This article has been written by Ms. Mehvish Ahmad, a 4th year BA.LLB Student from Integral University Lucknow.
I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved. ”– Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, also known as Babasaheb, was the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. He was born to a Dalit Mahar family on April 14, 1891, in Mahu in Madhya Pradesh of India. Despite not having a perfect upbringing, he was able to have a profound effect on many people’s lives. According to the Hindu caste system, the Mahars were untouchables, and Ambedkar struggled greatly as a child.
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was an Indian nationalist, lawyer, Dalit, political figure, activist, philosopher, thinker, anthropologist, historian, orator, biographer, scholar, editor, and reformer who revived Buddhism in India.
Ambedkar was a social reformer who participated in campaigns to end social discrimination against untouchables and inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement. He was an advocate for women’s rights and labourers’ rights as well as a lawyer, economist, politician, professor, and social reformer. He served as the driving force behind the Dalit Buddhist movement.
Education of B.R. Ambedkar
Dr. Ambedkar was the most aspirational leader, pursuing the goal with a strong will, determination, studious consideration, and self-respect. He was also an expert at his work, a devout recipient of the highest degrees, and a good user of knowledge for the welfare of the populace.
Ambedkar is the first Indian to obtain a doctorate in economics outside of his country. He is also the first economics PhD and the first double doctorate holder in South Asia. Additionally, he was one of the most educated Indians of his period. He received his education in institutions in the US, the UK, and Germany. Across the course of 21 years, he completed master’s degrees in 64 different subjects all over the world.
As a result, the great man Bharat Ratna Dr. B.R. Ambedkar earned the highest and most prestigious degrees, including B.A., M.A., Ph.D., M.Sc., D.Sc., Bar-at-Law, LL.D., and D.Lit. The esteem, grandeur, and dignity of Dr. Ambedkar’s shining personality were developing thanks to these degrees, which were similar to beautiful jewel-encrusted gold decorations.
Additionally, The Columbia University list of the top 100 scholars in the world placed Dr. B. R. Ambedkar at the top. He is the only Indian whose statue is located next to Karl Marx in the London Museum. The first person to depict Lord Buddha with his eyes open in a painting was Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Previously, almost all idols over the world had closed eyes.
Becoming a politician
The Independent Labour Party, which Ambedkar created in 1936 and later entered in the Central Assembly elections, took home 15 seats. He published many works, including “Thoughts in Pakistan,” between 1941 and 1945. The call for the establishment of a Muslim-only nation was vehemently resisted in this book. Different was Ambedkar’s conception of India.
He harshly opposed the actions of the politicians who wanted to split India because he wanted to see the entire nation remain one.
State socialism
The concept known as “state socialism” places the government in charge of numerous social service areas as well as the economy. In the draught Constitution, Dr. Ambedkar backed state socialism and advocated for state ownership of agriculture using several methods of cultivation. He thought that a state-controlled economy would allow the democratic government to assume a democratic form of society because it would foster a sense of social conscience in the minds of the populace.
There is a famous statement of Ambedkar in this regard, “‘Rights are protected not by law but by the social and moral conscience of society”. However, the Assembly’s opposition prevented him from including state socialism in the Constitution’s section on fundamental rights.
Ambedkar believed that democracy is not just a political principle but also the foundation of interpersonal relationships within a community. Before the democratic system in the Constitution can be successfully adopted by society, all of its defining characteristics, including equality, morality, and freedom, must first be accepted by that society.
Democratic principles would be harmed if equality in social and economic life were denied. Because doing so would negate the goal of making India an independent democracy, he emphasised the importance of making the people aware of the rights and obligations the State has bestowed upon them.
B.R. Ambedkar and the Constitution
Ambedkar was named Union Law Minister on August 15, 1947, by the newly independent India’s Congress party-led government. He was chosen to serve as the Constitution Drafting Committee’s chairman. The constitutions of over 60 different nations were researched by him. He prepared the largest democracy’s legislation over the course of two years and eleven months. On November 26, 1949, the Constituent Assembly accepted the proposed Constitution, and on January 26, 1950, it came into force.
In his capacity as Chairman of the Drafting Committee, he had to speak out in favour of the Draft Constitution that the Committee had created. Ambedkar wrote to the Sub-Committee on Fundamental Rights of the Constituent Assembly and submitted States and Minorities on behalf of the Scheduled Caste Federation party. States and Minorities drafted significant constitutional protection for the Scheduled Caste population, creating a mini-Constitution in its own right.
As a Scheduled Caste Federation party candidate, Ambedkar contested in India’s first general elections from Bombay North Central constituency. Ambedkar finished fourth in the polls, which Sukumar Sen, the election commissioner at the time, referred to as “the biggest experiment in democracy in human history.” An unidentified Congress party candidate won the seat. He was chosen for the Rajya Sabha notwithstanding his defeat in the 1952 Lok Sabha elections.
Ambedkar made smart, well-informed, and meticulously researched comments and speeches on different elements of the Constitution. He was given the go-ahead to oversee the constitution-writing effort by other Assembly members as a result of their support and admiration for him.
When his women’s rights bill was rejected by the Parliament, he resigned as the country’s first minister of law and justice. The architect of India’s constitution as well as the undeniable voice for Dalits in the nation was BR Ambedkar.
Since 1955–1955, he had been dealing with major health problems. In Delhi, he passed away on December 6, 1956. After going to a conference of Buddhist experts in Sri Lanka, he converted to Buddhism. He established the Bharatiya Buddha Mahasabha in 1955, and The Buddha and His Dhamma, his concluding opus, was published in 1956.
Conclusion
It is important to remember Dr. Ambedkar’s influence on Indian democracy. He provided our nation the structure of a fully sovereign, democratic, and republican system based on adult franchise while serving as head of the Constitutional Committee.
This is an undeniable reality. He was not only the father of the Constitution and the man of maturity; he was also the architect of social justice and the uplift of the oppressed. He was one of the few individuals in Indian history who can be credited with giving the movement for Indian independence.
As a result, there is no doubt that Dr. Ambedkar made a significant contribution to the Indian Constitution. He truly merited the title “father or Chief Architect” of the Indian Constitution.
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