B R Ambedkar

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, popularly known as Baba Saheb was a politician, economist, jurist and social reformer in India. He is attributed to have given shape to the Dalit movement in the country. Ambedkar was born on April 14, 1891 at Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra to a low caste family. Ambedkar completed his school education from Elphinstone High School in Bombay and then went on to acquire a doctorate in Economics from Columbia University, New York and then subsequently another degree from London School of Economics. Ambedkar was fiercely apposed to the idea of untouchability and propagated the need for education among the lower castes in order to uplift them. Ambedkar was at logger heads with Gandhi on the issue of caste uplift. While both agreed on the necessity of imporving conditions for lower castes, it is the precise process for achieving this that they both disagreed upon. After independence, Ambedkar served as the first law minister of India and also as the chairman of the constitution drafting committee. The influence of Ambedkar's economic, social and political contributions can be felt till date in the country's economic planning and social welfare programs. He converted to Buddhism immediately preceding his death. Three days before his death he had finished the manuscript of his last major work, "The Buddha and his Dhamma."