Dr.B.R.AMBEDKAR

Introduction
Born in a class considered low andoutcast. Dr. Ambedkar fought untiringly for the downtrodden. The boy who suffered bitter humiliation became the first Minister for Law in free India, and shaped the country’s Constitution. A determined fighter, a deep scholar, human to the tips of his fingers.

Author - D.S.Sesharaghavachar


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Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Two brothers who were studying at school went to see their father. They alighted at the Masur Railway Station, engaged a cart and continued their journey. They went some distance; then the cart driver came to know that they belonged the Mahar cast. He at once stopped the cart and raised one end of it; the poor boys tumbled down and fell on the ground. He shouted at them and scolded them as he pleased.

It was afternoon. The boys were thirsty. They begged for water but no one would give them a drop. Hours passed. Still no one gave them water. They were not allowed even to go near tanks and wells.

The younger brother’s name was Bhimrao Ambedkar. A few days passed. One day Bhim felt unbearable thirst. He drank water from a well. Someone noticed it. A few people gathered and beat the boy mercilessly.

The boy had to get his hair cut. Even a barber who used to cut the hair of a buffalo would not touch the boy’s hair.

On another day, the boy was going to school. It was raining heavily. He took shelter near the wall of a house. The lade of the house saw this. She was very angry. She pushed him into the rain. The boy fell into the muddy water. All his books fell into the water too.

In this way, again and again, the young boy was humiliated. His mind became a volcano of bitter feelings.

Why did the people ill-treat the boy in this way?

The boy had not committed any sin. But he was born in the Mahar cast. It was the belief of many Hindu that this cast is low and those born in this cast should not be touched by people of the other castes. Like the people of the Mahar caste, people of many other castes are called ‘untouchables’ and have suffered injustice for hundreds of years.

Efforts to End Injustice
There was no cast system during the Vedic age. There was no ‘un-touchability’. When and how did this system creep into the Hindu society? We do not know for certain.

Did no one try to wipe out this injustice?

Buddha admitted may ‘untouchables’ to his religion. Ramanujacharya, Basaveshwara, Chakradhara,Ramananda,Kabir, Chaitanya, Ekanath, Tukaram, Raja Rammohan Roy and other great men preached that no one is high and no one is low among God’s children. Mahatma Phooley and his wife dedicated their lives to the education of the ‘untouchables.’ Sayyaji Rao Gaekwad, the Maharaja of Baroda, established a school for the ‘untouchables’ as earty as in 1883. In this way many thoughtful leaders of the Hindu Society have been trying for hundreds of years to wipe out ‘Untouchability’.

Both before and after India became free, many great man have sacrificed their lives for the truth and the principles they believed in. Ambedkar was one of them.

Ideas of high and low had crept into the Hindu Society; Ambedkar sufferedbecause of this; he also fought hard against such differences; later he became the first Las Minister in free India. The credit for making a law and creating the necessary atmosphere to wipe out ‘Untouchability’ goes to Ambedkar.

Early Years
There is a village called Ambavade in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. Bhimrao was the son of Ramji Sakpal of that village. He was the fourteenth child of his parents.

Ramji followed the teachings of saint Kabir. (Kabir taught that devotion to God, ‘Bhakthi’, alone is important) Ramji did not believe in differences of caste, creed and religion. It was his belief that all who performed ‘Hari Bhajan’ (prayer) belonged to God.

Ambedkar was born on 14th April 1891. His full name was Bhimrao Ambavadekar. A story is narrated about Ambedkar’s birth. Ramji Sakpal’s uncle was a saint. Once he told Ramji, "You will have a son. He will become world famous, " and blessed him. Bhimrao Ambavadekar was born after this. His mother died when he was just five years old.

The Sting of Untouchability
When he was still at school, he felt the sting of ‘untouchability’. He could not sit with the other students of the class. He had to drink water only when others poured it for him; and even then he had to cover his mouth with one hand.

The boy could not understand why.

These insults and pain they gave him self a very deep impression on the young boy’s mind. The boy felt ‘untouchability’ was a black mark on Hindu Dharma; he made up his mind to remove it.

Fighting was in his very blood. The Mahars had the soldier’s blood in them. Father sakpal too had served in the army.

Even from his boyhood Ambedkar had a mind of steel. Once it was raining very heavily. The boy Ambedkar said the would go to school. His friends said, "These are empty words, how can you go in this heavy rain?" In the downpour, the boy did go to school and that, too, without an umbrella!

Ambavadekar Becomes Ambedkar
When Bhimrao was a student at the High school, a Brahmin teacher admired Bhimrao’s lively mind. His family name was Ambedkar. The teacher liked Bhimrao so much that he changed his name from Ambavadekar to Ambedkar.

When Bhimrao’s father married for the second time the boy’s mind under – went a change. He decided that he should be independent and the only way to achieve this was to study well.

Why not go to Bombay, thought the boy. He needed money for the railway fare; didn’t he? For three days he tried to steal his aunt’s purse, and at last got it. He found just half an anna (three paise) in it!

By next morning the boy was ashamed of and disgusted with his deed. He decided to struggle and stand on his own legs whatever the difficulties.

Young Bhim was very fond of books and never tired of them. And his father even borrowed money and satisfied the boy’s thirst for books.

At the High School
He joined the Elphinstone High School in Bombay.

The family found a house in a locality where the poorest of the poor lived. There was just one room for the entire family. This was at once the kitchen, the bedroom and the study. There was not space enough even for two to sleep. Bhim would go to bed early. Near his head there was a grinding stone and at his feet a goat. The father would be awake till two in the night. He would then lie down. The boy would get up, light the kerosene lamp without a chimney and begin to study.

In the high school he received a wound he could never forget in his life. It was Bhim’s desire to learn sanskrit. Other Hindus of the School could learn Sanskrit. But it was ordered that he should not learn Sankskrit because he belonged to the Mahar cast! People born in other countries, people not Hindus at all were allowed to read the Vedas. No one objected. This injustice made him all the more bitter
The End Of One Stage
Ambedkar passed in Matriculation examination. He was then seventeen years old. The same year his marriage with Ramabai was celebrated. Their marriage tool place in a shed in Byculla Market.

Ambedkar passed his Intermediate Examination from Elphistone College. He obtained his B.A. degree in 1912.

Ambedkar’s father died in 1913. Ambedkar was then working under the Maharaja of Baroda.

The first chapter his life’s struggle was over. The second chapter had begun.

In America
The Maharaja of Baroda sent bhimrao Ambedkar to America.

In America Ambedkar had experience of a new life. There was no ‘untouchability’. In this atmosphere, he quoted in a letter he wrote to his friend a few lines from shakespear, a great dramtist; they mean, ‘In the life of man now and again there is a swlling wave; if a man uses thisopportunity, it will carry him towards his fortune.

Ambedkar wrote very learned and theories obtained his M.A and Ph.D. degrees.

He returned to India on the 21st of August 1917.

There is one thing to note in the years of Ambedkar’s education. He studied English and Persian languages in India. In America he studied Political Science, Ethics, Anthropology, Social Science and Economics. In this way he studied many subjects. He obtained his doctorate. Even at that time Ambedkar had a revolutionary mind. He had made an unshakable resolution to wipe out the injustice done to the people of the low cast; in this way he wanted to bring about a revolution in the Hindu Scociety. But – and this is important before becoming a revolutionary he increased his knowledge. Because of this his toughts were not mere froth. They had a solid foundation of information. This enabled him to pay a very effective part in framing the Constitution of India.