy's Executive Council as Labour Member, a position which he held until his resignation in June 1946.
• 1943 - In September he prepared and published the vigorous memorandum, "Mr. Gandhi and the Emancipation of the Untouchables".
- 1945- 1947
• 1945 - In February, he published a revised version of "Thoughts on Pakistan"; this second, expanded edition was called "Pakistan; or Partition of India".
• 1945 - In June, he published a political manifesto detailing the problems of dealing with Congress, and accusing it of many acts of betrayal: "What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables".
• 1946 - In July, he published "Who Were the Shudras? How They Came to Be the Fourth Varna in the Indo-Aryan Society".
• 1947 - In March he published "States and Minorities: What Are their Rights and How to Secure them in the Constitution of Free India".
- 1947-1949
AFTER INDEPENDENCE
• 1947 - In August, Dr. Ambedkar accepted Nehru's invitation to become Minister of Law in the first Cabinet of independent India.
• 1948 - On April 15th, Dr. Ambedkar married Dr. Sharda Kabir
• 1948 - He published "The Untouchables: a Thesis on the Origin of Untouchability".
• 1948 - In November, the Draft Constitution with its 315 articles and 8 schedules was formally introduced to the Constituent Assembly. Dr. Ambedkar concluded his speech:
"I feel that the Constitution is workable; it is flexible and it is strong enough to hold the country together both in peace time and in war time. Indeed, if I may say so, if things go wrong under the new Constitution the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that Man was vile."
• 1949 - In November, the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution, including Article 17, which formally abolished untouchability.
- 1950- 1955
AFTER THE CONSTITUTION
• 1950 - Dr. Ambedkar gave several addresses about Buddhism.
• 1951 - In February, he introduced in Parliament the "Hindu Code Bill" that he had drafted, which included greatly expanded rights for women; it proved very controversial, and consideration of it was postponed.
• 1951 - In September, Dr. Ambedkar resigned from the Cabinet, embittered over the failure of Nehru and the Congress to back the Hindu Code Bill as they had earlier pledged to do.
• 1952 - Dr. Ambedkar received an honorary L.L.D. degree from Columbia University as part of its Bicentennial Special Convocation.
• 1953 - His political thinking included analysis of the issue of linguistic states; he published "Need for Checks and Balances".
- 1956-Mahaparinirvana
• 1956 - Dr. Ambedkar brought the manuscript of "The Buddha and His Dhamma" to completion.
• 1956 - His formal conversion took place on October 14 in Nagpur, a town selected for reasons he explained in his moving speech, "Why Was Nagpur Chosen?".
• 1956 - In November, he attended the Fourth World Buddhist Conference held at Kathmandu.
• 1956 - On December 2, he completed the manuscript of "The Buddha or Karl Marx", his last finished work.
• 1956 - On the night of December 5 or the early morning of December 6, he died quietly in his sleep; on December 7 there was a huge Buddhist-style funeral procession in Bombay, and he was cremated on the seashore.
• 1957 and beyond - A number of unfinished typescripts and handwritten drafts were found among his notes and papers and gradually made available.
PHOTOGRAPHS & OTHER IMAGES
