Incarnations: India in 50 Lives - Bhimrao Ambedkar: Building Palaces on Dung Heaps

Download Bhimrao Ambedkar: Building Palaces on Dung Heaps

Professor Sunil Khilnani, from the King's India Institute, looks at the life of Bhimrao Ambedkar, champion of the community previously known as 'untouchables' whom he renamed as Dalits. Ambedkar, who was a Dalit himself and fought against caste discrimination. His face can be found on posters, paintings and coloured tiles in tens of millions of Dalit homes. To Indian schoolchildren, he is the man who wrote the country’s constitution; and to India’s politicians he is a public emblem of how far India has come in addressing the blight of caste. "Both readings simultaneously exaggerate and ghettoize Ambedkar’s contribution," says Professor Khilnani. "He was a sophisticated, long-sighted Constitutional collaborator whose interests extended past caste to the very structure and psychology of Indian democracy."
Producer: Mark Savage

Published on Monday, 14th March 2016.

Available Podcasts from Incarnations: India in 50 Lives

Subscribe to Incarnations: India in 50 Lives

We are not the BBC, we only list available podcasts. To find out more about the programme including episodes available on BBC iPlayer, go to the Incarnations: India in 50 Lives webpage.