Ambedkar Abroad

Introduction

We will discuss at length about Ambedkar’s life in abroad and education in United States and England while pursuing his academic carrier. B. R. Ambedkar was quite fortunate to have received education from abroad. While studying abroad the kind of exposure he got, particularly from the American and English societies, made him bold to wage war on casteism in India. Emphasizing on the impact of education that Ambedkar received in the United States, Robert Deliege, the author of the book The Untouchables of India writes:

Ambedkar was one of the few Indian politicians to have studied in the United States. It is probable that his life and career bore deep traces of his stay, and he never contemplated any other political system for the new India than parliamentary democracy. One thing that made him a relatively rare figure among popular leaders in the colonies of that time, was that Marxism and communism never seemed to him a suitable solution for his country. He also lived like a Westerner and never affected a return to Indian traditions. To the Mahars, he seemed a model of modernity, of the benefits of civilization. Already one can see the first signs of his radical opposition to Gandhi, the apostle of tradition.

Let us understand how Ambedkar’s education abroad helped shape his personality. Ambedkar went to the United States of America and England to study for his Masters and Doctorate degrees. Who were his teachers? Which subjects did he choose to study there? What kind of social and political environments did he encounter while studying there? We will address these and many other questions.

Ambedkar in the United States

Let us now discuss Ambedkar’s education in United States. After the death of his father Ramji, Ambedkar struggled hard to earn his livelihood. His thirst for knowledge was so great that he wanted to pursue higher education. In June 1913 the Maharaja of Baroda had announced that he wanted to send some deserving students to the Columbia University for higher studies at the State’s expense. On hearing this, Ambedkar met the Maharaja at his residence in Bombay and requested him to consider him as one of the candidates for the fellowship. The Maharaja appreciated Ambedkar’s intelligence and asked him to apply for the scholarship which was granted to him.

On 4 June 1913, he, along with three other applicants, signed an agreement in the presence of the Deputy Minister of Education of the Baroda State, conveying his willingness to devote his entire period of stay in the US for studying the prescribed subjects and then serving the State for ten years after his studies at the Columbia University were completed.

In 1913 the 22-year-old Ambedkar went to the US on a state scholarship. The three-year scheme established by Sayajirao Gaekward III of Baroda was designed to provide opportunities for postgraduate education at Columbia University in New York City. Ambedkar was very fortunate to get this scholarship. He was the first person from the Mahar community to go abroad for higher education. Ambedkar took this as an opportunity to further not only his individual goal but that of the country as a whole. On Ambedkar’s visit to the US, Dhananjay Keer writes:

This was a unique opportunity for an Indian and an event of enormous magnitude for an Untouchable. And, indeed, it was an epoch-making event! An Untouchable, an abominable Mahar, going to a foreign land to cultivate the best, the enduring and the ennobling influence and imbibe the spirit of the age! Among the first-rate Indian political leaders Ambedkar was the first to receive instruction in the land of (Abraham) Lincoln and Booker T. Washington. Of course, the Socialist leader, Jayprakash Narayan, may be the other to study in South America in the early thirties.

Ambedkar reached New York on 12 June 1913. For his journey he had taken books on Buddhism as his reading material. For a week he stayed at the Hartley Hall, a dormitory of the Columbia University. But he did not like the food there because most of the dishes were ill-cooked and consisted of beef. So, he shifted to Cosmopolitan Club at 554 West, 114 Street where some Indian students were already living. A little later he moved to Livingstone Hall residency with Naval Bhathena, a Parsi student, who formed a lifelong friendship with him. Another student, C. S. Deval, was his close friend with whom he used to have long discussions.

Life in America was a unique and moving experience for Ambedkar. There he could move freely along with other students and colleagues. He could read, write, walk, bathe and rest with a true sense of equality. He also had several new kinds of experiences. Meals at regular hours, eating on a formally laid out table, with a napkin! Thus, life at Columbia University was a revelation for him. In fact, it was an entirely new world. Such everyday events went deep into his mind and enlarged his mental horizon. A new kind of existence began. He found new meanings in life. M. L. Shahare writes this about Ambedkar’s exposure to this new world:

This was, indeed, a turning point in Bhim Rao’s life and opened undreamt of vistas of opportunity and experience in a country which upheld the basic principles of equal opportunity for everybody. It is a common knowledge that North America which was a colony of the British in the late eighteenth century waged a historic struggle for independence under the leadership of great men like George Washington. The subsequent battle for abolition of slavery of the American Negroes in which men of vision like Abraham Lincoln was a great event in world history. The United States of America emerged into a powerful, united and truly liberal and democratic State out of these turmoil(s) and the Statue of Liberty on the New York Harbour today came to symbolize the principles of “Freedom, Equality and Fraternity” for which this new nation stood for. The world had not come out of the spell cast by people like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and the great Negro leader Booker T. Washington. America was in those days truly a land of dreams.

Ambedkar was determined to make the best possible use of such unique opportunity given to him. He worked for 18 hours a day with a single-minded devotion to excel in his studies. He had no time for pleasant idleness or recreational activities. He neither went to theatre nor spent time in strolling or sightseeing. When other students spent money on watching movie, having drinks and cigarettes, Ambedkar spent money on books. Though he had a vigorous appetite, he was frugal at his meals. He never had his meal until he was very hungry. He appeased his hunger with a single meat or fish dish, two muffins and a cup of tea or coffee which cost him one dollar and ten cents. In between his studies Ambedkar often took tea. He was used to having tea from his childhood. Now, by taking it frequently, he became addicted to it. Out of his scholarship money he spared some to send to his wife back home for family expenses. Around this time, he started wearing glasses.

Ambedkar was in New York for three years, from 1913 to 1916. He spent every moment of his time for his studies. He knew that getting a fellowship was a rare opportunity. He wanted not only to obtain higher university degrees, but also to be the master of subjects such as science, politics, sociology and economics. He already had a B.A. degree in English and Persian languages. Now he took up Political Science, Moral Philosophy, Anthropology, Sociology and Economics as subjects for his study. Learned professors like John Dewey, James Shotwel, Edwin Seligman, James Harvey Robinson, Franklin Gidings and Alexander Goldenweizer taught in Columbia University then. They had a great impact on American thinking. It was natural that Ambedkar was impressed by the positive, comprehensive and progressive thinking of these professors.

Ambedkar worked 18 hours a day. After two years of hard work, he obtained his M.A. degree in June 1915 for his thesis “Ancient Indian Commerce”. He also read a paper on “Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis, and Development” at the anthropology seminar organized by Professor Goldenweizer in May 1915. The paper, later published in the Indian Antiquary journal in May 1917, was Ambedkar’s first published work. In this paper he observed that endogamy was the essence of castes.

While working for his M.A. degree, Ambedkar was simultaneously working for his Ph. D thesis, “National Dividend for India: A Historic and Analytical Study”. He submitted his thesis to the Columbia University in June 1916 and was awarded the Ph. D degree in 1924 after it came out as the book, The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India, published by P.S. King and Son Ltd., London. Ambedkar revised the original doctoral dissertation in the light of the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms with reference to finance. The book was dedicated to Sayajirao, the Maharaja of Baroda, and it had an introduction by Professor S.A. Seligman who had high praise for Ambedkar stating that, “Nowhere to my knowledge, has such a detailed study of the underlying principles been made”.

In the book, Ambedkar asserted that the interests of British industries and manufacturers were dictating British government policies. Though Ambedkar wrote this book at the age of 25, the language, the content and the thinking reflected Ambedkar’s intellectual maturity at an early age. The book was so indispensable that during the budget session, Indian legislators used this as a reference book. And for students, it was a guide. When Ambedkar was called to give evidence before the Hilton-Young Commission on Indian currency, he saw with pride that every member of the Commission had this book for ready reference.

Ambedkar’s thirst for knowledge led him to look for books. He spent his leisure time in browsing through books in the second-hand book stalls of the city. In New York he bought as many as 2,000 old books and entrusted the boxes containing the books to a friend to take them to India. But his trust was somehow misplaced because when he came back to India, he got only some and not all of these books.

When in America, Lala Lajpat Rai tried to involve Ambedkar in India’s freedom movement. But Ambedkar refused politely under the pretext of studies. He, of course, very closely followed events which were happening in India then. He also got influenced by some historical events taking place in America. In this context Dhananjay Keer writes:

While in America, Ambedkar’s mind must have been deeply impressed with two things. The first was the Constitution of the U.S.A. and more so the fourteenth Amendment to that Constitution which declares the freedom of Negroes. The second was the life of Booker T. Washington whose death occurred in 1915. He was a great reformer and educator, of the Negro race in America and was the founder and President of the Tuskegee Institute which disseminated among the Negroes the doctrine of education of the head, heart and hand, and thus broke the shackles of bondage which had crushed the Negroes for ages physically, mentally and spiritually.

Ambedkar in England

After a very successful career at Columbia University, Ambedkar explored obtaining further education from London which was considered to be a great international center of learning. He left the US in June 1916 and reached London after a few days. The First World War was not yet over. Because Ambedkar came from the US, where the Gadar Party led by Lala Har Dayal was carrying on propaganda to mobilize the Indians in America to go back to India and drive out the Britishers, on his arrival Ambedkar’s person, clothes, boots and luggage were thoroughly searched by the British secret police, thinking that he might have links with the Indian Revolutionary Party. But nothing of the kind was found and the police let him go.

In October 1916, Ambedkar got himself admitted to the Gray’s Inn for doing Bar-at- Law. He also simultaneously enrolled himself in the famous London School of Economics. Professor Seligman had given him introductory letters to Professor Edwin Cannon and Professor Sydney Webb. His stay in London was made possible by the benevolence of the Maharaja of Baroda, who gave him permission to continue his studies in England on state scholarship. However, the Dewan of Baroda took a different stand, and Ambedkar was asked to come back. Before leaving England with a heavy heart, he obtained special permission from the London University through the kind recommendation of his professor, Edwin Cannon, to resume his studies in London within a period not exceeding four years from October 1917. Ambedkar returned to London in 1921 and completed his master’s degree. His thesis was on “The Problem of the Rupee: Its Origin and Its Solution.” In 1923, he completed a doctorate in economics and the same year he was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn.

Before returning to India, Ambedkar collected many books in London. This time he insured his luggage, which consisted mostly of books, and entrusted it to Thomas Cook and Sons to be sent over to Bombay. He boarded a train at Boulogne on 27 July 1917 and reaching Marseilles, he embarked the S.S. Kaiser-i Hind. The First World War was still going on and it was dangerous to travel in a ship in the midst of the terror of bombs and submarines. It so happened that when Ambedkar began his journey, a steamer was torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea. When this news reached India, Ambedkar’s family members were plunged into deep sorrow. Cablegrams were exchanged, and they heaved a sigh of relief when they came to know that Ambedkar was travelling in the S.S. Kaiseri-Hind and the steamer that fell victim to the enemy submarine carried his luggage only. On 21 August 1917 Ambedkar reached Bombay via Colombo.

Immediately after Ambedkar’s arrival in Bombay, a meeting was called by Sambhaji Waghmare and others to facilitate him on his educational achievement. Rao Bahadur Chunilal Setalvad, the then Chief Presidency Magistrate of Bombay, presided over the function. Ambedkar, however, did not attend the meeting. This was perhaps because, “A feeling of embarrassment and a modest estimate of his own merits must have weighed upon his mind”. After the meeting was over, some of the speakers and admirers went to the humble residence of Ambedkar and showered their felicitations.

When Ambedkar returned to India, the British government was in crisis because of the reverses in the war. The Indian Home Rule movement and the Indian revolutionary forces too were creating problems for it. To pacify them and strengthen Britain’s resources, Montagu, the then Secretary of State for India, on 20 August 1917 made a famous declaration in the House of Commons, of Britain’s “policy of gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to progressive realization of responsible Government in India as an integral part of the British Empire.” Montague came to India to take political opinions from different organizations between November and December 1917. Among those institutions which represented the untouchables was the Panchama Kalvi Abhivarthi Abhimana Sangha, an association of untouchables from Madras Presidency. Ambedkar was then a nobody in Indian politics.