Babasaheb Ambedkar had two significant relationships in his lifeโfirst wife Ramabai, and second wife Dr. Savita Ambedkar. Let's begin with Ramabai. She and Ambedkar were married very youngโhe was 15, she was 9 (yeah, they had child marriage back then). But don't get fooled by that age; their relatioRead more
Babasaheb Ambedkar had two significant relationships in his lifeโfirst wife Ramabai, and second wife Dr. Savita Ambedkar.
Let’s begin with Ramabai. She and Ambedkar were married very youngโhe was 15, she was 9 (yeah, they had child marriage back then). But don’t get fooled by that age; their relationship was profound. She had a very poor upbringing and experienced most of her life in poverty. Babasaheb spent much of his time studying abroad, and when he was not there, she kept everything togetherโbringing up children, coping with bereavement (most of their children lost their lives in early years), and scraping through poverty. She never faltered in supporting him, even when they were staying in literally one-room chawls. He used to call her Rฤmbai the soul of his strength. Tragically, she died in 1935, before she was able to see all that he went on to accomplish.
Later in life, in 1948, Ambedkar married again. His second wife was Dr. Savita Ambedkar (nee Sharada Kabir), an extremely well-educated womanโa doctor who assisted with caring for him when his health was failing. She was genuinely a badass herself. But she also received an awful lot of flak in the aftermath of his death. Some people criticized her for things, which was completely unjust, and it disrupted her reputation for a time. Eventually, most people (such as Ambedkarite movements) started acknowledging what she had done and respecting her properly.
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Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's interactions with the British colonial regime were compounded and calculated. Instead of joining the mainstream nationalist struggles, he believed in dealing with the colonial government to plead the cause of the underprivileged, especially the Dalits.โ During World War II, AmbedRead more
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s interactions with the British colonial regime were compounded and calculated. Instead of joining the mainstream nationalist struggles, he believed in dealing with the colonial government to plead the cause of the underprivileged, especially the Dalits.โ
During World War II, Ambedkar became a member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council as Labour Member, a place where he could lobby for labor reforms and social justice measures. He felt that participation within the system would bring certain gains to the downtrodden classes.
Ambedkar’s support for the British was not unwavering. He was critical of their policies when they did not seek to address social inequality and caste discrimination. His first loyalty was to the cause of social justice, and he used every platform available to him to advance the cause.โ
In reality, Ambedkar’s engagement with the British was motivated by pragmatism in order to deliver social reform. He was not a loyalist in the conventional sense but a reformer who wanted to leverage available structures in order to implement change.
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