It’s been around 70 years since India became a republic and adopted its constitution, but still how much do we know about the person behind the drafting of the Indian Constitution. Let’s see some interesting facts about him:

The credit of giving the blue colour to the Ashoka Chakra in the Indian Tricolour Flag goes to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Ambedkar was the first Indian to get a Doctorate (PhD) degree in Economics from abroad.

The book Waiting For A Visa, written by Dr Babasaheb, is a textbook in Columbia University. Columbia University made a list of “World’s Top 100 Scholars” in 2004 and first name in that list was Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.

Babasaheb Ambedkar’s initiation into Buddhism with his 8,50,000 supporters is historical because it was the largest conversion in the world.

Babasaheb did not want to include “Socialist” and “Secular” in the Constitution’s Preamble. According to him, “What should be the policy of the State, how the society should be organised in its social and economic side are matters which must be decided by the people themselves according to time and circumstances. It cannot be laid down in the Constitution itself, because that is destroying democracy altogether.” It was added by the Indira Gandhi-headed government during the Emergency with the 42 nd Amendment Act, 1976. It is regarded as the most controversial constitutional amendment in history and many scholars believed that it wholly came up with the personal ambitions of Indira Gandhi, who wanted to please the Soviet Union.

Amendment Act, 1976. It is regarded as the most controversial constitutional amendment in history and many scholars believed that it wholly came up with the personal ambitions of Indira Gandhi, who wanted to please the Soviet Union. “I personally do not understand why religion should be given this vast, expansive jurisdiction, so as to cover the whole of life and to prevent the legislature from encroaching upon that field. After all, what are we having this liberty for? We are having this liberty in order to reform our social system, which is so full of inequalities, discriminations and other things, which conflict with our fundamental rights.” These were the words by Dr Ambedkar in support of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and he even resigned from the cabinet in 1951, when the parliament stalled his draft of the Hindu Code Bill as he wanted equality among the masses, rather than privilege according to religion.

“I would like to tell the Scheduled Castes who happen to be impounded inside Pakistan to come over to India by such means as may be available to them. The second thing I want to say is that it would be fatal for the Scheduled Castes, whether in Pakistan or in Hyderabad, to put their faith in Muslims or Muslim League. It has become a habit with the Scheduled Castes to look upon the Muslims as their friends simply because they dislike Hindus. This is a mistaken view”, said Dr Ambedkar. (The Free Press Journal, November 28, 1947. Cited in Dr Ambedkar: Life and Mission). According to him, the Indian State should take strict actions to bring back the Hindus from its neighbouring countries as most of them were Dalits (80–85%) and were forcefully stopped there for doing menial jobs. And his predictions could be seen coming true today with the declining population of these groups in our neighbouring countries due to persecution.

The highest number of statues in the world are of Babasaheb. His birth anniversary is also celebrated all over the world, which is April 14. The first statue of Babasaheb was built in the year 1950, when he was alive, and this statue is situated in Kolhapur city.

These were some of the lesser known facts about the work done by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. A vast majority of citizens, including the educated people, do not know much about his other works, and Dr Ambedkar has been criticised/appreciated for his Reservation Policy only among the masses in India for several decades.