AMBEDKAR - MODERN HISTORY
News: Mahaparinirvan
Diwas: What Ambedkar said about Buddhism ‘being better than Marxism’
What's in the news?
● December
6 is observed as the Mahaparinirvan Diwas, or the death anniversary, of Dr BR
Ambedkar, the Father of the Indian Constitution.
Ambedkar:
● He
was Independent India's first Minister
of Law and Justice.
● He
was also the chief architect of the
Constitution of India.
● He
campaigned against social discrimination towards the untouchables (Dalits).
● He
established the Bahishkrit Hitakarini
Sabha (1924) to promote education and socio-economic improvement of the
untouchables.
● He
also founded the Independent Labor Party
(1936) and Scheduled Castes Federation (1942).
● He
led the Mahad Satyagraha or Chavdar Tale
Satyagraha(1927) to fight for the right of the untouchable community to
draw water from the main water tank of the town.
● He
was invited to testify before the Southborough
Committee, which was preparing the Government of India Act 1919.
● At
the hearing, Ambedkar argued for creating separate electorates and reservations
for untouchables.
● He
was appointed to the Bombay Presidency
Committee to work with the all-European Simon Commission in 1925.
● In
1930, Ambedkar launched the Kalaram
Temple movement.
● The
All India depressed classes association
was founded by Dr B.R.Ambedkar in 1930.
● Dr.
Ambedkar attended all the three Round
Table Conferences (1930-32) in London and each time, forcefully projected
his views in the interest of the 'untouchable'.
● In
1932, he signed the Poona pact.
● Ambedkar
served on the Defence Advisory Committee
and the Viceroy’s Executive Council as minister for labor.
● He
was appointed as the Chairman of the
Constitution Drafting Committee.
● He
resigned from cabinet in 1951, when parliament stalled his draft of the Hindu Code Bill.
○ The
bill sought to enshrine gender equality in the laws of inheritance and
marriage.
Books and Journals:
● Annihilation
of Caste
● Buddha
Or Karl Marx
● Buddha
and His Dhamma
● Who
were the Shudras
● The
Rise and Fall of Hindu Women among others
● Mooknayak
● Bahishkrit
Bharat (Ostracized India, 1924)
● Samta
(Equality, 1928)
● Janata
(The People, 1930)
● Prabuddha
Bharat (Enlightened India, 1956)
Constitution of Reserve Bank of India:
● Based
on the ideas that Ambedkar presented to the Hilton Young Commission, the RBI was constituted in 1935.
● Ambedkar
was trained as an economist, and was a professional economist until 1921, when
he became a political leader. He wrote three
scholarly books on economics:
○ Administration
and Finance of the East India Company
○ The
Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India
○ The
Problem of the Rupee: Its Origin and Its Solution