Born in Madhya Pradesh’s Mhow on April 14, 1891, Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was the flagbearer of Dalit activism. On December 6, 1956, he breathed his last.
He was an ordinary boy from a Dalit household who later headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India. He was an economist and jurist from pre-independent India who served as the minister of Law and Justice in the first cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru after India’s independence. He was a civil rights activist and a visionary.
Ambedkar was the last child of Ramji Maloji Sakpal, an army officer who held the rank of Subedar, and Bhimabai Sakpal. He was born into a Mahar (dalit) caste, who were treated as untouchables and subjected to socio-economic discrimination.
He became the first from his caste to complete matriculation examination at University of Bombay in 1907. After obtaining his degree in economics and political science from the university, he went to Columbia University in 1913 to complete his master’s degree. In 1916, he enrolled for the Bar course at Gray’s inn.
Following is a compilation of some of the popular quotes of Dr Ambedkar:
- I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.
- Law and order are the medicine of the body politic and when the body politic gets sick, medicine must be administered.
- However good a Constitution may be, if those who are implementing it are not good, it will prove to be bad. However bad a Constitution may be, if those implementing it are good, it will prove to be good.
- Democracy is not merely a form of government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow men.
- Indians today are governed by two different ideologies. Their political ideal set in the preamble of the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion denies them.
- To my mind, there is no doubt that this Gandhi age is the dark age of India. It is an age in which people, instead of looking for their ideals in the future, are returning to antiquity.
- Political tyranny is nothing compared to the social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies Government.
- I like the religion that teaches liberty, equality and fraternity.
- A people and their religion must be judged by social standards based on social ethics. No other standard would have any meaning if religion is held to be necessary good for the well-being of the people.
- History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them.