Eleanor Zelliot's Understanding Dr.B.R.Ambedkar

Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Eleanor Zelliot ¹*

¹ Carleton College

ABSTRACT

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, also called Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar in affection and respect, was born in 1891 in a Mahar Untouchable family and died in 1956

after a lifetime of service to his people and to India. His influence has spread throughout India and his image, a Western-dressed gentleman pointing to the future and carrying a book, is found in many villages and all cities.

The book represents the Constitution of independent India. His followers know the facts of his life and are so reverential that one right wing critic called him a 'false God'. The word now used broadly for Untouchables, Tribals, and other low castes and classes is 'Dalit', which means ground down, but began a proud use in the 1970s with a literary movement called 'Dalit Sahitya', made famous at first by the 'Dalit Panthers' named in reference to the militant American 'Black Panthers'. Like the word 'Black', it can be a source of controversy today. The term coined by Mohandas K. Gandhi, 'Harijan' or people of God, was resented by Ambedkar as patronizing, and the two also clashed over the idea of separate electorates for untouchables; Gandhi's win is still resented by some as depriving Dalits of their chosen leaders. Dr. Ambedkar's influence may be seen in literature, in educational and political institutions, in a massive Buddhist conversion, and in increased pride and self-confidence among Dalits.

---

Religion Compass 2/5 (2008): 804–818, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00094.x

Ashvaghosha The Awakening of Faith

Ashvagosha was one of the most respected Indian Poet and Buddhist, who's poems and writings had an outstanding influence on Dr.B.R.Ambedkar. He said in his preface (unpublished) of the Book Buddha and Dhamma like this: I would particularly like to mention Ashvaghosha's BuddhavitaBuddhacharita], whose poetry no one can excel. In the narrative of certain events I have even borrowed his language.

Read further here:This is the title of one of the most important religious books in the world, occupying, in the literature of the Higher Buddhism, a place not dissimilar to that of our own New Testament. Its importance is increased when one considers that it formulates the fundamental doctrines of the Mahayana School, and was written by Ashvaghosha, one of the greatest poets of India, during the early part of the first century AD-a period when communication between East and West was reasonably frequent and extensive.