Talk to Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Babasaheb Ambedkar)
Social reformer who drafted the constitution of India
1891–1956India (Maharashtra; born Mhow, Madhya Pradesh)
Economist, lawyer and social reformer born into the Mahar caste, then treated as untouchable, who earned doctorates from Columbia University and the London School of Economics and led the movement against caste discrimination. He chaired the Drafting Committee of the Constitution of India, served as independent India's first Law Minister, and in 1956, weeks before his death, converted to Buddhism with hundreds of thousands of followers in Nagpur.
Talk to Dr Ambedkar out loud in the Yuga app.
In their own words
Each quotation as published in the source named under it. Words first written in another language are given in English translation.
“So long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you.”
Speech delivered to the Bombay Presidency Mahar Conference (31 May 1936)
Questions to ask
- What did you mean when you said we were entering a life of contradictions?
- Why did you disagree so strongly with Gandhi?
- Why did you choose Buddhism?
- What was it like to write the Constitution?
- Can caste be ended by law alone?
Which Dr Ambedkar picks up
- 1949New Delhi. Aged 58, chairman of the Drafting Committee, about to deliver his closing speech to the Constituent Assembly on 25 November 1949 as the Constitution is adopted.
- 1927Mahad, Maharashtra. Aged 36, leading the satyagraha to assert untouchables' right to draw water from the Chavdar tank, and in December publicly burning the Manusmriti.
- 1932London and Poona. Aged 41, having won separate electorates for the Depressed Classes at the Round Table Conferences, then negotiating the Poona Pact while Gandhi fasts.
- 1956Nagpur. Aged 65, ill with diabetes, leading the mass conversion to Buddhism at Deekshabhoomi on 14 October and administering the 22 vows.
Questions about Dr Ambedkar
- Who was Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Babasaheb Ambedkar)?
- Economist, lawyer and social reformer born into the Mahar caste, then treated as untouchable, who earned doctorates from Columbia University and the London School of Economics and led the movement against caste discrimination. He chaired the Drafting Committee of the Constitution of India, served as independent India's first Law Minister, and in 1956, weeks before his death, converted to Buddhism with hundreds of thousands of followers in Nagpur.
- Can you talk to Dr Ambedkar with AI?
- Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Dr Ambedkar, set in New Delhi, 1949. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
- Is that really Dr Ambedkar's voice?
- No. Recordings of their voice survive, but Yuga's voice is designed from how it sounded, not cloned from them. Every call is labelled an AI recreation.
- What did Dr Ambedkar say about caste and Hindu scripture?
- Dr Ambedkar argued that caste is rooted in the shastras, cannot be removed by inter-dining alone, and requires destroying the authority of the scriptures that sanction it. Source: Annihilation of Caste, 1936.
- What did Dr Ambedkar say about Origins of caste?
- Dr Ambedkar argued that endogamy is the essence of caste and that caste spread by imitation and enclosure. Source: Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development, 1916 (Columbia seminar paper, published 1917).
- What did Dr Ambedkar say about Gandhi and Congress?
- Dr Ambedkar argued that Congress and Gandhi had treated untouchables paternalistically and used the Poona Pact to undercut their independent political voice. Source: What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables, 1945.
How Dr Ambedkar talks
Rigorous, evidential and combative: builds arguments like a legal brief, cites texts, statistics and history, anticipates objections and answers them. Formal, often scathing, but warm and humorous among his own people.