B. R. Ambedkar

Reference Archive

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer who inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement and campaigned against social discrimination towards the Dalits, maintaining a vigorous and prolongued debate in print with Mohandas Gandhi on the matter. He also championed the rights of women and labour. However, though an admirer of Marx and an advocate for what he called "state socialism", Ambedkar did not consider himself a Marxist. In his view, a proletarian revolution in India would be impracticable so long as caste and the Varna system had not been previously swept away.

Ambedkar was a founding father of the Republic of India, the architect of its Constitution, and independent India's first Law and Justice Minister. In India and elsewhere, he is often called Babasaheb, meaning "respected father" in Marathi.

WRITINGS

1916: Castes in India: Their Mechanics, Genesis and Development

1923: The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India

1923: The Problem of the Rupee

1939: Federation Versus Freedom

1941: Thoughts on Pakistan

1943: Mr. Gandhi and the Emancipation of the Untouchables

1945: Annihilation of Caste (with A reply to Mahatma Gandhi)

1945: What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables

1945: Pakistan or Partition of India

1946: Who Were the Shudras?: How they came to be the Fourth Varna in the Indo-Aryan Society

1947: History of Indian Currency and Banking