India GOB. R. Ambedkar: from the back of the classroom to the Constitution
भीमराव रामजी आंबेडकर
Architect of India's Constitution who, born an “untouchable”, led his followers into Buddhism in 1956: the Navayana, the new vehicle.
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, “Babasaheb” to millions, was a jurist, economist and social reformer who chaired the committee that drafted India's Constitution and became the country's first law minister. Born into a caste treated as untouchable, he spent his life fighting caste discrimination, and in 1956, weeks before his death, he led hundreds of thousands of people into Buddhism.
Story
He grew up forbidden to sit inside the classroom, studied at Columbia and the London School of Economics and came home to write the law of a republic that outlawed untouchability. Less than two months before his death he took the Buddhist vows in Nagpur before a great crowd of followers, adding twenty-two vows of his own. The faith that had almost vanished from India returned through him. Every 6 December Dadar in Mumbai fills with people walking to Chaityabhoomi, where he was cremated by the sea.
“Educate, agitate, organise.”
B. R. Ambedkar, Nagpur, 1942
Life and education
Ambedkar was born on 14 April 1891 in Mhow, a military cantonment in today's Madhya Pradesh (the town is now called Dr Ambedkar Nagar), into the Mahar caste of Maharashtra. Untouchability then reached into the classroom itself, as the story above tells.
He pushed through it to a list of degrees that would be remarkable for anyone of his time: a BA from Elphinstone College in Bombay, an MA (1915) and PhD (1927) in economics from Columbia University in New York, an MSc (1921) and DSc (1923) from the London School of Economics, and the bar at Gray's Inn. Back in India he became a lawyer, teacher, editor and organiser. In 1927 he led the Mahad Satyagraha, a march to drink from a public tank that untouchables were barred from using.
The Constitution
In 1947 Ambedkar became chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly and law minister in the first government of independent India. The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 and came into force on 26 January 1950, the day now marked as Republic Day. It abolished untouchability and forbade discrimination on grounds of caste.
He resigned from the cabinet in 1951, after his Hindu Code Bill, a reform of marriage and inheritance law, stalled in parliament. In 1990 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, posthumously.
The turn to Buddhism
At Yeola in 1935 Ambedkar announced that he would leave Hinduism, and he spent the next two decades deciding where to go. On 14 October 1956, at the ground in Nagpur now called Deekshabhoomi, he took the Three Refuges and Five Precepts from a Buddhist monk with his wife, then administered the vows himself to several hundred thousand followers (estimates run from about 400,000 to 500,000), adding the twenty-two vows he had written. His last book, The Buddha and His Dhamma, set out the reading of the Buddha's teaching that his followers call Navayana. He died on 6 December 1956 in Delhi and was cremated on 7 December on Dadar beach in Mumbai.
✅ Days when India remembers him
Three dates, three very large crowds. Come as a quiet visitor: these are days of remembrance, and many people travel far for them.
- Ambedkar Jayanti, 14 April — His birthday, marked across India with processions and public meetings.
- Dhammachakra Pravartan Din, Nagpur — On Ashoka Vijayadashami, the Dussehra day, and on 14 October, a white-clad crowd gathers at Deekshabhoomi under its white stupa to repeat the twenty-two vows; a large book fair grows around it. In 2026 Dussehra falls on 20 October in the central government and Maharashtra holiday lists.
- Mahaparinirvan Din, 6 December, Mumbai — The anniversary of his death. People queue through the night at Chaitya Bhoomi in Dadar, the small memorial by the sea where he was cremated, and the road to it turns into a pavement of books. Crowds gather from 5 December; Mumbai's municipal corporation announces traffic arrangements in late November.
❓ FAQ
What is Dr B. R. Ambedkar most famous for?
For chairing the drafting of India's Constitution, for his lifelong fight against caste discrimination, and for leading the mass conversion to Buddhism in Nagpur in 1956.
Was Dr Ambedkar a Hindu?
He was born into a Hindu Mahar family. In 1935 he announced he would leave Hinduism, and on 14 October 1956 he became a Buddhist.
How many wives did Ambedkar have?
Two. Ramabai, married in 1906, died in 1935; in 1948 he married Sharada Kabir, who took the name Savita Ambedkar.
What are the 22 vows?
Vows Ambedkar wrote for new Buddhists in 1956 and administered at Deekshabhoomi, alongside the traditional refuges and precepts. They are repeated there every year on Dhammachakra Pravartan Din.
Where is Ambedkar's memorial?
Chaitya Bhoomi in Dadar, Mumbai, where he was cremated, and Deekshabhoomi in Nagpur, where he became a Buddhist.