201519628

Hannid Janyces Bautista Montes

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
The religion is one of the components in the identity of a person, a culture, a country or a
whole continent. Since many years ago, the differences, the lack of tolerance and respect
among religions have caused many wars in which a big quantity of innocents people have
died. But, the shadow of the injustice and the death may also be present inside the religion
itself. The Hinduism has worked with one of the most unfair stratification systems in the
world: the caste system in India. But, in the late nineteenth century was born the man who
changed the luck of all a community, his name was Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. Actually, he
made important contributions in favor of political, social and economic rights of the
untouchables regardless the obstacles that he had because of his classification in the Indian
society. In the following paragraphs the history of this great character will be told and how
their actions generated a very positive change for the world.
In first place, is necessary understand the caste system that operated in India and where
B.R. Ambedkar was located, for that reason this system will be briefly explained below. In
the Hinduism there is a god called Brahma, he is the creator god in the Trimurti, the Hindu
Trinity. the religion says that each person born from one of the body parts of brahma and
this fact define the whole person's life, the education that will have, the jobs which may to
obtain and the person with whom can marry and the only possibility to improve or worsen
their lives is through the reincarnation. The four main castes are: 1) The Brahmins: they are
priests and teachers and born of Brahma's mouth; 2) The Kshatriyas: they are politicians
and born of Brahma's shoulders; 3) The Vaishyas: they are merchants and artisans and born
of Brahma's hips; 4) Sudras: they are slaves or servants, workers and peasants and born of
Brahma's feet. However, under all of this castes exist other stratification called Dalits or
Untouchables, persons who belong to this level are compared with dogs. Therefore they
have not human rights, the other castes treat them like contaminated and soulless people
and they have the worst jobs and places to live. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar belonged all his
life to the caste of Dalits - Untouchables, but he resisted to imposed system, he studied and

fought in favor of his social class. This person showed that there is always someone who is
determined to struggle against the unfair, the discrimination and the unjustified death.
According to previous information, it can be said that Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar had many
obstacles that he acquired due his membership in the untouchables caste but, as will be
shown below, he obtained the chance to change his life at the same way that the other's
lives. So, when he attended school together with other Dalits they had few attention and
help by teachers and neither could sit inside the class or be touched by other children and
adults, in other words they were segregated since children. At that time, in 1896
Ambedkar's mother died, then he and other four siblings had to survive in difficult
circumstances, only Ambedkar passed his exams and graduated to high school. In 1906 he
marry with a nine-year-old girl and the next year entered to Elphinstone College, which
was affiliated to the Bombay University, he was the first untouchable person to get
something like this. Subsequently, in 1912 he obtained his degree in economics and
political science from Bombay University and was prepared to take up employment with
the Baroda state government. One year later, he moved to the United States and study a
specialization in economics at Columbia University in New York City, thanks to a
scholarship, he graduated in 1915. Finally, with his thesis based in subjects of Economics,
Sociology, History, Philosophy and Anthropology he received his PhD in Economics in
1927 and in 1990, the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, was posthumously
conferred to Ambedkar. In summary this character was a successful person and a clear
example that is possible be better and create our own destiny no matter the context in which
you were born and raised.
Now, the main contributions of this character affected the Indian constitution and the status
of disadvantaged people since forties of last century until nowadays. At the beginning of his
professional career he worked as a private tutor, as an accountant, and established an
investment consulting business, but it failed when his clients learned that he was an
untouchable. Later, in 1919 in the Southborough Committee he argued for creating separate
electorates and reservations for untouchables and other religious communities, at the same
decade began to work as a legal professional in 1926. Afterwards, he tried to promote
education and socio-economic improvement to the "outcastes" or untouchables, also he

started many periodicals like Mook Nayak, Bahishkrit Bharat, and Equality Janta to defend
their rights. Moreover, in 1927 Ambedkar decided to launch active movements against the
injustices towards Dalits, he began with public movements and marches to open up public
drinking water resources, for the right of the untouchable community to draw water from
the main water tank of the town and for the right to enter Hindu temples. In 1936,
Ambedkar founded the Independent Labour Party in which criticized and condemned child
marriage and the mistreatment of women in Muslim society. after the Indian independence
on 15 August 1947 he became in nation's first Law Minister, additionally, on august 29 he
was appointed president of the Constitution Drafting Committee to write India's new
Constitution. So he made laws that guaranteed and protected 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. Lastly, in 1956 he converted to Buddhism as
part of his tireless protest against the caste system, this fact inspired thousands of Hindus
people for be converted to Buddhism too. How we can see this single man made many
relevant things in favor of noble causes and inspired people to make other revolutionary
acts.
In conclusion, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was a very important man for the progress of a
whole community to which he also belonged, he made countless changes in a relative short
period of time and transformed himself to achieve his objectives. He decided that the
treatment towards his stratification was unfair so he strove to get higher education and he
succeeded. Even so, the most important fact about this great character was that he never
gave up and always did the right thing. Simply admirable.

REFERENCES:
Kolenda, P (1978). Caste in Contemporary India: Beyond Organic Solidarity. United
States of America: Waveland Press, Inc.
Singh, S (1987). Scheduled Caste of India: Dimensions of social change. India: Gian
Publishing House.

 Delige, R (1999). The Untouchables of India (Second Edition). United Kingdom:

Biddles Ltd., Guildford.

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