Relevance Of Dr. Ambedkar’s Ideologies On Constitution In Modern India

Author: LawSphereX

Category: Constitutional & Human Rights

Published: 2026-08-23T20:55:01.029302+00:00

Updated: 2026-08-30T07:08:40.625Z

RELEVANCE OF DR. AMBEDKAR’S IDEOLOGIES ON

CONSTITUTION IN MODERN INDIA

Bhavini Kodavanti, B.A.LLB (Hons.), NMIMS, Navi Mumbai

ABSTRACT

This article talks about Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and his contribution to India. It mainly analyses his contribution and mentions how relevant it is to present India. The works he has done in all the areas have been mentioned in the article along with its relevance at present in that area. His contribution and relevance to today’s constitution has also been mentioned. Ambedkar’s speech in the Constituent assembly has also been discussed so as to analyze whether his desired vision of the nation has been achieved or not.

INTRODUCTION

Dr. Ambedkar was the chairman of the drafting committee that was set up by the Constituent Assembly. He is also called the Father of the Constitution. He is considered the first politician to understand the true meaning of a democracy. He was not satisfied by the definitions of democracy given by various western political thinkers. According to Ambedkar, democracy is a system which works on improving the political, economic and the social status of the citizens of the country. He said that a democracy should work on removing the problems that arise due to political and economic inequalities. He said that India should have the rule of giving equal value to all people of the country. He wished that in India there should be political democracy as well as social democracy, where everyone is treated equally.

He said that that the democracy should work on removing all the inequalities present that creates injustice in the society. He said a new order should be passed so as to give equal value to all people. Many people remember Ambedkar only as a Dalit politician and the chairman of the drafting committee. He has also contributed significantly in other areas, for example, he founded the Independent Labor Party and demanded for better labor laws, better ages, better sanitary conditions. He also worked for providing better educational facilities for the poorer section of the society. He also played a great role in reducing the working hours, worked for better treatment of women in the employment sector as well as in the society overall. Dr. Ambedkar also enacted the Employees State Insurance scheme so as to provide better medical care to the workers along with better sanitation facilities.

One thing to be kept in mind is that Dr. Ambedkar’s ideologies not only were helpful in the past, but also are pretty much relevant today. RELEVANCE OF DR. AMBEDKAR’S IDEAS IN DIFFERENT AREAS Dr. Ambedkar did not limit himself to improve the conditions only in one area. He contributed to all the areas of the society and the economy by presenting his ideas and enacting laws. The first thing to be kept in mind is that he never separated social inequality from economic inequality. He never separated the Dalits from the other oppressed classes. The different areas where he has worked have been discussed below- AGRICULTURE AND LAND REFORMS Dr. Ambedkar deeply analyzed the situation of the Agricultural sector of India and tried to understand how it works.

He regulated various laws in interest of the farmers and conducted seminars to help the farmers as well as others to understand the farmers’ plight. He said that a few people having possession over lands leads to inequality and results in l ow productivity. He said that the productivity of agriculture is also related to capital and labor. He said that the exploitation of the laborers is also extremely harmful to the economy of the country. The idea of setting up large scale industries, provision of labor laws, provision of better seeds, equipment by the government; everything was the idea of Ambedkar. He helped equalize the agricultural industry to a certain extent and helped the farmers who belonged to the poorer section feel a sense of security.

FAMILY PLANNING Ambedkar said that controlling the population rise is extremely important to achieve a rise and most importantly a stability in the economy. He said that if there is no control on the population, the poor people will have to let their children live in those conditions as well, and it would increase the poverty level of the country, hence the economy can be disturbed. Keeping Ambedkar’s ideas in mind, the government initiated the idea family planning in the country, which is now considered a national policy. CURRENCY Dr. Ambedkar was an economist originally and had worked on several areas regarding the Indian economy. He is also the architect of the Financial Commission of India, which is considered as an extremely important constitutional body in today’s India.

The Reserve Bank of India was set up by taking the idea Ambedkar presented to the Hilton Young Commission about regulating banks into account. NATIONALISATION OF INDUSTRIES According to Ambedkar, setting up large scale industries will ultimately lead to large scale employment. It also utilizes the raw materials completely, provides security to labor which will help in faster development of the economy of the country. He said that the government should work on making large scale industries for this reason. After independence, the government started setting up large scale industries, provided the right to strike to the laborers following the ideas of Ambedkar. The economy has profited a lot since adopting Ambedkar’s methods. GLOBALISATION AND OTHER IDEAS Ambedkar had already talked about introducing globalization and privatization of the industries way earlier than the independence.

Ambedkar was almost a century ahead with these ideas as the government recently adopted globalization and privatization of industries. EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN Dr. Ambedkar said that economic development is impossible without the participation of women, but due to the oppressive conditions of women, they could not actively participate in the process. But now, due to equality provided to women as well as better opportunities provided to them, they are able to participate more than earlier, which has led to better economic development and has made people understand that have more potential than what they believe. DR. AMBEDKAR’S RELEVANCE IN TODAY’S CONSTITUTION The mere fact that Dr. Ambedkar is the chairman of the drafting commission and is called the Father of Constitution tells us how important and relevant his ideas are to the constitution drafted. Dr.

Ambedkar believed that equalizing the society is extremely important so as to achieve unity in the country. He also said that there should be no discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, religion. He was also the one who introduced reservation system in India so as to create a social balance among the higher and the lower castes. He was the one who addressed the problems of the suppressed section of the society, brought them into limelight and helped them to achieve a better status in the society. The Right to equality, one of the fundamental rights, arose from the basic idea of Ambedkar that everyone should be treated equally irrespective of their status. He was also a helping hand in abolishing discrimination against the lower castes. He said that without fraternity, equality would mean nothing.

There should be a mutual support among the citizens for each other, which unifies the entire nation which helps in establishing equality among the citizens. But there is no fraternity among the people. We still see the lower castes getting harassed, the women belonging to the lower class getting raped. Is fraternity present here? Absolutely not. Is equality present here? No. Hence, the very first step to achieve equality is to treat all people like humans and not look at them like objects. It is important that all citizens establish a sense of brotherhood among themselves so as to help unify the country. This helps in the process of gaining equality among all castes much easier. Thus, we can see that Ambedkar’s ideas are still relevant in today’s constitution, even though sadly they are not being followed, but if they are, will help the country in an unimaginable way.

HAVE WE ACTUALLY FOLLOWED THE IDEALS PROMOTED BYAMBEDKAR?

On 25th of November in 1949, Dr. Ambedkar gave his speech in the Constituent Assembly regarding the Constitution. He mentioned three things that should never happen in the country to establish equality.

1. The first warning he gave was that violent protests should never happen. People can go on

protests, but adopting violent ways is not going to lead to anything except chaos in the country. But are we really following his advice? Today, we see that for every incident, people are breaking into violent protests as they believe that this is the best way to get the government’s attention. These protests are tainting the image of the democracy. People beating, killing each other is not something that Ambedkar ever promoted.

2. The second warning he gave is to never promote the idea of ‘Bhakti’. Bhakti is to heavily

worship one person and have blind faith on the said person; believing that they can never do anything wrong. This belief just leads to dictatorship. But we see that people nowadays always rely on other people for the betterment of the country. They themselves never take a step forward to help even a small section of the society. Political parties, to win elections, bend Ambedkar’s ideas as they wish to appeal to the public. People tend to blindly believe the parties that they would bring change and create a new outlook for the nation. But people need to keep in mind that bringing the whole nation together is never a one man or woman’s thing. There needs to be collective effort to achieve something across the country. Believing blindly and completely on one person is never going to get the nation anywhere.

3. In the last warning, Ambedkar said that we should aim for equal social political democracy

and not unequal social and economic structure. He said that people should fight for economic and social equality. He said that if there is political democracy without equal social and economic democracy, it would not mean anything. Looking into the current situation, there is political democracy as there are many people who are getting aware of their voting rights and due to the establishment of the Election commission. But there is a lack of social and economic equality still. Even though the discriminated section of the society gets to vote, after the representatives are chosen, little to no heed is paid to the said section of the society. If this continues, how can we ever achieve economic and social equality? When can we call our democracy a ‘true democracy’? Only when there is social and economic equality.

Thus, looking at these three points as well as some of the points made above, we can see that we as a nation have truly disappointed Dr. Ambedkar. Although we have somewhat achieved what he wished for, we are still lacking behind. The fact that the three things he mentioned should never happen in the country are happening right now is a big red flag. His ideas are still relevant to prosper India in all areas and in all ways. With regards to the political system, the political parties should promote equality overriding their own interests with respect to the people of India. The dominance of one group over the irrespective of the class or caste should be discouraged. The democratic institutions should function more objectively without any autocracy.

The elected governments should exercise their powers judiciously respecting the sentiment of the people of the country and the political opponents. This has much relevance in the present political system to achieve social, economic, and cultural justice. The federal structure proposed in the Indian constitution can effectively function and achieve the desired ideologies by constructive and cooperative federalism beyond political affiliations between the Union and the State governments.

CONCLUSION

Today, we as a democratic nation have achieved a lot. We have succeeded in developing the country and improving the condition of the lower section of the society. Even though we could not completely meet Dr. Ambedkar’s true definition of democracy, we still are trying to do so. We should just focus on the social and economic stability of the country as already we have succeeded in achieving political equality. One thing to be kept in mind is that no matter how many years and decades pass, Dr. Ambedkar and his ideologies will always stay relevant. We shul just focus on the social and economic stability of the country as already we have succeeded in achieving political equality. Dr. Ambedkar can never be separated from the constitution.

His ideologies brought a new perspective, he addressed the supressed section of the society, he set up organizations to help the people; his contribution is beyond any debate. His ideas to this date are considered whenever new acts and laws are passed. He always tries to show a new side to everything which helps us understand the consequences of certain actions in a better way. He, for sure is a futuristic thinker and an unmatched person in general.

REFERENCES

ONLINE ARTICLES

1. Lashkari, B. (2017) Ambedkar’s lessons have a greater relevance today than 70 years ago, The

Better India. Available at: https://www.thebetterindia.com/122277/ambedkarslessons- (Accessed: 08 July 2024).

2. The

relevance of Ambedkar (2018) Frontline. Available at: https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/the-relevance-ofambedkar/article7146677.ece (Accessed: 08 July 2024).