Ramachandra Guha: 75 years later, Ambedkar’s warnings about potential pitfalls have come true

“Indeed, if I may say so, if things go wrong under the new Constitution, the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is, that Man was vile.” – BR Ambedkar speaking to the Constituent Assembly of India, November 1948.

The Indian Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950. This weekend thus marks the 75th anniversary of that epochal event. The anniversary may, for the politicians currently in power, be an occasion for pomp and show, for a display of boastfulness and self-regard. I wish to temper the mood by recalling some warnings issued shortly before the Constitution was adopted by the law minister and chairman of the Drafting Committee, Dr BR Ambedkar.

In the three years that the Constitution’s principles and precepts were debated, Ambedkar made many important interventions in the Constituent Assembly. He also made two quite remarkable speeches, one on November 4, 1948, while presenting the Draft Constitution, and the second a little over a year later, when the final document was presented to the Assembly.

Of what he said on the latter occasion, one passage is fairly well-known, but bears repeating nonetheless. This dealt with the Indian penchant for hero-worship. Ambedkar asked his...

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