Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was born Bhimrao Ramji Sakpal. That was the name his family bore—they were of the Mahar caste, who were “untouchables” during that time. Now here’s where it turns around:

When Bhimrao was at school in Satara, a Brahmin teacher named Krishna Keshav Ambedkar befriended him. But as caste society was doing the most, Bhimrao’s own earliest surname, Sakpal, branded him instantly as “lower caste.” So this teacher, perhaps attempting to ‘assist’ or perhaps merely desiring to distance Bhimrao from the baggage of caste, enrolled him for school using his own surname, “Ambedkar.”.

And that’s the name that accompanied Bhimrao into history. Consider this: an entire legacy tied to a name he did not even choose for himself. But what is poetic is how Bhimrao reversed that name and rewrote the narrative. He transformed Ambedkar into a badge of resistance, of intellect, of equality, of liberation.