India · 1891–1956
B. R. Ambedkar
Dalit leader, jurist and chief architect of India’s constitution
He argued that caste is a system of graded inequality sanctioned by Hindu scripture and must be annihilated, not reformed. In 1956 he converted to Buddhism with hundreds of thousands of followers, recasting it as a rational, social ethic (Navayana).
Life and thought
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) was born into the Mahar caste, treated as untouchable, and endured segregation at school. With scholarships he studied at Columbia University, where John Dewey was among his teachers, and at the London School of Economics, earning doctorates in economics and qualifying as a barrister. He led Dalit movements, clashed with Gandhi over separate electorates in 1932, chaired the drafting committee of India’s constitution, and served as independent India’s first law minister.
Ambedkar argued that caste is not a division of labour but a division of labourers—a hierarchy of graded inequality held in place by religious sanction—so it cannot be reformed from within Hinduism: the scriptures that sanction it must lose their authority. That is the case of Annihilation of Caste (1936), written as a speech its organisers cancelled. In October 1956, weeks before his death, he converted to Buddhism at Nagpur with hundreds of thousands of followers, presenting it in The Buddha and His Dhamma as a rational, egalitarian social ethic.
Works
Teachers
1859–1952John DeweyAmbedkar studied under John Dewey at Columbia University (1913–16) and drew on his ideas of democracy.Shaped by
c. 480–400 BCE (debated; an older dating is c. 563–483 BCE)The Buddha (Siddhārtha Gautama)Founder of Buddhism, who taught a middle way out of sufferingArgued against
1869–1948Mohandas K. GandhiThey clashed over separate electorates for Dalits in 1932 and over whether caste could be reformed from within Hinduism.1818–1883Karl MarxIn ‘Buddha or Karl Marx’ he argued that the Buddha’s path reaches Marx’s goals of equality without violence or dictatorship.Meanwhile, in other traditions
1889–1976Martin HeideggerGerman philosopher of Being, compromised by his Nazi party membership1891–1962Hu ShiMay Fourth reformer who brought pragmatism to China1891–1937Antonio GramsciItalian communist leader who wrote his major work in Mussolini’s prisons1891–1970Rudolf CarnapVienna Circle’s great system-builder, later in Chicago and Los Angeles1892–1940Walter BenjaminBerlin critic who joined Marxism, messianism and media theory1893–1988Liang ShumingPhilosopher and rural reformer, called “the last Confucian”On the record
Ambedkar studied under John Dewey at Columbia University (1913–16) and drew on his ideas of democracy.
Ambedkar studied at Columbia from 1913 to 1916 (MA 1915) and in Annihilation of Caste (1936) calls ‘Prof. John Dewey, who was my teacher and to whom I owe so much’. His formal dissertation adviser was the economist Edwin Seligman, so ‘taught’ means he took Dewey’s classes, not that Dewey supervised him.
Sources: Frances Pritchett, Ambedkar timeline, 1910s (Columbia University)