Biography of Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956), fondly known as Babasaheb, was one of India’s most influential jurists, economists, social reformers, and political leaders. Born on April 14, 1891, in Mhow (now Dr. Ambedkar Nagar, Madhya Pradesh), into a Dalit Mahar family, he faced severe caste-based discrimination from childhood. His father, Ramji Maloji Sakpal, was a Subedar in the British Indian Army, and his mother, Bhimabai Sakpal, passed away when he was young, leaving the family in hardship. Despite these challenges, Ambedkar excelled academically, earning a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Elphinstone College, University of Bombay, in 1912. He later pursued advanced studies abroad, receiving an M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1916 and a D.Sc. from the London School of Economics in 1923, becoming one of the first Indians to achieve such scholarly heights.

Ambedkar’s career was marked by tireless advocacy for the oppressed. He founded the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha in 1924 to promote education and socio-economic upliftment for Dalits and edited the newspaper Mooknayak to amplify marginalized voices. In 1930, he led the historic Mahad Satyagraha, demanding Dalits’ right to access public water sources, symbolizing his fight against untouchability. As a key figure in the independence movement, he negotiated with British authorities, including the Round Table Conferences in London (1930–1932), pushing for separate electorates for Dalits. Appointed Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly in 1947, Ambedkar is revered as the principal architect of the Indian Constitution, embedding principles of equality, liberty, and fraternity to dismantle caste hierarchies. He served as India’s first Law Minister (1947–1951) and founded the Republican Party of India in 1956 to continue his political vision.

A prolific writer and thinker, Ambedkar authored seminal works like Annihilation of Caste (1936), critiquing the scriptural foundations of caste, and The Buddha and His Dhamma (1957, posthumous), outlining his interpretation of Buddhism. On October 14, 1956, disillusioned with Hinduism’s perpetuation of inequality, he converted to Buddhism in Nagpur, leading a mass ceremony for over 500,000 followers—a profound act of emancipation. He passed away on December 6, 1956, in Delhi, but his legacy endures through Ambedkar Jayanti (April 14) and global movements for social justice.

Personal Life and Intersections with Social Critique

Ambedkar’s personal life reflected his broader struggles against discrimination. In 1906, at age 15, he married Ramabai Bhimrao Ambedkar in a simple ceremony in Mumbai’s Byculla market; she was around 9 years old at the time. Ramabai, a pillar of quiet strength, supported his education and activism despite immense hardships, including the loss of four of their five children to illness. She managed their household during his long absences abroad and endured poverty with remarkable fortitude. Ambedkar later eulogized her in Thoughts on Pakistan (1940) for her “goodness of heart, nobility of mind, and purity of character.” Ramabai passed away in 1935 after a prolonged illness.

Following her death, Ambedkar remarried in 1948 to Dr. Savita Ambedkar (née Kabir), a Bengali Brahmin doctor and social worker nearly 30 years his junior—roughly the age of his son Yashwant. Born Sharda Kabir in 1909, she met Ambedkar in the 1940s while treating patients in Delhi and shared his passion for social reform. She adopted the name Savita upon conversion to Buddhism and provided intellectual companionship, assisting with his health and final writings. Contrary to rumors of an “English lady named Mrs. Florence Pandhi,” this appears to be a historical misconception; no credible records indicate such a marriage. Savita remained a devoted partner until Ambedkar’s death, later authoring Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability (1986) to preserve his legacy.

Ambedkar’s own experiences with racial and caste-based prejudice deeply informed his views on identity. As a brown-skinned Dalit in colonial India and the West, he confronted “the brown skin people’s craze for white skin”—a pointed critique of colorism, the internalized bias favoring lighter complexions rooted in colonial hierarchies and Aryan supremacy myths. In speeches and writings, such as his rejection of Brahmanical ideologies in Annihilation of Caste, he lambasted how upper castes perpetuated notions of “purity” tied to fair skin, linking it to broader racial subjugation under British rule. He argued that this obsession not only divided communities but echoed the white supremacist gaze imposed on colonized peoples, urging Indians to dismantle such mental chains for true equality. This theme resonated in his advocacy against untouchability, where skin color symbolized entrenched hierarchies, and in his embrace of Buddhism as a path to self-respect beyond superficial markers.

Ambedkar’s life exemplifies resilience: from an “untouchable” boy barred from school water to the framer of a Constitution that outlawed discrimination. His marriages, far from contradictions, underscored his humanity—Ramabai’s selfless endurance and Savita’s shared intellectual fire—while his eloquence on colorism highlighted the psychological scars of colonialism, reminding us that true reform begins with unlearning prejudice.