B.R. Ambedkar, popularly known as Babasaheb Ambedkar, was an economist, politician, and social reformer who fought for the rights of the Dalit community.

Ambedkar was a brilliant student and practitioner of law and economics. He earned doctorate degrees in Economics from both Columbia University and London School of Economics. He used his strong grasp in economics to free the state of India from archaic beliefs and ideas. He opposed the concept of creating separate electorates for the untouchables and advocated equal rights for all.

He established the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha to promote education among the “social outcastes” which consisted of non-Brahmin classes of people. He introduced five periodicals—Mooknayak, Bahishkrit Bharat, Samta, Janata, and Prabuddha Bharat to write more about the deprived classes.

He fiercely opposed a separate electorate for the backward class of people as suggested by the British. Following long discussions, a pact was signed between Ambedkar on behalf of the backward classes and Congress activist Madan Mohan Malaviya on behalf of the other Hindu communities. This pact, known as the Poona Pact, allowed the deprived class of people to receive 148 seats in the legislature as opposed to 71 seats as suggested by the British Government. This deprived class was later recognised as “Scheduled Caste” and “Scheduled Tribe” in the Indian Constitution.

After gaining independence from the British rule, Ambedkar was invited to become the first Law and Justice Minister, an offer he accepted. He was later appointed to draft India’s first Constitution to which he obliged, and thus the Constitution of India came into existence.