Ambedkar: Autobiographical Notes

by B.R. Ambedkar

In six autobiographical sketches written in 1935, B.R. Ambedkar, India s foremost civil rights leader, reminiscences his experiences of untouchability. In his introduction, Ravikumar, activist-theoretician of the dalit movement, tries to understand the complex manner in which the private and the public operate for a dalit person. He situates our lack of access to Ambedkar s private in this binary of the dalit self.

31 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 2005

About the author

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was born in 1891 into an “Untouchable” family of modest means. One of India’s most radical thinkers, he transformed the social and political landscape in the struggle against British colonialism. He was a prolific writer who oversaw the drafting of the Indian Constitution and served as India’s first Law Minister. In 1935, he publicly declared that though he was born a Hindu, he would not die as one. Ambedkar eventually embraced Buddhism, a few months before his death in 1956.