On the occasion of 125th anniversary of Bhimrao Ambedkar, a meaningful initiative in the form of ‘Gramoday se Bharat Uday Abhiyan’ would commence in the direction of taking Ambedkar’s pledge to each person in every village to bring harmony, equality and mutual respect for dalits.
Ambedkar’s contribution towards the Indian democracy cannot be overlooked. He struggled for the nation and must be remembered as such and his name is written in golden words in history. If we call him the father or the architect of Indian constitution it won’t be an exaggeration.
He was a fierce nationalist leader who once said, “We are at first and last an Indian.” He was the architect of our constitution. He also said, “The thing that we call guiding principal is usually legislature and executive’s directives on how to use their powerIJ”
Stressing on Hindu Muslim unity he said that if in countries like Canada there can be unity between English and French, then it can also exist between Hindu and Muslim in India.
Born on April 14, 1891 in Madhya Pradesh, Ambedkar was a person who always stood in favour of equality, an eminent jurist, a great statesman, father of Indian constitution, humanist thinker, philosopher, eloquent speaker, scholar and decorated by the title of Bharat Ratna.
He was born in Mhow in a dalit family. He was married at a very early age to a teenager named Rama Bai right after he cleared his metric exam. At that time he was only 16. His father was a headmaster of Sainik School, who wanted his child to be well educated to be able to fight against social evils like untouchability, caste and creed and bigotry. Ambedkar was intelligent right from the beginning and was keenly interested in studies.
In 1912 he passed BA and in 1913 he went to America for higher studies on scholarship from Maharaja of Baroda. He stayed in America and England from 1913 to 1917 and got his doctorate and cleared law exams and then returned to India. After he came back Maharaja of Baroda appointed him as his secretary, but as he was unable to bare the humiliation of untouchability he left the job and went to Mumbai where he worked as a teacher. After that he started working as a lawyer. To fight against untouchability he started a weekly named ‘Mook Nayak.’ Through his writings in the weekly he created a great impact on the dalits and the educated class of the society.
He also strongly fought for the political rights and social freedom of the untouchable society. In a convention of the dalits, the then local ruler of Kolhapur region was so impressed by Ambedkar’s speech that he had food with him which became an issue among the conservative society.
Narendra Singh Tomar (Union Minister for Steel, Mines, labour and Employment)