On Republic Day, a letter to Dr Ambedkar

But I also write to ask you difficult questions. Did you imagine that caste would learn to hide so well — inside universities, inside liberal vocabularies, inside development projects and art institutions? Did you foresee how your image would be turned into a statue, while your ideas would be treated as inconvenience? Today, we invoke your name easily, and rather fashionably, but we resist your radical demand for annihilation.

Much has been covered, Babasaheb, but much remains untouched. Manual scavenging persists. Campuses still punish Dalit assertion. Representation is tokenised, not transformed. The Republic exists but fraternity remains fragile.

Still, I want to thank you. Because every time I draw you, write about you or speak your name in public, I feel less alone. You taught me that dignity is not a favour — it is a right. And that memory itself can be a form of resistance.

We are still walking, Babasaheb. Often limping. Often tired. But walking — because you showed us how.

With gratitude and resolve,
Siddhesh

Siddhesh Gautam is a Delhi-based multi-discipline, mixed-media artist, designer, writer and an Ambedkarite

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‘You are a source of strength in moments of despair ‘

Dear Dr Ambedkar,

We are, because you were.
You changed the lives of millions with the strength of your pen and the courage of your action. You did not just draft the Constitution, you foresaw a future that could be fairer than its past, and you built safeguards for those who had never been protected before. In doing so, you did not change the destiny of only a few communities, you altered the moral direction of an entire nation. You gave India a chance to be just.

For many of us, your presence is not confined to history books. You are a source of strength in moments of despair, a voice of reason when society seeks to ridicule or erase us. You stand as a symbol of confidence in a world that often tells us to lower our eyes and temper our ambitions. Through your life and ideas, you gave us not only rights but dignity.

Personally, you made a difference by teaching us that self-respect is not negotiable. When the weight of social hierarchy feels overwhelming, your life reminds us that resistance is possible and necessary.

You led by example. You showed us that courage often lies in standing in solidarity with what is right, that protest is constitutional, that silence in the face of injustice is itself injustice, that delay in confronting oppression only strengthens it, that neutrality is often a mask for dominance, and that the law itself has to be an instrument of emancipation. You did not wait for society to be ready but acted so that it would be forced to change. The path you showed then continues to guide struggles across the world.

Over the decades since Independence, India has undoubtedly progressed. The affirmative action you argued for has transformed lives, opened doors to education, employment and political participation, and given substance to the idea of equality. The constitutional framework you gave us has provided stability in moments of crisis and aspiration in moments of hope. For that, we remain indebted.

Yet, your fears proved true. You appealed to us to cultivate constitutional morality, trusting that citizens and leaders alike would learn it with time. Sadly, that faith has not been fully honoured. When leaders disregard constitutional conventions, when citizens place caste loyalties above fraternity, the promise of the Constitution is hollowed from within. As you warned us in your final speech, in such moments, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Seventy-five years on, India still struggles with basic guarantees such as quality education, accessible healthcare, access to justice, inclusion within institutions of power and the spirit of fraternity. The “life of contradictions” you spoke of persists, sometimes diluted, sometimes reshaped but never fully dismantled. Inequality survives in newer and more sophisticated forms.

Your warnings about minority safeguards, institutional checks and adequate representation were often sidelined even in your own time. In hindsight, your foresight is striking. We now see how essential those protections were, not just for minorities but for democracy itself.

Much remains to be done. Perhaps the responsibility you placed upon citizens is your greatest legacy. The path forward lies where you left it, in sustained political education, in collective mobilisation and in refusing to treat the Constitution as a finished text. You never believed democracy was self-executing. Neither should we.

On this Republic Day, we thank you not only for what you gave us but for the courage you demanded from us.

Yours sincerely,
Anurag Bhaskar,
One among the many, whose life you changed

Anurag Bhaskar is author of The Foresighted Ambedkar

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‘Your courage instilled confidence in me’

Dear Dr BR Ambedkar sir,

I write this letter to you with deep respect and gratitude. This is not only a letter of admiration but a reflection of how your life and writings have shaped my thinking, my work and my understanding of society.

Today, leather is central to my work but it was only while pursuing my masters in Fine Art (from Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University in Hyderabad) that I first began exploring its possibilities as a material, specifically with regard to its association with Dalit history and Dalit labour. I am sharing this with you because in several ways I also owe this medium of my art to you as it was your writings that inspired me to find ways of reflecting on my own personal history as a Dalit, to speak about larger, collective histories of the community.

Like many others, I read about the Constitution in school and have known about your various contributions since I was a child but it was in college that I really began studying your thoughts more deeply and turned to your writings as a powerful source of strength and conviction. Reading your autobiography helped me understand your ideas, struggles and lifelong fight against caste injustice and gender equality. Your courage in questioning caste, social hierarchy and the oppression of backward and marginalised communities not only moved me deeply but also instilled in me the confidence to attempt to do the same.

Your leadership during the Mahad Satyagraha (1927) and the burning of the Manusmriti remain strong inspirations for me. These acts taught me how to challenge injustice directly and fearlessly, and I, too, aspire to create awareness among people about craft, identity and
social equality.

My intention has been to show the dignity, history and value of leather work, which has long been looked down upon because of caste. Growing up in Nandiwanaparthy (Telangana), my family and I often witnessed discrimination, with people from lower castes being subjected to exclusion and insult. I would often assist my father in making leather drums and footwear, work that the upper caste would not undertake. At that time, I felt far too little had been done to secure justice or to challenge an unequal social order but now I understand the complexities you were compelled to negotiate and the difficult battles you fought.

We still have a long road ahead in building a more equal society. Even as an artist, I have experienced discrimination and judgment based on caste but your writings have helped me understand that this stigma is not about the material itself or about me but arises from the deeply rooted prejudice in society. By transforming a stigmatised material through an artistic language, I want to speak about equality, labour and identity, compelling reflection on caste and giving visibility to oppressed communities. I hope to remove the stigma attached to leather craft and celebrate its history and skill in a contemporary way.

Dr Ambedkar, your teachings gave me knowledge, courage and clarity. Because of you, I am able to understand society better and share that understanding with the public through my art. Your vision continues to guide my path.

With deep respect and gratitude,
Madhukar Mucharla

Madhukar Mucharla is a Hyderabad-based artist whose work is informed by lived experience and social realities, engaging with questions of identity (As told to Vandana Kalra)