Ambedkar – a life devoted to uplifting the oppressed

On 26th November 1949 the constitution of India was approved by the Constituent Assembly. Ambedkar’s next move was to introduce a Hindu Code Bill with the support of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, but the bill had to be withdrawn on being opposed vehemently by the Hindu members. And consequent to the debates on it, Ambedkar resigned from the Union Cabinet. He contested for the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Indian Parliament) in the elections of 1952, but could not make it. But he was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house. He contested for the Lok Sabha again, in 1954, but was defeated.

On 14th of October 1956 Bhim Rao Ambedkar, the architect of India’s Constitution embraced Buddhism along with thousands of his followers at Nagpur. HE died in the night of December 1956.

His important works: The Untouchables, The Buddha and Karl Marx, Revolution and Counter Revolution in India, The Buddha and his Dharma. The writings of Dr. Ambedkar have been published later in several volumes. He is being venerated all over India as the greatest champion of the causes for India’s constitutionally scheduled castes and tribes or the Dalits as they are called now.