Social Role of B.R. Ambedkar

Social Role of B.R. Ambedkar

Social role of B.R. Ambedkar mainly included the revamping of education, and reservation of seats for scheduled castes.

Social role of B.R. Ambedkar has left a huge mark among the people of India, specially the people belonging to the lower caste. B.R. Ambedkar was educated by the Princely State of Baroda and was bound to serve that State. He was also appointed to the Gaikwar of Baroda as Military Secretary but had to quit within a very short span of time. He later, gave a vivid description of this incident in his autobiography in Waiting for a Visa.

Thereafter, he also tried to find various ways to make a living for his large and growing family. He started out as a private tutor then worked as an accountant, shifting to investment consulting business. But it failed when his client learned that he was an untouchable. In the year 1918, B.R. Ambedkar, became a professor of Political Economy in the Sydenham College of Economics and Commerce in Mumbai. Though he was very successful as a student but he was barred from sharing the same jug of drinking water they all used.

B.R. Ambedkar was actually invited to testify before the South borough Committee that was readying the Government of India Act 1919. At this very hearing, Ambedkar also argued for creating separate electorate and reservation for untouchables and other religious communities. The very next year -1920, he, with the assistance of Chatrapati Shahu Maharaj I (1884-1922), Maharaja of Kolhapur, started his publication of the weekly Mooknayak (Leader of Silent). B.R. Ambedkar used this particular journal criticize orthodox Hindu politicians and perceived reluctance of Indian political community to fight the difference of caste.

The speech at a Depressed Classes Conference in Kolhapur impressed the local state rulers, Shahu IV, who described Ambedkar as the "future national leader" and shocked orthodox society by dining with him. After resigning from the post of teaching he returned to London depending on his own savings, supplemented by loans from the Maharaja of Kolhapur and his associate, Naval Bhathena. He then returned to London School of Economics and to Gray's Inn to read for the Bar. He lived in a dire state - in poverty, and studied constantly in British Museum. In the year 1922, he also completed a thesis for M.Sc (Economics) degree at London School of Economics, and was also called to the bar. He also had submitted a PhD thesis in economics to the University of London.

Ambedkar established a successful legal practice as well and in the year 1926 he quite effectively defended three non-Brahmin leaders who had accused the Brahmin community of ruining India and were then subsequently sued for libel.

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