The document provides background information on Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, a leader for India's untouchables who fought against caste discrimination and inequality. It discusses his early life and education, his various political parties and roles in government, and his key beliefs and efforts including organizing untouchables, advocating for their political representation, drafting the Indian constitution, and introducing the Hindu Code Bill to reform Hindu law. The document outlines Ambedkar's vision of equality and legal protections for disadvantaged groups, as well as his disagreement with Gandhi's approach of relying on Hinduism to reform itself from within.

1. The Social and Political Thought of
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
Related Sites
http://baou.edu.in/dr-br-ambedkar
https://www.inc.in/en/our-inspiration/dr-b-r-ambedkar
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/
https://www.mea.gov.in/books-by-ambedkar.htm
http://doj.gov.in/page/about-dr-b-r-ambedkar
http://tndipr.gov.in/memorials/rettamalaiseenivasanmanimadapam.html
The Social and Political Thought of B R
Ambedkar-Eleanor Zelliot
https://in.sagepub.com/en-in/sas/political-
thought-in-modern-
india/book224321#contents

2. Background
• Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is known
– as the Leader of India’s Untouchables
– The ‘modern Manu’ for his work in piloting the Constitution
– Organised and politicised his own Mahar caste and a great many
other Untouchable groups in urban areas
– Founded three political parties [Independent Labour Party, Scheduled
Castes Federation in 1942, 3rd Republican Party of India in 1956]
– Served in the cabinets of both British India and independent India
– Wrote and spoke extensively on political problems and the political
process
– In 1930, at a Depressed Classes Conference in Nagpur, he urged
independence for India-the first Untouchable leader to urge the British
to leave

3. Background
Amdedkar’s birth
– Mahars were beginning to organize in protest against British cancellation of their army
recruitment
– The increasing awareness of the problem of untouchability among Marathi-speaking
Brahmans
– The Satyashodak (truth-seeking) movement set in motion for equality and for non-
Brahman power
– The intellectual elite of that area spoke for the removal of the Untouchability, they did not
promote any action.
• The reformers left the leadership of any movement for change up to the Untouchables
themselves. The result of all these factors was to create an opportunity of unusual
proportions for an Untouchable of Ambedkar’s intelligence and character
• Ambedkar was sent by the Gaikwad of Baroda to Columbia University in New York, where he
received a Ph. D.
• Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur provided Ambedkar aid which enabled him to get a
D. Sc. from the University of London.

4. • Basic beliefs
– Human equality
– Parliamentary democracy and
– Legal redress for social wrongs
– Any sort of doctrinaire socialism left no mark on him
– Believed that only Untouchable could lead Untouchables…however, he invited high caste Hindus to
serve on his institutes and in his activities
– Psychological dimension of untouchabilty, the need to create pride and self-confidence
– undefined Indian cultural unity and, above all, the power of education
Until 1935, Ambedkar’s work took three directions:
1. Awakening and organizing of the Untouchables-through newspapers & encouraging education among
the lower classes, first by exhortation and the founding of hostels growing network of college under the
peoples Educations Society. Believed in Untouchable self-improvement, and constantly wrote and
spoke against practices (such as, drinking and the eating of carrion beef) which were associated with
low caste behaviour.
2. ‘Depressed Classes’ conferences
3. To petition the British government for political representation for Untouchables, and these opportunities
were many: the Southborough Committee on Franchise, the Simon Commission to evaluate the
reforms and the famous Round Table Conferences in London [as one of the two Untouchable delegates
chosen by the British government- Rettamalai Srinivasan]. Sure that honest and sufficient
representation in governing bodies would enable the Depressed Classes to ‘redress their grievances’
via legal means

5. Attempted to claim equality within Hinduism
•Three temple satyagrahas
– none of them successful
– none of them supported by Gandhi
– none of them supported by the Indian National Congress.
• Participation in Ganapati festivities... not positive
• Multi-caste dinners… not positive
• Other instances
– Mahad Conferences of 1927 (https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/ambedkar-book-review-anand-teltumbde-the-other-satyagraha-2799481/)…two
times…in 2nd Manusmriti was burnt
– The battle with Gandhi over the Communal Award that was the outcome of the Round
Table Conferences of 1930-32 [before the Second Conference Ambedkar’s public
position was not at variance with Gandhi’s…other minority leaders
claim…so…Ambedkar changed his position to one demanding separate electorates for
Untouchables ] Gandhi ‘fasted unto death’ and weakened…Ambedkar capitulated, but
only when some Hindu leaders gathered to pledge their help in the removal of
untouchability… Untouchables would have reserved seats in all elected bodies (Poona
Pact)
• Gandhi believed that only a change of heart on the part of caste Hindus would remove untouchability,
• Ambedkar, on the other hand, believed in legal redress of grievances and guarantees of rights, backed up
by political power on the part of the aggrieved

6. • It is clear that Untouchables felt deeply their inability
to participate in the religious life around them. It
also seems clear that Ambedkar never placed much
trust in the ability of Hinduism to reform itself.

7. The Untouchables, Ambedkar
• The book itself is dedicated to the memory of three Untouchable saints in
the Hindu bhakti tradition-Nandnar of Tamil Nadu, Ravidas of the Hindu-
speaking area, and Chokhamela of Maharashtra
• Ambedkar’s theory - the Budddhist origin of the Untouchables
• Untouchables must possess pride and self-respect, must disassociated
themselves from the traditional bonds of untouchable status
– must become educated, not only to literacy but to the highest level
– must be represented by their own representative at all levels of government
– The government must take responsibility for the welfare of all its people,
creating special rights for those to whom society had denied education and
occupational opportunities
– All form of caste must be abolished
• Ambedkar felt that caste had been created by man and could be
dispensed with also by man.

8. Annihilation of Caste
• A pamphlet published by Ambedkar in 1936,
Annihilation of Caste, which states the necessity to
uproot the concept of the hereditary priesthood in
order to make Hinduism more than a ‘religion of
rules’
• Ambedkar received request to visit the
Depressed Classes in the North and in Kerala

9. Political Party - Independent Labour
Party
• Ambedkar’s first political party, the Independent Labour party - to fight
the elections of 1937. He had bold ideas about India’s other problems
• The platform of that first party reveals much of Ambedkar’s political
ideology
– Socialist, Centrist
– Committed to industrialisation and to education
– Specific remedies for specific economic problems
– The party was mainly to advanced the welfare of the labouring classes. Its
platform accepted ‘the principal of state management and state ownership of
industry wherever it may become necessary in the interests of the people’
– The judiciary would be separated from the executive, a cardinal
principal in all of Ambedkar’s constitutional ideas.

10. • The party would undertake to establish land mortage banks, agriculturist
producers’ cooperative and marketing societies and to avoid fragmentation of
land
• Tenants under the oppressive systems would be protected
• Industry would be promoted to drain off the excess populations on the land
• Workers’ rights were to guaranteed
• unemployment relieved by schemes of land settlement and public works
• The tax system reformed to relieve the poor
• Technical education stressed
• There would be free and compulsory primary education, and university
education would be reorganised with teaching universities to remedy ‘the
curse of examination which has blasted the intelligence and effort of the
student population.’
• The judiciary would be separated from the executive, a cardinal principal in all
of Ambedkar’s constitutional ideas.
None of this ambitious program came to life, the Congress party which dominated
the Bombay legislature being considerably less socialist minded.

11. • Foundation of the Scheduled Castes Federation in 1942
which was intended to unite Untouchable all over India
and to press for separate electorates once again.
• In 1942, Ambedkar was appointed Labour Member in the
Viceroy’s Executive Council, and he held this position held
until 1946.
– In this post, he was able to secure such benefits for Scheduled
Castes as a Mahar battalion in the Indian army and overseas
scholarships for Untouchable boys, but his main work was in
the field of labour arbitration law, the condition of industry,
and such far-reaching projects as the Damodar Dam [For
Amedkar’s contribution to water resources-Visit:
http://cwc.gov.in/main/downloads/Ambedkar's%20Book.pdf].
• He concerned himself with the working man and the
labour laws that affected both men and industry

12. The Constitution
Constitute Assembly in 1946
• His contribution to it is more than the provisions for
Scheduled Castes, but included
A stress on centralised government, which he
felt not only a necessity for Indian democracy but a
guarantee of all minority right
An assistance on a separate and unitary
judiciary, and
A pledge to use the individual rather than the
village or a group as the unit of government.

13. Hindu Code Bill - Codification of the Hindu Law
• The two schools of Hindu Law viz. Mitakshara and Dayabhag, created and sustained inequality like between men & women.
• Before the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 and the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 of which the Bill is a precursor, the Hindu Law was uncodified
in a large measure, though certain branches of it were the subject of legislative intervention viz. Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act,
1937. Scattered to innumerable decisions of the Indian High Courts and also of the Privy Council, it was a source of legislation and
therefore, it was necessary to give a definite shape and form to the Hindu Law by consolidation and codification.
• Dr. Ambedkar himself had explained lucidly the reasons for consolidation and codification. The chaotic condition of the Hindu Law was
reduced to neat propositions in the form of judicial prenouncements and codification was the legislative recognition of the judge made
law.
• The Hindu Code Bill introduced by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly on 11th April 1947. The Bill was moved for referring
to the Select Committee on 9th April 1948. This was followed by debate which continued for more than 4 years and still remained
inconclusive.
• The principles of codification covered (1) right to property, (2) order of succession to the property, (3) maintenance, marriage, divorce,
adoption, minority and guardianship.
• Some members questioned the authority of the Constituent Assembly to pass this radical legislation, some objected to the reform of
divorce and women’s right to inherit property and some discarded the Bill totally as interference in the religious matters of the Hindu
Society. why only Hindus are the focus? All religions should be included in it. Same rules of marriage and heritage should be made for
everyone.
• Dr. Ambedkar felt that the Government and the party in power i.e. Congress were not eager to clear the Hindu Code. He, therefore,
tendered his resignation on 27th September 1951 to the Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru but continued to participate in the
Parliamentary debates till 10th October 1951 on the request of the Prime Minister.
• Needless to add that the Bill was a part of social engineering via law
• His attempt for reforming the Hindu Society through the introduction of Hindu Code is the most important event of his life.
– Source: https://www.mea.gov.in/Images/attach/amb/Volume_14_01.pdf

14. Babasaheb Ambedkar returned to the roots of Buddhism
along with nearly half a million people at the
Deekshabhumi ground in Nagpur on October 14, 1956

15. Know India
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbTvk9ZV
qgs [Time : 0.40 to 4.50]
• https://www.facebook.com/quintneon/videos
/327851611316176/