AMBEDKAR A LIFE HB

Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji
Ambedkar, MA, MSc, PhD, DSc, DLitt, Bar-at-Law, is today among the most
revered of Indians, his statues across the country second only in number to
those of Mahatma Gandhi. He even overtook Gandhi in a recent poll to
determine the ?greatest Indian? of modern times, in which over 20 million
votes were cast. All the major political parties vie with one another to
claim him as their own. To the Dalits, he is a revered figure who was chiefly
responsible for outlawing untouchability and fighting to give dignity to the
community. And, most of all, he is hailed as the father of India?s
Constitution, the principal reason why India continues to remain a democracy
with liberal, secular, plural values (although all these are under siege at
the present time) that seeks to uphold the rights of the individual and
uplift the downtrodden. Writes Shashi Tharoor: ?Dr Ambedkar?s greatness
cannot be reduced to any one of [his] accomplishments, because all were
equally extraordinary.?
In this new biography, Tharoor tells Ambedkar?s story with great lucidity,
insight, and admiration. He traces the arc of the great man?s life from his
birth into a family of Mahars in the Bombay Presidency on 14 April 1891 to
his death in Delhi on 6 December 1956. He describes the many humiliations and
hurdles Ambedkar had to overcome in a society that stigmatized the community
he was born into, and the single-minded determination with which he overcame
every obstacle he encountered. We are given insights into the various battles
Ambedkar fought to make untouchability illegal, his disputes with the other
political and intellectual giants of his era, including Gandhi and Nehru, and
his determination to invest India with a visionary Constitution that
enshrined within it the inalienable rights of the individual and modern
conceptions of social justice. ?In so doing,? writes Tharoor, ?he transformed
the lives of millions yet unborn, heaving an ancient civilization into the
modern era through the force of his intellect and the power of his
pen.?
Deeply researched, searching, and insightful, Ambedkar: A Life offers
readers a fresh and profound understanding of one of the greatest Indians who
ever lived.