Today, on April 14 India is celebrating the 130th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna constitution maker Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. On Ambedkar Jayanti 2021, India retraces Babasaheb’s legacy as a socio-political reformer and a true feminist. His thoughts and principles had a profound impact on modern India.
Babasaheb Ambedkar is mainly reviewed as a ‘Dalit Leader’. However, he has innumerable contributions in almost every sphere like caste, Hindu social order, problems of Hindu women, Indian minorities, education, the revival of Buddhism in India, nation, and nation-building, etc, and looked at these from an alternate perspective.
On the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti 2021, let's have a look at a few of the many principles by Ambedkar
“I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.”
Ambedkar had always been the flagbearer of gender equality, a true feminist even at that point in time. When women's issues were considered unimportant, Babasaheb Ambedkar was promoting women's education and impressing upon the role of women education in national development.
A quote from Ambedkar reads, “Unity is meaningless without the accompaniment of women. Education is fruitless without educated women and agitation is incomplete without the strength of women.”
“Educate, Agitate and Organize”
Ambedkar had an exceptionally commendable philosophy on education, “educate, agitate, and organize.” The philosophy simply meant, learn, prepare or build and finally unite for the cause.
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Upliftment of minorities
Born into a lower caste family in Madhya Pradesh, Ambedkar had a tough childhood. Subjected to untouchability and socio-economic discrimination, he later became the spokesperson of the minorities and backward classes in India. Ambedkar joined hands with Gandhi to abolish the caste system and pointed out the main problems in Indian society.
Ambedkar firmly opposed the caste system and untouchability and was extremely vocal about it. He emphasized caste discrimination and described the caste system as another name of the division of labor and laborer, and stated it does not preserve the so-called racial purity. "Caste has killed the public spirit and has destroyed the sense of public charity". To bring reform in this highly controversial Hindu social order Ambedkar suggested inter-caste marriage as a solution. However, he also said, “Caste cannot be abolished by inter-caste dinners or stray instances of inter-caste marriages. Caste is a state of mind.”