Dr. Ambedkar was now lecturing and writing constantly, and was heavily involved in politics. With Independence (and Partition), he joined Nehru's cabinet as India's first Minister of Law, and became the Chairman of the Drafting Committee for the Constitution. Framing the Constitution and guiding it through to adoption was his greatest political achievement.
1940:
In December, Dr. Ambedkar published the first edition of his "Thoughts
on Pakistan." In this work he argued that though partition would be
an unfortunate thing, it wouldn't be the worst possible outcome, and if
the Muslims wanted it they had a perfect right to claim it.
1942:
He founded his second political party, the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation, which didn't do so well in the elections of 1946. (K. N. Kadam, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Significance of his Movement: A Chronology, Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1991, p. 115.)
1942:
Dr. Ambedkar was inducted into the Viceroy's Executive Council as Labour Member, a position which he held until his resignation in June 1946. His thoughtful comments in that forum cover various topics (see #6). (K.N. Kadam, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Significance of his Movement: A Chronology, Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1991, p. 115.)
1942:
Congress
started the "Quit India" movement: [Abul
Kalam Azad] [Gandhi's
original draft resolution] [Sir
Stafford Cripps's reply] [The
Hindu, August 1942] [Manas]. Dr. Ambedkar severely criticized this move. He
describes it as "both irresponsible and insane, a bankruptcy of statesmanship
and a measure to retrieve the Congress prestige that had gone down since
the war started. It would be madness, he said, to weaken law and order
at a time when the barbarians were at the gates." (--slightly edited from
Dhananjay Keer,
Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission, Bombay: Popular
Prakashan, 1971 [1954], p. 354.)
1943:
On January 19th he delivered the Presidential Address on the occasion of
the 101st birth anniversary of Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade. It was published
in book form in April, under the title "Ranade,
Gandhi, and Jinnah."
1943:
In September
he also prepared and published the vigorous memorandum, "Mr.
Gandhi and the Emancipation of the Untouchables."
1944:
On January 29th, he presided over the second meeting of the Scheduled Caste Federation, in Kanpur; here is a report, sixty years later, by Maren Bellwinkel-Schempp.
1945:
In February, he published a revised version of "Thoughts on Pakistan"; this
second, expanded edition is called "Pakistan;
or Partition of India." A third edition of this book was published in
1946.
1945:
On May
6th he addressed the Annual Conference of the All India Scheduled Caste
Federation, held at Parel, Bombay. This speech is soon published as "The
Communal Deadlock and a Way to Solve It."
1945:
In June,
he published a political manifesto detailing the problems of dealing with
Congress, and accusing it of many acts of betrayal: "What
Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables." The next year,
he published a second edition, with major
revisions in one chapter.
1946:
In June, he founded Siddharth College, in Bombay; it was a project of the People's Education Society, which he had founded in 1945. (K. N. Kadam, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Significance of his Movement: A Chronology, Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1991, pp. 116-117)
1946:
In October,
he published "Who
Were the Shudras? How They Came to Be the Fourth Varna in the Indo-Aryan
Society." He dedicated the book to the great early reformer Jotiba
Phule.
1947:
In March
he published "States
and Minorities: What Are their Rights and How to Secure them in the Constitution
of Free India," a memorandum on fundamental rights, minority rights,
safeguards for the Depressed Classes, and the problems of Indian states.
1947:
INDEPENDENCE
and Partition came in August; Dr. Ambedkar accepted Nehru's invitation to become
Minister of Law in the first Cabinet of independent India. On August 29th
he was appointed Chairman of the Drafting Committee for the new Constitution.
1948:
In the
last week of February, the Draft Constitution was submitted for public discussion
and debate: Constitutional discussions and debates (see #7).
1948:
On
April 15th, Dr. Ambedkar married Dr. Sharda Kabir (a Saraswat Brahmin) in Delhi;
she adopted the name Savita. He was now diabetic and increasingly ill, and she
took care of him for the rest of his life.
1948:
In October,
he prepared a memorandum on "Maharashtra
as a Linguistic Province," expressing his views for submission to the
Linguistic Provinces Commission.
1948:
He published "The
Untouchables: a Thesis on the Origin of Untouchability" (New Dehli: Amrit Book Company), as a sequel
to his book on the Shudras. As always on this subject, he wrote with passion.
In the Preface he said, "The Hindu Civilisation....is a diabolical contrivance
to suppress and enslave humanity. Its proper name would be infamy. What
else can be said of a civilisation which has produced a mass of people...who
are treated as an entity beyond human intercourse and whose mere touch
is enough to cause pollution?"
1948:
In November, the Draft Constitution
with its 315 articles and 8 schedules was formally introduced to the Constituent
Assembly. Dr. Ambedkar concluded his speech: "I feel that the Constitution
is workable; it is flexible and it is strong enough to hold the country
together both in peace time and in war time. Indeed, if I may say so, if
things go wrong under the new Constitution the reason will not be that we
had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that Man was vile."
(--slightly edited from Dhananjay Keer, Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission,
Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1971 [1954], p.410.)
1949:
In November,
the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution, including Article 11,
which formally abolished untouchability.