Ambedkar: An Overview

by B.R. Ambedkar

In another heart-rending episode, Ambedkar puts forward the point that a person who is an Untouchable to a Hindu is also treated as an Untouchable by a Parsi (or, for that matter by a person of any other religion) as well. It was his return from abroad to Baroda in 1918 that opened his eyes to the deeply entrenched practice of Untouchability in India. Availing a scholarship from the Maharaja of Baroda he travelled to Columbia University in the United States of America for higher studies. Those five years in the West completely wiped out of his mind the consciousness of being an Untouchable. Ignoring better opportunities in Indian Education Services, he felt committed to serve the Baroda State which had sponsored his studies abroad. He joined as a probationer in the Accountant General’s Office of the Maharaja of Baroda. Once in the Indian soil, again he faced the trials and tribulations of securing a lodging for himself on account of being an Untouchable. Finally, by impersonating as a Parsi he lodged himself in a Parsi inn. But on the eleventh day of his stay he had to face the wrath of a few Parsi youths and had to leave the inn—a wrath that was directed at his caste identity. Out on the street again, he failed to secure shelter even from his close friends—one a caste-Hindu and the other an Indian Christian. Ultimately, he quit Baroda and left for Bombay.

Ambedkar discrimination at the hands of parsis