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Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Vasant Moon
Biography of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, 1892-1956, Indian social reformer and statesman.
- GenresBiography
154 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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About the author
Vasant Moon
9 books4 followersVasant Moon is a retired civil servant and Dalit activist. He is the editor of 17 volumes of Dr. Ambedkar’s writings and speeches in English.
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June 10, 2016
The book was originally written by Vasant Moon in Marathi and the one I read is an English translation by Asha Damle. An wholly uncritical account of the life and struggle of Babasaheb.
It traces his origins from a poor background and details on his journey of becoming a statesman, who ushered a wave of nation altering politics. It contains several interesting incidents related to his life which are not in common knowledge. The intellectual giant Babasaheb was, has been more than amply brought out in the book. His domain of expertise was significant ranging from law, architecture, journalism, religious thoughts to philosophy, economics and many more. The kind of ostracism he faced due to his caste was to play a vital role in his politics for the upliftment of the Dalits and backward classes of society. His untiring efforts to secure a life of promise and dignity for Dalits have been collated and documented here. His constant tussle with the congress and other organisations over the Dalit issue dominates the theme and substance of the book. The Mahad Satyagraha has been given good space in the book. His stellar contribution in the constitution framing has been well documented, which is well deserved. His fascination with Buddhist philosophy and ultimate embrace of Buddhism occupies a sizeable chunk of the book and remains a perennial theme.
The book is plain and dull representation of facts and just facts. It contains excerpts from many of his speeches. It quotes every single instance when Babasaheb was presented a scroll of honour, which was quite irksome. There is no effort to examine the issues from an independent and dispassionate perspective and considers every word of Babasaheb as a gospel. If you are looking for a deeper insight into the life and works of Babasaheb, you may be disappointed. However, it still has a lot of information that is out of the domain of common perception, for example-the role played by Babasaheb in the inception and development of Damodar valley project. But all these valuable facts do not make up for the dull and non-engaging style of writing.
It traces his origins from a poor background and details on his journey of becoming a statesman, who ushered a wave of nation altering politics. It contains several interesting incidents related to his life which are not in common knowledge. The intellectual giant Babasaheb was, has been more than amply brought out in the book. His domain of expertise was significant ranging from law, architecture, journalism, religious thoughts to philosophy, economics and many more. The kind of ostracism he faced due to his caste was to play a vital role in his politics for the upliftment of the Dalits and backward classes of society. His untiring efforts to secure a life of promise and dignity for Dalits have been collated and documented here. His constant tussle with the congress and other organisations over the Dalit issue dominates the theme and substance of the book. The Mahad Satyagraha has been given good space in the book. His stellar contribution in the constitution framing has been well documented, which is well deserved. His fascination with Buddhist philosophy and ultimate embrace of Buddhism occupies a sizeable chunk of the book and remains a perennial theme.
The book is plain and dull representation of facts and just facts. It contains excerpts from many of his speeches. It quotes every single instance when Babasaheb was presented a scroll of honour, which was quite irksome. There is no effort to examine the issues from an independent and dispassionate perspective and considers every word of Babasaheb as a gospel. If you are looking for a deeper insight into the life and works of Babasaheb, you may be disappointed. However, it still has a lot of information that is out of the domain of common perception, for example-the role played by Babasaheb in the inception and development of Damodar valley project. But all these valuable facts do not make up for the dull and non-engaging style of writing.
Displaying 1 of 1 review