Portal:Maharashtra/Selected biography

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Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (April 14, 1891 — December 6, 1956) was a Buddhist revivalist, an Indian jurist, scholar and Bahujan political leader who is the chief architect of the Indian constitution. Born in an Untouchable community; he spent his life fighting against the discrimination system of Hindu untouchability and the Hindu Caste System. He is also credited for having sparked Dalit Buddhist movement.

Overcoming numeous social and financial obstacles, Ambedkar became one of the first untouchables to obtain college education in India. He went on to pursue higher studies in the United States and England (the residents of both these countries treated him as an equal amongst them), where he earned law degrees and multiple doctorates for his studies and works in law, economics and political science. A famous scholar, Ambedkar practised law for a few years before he began publishing journals advocating political rights and social freedom for India's untouchables. Leading numerous public agitations, he would become a fierce critic of Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress.

Ambedkar organized untouchable political parties and social organizations, and served in the legislative councils of British India. He would intensify his criticism of orthodox Hindu society and would oppose nationalist rebellions. Despite this, his reputation as a scholar led to his appointment as free India's first law minister, and chairman of the committee responsible to draft a constitution. Ambedkar's work would guarantee political, economic and social freedoms for untouchables and other ethnic, social and religious communities of India. His polemical condemnation of Hinduism and attacks on Islam would make him unpopular and controversial, although his conversion to Buddhism sparked a revival in interest of Buddhist philosophy in India.