Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was a prominent Indian jurist and politician who fought against social discrimination of Dalits and advocated for their rights. He faced discrimination and caste-based restrictions throughout his childhood. He received higher education in the US and UK, and became India's first Law Minister. He is regarded as the principal architect of the Indian Constitution. Ambedkar believed that annihilation of the Hindu caste system was necessary to overcome social inequalities. He organized protests and conferences calling for Dalit rights and the abolition of untouchability. Later in life, he renounced Hinduism and led a mass conversion of Dalits to Buddhism.

1. 7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

2. 7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

3. DR. BHIMRAO RAMJI AMBEDKAR
 Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, popularly known as
Babasaheb Ambedkar, was a jurist, social reformer
and politician.
 He is also known as the Father of Indian
Constitution.
 A well-known politician and an eminent jurist, his
efforts to eradicate social evils like untouchablity
and caste restrictions were remarkable.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

4.  Throughout his life, he fought for the rights of the
dalits and other socially backward classes.
 Ambedkar was appointed as India’s first Law
Minister in the Cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru.
 He was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna,
India’s highest civilian honor in 1990.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

5. CHILDHOOD & EARLY LIFE
 Bhimrao Ambedkar was born to Bhimabai and
Ramji on 14 April 1891 in Army Cantonment,
Central Provinces (Madhya Pradesh).
 Ambedkar’s father was a Subedar in the Indian
Army and after his retirement in 1894, the
family moved to Satara, also in Central
Provinces.
 Shortly after this, Bhimrao’s mother passed
away.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

6. 7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

7. 7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

8. Four years later, his father
remarried and the family shifted to
Bombay.
In 1906, 15 year old Bhimrao
married Ramabai, a 9 year old girl.
His father Ramji Sakpal died in
Bombay, in 1912.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

9.  Throughout his childhood, Ambedkar faced the
stigmas of caste discrimination.
 Hailing from the Hindu Mahar caste, his family was
viewed as “untouchable” by the upper classes.
 The discrimination and humiliation haunted
Ambedkar at the Army school.
 Fearing social outcry, the teachers would segregate
the students of lower class from that of Brahmins
and other upper classes.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

10.  The untouchable students were often asked by the
teacher to sit outside the class.
 After shifting to Satara, he was enrolled at a local
school but the change of school did not change the
fate of young Bhimrao.
 Discrimination followed wherever he went. After
coming back from the US, Ambedkar was
appointed as the Defence secretary to the King of
Baroda but there also he had to face the humiliation
for being an ‘Untouchable’.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

11. EDUCATION
 He cleared his matriculation in 1908 from Elphinstone
High School.
 In 1908, Ambedkar got the opportunity to study at the
Elphinstone College and obtained his graduate degree
in Economics and Political Science in the year 1912
from Bombay University.
 Besides clearing all the exams successfully Ambedkar
also obtained a scholarship of twenty five rupees a
month from the Gaekwad ruler of Baroda, Sahyaji Rao
III.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

12.  Ambedkar decided to use the money for higher studies in
the USA.
 He enrolled in the Columbia University in New York City
to study Economics.
 He completed his Master’s degree in June 1915 after
successfully completing his thesis titled ‘Ancient Indian
Commerce’.
 In 1916, he enrolled in the London School of Economics
and started working on his doctoral thesis titled “The
problem of the rupee: Its origin and its solution”.
 With the help of the former Bombay Governor Lord
Sydenham, Ambedkar became a professor of political
economy at the Sydenham College of Commerce and
Economics in Bombay.
 In order to continue his further studies, he went to England
in 1920 at his own expense.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

13.  He received his PhD degree in Economics in 1927.
 On 8 June, 1927, he was awarded a Doctorate by
the University of Columbia.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

14. 7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

15. BACKGROUND
 In a letter dated 12 December 1935, the secretary of
the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal (Society for the
Abolition of Caste system), an anti-caste Hindu
reformist group organisation based in Lahore,
invited B. R. Ambedkar to deliver a speech on
the caste system in India at their annual conference
in 1936.
 Ambedkar wrote the speech as an essay under the
title "Annihilation of Caste" and sent in advance to
the organisers in Lahore for printing and
distribution.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

16.  In the essay, Ambedkar criticised the Hindu religion, its
caste system and its religious texts which are male
dominant and spreading hatred and supression of
female interests.
 He argued that inter-caste dining and inter-caste
marriage is not sufficient to annihilate the caste system,
but that "the real method of breaking up the Caste
System was... to destroy the religious notions upon
which caste is founded.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

17.  Ambedkar was fed up with the upper caste Hindus
regarding the lawlessness against the Untouchables
and the unbearable pain, which the Dalits had to
face.
 He pondered how to rescue the Dalit community
from the clutches of the mighty Hindus.
 He realized that unless and until the hierarchy
based caste system is abolished; it is only a day-
dream for the Dalit to have dignity and self-respect.
 Therefore, he envisaged that annihilation of caste is
the one and only one way to liberate the Dalits from
the dominant upper caste Hindus.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

18.  Ambedkar held: “It is not possible to break Caste
without annihilating the religious notions on which it,
the Caste system is founded.”
 Further, caste has become the biggest monster for
Indian society, he feels.
 The caste system has broken the backbone of the
Hindus.
 It creates inequality and repulsion towards each other.
 There is lack of unity among the Hindus because of the
caste system.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

19.  The Hindu caste system has been divided into water-
tight compartments.
 There is no unity among the Hindus unless and until
there is a communal violence between the Hindu and
Muslims.
 One Hindu is different from another Hindu although
they belong to the same caste.
 Their way of living differs from each other.
 There is no associated bond among the Hindus.
 This makes the Hindu cowardice and they are in a state
of timidity.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

20.  The effect of caste on the ethics of the Hindus is simply
deplorable.
 Caste has killed public spirit.
 Caste has destroyed the sense of public charity. Caste has
made public opinion impossible.
 A Hindu’s public is his caste. His responsibility is only to
his caste.
 His loyalty is restricted only to his caste.
 Virtue has become caste-ridden and morality has become
caste-bound.
 There is no sympathy to the deserving. There is no
appreciation of the meritorious.
 There is no charity to the needy.
 Suffering as such calls for no response.
 There is charity but it begins with the caste and ends with
the caste.
 There is sympathy but not for men of other caste.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

21.  Ambedkar failed to realize the dream of annihilating
the caste on account of the strong oppose of the mighty
Hindus.
 In order to give up the Hindu religion, he neither
embraced Christianity nor Islam.
 He maintains that Buddhism is the viable and feasible
solution to rescue the Dalit community. Hence, he
embraced Buddhism on 14th October, 1956 at Nagpur,
Maharastra before he died on 6th December, 1956.
 On the same day, around 8, 00000 lakhs of supporters
embraced Buddhism.
 This was the largest conversion in a single day in the
world.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

22.  By the influence of Ambedkar, most of them gave up
meat eating and even gave up degrading occupations
and drowned their Hindu household gods and
goddesses.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

23. THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF
AMBEDKAR
 The contribution of Ambedkar towards the
upliftment and dignity of the Dalit community is
remarkable and phenomenal.
 The amount of injustice, cruelty, oppression and
suppression had given to the Dalits, is simply
unbelievable and unforgivable.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

24. CHOWDAR TANK
 Mahad Satyagraha was launched by Dr. Bhim Rao
Ambedkar on 20 March 1927 at Mahad in current
Raigarh District of Maharashtra.
 In 1926, Municipal Board of Mahad, Maharashtra
passed orders to throw open the famous Chowder
tank of Mahad city to all communities.
 Earlier, untouchables were not allowed to use
water from Mahad tank. High caste Hindus
opposed this order of Municipal Board.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

25. 7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

26.  Ambedkar, in his presidential address, stressed the
necessity of rooting out ideas of highness or lowness
and inculcating self-elevation through self-help, self-
respect and self-knowledge.
 After the conference all delegates marched to the tank
and asserted their right to drink and take water from the
tank.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila

27.  A Satyagrah Conference was organised at Mahad on
December 25, 1925 which demanded that Hindu
society should be organised on the basis of equalityand
absence of casteism.
 It was also resolved to burn Manusmriti, as according
to Ambedkar, it perpetuated the social, economic,
religious and political slavery of the untouchables.
 As per the resolution, Manusmriti was burnt on
December 25, 1927.
7/6/2022 Dr.R.Pricila