Ambedkar Jayanti

• 15 Apr 2019

On 14 April 2019, the birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was celebrated.

• He was the principal architect of the Indian Constitution and independent India’s first law minister.
• Dr. Ambedkar was a social reformer, jurist, economist, author, polyglot orator, a scholar of comparative religions and thinker.

About Dr. Ambedkar

• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was born on 14 April 1891 in Mhow, Central Province (now Madhya Pradesh).
• He founded Bahishkrit Hitkarni Sabha (1923).
• He led the Mahad Satyagraha in March 1927 to challenge the regressive customs of the Hindus.
• In 1932 he signed Poona pact with Mahatma Gandhi.
• He participated in all three round-table conferences.
• In 1936, he was elected to the Bombay Legislative Assembly as a legislator (MLA).
• In 1947, Dr. Ambedkar accepted PM Nehru's invitation to become Minister of Law in the first Cabinet of independent India.
• On August 29, 1947, he was appointed Chairman of the Drafting Committee for the new Constitution.
• He resigned from the cabinet in 1951, over differences on the Hindu Code Bill.
• In 1956, he converted to Buddhism.
• He passed away on 6th December 1956.

Poona Pact

• The Communal Award was announced by the British prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald, on August 16, 1932.
• Award established separate electorates and reserved seats for minorities and the depressed classes.
• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had a viewpoint that the depressed classes should be treated as a distinct, independent minority separate from the Hindus.
• While strongly disagreeing with the Communal Award, the Congress decided neither to accept it nor to reject it.
• Mahatma Gandhi saw the Communal Award as an attack on Indian unity and nationalism. He thought it was harmful to both Hinduism and to the depressed classes.
• Mahatma Gandhi demanded that the depressed classes be elected through joint and if possible a wider electorate through the universal franchise, he went on an indefinite fast on September 20, 1932.
• Later Poona Pact was signed between Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar on behalf of the depressed classes on September 24, 1932.
• The Poona Pact abandoned the idea of separate electorates for the depressed classes.
• But the seats reserved for the depressed classes were increased from 71 to 147 in provincial legislatures and to 18% of the total in the Central Legislature.
• The Poona Pact was accepted by the government as an amendment to the Communal Award.