Ambedkar - Leader of Untouchables
How one man stood up for the rights of India's lowest caste
Ambedkar represented the Harijans in the negotiations with Gandhi at the independence of India. This is the story of his life.
Traditional Indian society was built on the caste system, which classified people into various classes ranked in terms of status. Caste membership determined not just status but life opportunities such as which kinds of employment were possible, which educational and social institutions were available and where future potential spouses could be found.
Castes and the Untouchables
The caste system works well for those at the top but much less for those at the bottom. Those at the very bottom are called the ‘untouchables’ because, quite literally, those of a higher caste are forbidden from touching them or having anything to do with them apart from giving them orders. The millions of untouchables – Harijans as they became known – approached the handover of power from Britain to India at the end of the Second World War with some ambivalence. Would they simply be moving from a situation in which they took orders from the British to one in which they would be given orders by their fellow Indians? Would they have any rights or protections under the new constitution? How would speak for them and uphold their cause? The answer was, in fact, provided by Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, who became known as the leader of the Harijans and became Minister of Law after independence.
Ambedkar's History
Ambedkar had been born in 1894 in a town called Mhow in western India as part of the untouchable Mahar caste. Despite his status, his father had achieved officer’s rank in the Indian Army but, as a boy, Ambedkar was abused by his schoolmates because of his caste. The same thing occurred when he was awarded a government scholarship to study at university overseas.
As his life continued, Ambedkar came to see that the best way he could promote the interests of his fellow untouchables was to enter the law, protecting them where he could and spreading awareness and knowledge of the issues involving the poorest in status. India in the decades leading into the Second World War was becoming an increasingly violent place, with fighting taking place between Hindus and the minority Muslim population.
Ghandi and the Hindus
The nature of a future Indian-controlled Congress was under considerable scrutiny as the Indian people and their leaders struggled with the British to find an appropriate formula for equitable representation of all sectors of society. The Hindu people were led by the great Mahatma Gandhi, among others, who was as outraged as his colleagues were that the British proposed to offer seats for the Untouchables, as representatives of the ‘depressed classes.’
The outrage was not because of Gandhi’s dislike or disdain of the Harijans – it was Gandhi himself who bestowed this name, meaning Children of God, upon them – it was because he suspected that the British were trying to divide the Hindu majority. British ‘divide and rule’ policies had effectively suppressed the many millions of Indians within the British Empire for centuries so there was genuine cause for concern. Ambedkar and Gandhi met personally to negotiate over this issue, which had already inspired Gandhi to embark upon a hunger protest to the death, if necessary. Ambedkar promised that the untouchables would remain in the Hindu fold as long as they were given fair representation. Eventually Gandhi agreed and the number of seats reserved for the Harijans was actually increased.
A role in the Ministry
Ambedkar served in the post-independence government as Minister of Law from 1947-51. He eventually resigned because of the obstacles preventing him from taking the kinds of actions he wanted to implement. His attitude towards the government worsened as he felt that the Hindu majority continued to persecute the untouchables, despite the promised made by the Mahatma. In 1956, a few months before he died, he and hundreds of thousands of his followers converted to Buddhism, which had the effect of raising the importance of that religion, which had almost disappeared completely from India at that time.
References and Further Reading
Ambedkar, Bhimrao Ramji and Valerian Rodrigues (ed.), The Essential Writings of B.R. Ambedkar (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
