Constitutional Republic
bitterness hurt the feelings of all nationalists. Despite this, Hindu conservative leaders had to accept the demand for reservation of seats for the protection of scheduled castes through the joint electorates system. While in prison in Vellore, I found it difficult to convince fellow prisoners of his fundamental ideas. Later, he earned the liberal support of Gandhi Ji and the political admiration of Rajaji, who presented him with a pen, with which they signed the famous Poona Pact.
During the war, Dr. Ambedkar forced the British government to recognize him not as a representative of the scheduled castes but as an individual with political status, thereby inviting him to the Viceroy ' s Council. It was my fortune that, when independence was achieved, I successfully convinced national leaders to invite Dr. Ambedkar to join the cabinet. I supported him at that time, and later national leaders invited him to head the Constitutional Assembly to play a crucial role in drafting the Constitution.
Like his colleague from Andhra Pradesh, lawyer Ramaswamy, Dr. Ambedkar did significant research in Indian Puranic studies and epics. He was deeply angered by the unfortunate historical turn in which the defeated and oppressed individuals accepted their low social status, the loss of political power, and their suppressed economic and social existence based on the principle of karma. To create a revolt against the prevailing social order, he, like lawyers from Andhra Pradesh such as Ramaswamy and Tamil Nadu’ s E. V. R. and Anna, was determined to make strenuous efforts. He was so dissatisfied with the structural and revolutionary work of Gandhi Ji and many of us that he forced Hindus to reconsider their so-called social beliefs and religious doctrines, urging them to accept the political ideology of humanism, where untouchability and slavery are absent, and no individual has superiority or privileges over others.
The Viceroy could not stop Dr. Ambedkar from continuing his study and writing work, which aimed at the social awareness and religious revolt of Harijans and oppressed classes, and the reconstruction of collective thought. His outstanding research on the Shudras
28 Dalit Andolan Patrika | April 2025