Dr Ambedkar, an Outlier
By Dr Sharad Joshi
I have always had a feeling of admiration mixed with awe and curiosity, toward Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. The fact is, the social group he came from, has not produced a leader of his stature, a few hundred years before, and now, more than sixty years after him. His academic qualifications are superior not only to any backward class politician but even ‘caste’ Hindus. He holds Ph.D. from two prominent international universities, University of Columbia, New York and London School of Economics, U.K. He has close to 30 books to his credit, on subjects as diverse as Sociology, Politics, Economics, Religion and even Pali Grammar – in fact, he kept writing all through his life. Almost all his writing is in English. He was, undoubtedly, a scholar. His most enduring contribution is of course shaping of India’s constitution as Chairman of its drafting committee. He was also an astute politician, in a way, ahead of his times. Ever a pragmatist, he tilted toward right, when it was fashionable to be a socialist in the early fifties – his biographers say, because he had studied in the USA. He had a clear understanding of the Muslim problem. He has written that they will always place their religion above the nation and had opposed Article 370 in 1950 itself. When he decided to convert out of Hinduism, he wisely chose Buddhism, a religion of this land. Along with his intellectual prowess, he was also a successful mass leader, almost deified by his followers.
The question that has baffled me is, how a backward community in Maharashtra, which otherwise has no record of producing great men, gave rise to one such towering giant?
To seek an answer, I turned to Malcom Gladwell’s 2008-book ‘Outliers’. The book is about exploring secret behind outstanding success stories, especially of those coming from humble background. (Bill Gates is one of them). It is generally believed that they succeed because of inborn, extraordinary talent. They are considered ‘Outliers’ because they appear to have beaten the law of averages, i.e. they go far beyond an ‘average’ person with their background.
Gladwell does not deny the role of talent – or hard work, but says that not everyone who has similar talent succeeds. ‘Outliers’ succeed, because they get unexpected breaks, help when it was most needed, encounter lucky coincidences, get opportunities to work and grow. Gladwell argues that what is extraordinary, is not the individuals but a chain of favourable events which carry them far. It is really this chain which should be called an Outlier.
I am attempting to use Gladwell’s approach to explain extraordinary success of Dr B.R. Ambedkar. Let us examine chain of events in his life which made Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar an Outlier.
Though belonging to Mahar community, he was not born and brought up in a community ghetto of a Marathi village. He was born in Mhow Cantonment in Madhya Pradesh. His father, Ramji, was a subedar, a non-commissioned officer, in the British Indian Army. Ramji was also an instructor. I am sure, that as a trained soldier and having lived and moved between cantonments with men from all over India, he would be far more enlightened than an ordinary individual from his community. He would not be desperately poor as well. For Babasaheb, having escaped the fate of an average Mahar child of 1891, was, in itself, a huge advantage.
His father retired in 1894 (soldiers retire early) and moved to Satara, but did not stay there for too long. (biographers differ about how long. Perhaps 6-7 years). What is important is that his father then shifted to, and stayed thereafter in Mumbai. Mumbai then had a sizeable Mahar community, working in the Textile Mills. That perhaps was the reason his father decided to move to Mumbai. The family stayed in a chawl in Parel, among neighbours from his community, again, not in a community ghetto. He passed his Matriculation examination from Elphinstone High School, Parel in 1907, and graduated from Elphinstone College, in 1912. Babasaheb was an urban Mumbaikar. With his father’s military background and having grown in Mumbai’s cosmopolitan atmosphere, he would have developed into a reasonably modern individual (in the context of his time.) This can be taken as another advantage.
Though not a class topper, he must have been a fairly competent and conscientious student. He never lost a year until Matriculation, which was a big achievement in itself. I find that he took an extra year for graduation (5 instead of 4); however, passing B.A. was not quite easy in those days, also that he was already a married man. (His eldest son was born in 1912).
Babasaheb thus escaped influence of negative factors which handicapped most people from his community – partly through his own effort, but substantially because of favourable circumstances. He was about to enter a phase which changed his life.
In 1913, he got a job offer from the government of Baroda State. The fact that he readily accepted, reflects upon the temperament of the man – independent, adaptable, ready to experiment. The big break that Gladwell talks about came unexpectedly. State of Baroda had instituted a scholarship of £11.50 per month to pursue higher studies in Columbia University, New York, USA. He applied and got selected. This was a sheer godsend, one in a million chance. I cannot imagine anyone, with (a fairly ordinary) background like his, getting a chance to study in USA, in 1913, free-of-cost. He was 22 when he enrolled at University of Columbia; the right age to go abroad for higher studies.
As expected, 3 years’ of stay in New York between 1913-16, transformed him. He immersed himself into study – spent most of his time in the library. The rigour of American academic system and presence of learned teachers, kindled his hidden urge for learning. He passed his M.A., majoring in Economics, in 1916; but did not come back immediately. By now, he had understood how the ‘system’ works. He secured admission to both London School of Economics for Ph.D., and to Gray’s Inn for pursuing law, based on recommendations of his Professors in Columbia. In 1917, he came back to India, stayed for 3 years, but again returned to England. He became a barrister in 1922 and got his Doctorate from London School of Economics in 1923, the year in which he finally returned to India. (Later he got his second PhD from Columbia as well.) He was now more than adequately qualified for academic career, which was also his passion. He was appointed a Professor in Sydenham College and later, Professor in Government Law College; also, its Principal.
This in itself, did not however create an Outlier. He had acquired many qualities by now, at a still young age of 32 – Mastery over spoken and written English (which most of his contemporaries lacked), research aptitude (which would later help him in drafting India’s constitution), ability to deal with people, mental toughness (enhanced by hardships faced from the childhood as an ‘untouchable’) and huge confidence. All these had to find an outlet.
Side by side with his academic job and law practice, he became a social activist, with a single-minded mission – seeking justice for his people. He used his own famous message as a guide – educate, organize, agitate. He wrote books and articles, organized and spoke in conferences, and led many agitations. Mainly because of his fluency in English, clarity of thought and erudition, he kept on getting appointed on important committees and bodies – most significant being, Viceroy’s representative for Round Table Conference in London. He had reached a stage when he could not be ignored. He kept growing in capability, influence and political acumen; developed powerful friends. This culminated in his being appointed first Law Minister of independent India, and Chairman of the drafting committee for Indian constitution.
This more or less explains how an ordinary Mahar boy reached an iconic status. What was at work was not extraordinary talent, but a combination of intelligence, hard work, circumstances and luck.
Finally, how much did it matter that Babasaheb Ambedkar was born a Dalit? I think, it helped. At least some of the breaks that he got, came out of sympathy (or guilty conscience) on the part of his benefactors. The cause that he made the mission of his life came out of his being born a Dalit. The toughness and fighting spirit that he imbibed was also because of hardships endured by him because of his birth.
Notes:
1. To understand Gladwell’s arguments, let us look at the case of Bill Gates, as described by him.
Bill Gates belongs to a middle-class family in Seattle. He got introduced to computer at the age of 13 – when he was an 8th grade student. Bill was good at Mathematics and his parents had just transferred him from a public school to a private school named Lakeside. This school had a computer club, with an ASR-33 teletype terminal connected to a mainframe in downtown Seattle. The year was 1968; there were then just about 50 mainframes over all schools and colleges in the US and Lakeside happened to be one of them! Bill Gates made maximum use of school facilities. But this was not the end. University of Washington, in Seattle had developed some software which they needed to be tested. Bill Gates got a chance to work on this project because someone in the school committee knew one of the software developers. By now, Bill was bitten by the computer bug. He used to spend days and nights at the computer centre. This was possible because he did not stay very far. This project got over, but Bill’s school friend Paul Allen (later co-founder of Microsoft) found another facility at Department of Physics, which was free between 3 am to 6 am. Because he stayed nearby, he used to walk to this place at 3 am. There was a software firm in Seattle which needed temporary programmers. Bill got selected and worked, even got trained at that place. By the time he turned 20, he had nearly 10,000 hours of experience of computer programming. He had become an expert. Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975. They wrote DOS operating system which IBM purchased for their famous IBM PC around 1979, and paid them royalty for every sale. The rest is history.
Gladwell is quick to point out role of lucky breaks, chance, coincidences and continuous opportunities to work in this story. If his parents had placed him in some other school, he would never have got introduced to computers at the age of 13. If a school committee member had not recommended him to the software team at University of Washington, he could have never got a chance to work there which he did for next few years. (Bill later said he stole computer time there by manipulating passwords, and later, compensated them through hefty donations). If he could not walk to Department of Physics, it was impossible to reach there at 3 am. There is another detail which Gladwell has mentioned. Being born in 1955, ensured that Bill Gates was just at the right age in 1975 to enter the computer profession. That was the year when the computer age was dawning. Gladwell has mentioned that not just Bill Gates but Paul Allen, Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft until 2014, were all born between 1954 to 1956.
Gladwell therefore feels that what is extraordinary, is not the individuals but a chain of favourable events which carry them far. It is really this chain which should be called an Outlier.
2. Detailed timeline of important events in Dr Ambedkar’s career can be viewed on the following link. http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ambedkar/timeline/1910s.html. It also provides links to several books and articles written, and transcript of speeches made, by him. A significant one is: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ambedkar/ambedkar_partition/index.html