Enduring Vision

‘Ambedkar Jayanti’ on April 14 has grown into one of the most resonant public commemorations in the Indian calendar. The man being remembered, Bhimrao Ramji ‘Babasaheb’ Ambedkar, has never been more visible in India’s public life. His statues now as ubiquitous as Gandhi’s, his name affixed to everything from roads and airports to universities and entire districts.

Yet as the bronze tributes grow taller, the nation must ask if Ambedkar’s relevance being honoured, or hollowed? Few other Indian figures have been elevated so completely into the public pantheon. His image - bespectacled, in a suit, holding a copy of the Constitution - adorns village junctions and government offices alike. In 2020, even the United Nations began observing his birth anniversary as the International Day of Equality.

Yet Ambedkar’s greatness lies not in the symbolism now attached to his name, but in the clarity of vision he offered a still-young, deeply divided nation. Born into the Mahar caste, considered ‘untouchable’ under Hindu orthodoxy, Ambedkar experienced the full force of social exclusion. Barred from temple entry, denied water from village wells and forced to sit outside the classroom, he nonetheless rose to become one of India’s most formidable intellectuals. With doctorates from Columbia University and the London School of Economics, he brought to India's national movement something it sorely lacked: a moral reckoning with caste.

Where Gandhi sought reform within tradition, Ambedkar sought liberation from it. He believed that no society built on inherited hierarchy could ever truly call itself just. That made him both a revolutionary and a constitutionalist - a rare combination. As chairman of the drafting committee of India’s Constitution, he enshrined civil liberties, equality before the law and affirmative action into the republic’s foundational text. At a time when majoritarian pressures could have easily overridden minority protections, Ambedkar held the line. Democracy, he warned, was only skin-deep unless equality in everyday life was realised.

That warning rings louder today. Caste discrimination persists in subtle and brutal forms. India’s economic transformation has lifted millions, but social mobility remains uneven. In this context, Ambedkar’s insistence on dignity as the cornerstone of citizenship continues to challenge complacency.

His legacy has also grown because of its universalism. Though he spoke as a Dalit, Ambedkar's arguments for justice extended far beyond caste. He was deeply critical of patriarchy, religion-based politics and hero-worship in democracy.

That such a man lost more elections than he won, and died politically sidelined, is a reminder of how far ahead of his time he was. Today, political parties across the spectrum compete to claim his legacy. But Ambedkar was no icon to be co-opted. He believed that social transformation could not come from tokenism but from hard, uncomfortable truths.

To honour Ambedkar is not merely to celebrate his birth. It is to carry forward his project of justice and to remember that democracy is not a one-time achievement, but a constant negotiation between power and principle.