The Ambedkar International Center (AIC) in Accokeek, Maryland, has unveiled a new statue commemorating Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the late Dalit social reformist and political leader who dedicated his life and career to resisting caste-based discrimination in India pre- and post-Independence. The 19-foot-tall monument, known as the “Statue of Equality,” was designed and crafted by Indian sculptor Ram V. Sutar, the artist behind the 600-foot-tall “Statue of Unity” that stands in the Indian state of Gujarat.
The monument to Ambedkar was unveiled on Sunday, October 15, on the AIC premises 30 miles south of Washington, DC. It is said to be the tallest monument of Ambedkar outside of India.
“The statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is a symbol of the shared values of democracy, justice, and human rights that bind India and the United States,” the nonprofit organization’s President Ram Kumar stated during the ceremony. “It serves as a reminder of the importance of championing the rights and dignity of all individuals, regardless of their background.”
Ambedkar was born in 1891 to a Mahar Dalit military family, a term that refers to groups outside of the Hindu caste system, and faced discrimination throughout his school years. He pursued a degree in economics and political science at the University of Bombay (Mumbai) and obtained further degrees at the London School of Economics and Columbia University. Ambedkar juggled careers as a private tutor, accountant, and business owner, but struggled to succeed after facing casteism from his clients.
Ambedkar eventually became a political economy professor and legal professional in Mumbai and began engaging in sociopolitical activism for caste-oppressed communities during the late 1920s. He mobilized Dalits by the thousands through organizing a series of public demonstrations, including advocating for equalizing access to drinking water and burning classic Hindu texts justifying the ideological premises of casteism. In 1932, Ambedkar signed off on the Poona Pact, an agreement with Mohandas Gandhi that improved government representation of and secured educational grants for Dalit people.
Ambedkar continued his advocacy work for decades and was later appointed by post-Independence India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947 as the nation’s law minister, and then the chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution.
Though he was instrumental to the development of India’s first constitution, particularly in outlining the abolition of so-called “untouchability” through the affordance of civil and religious liberties for Dalit people, Ambedkar later denounced the final draft that was adopted into law for its failure to uphold the anti-casteist protections.
Ambedkar officially renounced Hinduism for the built-in inequalities ingrained in the religion’s social architecture that relegated Dalit people to an eternity of hereditary mistreatment and servitude, and officially converted to Buddhism on October 14, 1956. Ambedkar had amassed nearly half a million followers by this point, and he encouraged them to follow in his footsteps and divest from the religion that contributed to their routine oppression.
The AIC was founded in 2012 with the intention of promoting Ambedkar’s teachings and philosophies of social equality in the United States as the South Asian diaspora expands nationwide.
