Law Minister and Opposition Voice

When India became independent in August 1947, Dr. Ambedkar, long a critic of the Congress, joined its government as Law Minister. Within weeks he also became chairman of the committee drafting the Constitution, a story told in the Constitution chapter. This chapter follows his other battles: a law to give Hindu women equal rights, his resignation, two election defeats, and his last plans for India’s democracy.

India’s first Law Minister

In August 1947 he accepted Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s invitation to become Minister of Law in the first cabinet Columbia University – Pritchett timeline Constitution of India – CADA. In a letter of 30 July 1947, Nehru wrote that Ambedkar had agreed to join but felt that Law alone would not give him enough work Law and Other Things – Vikram Raghavan.

He later said the offer “came as a great surprise”, since he had been “in the opposite camp”. He accepted because he should not refuse help in building the nation. He asked for an administrative department as well and was promised Planning, but it never came to him BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, pp. 1318–1319. Besides the Constitution, he steered election laws and the drawing of constituency boundaries BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, p. 1325.

What the Hindu Code Bill proposed

Hindu family law was then scattered across centuries-old texts and countless court judgments. Two main schools, Mitakshara and Dayabhaga, treated family property differently BAWS Vol. 14 Part I, editorial. Government-appointed committees led by B. N. Rau worked on reforms from 1941, and in 1944 a Hindu Law Committee was asked to draft a full code BAWS Vol. 14 Part I, pp. 37–38 BAWS Vol. 14 Part I, p. 249. The Bill was introduced on 11 April 1947 BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, p. 1323.

On 9 April 1948 Dr. Ambedkar explained what was new BAWS Vol. 14 Part I, pp. 4–12:

• Property. A widow, a daughter and a son’s widow would inherit alongside the son. A daughter would get a share in her father’s property, half of a son’s share. A woman who inherited property would own it fully, instead of only using it for life. Dowry would be held in trust for the bride.
• Marriage. Caste and sub-caste would no longer decide whether a marriage was valid. A man could have only one wife. Civil (registered) marriage would sit alongside religious marriage.
• Divorce. For the first time, Hindu marriages could be dissolved, on seven grounds including desertion and cruelty.
• Adoption. A husband would need his wife’s consent to adopt, and adoptions could be registered.

Why it was blocked

The Bill moved very slowly. It went to a Select Committee on 9 April 1948. The House agreed to take it up on 19 December 1949, gave it no time in 1950, and began voting on it clause by clause only in February 1951 BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, p. 1323.

Opposition was strong outside Parliament. An All-India Anti-Hindu Code Bill Committee formed in March 1949, and Swami Karpatri led meetings across the country. At protests organised in Delhi in December 1949, including by the RSS, effigies of Nehru and Ambedkar were burned SabrangIndia – L. S. Herdenia, drawing on Ramachandra Guha. Inside the Congress, conservative members resisted. Rajendra Prasad, who became President in 1950, opposed the Bill. As President he reportedly called the push for it undemocratic and threatened to withhold his assent SabrangIndia – Bhavuk.

Nehru supported the Bill but allowed members a free vote. In September 1951 he first proposed passing only the marriage and divorce part, then dropped the Bill for that session. Dr. Ambedkar was told the reason was lack of time. He did not believe it, since other bills were given priority BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, pp. 1323–1324.

The resignation (1951)

He resigned on 27 September 1951. Nehru accepted the next day, and Dr. Ambedkar stayed until the session ended BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, p. 1317. On 10 October, after a disagreement with the Chair over when he could speak, he left the House and gave his statement to the press BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, editor’s note BAWS Vol. 17 Part I, pp. 404–405. It gave five reasons BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, pp. 1318–1326:

1. He had been kept out of key cabinet committees and given no administrative department.
2. The government had not even appointed the promised commission for the Backward Classes, and Scheduled Castes still faced “the same old tyranny”.
3. He disagreed with foreign policy, which he linked to huge army spending. On Kashmir, he suggested partition or a vote in the Valley only.
4. The Cabinet had become a body that simply recorded decisions taken by small committees.
5. Finally, and decisively, the treatment of the Hindu Code Bill.

“The Hindu Code was the greatest social reform measure ever undertaken by the Legislature in this country.”

— Statement on his resignation, 10 October 1951 BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, p. 1325

He added that leaving inequality “between class and class, between sex and sex” untouched while passing economic laws was “to build a palace on a dung heap” BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, p. 1326. He firmly denied that he left because of illness BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, p. 1325.

Most of his ideas later became law in separate Acts, including the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 BAWS Vol. 14 Part I, editorial. Two further Acts in 1956 covered guardianship, adoption and maintenance Wikipedia (pointer).

Two election defeats (1952 and 1954)

For India’s first general election, his Federation refused alliances with the Hindu Mahasabha, the RSS and the Communist Party, and joined hands with the Socialist Party BAWS Vol. 17 Part I, pp. 402, 406. He stood for the seat reserved for Scheduled Castes in Bombay City North, a two-member constituency where each voter had two votes. Polling was on 3 January 1952 BAWS Vol. 17 Part I, pp. 408–411.

The Congress candidate Narayan Sadoba Kajrolkar, once Dr. Ambedkar’s own assistant, won the reserved seat with 1,38,137 votes to his 1,23,576 BAWS Vol. 17 Part I, p. 412 The Mooknayak. Some 74,333 ballot papers were rejected, many because voters had put both votes in one box. With his Socialist ally Ashoka Mehta, he filed a petition blaming campaigns by the Communist leader S. A. Dange and another candidate, G. V. Deshmukh, who had urged voters to do this BAWS Vol. 17 Part I, pp. 413–419. The petition was argued before a tribunal in late 1952 BAWS Vol. 17 Part I, pp. 420–424.

In 1954 he contested a Lok Sabha by-election in Bhandara (now in Maharashtra) and lost again to the Congress, by about 8,000 to 8,700 votes The Mooknayak Newslaundry.

In the Rajya Sabha (1952–1956)

In 1952 he was elected to the Council of States, now the Rajya Sabha, as a member from Bombay. His recorded speeches there run from 19 May 1952 to 1 May 1956 BAWS Vol. 15, p. 835 BAWS Vol. 15, p. 962. He spoke on the new Andhra State, foreign policy, the Untouchability (Offences) Bill and the reorganisation of states BAWS Vol. 15, contents.

In September 1953, arguing that majorities must not ignore minorities, he said he would be “the first person to burn” the Constitution BAWS Vol. 15, p. 862. In March 1955 he explained: a temple had been built for a god, but if a devil took it over, what else could be done but destroy it? BAWS Vol. 15, p. 949

Milind College, Aurangabad (1950)

In 1950 his People’s Education Society opened Milind College of Arts and Milind College of Science in Aurangabad BAWS Vol. 17 Part II, p. 544. Aurangabad was then in the Marathwada region of Hyderabad State BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 498. A photograph shows President Rajendra Prasad laying the college’s foundation stone Wikimedia Commons. In July and August 1953 he stayed in Aurangabad for most of the time, working on his colleges BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 497.

What makes democracy work? (1952)

On 22 December 1952 he spoke at the Poona District Law Library BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 472. He defined democracy as a way of bringing big economic and social change without bloodshed. He then listed what it needs BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, pp. 475–485:

• No deep inequality. “There must not be an oppressed class.”
• A real opposition that keeps the government on its toes.
• Equal treatment in law and in day-to-day administration.
• Constitutional morality, meaning everyone respects the unwritten rules of fair play.
• No tyranny of the majority over minorities.
• A moral order in society, and a public conscience that is stirred by every injustice, whoever the victim.

“democracy is not a plant which grows everywhere.”

— Poona lecture, 22 December 1952 BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 485

Thoughts on Linguistic States (1955)

When the States Reorganisation Commission proposed redrawing India’s states by language, he replied with a short book. Its preface is dated 23 December 1955 at Milind College BAWS Vol. 1, p. 140. His rule was “One State, one language”: each state should have one official language. But one language did not have to mean one state: “A people speaking one language may be cut up into many States” BAWS Vol. 1, p. 165.

He warned against “consolidation of the North and balkanisation of the South” BAWS Vol. 1, p. 143. So he proposed splitting Uttar Pradesh into three states, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh into two each BAWS Vol. 1, pp. 151–152, and Maharashtra into smaller states with Bombay as a separate city-state BAWS Vol. 1, pp. 152–153. Small states, he argued, protect minorities, helped by multi-member constituencies. He also suggested Hyderabad as India’s second capital BAWS Vol. 1, pp. 165, 170–171.

Toward a Republican Party

In 1951 his Federation said it hoped India would one day have a two-party system BAWS Vol. 17 Part I, p. 402. On 30 September 1956 the Federation’s executive, meeting at his Delhi home, decided to dissolve itself and form a new “Republican Party”. He drafted a blueprint for it BAWS Vol. 17 Part II, pp. 151–152. The historian Eleanor Zelliot described the idea as bringing the Untouchables into a larger group The News Minute. He died on 6 December 1956, before it was launched. His followers formally founded the Republican Party of India on 3 October 1957 The News Minute.

Where sources disagree

• Who introduced the Hindu Code Bill. The BAWS editors say Dr. Ambedkar introduced it on 11 April 1947 BAWS Vol. 14 Part I, editorial. But he joined the government only in August 1947; in mid-1947 the Law Member was Jogendranath Mandal BAWS Vol. 17 Part I, p. 364. His own statement says only that the Bill “was introduced”. The Columbia timeline says he “introduced” it in February 1951; that was in fact when clause-by-clause voting began Columbia University – Pritchett timeline.
• 1950 debate. He said no time was given to the Bill in 1950 BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, p. 1323; the BAWS editors say clause-by-clause discussion resumed on 14 December 1950 BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, editor’s note.
• Resignation date. His statement says 27 September 1951 BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, p. 1317. One article says 25 September SabrangIndia – Bhavuk, and a BAWS editor’s note says 27 October BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, editor’s note.
• Leader of the Opposition. The Columbia timeline says he became Leader of the Opposition after resigning Columbia University – Pritchett timeline. We found no official record of such a post for him.
• 1952 margin. The petition’s figures give a gap of 14,561 votes BAWS Vol. 17 Part I, p. 412. Articles say “about 15,000” The Mooknayak or 14,537 Organiser, and some call the seat “Bombay North Central”.
• 1954 Bhandara. Accounts give the margin as about 8,000, about 8,500 or 8,681 votes Organiser The Mooknayak Wikipedia (pointer). One says he came third Newslaundry. The winning Congress candidate is listed as Bhaurao Borkar in one constituency list, but the same page’s results table names others. We could not check official results.
• Milind College foundation stone. The Commons photo caption says 1 September 1950; we could not confirm this from an official record.
• Maharashtra’s split. Thoughts on Linguistic States first speaks of four states, counting Bombay city, and then of “three Maharashtrian States” BAWS Vol. 1, pp. 152, 165.

Read more

• Resignation statement, BAWS Vol. 14 Part II, pp. 1317–1327 — his full explanation in his own words.
• Hindu Code Bill speeches, BAWS Vol. 14 Part I — the debates from 1947 to 1951.
• BAWS Vol. 15 — his speeches as Law Minister and in the Rajya Sabha.
• Thoughts on Linguistic States, BAWS Vol. 1 — the 1955 book with his maps.
• Conditions precedent for democracy, BAWS Vol. 17 Part III — the 1952 Poona lecture.
• Columbia University – Pritchett timeline, 1950s — a short year-by-year guide.