Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ramjee Ambedkar : His Concepts of Social Democracy and Doctrine of Democratic Humanism

Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ramjee Ambedkar is one of the greatest political thinkers and social revolutionaries that modern India has ever produced. He was the foremost exponent and expounder of social democracy based on basic human values and freedom, liberty, equality and human dignity. He considered the institution of caste system as the greatest social evil and a major stumbling block in the path of a cohesive national psyche obstructing an inclusive and emancipated society which can only be possible by complete annihilation of caste. He waged a relentless struggle against the then prevailing dehumanised social orderin India where a vast multitude of people belonging to the depressed communities were treated less than humans and sub humans for which he wanted to abolish the worthless birth graded status and its functions. Being the chief architect of the democratic Constitution of independent India, he inculcated in it the basic values such as the sovereign equality of every individual, self-respect, human dignity and reclamation of human personality. Keeping this in mind, this papermakes an honest and earnest endeavour to foreground his concept of democratic humanism as the guiding principle in achieving the goal of social democracy as a necessary precondition to political democracy.