Every year April 23 is celebrated as World Book Day and observing that without mentioning Babasaheb Ambedkar’s writings and speeches or without noticing Babasaheb Ambedkar’s love for books would be an unfair and deceptive act.

While studying at Columbia University, Babasaheb Ambedkar had bought more than 2000 books to read (source – Page 188, ‘Makers of Modern India’ and Babasaheb Ambedkar’s biographer Dhananjay Keer also mentions it)! Babasaheb’s love for books continued throughout his life. In London, while attending the Round Table Conference in 1931, Babasaheb Ambedkar bought 32 big boxes of books. Is not that amazing?

At the age of 22, Babasaheb Ambedkar had so much hunger for reading the books that he bought 2000 books despite having difficult financial conditions. Is not it astounding that defying all odds he studied and achieved what none of us will ever be able to? For all the greatness he achieved, books he read played an important part such as the book on Buddha that he got as a teenager led to his interest in Buddhism at the later stage of the life. 

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At Rajgriha, the house he built in Dadar, Mumbai, had a big library of more than 50,000 books. It is said that he made the house, especially for the books despite lacking resources. It was one of the largest personal libraries in the world at the time of his death. He sold his old house to buy books and pay for some loans. Babasaheb Ambedkar advocated even spending half of your salary on buying books. What an amazing person and his love for the books!

Dr Ambedkar had a vast collection of books on John Dewey, Edvin Seligman, Kabir, Buddha, Tukaram, on law, economics to constitutional matters among others. The influence of all these great people can be seen in his writing and speeches, in which he quotes them many times.

The inspiration and motivation to read that Babasaheb Ambedkar provided us have led to various miracles. For similar reasons, at Ambedkarite celebrations, one can not fail to notice books stalls at marriages to any other ceremonies. While Brahmins might have cow urine drinking or cow dung eating stalls at marriage ceremonies, Dalits have books stalls.

Babasaheb Ambedkar’s copy of Margaret Cole’s ‘Makers of the Labour Movement’. Credit: Siddhartha College Library, Mumbai

This inspiration comes from the Babasaheb Ambedkar only. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statues holding a book in one hand and the other hand pointing towards parliament convey a deep meaning to Dalit-Bahujans. It is not without reason that Brahminical parties and Manuwadi people try to distort Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statues. They know that motivation that Dalits get after seeing Babasaheb holding books and pointing toward gaining political power.

I was reading the other day (sorry, can not recall the source right now) that Babasaheb Ambedkar could manage to influence and do many things was because of the “word”. Importance of the “word”. Yes, he could write well and he wrote extensively and that also in English, so neither British or nor Brahmins class could afford to ignore him. All that again comes down to the knowledge he gained through books and the influence of great scholars in his life.

Babasaheb Ambedkar wrote and wrote extensively. He struggled throughout his life to get his writings published for various reasons such as lack of money. After almost 65 years after his death, not more than half of his writings have seen light, much of his writings remain unpublished.

One thing that one can do on World Book Day is to get Babasaheb Ambedkar’s books and start reading. There is nothing better than that. Through his writings and speeches, one can see the passion he had for downtrodden in society. Get Babasaheb Ambedkar’s books from here.

Author – Pardeep Attri