Chicago – March 29, 2024
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of Indiafrom the Constituent Assembly debates, served as Law and Justice minister in the first cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru, and inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement after renouncing Hinduism.
Upon India’s independence on 15 August 1947, the new prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited Ambedkar to serve as the Dominion of India’s Law Minister; two weeks later, he was appointed Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution for the future Republic of India.
Ambedkar became a key figure in India’s constitution-making process due to the offices he held and his interventions and speeches in the Assembly. He was the Chairman of the Assembly’s most crucial committee – the Drafting Committee and a member of other important Committees. As its Chairman, he had to defend the Draft Constitution which the Committee prepared, and therefore intervened in nearly every debate.
On behalf of the Scheduled Caste Federation party, Ambedkar wrote and submitted States and Minorities to the Constituent Assembly’s Sub-Committee on Fundamental Rights. A mini-Constitution in itself, States and Minorities framed strong constitutional protection for the Scheduled Caste community.
Ambedkar’s interventions and speeches, on various aspects of the Constitution, were insightful, well-reasoned and scrupulously researched. This won him the support and respect of other members of the Assembly, who appreciated his leadership of the constitution-making project.
On 25 November 1949, Ambedkar in his concluding speech in constituent assembly said:
“The credit that is given to me does not really belong to me. It belongs partly to Sir B.N. Rauth Constitutional Advisor to the Constituent Assembly who prepared a rough draft of the Constitution for the consideration of the Drafting Committee.”
Indian constitution guarantees and protections for a wide range of civil liberties for individual citizens, including freedom of religion, the abolition of untouchability, and the outlawing of all forms of discrimination. Ambedkar was one of the ministers who argued for extensive economic and social rights for women, and won the Assembly’s support for introducing a system of reservations of jobs in the civil services, schools and colleges for members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and Other Backward Class, a system akin to affirmative action. India’s lawmakers hoped to eradicate the socio-economic inequalities and lack of opportunities for India’s depressed classes through these measures. The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 by the Constituent Assembly.
Ambedkar expressed his disapproval for the constitution in 1953 during a parliament session and said “People always keep on saying to me “Oh you are the maker of the constitution”. My answer is I was a hack. What I was asked to do, I did much against my will.” Ambedkar added that, “I am quite prepared to say that I shall be the first person to burn it out. I do not want it. It does not suit anybody.”
