Obscure side of a self-made genius

The touchstone of India, which is a democratic republic, is its written Constitution. No other country has a longer constitution. It took nearly three years to prepare the final draft, with more than 2,000 amendments made to the first version. The man who helmed the preparation of this historic document by chairing the drafting committee formed for the purpose was Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, fondly called Babasaheb Ambedkar.

But well before he was hailed as the 'father of Indian Constitution', Ambedkar had emerged as the country's predominant voice for the socio-economic and political empowerment of the Scheduled Castes (SCs), then called the Depressed Classes. As a crusader of that campaign, he faced conflict with many, including Mahatma Gandhi, whose approach to the problem he extensively critiqued. On Gandhi's outlook, Ambedkar once remarked: 'It is not enough to say that it is an argument of a cave man. It is really an argument of a mad man.

FROM MHOW TO LONDON

Ambedkar's own approach was influenced by the experiences he had gathered since childhood and during his later years in public life. Born to a poor SC family in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, on 14 April 1891, he bore the brunt of caste discrimination throughout his life. Although his family, which hailed from the coastal Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, was well regarded in his village—well enough to be allowed 'the honour of keeping the palanquin of the village goddess'—the caste disadvantage was never far off. He was once offloaded from a bullock cart after the cart-man learnt of his caste. At school, he and other fellow caste students were made to sit apart from the rest, squatting on the floor.

Regardless of the humiliations, he focussed on his studies. He went on to join Elphinstone College in Bombay, with his education costs being met by the Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad III, who saw a spark in the young man. The Maharaja, thereafter, arranged to send him to the US for further studies, where he delved into economics and wrote several authoritative papers on the subject, and completed his post-graduation from Columbia University. Ambedkar then proceeded to England, where he continued with his studies in economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

His DPhil thesis at the London School of Economics was titled 'The Problem of the Rupee', while his PhD thesis appeared in a modified form as The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India. His support of a free market economy (with safeguards for the underprivileged) is evident in these writings. His observations came at a time when the socialist controlled-economy model was being promoted by Nehru and the leftists in the Indian political system. Ambedkar also simultaneously studied law, having enrolled in the Gray's Inn for the Bar course.

Ambedkar later produced many papers on agricultural holdings, land reforms, planning, budgeting and industrial relations. His progressive economic thoughts have received relatively less attention when compared to his championship of the SCs and his contribution to the framing of the Constitution.

WORKING FOR THE DEPRESSED CLASSES

On his return to India, Ambedkar began to take interest in the campaigns for the upliftment of the Depressed Classes. Commenting on a scheme prepared by the Congress and the Muslim League, to address the issue, he said that it was 'unsound'. He also secured a job as a professor of economics at Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics in Bombay. Later, his law practice began to flourish. Throughout all of this, he continued with his still-nascent drive to empower the Depressed Classes. His address at the Kolaba District Depressed Classes Conference in March 1927 brought him national attention. 'It is high time that we rooted out from the mind the ideas of highness and lowness among ourselves…' he said. 'We will attain self-elevation only if we learn self-help, regain our self-respect, and gain self-knowledge.'

In just three years since that event, Ambedkar emerged as a prominent voice nationally and was recognized as a representative of the Depressed Classes. He was invited to the Round Table Conferences in London to discuss the future governance of India. It was at the second Round Table Conference that Ambedkar clashed with Gandhi on the subject. The two met before the start of the event. Gandhi began by telling him that he (Gandhi) had been deliberating on the problem of Untouchables since the time 'when you were not even born'.

A truce between the two leaders was made with the signing of the Poona Pact in 1932, after Ambedkar was persuaded by wellwishers to reach out to Gandhi, who had launched a fast unto death over the British government's announcement of the Communal Award that proposed to grant separate electorate to the Depressed Classes. But the rapprochement was temporary. Years later, he wrote a scathing paper titled, 'What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to Untouchables'.

DRAFTING THE LONGEST CONSTITUTION IN THE WORLD

Notwithstanding these skirmishes, Ambedkar was chosen to be in the committee formed to draft the Indian constitution. Besides Ambedkar, the panel had Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, N. Gopalaswami, Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi, Mohammad Saadulla, B.L. Mitter and D.P. Khaitan. At its first meeting on 30 August 1947, the committee elected Ambedkar as its chairman. The panel began to scrutinize the draft prepared by Benegal Narsing Rau, the constitutional advisor, towards the end of October 1947. After various changes were made, it was submitted to the president of the Constituent Assembly on 21 February 1948. Out of 165 sittings of the Constituent Assembly, 114 were devoted to debating the draft Constitution.

The panel, under Ambedkar's leadership, produced a document that was hailed the world over for its expanse and lucidity. In his introduction to the draft Constitution in the Constituent Assembly on 4 November 1948, Ambedkar said it was a 'formidable document'. Advocating a parliamentary form of democracy, he stated that the assessment of the executive under this system was 'both daily and periodic'. He also took on critics of the provisions relating to Fundamental Rights, who flayed the many exceptions provided in the clauses. 'It is incorrect to say that fundamental rights are absolute,' he said, adding that qualifications were necessary. Taking on criticism that the draft document referred to India as a 'Union of States' rather than a 'Federation of States', Ambedkar explained:

'The drafting committee wanted to make it clear that though India was to be a Federation, the Federation was not the result of an agreement by the States to join in a federation and that the Federation not being the result of an agreement no State has the right to secede from it.'

(Excerpted with permission from Sanjeev Sanyal and Rajesh Singh's Iconic Indians; published by Rupa Publications)