Childhood

Bhimrao Ambedkar grew up in a proud army family. His father was an officer and a teacher, and the house was full of books and prayers. But outside the home, the world kept reminding the boy that he was born a Mahar, a community treated as “untouchable”.

This chapter follows him from his birth in an army town to the end of his school days in Satara, through the experiences that, in his own words, made him think about untouchability for the first time.

Born in an army town

Bhimrao was born on 14 April 1891 in Mhow, a town near Indore in central India that the British had built as a military base. He was the fourteenth and last child of Ramji Sakpal and Bhimabai ¹. Mhow was a cantonment, a permanent army station. In 2003 it was renamed Dr. Ambedkar Nagar ².

Of the fourteen children, seven died very young. The others were Balaram, Ganga, Ramabai, Anandrao, Manjula, Tulasa and the youngest, “Bhiva”, as Bhimrao was called at home ¹.

Even his birth date has a small mystery. Dr. Ambedkar said that all anyone could say for certain was that he was born at Mhow, at noon. The date 14 April 1891 comes from his school and college records, but a few official papers give 1892 or 1893 ². Today a memorial called Bhim Janmabhoomi stands at Mhow. It was first unveiled on 14 April 1991 and inaugurated again on 14 April 2008 ³.

Leaving the army: Dapoli and Satara

Bhimrao was still a toddler when his father retired from the army, probably in 1893 ². The family moved to Dapoli, a small town in Ratnagiri district ¹, where retired Mahar and Chambhar soldiers had set up a colony ². Dr. Ambedkar later wrote that his father had meant to settle there for good:

“But for some reasons my father changed his mind. The family left Dapoli for Satara where we lived till 1904.”

— Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Waiting for a Visa (c. 1935–36) ⁴

Bhim started school in Dapoli, at about five, with his elder brother ⁵. A 1932 New York Times article, based on an interview with him, says the “untouchable” boys there had to sit in a room by themselves. They were never allowed to drink from the school’s water supply ¹.

Around 1896 the family moved to Satara, and Ramji found work with the Public Works Department ¹.

Losing his mother

Soon after the move, Bhimabai died. Bhim was only about five or six ^{1 5}. Of her fourteen children, three sons (Balaram, Anandrao and Bhimrao) and two daughters (Manjula and Tulasa) survived her ¹.

The children were raised by their father’s sister, Mira (Keer spells her name Mirabai) ⁵. Dr. Ambedkar called her “the kindest soul I know”. She was very short and had trouble with her legs, so she often needed help to move about ⁴. When the lively, naughty Bhiva got into trouble, she would hide him behind her to save him from a beating ⁶.

His father was strict and religious. Every evening he made Bhim and his brother read aloud from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata to their sisters and visitors ⁷. He also made Bhim practise handwriting until his English hand was excellent ¹.

Bhim was an ordinary, energetic boy too. He played kho-kho, football and, above all, cricket, and he hated to admit defeat ⁶.

School on a gunny sack

In Satara, Bhim first went to a Marathi-medium school. On 7 November 1900 he joined the first English standard of the Government High School ⁶. Maharashtra now marks 7 November as Students’ Day in memory of that first day ⁸. Dr. Ambedkar later recalled being “a student in the first standard in the Satara High School” when the school closed on 16 January 1901 because the reformer M. G. Ranade had died. At about nine, he had no idea who Ranade was, and like the other boys he was simply happy to have a holiday ⁹.

At school he could not sit with his classmates. He sat alone in a corner on a piece of gunny cloth (rough sacking), which he had to carry home every evening because the school cleaner would not touch it ¹⁰. Other children could drink from the tap whenever the teacher allowed. Bhim could not touch it:

“The presence of the school peon was necessary, for, he was the only person whom the class teacher could use for such a purpose. If the peon was not available I had to go without water. The situation can be summed up in the statement—no peon, no water.”

— Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Waiting for a Visa ¹¹

A peon was a school attendant. Keer adds that some teachers would not even touch the notebooks of Bhim and his brother ⁵.

Not every teacher was unkind. Once Bhim walked to school through heavy rain without an umbrella, just to win a dare. A Brahmin teacher named Pendse sent his own son to take the soaked boy home for a hot bath and a dry cloth ⁵.

At home, his sisters washed the family’s clothes and his elder sister cut the boys’ hair, because no washerman or barber in Satara would serve an “untouchable” family, even for money ¹¹.

The journey to Koregaon

In about 1901, Bhim’s father was working as a cashier at Koregaon, a village in Khatav taluka of Satara district. The government was digging a water tank there to give work to people starving in a famine ⁴. (This is a different place from Bhima Koregaon near Pune.)

Ramji invited the children for the summer holidays. Bhim, his elder brother and a nephew set off in new clothes, excited to ride a train for the first time. Their father was supposed to send a servant to meet them at Masur station. Nobody came ¹².

The kind station-master thought the well-dressed boys were Brahmins, and asked who they were:

“Without a moment’s thought I blurted out that we were Mahars.”

— Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Waiting for a Visa ¹²

The station-master’s face changed and he walked away. No cartman would carry them. In the end one agreed to rent his bullock cart for double the fare, as long as the boys drove it themselves while he walked alongside ¹³.

They travelled late into the night. Their only water was a stinking pool, so they could not finish their food. At a toll-collector’s hut, Bhim pretended to be a Muslim and spoke in Urdu, but was still refused water. The boys slept in the cart, taking turns to keep watch, and reached Koregaon the next morning. Their letter had never reached their father ¹⁴.

“I was a boy of nine when it happened. But it has left an indelible impression on my mind.”

— Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Waiting for a Visa ¹⁰

He wrote that the journey gave him “a shock such as I never received before”. It made him think seriously about untouchability for the first time ¹¹.

How “Sakpal” became “Ambedkar”

In Maharashtra, surnames were often taken from a family’s home village. The family name was Sakpal, but at school Bhim was registered with a name based on the village of Ambadawe ⁵.

A Brahmin teacher whose own surname was Ambedkar grew very fond of the boy. Dr. Ambedkar told his biographer Khairmode that every day at lunchtime this teacher shared his bread and vegetables, dropping the food into Bhim’s hands from above so that they would not touch ⁶. According to Keer, this teacher changed the boy’s surname in the school records to his own name, Ambedkar ⁵. The Satara High School register lists him as “Bhiva Ramji Ambedkar” ².

Dr. Ambedkar never forgot him. When he left for the first Round Table Conference in London, he received a loving letter from the teacher. When the teacher visited him in 1927, Dr. Ambedkar stood up, bowed, and later had a suit made for him ^{6 5}.

A new mother, and a decision

Ramji married again in 1898 ¹⁵. Bhim was unhappy about it. Keer says he especially disliked seeing his stepmother wear his mother’s jewellery ⁵.

He decided to run away to Bombay and work in a mill, as other boys from Satara had done. For three nights he tried to take his aunt’s purse while she slept. On the fourth night he got it, but found only half an anna (a tiny coin), not enough for the trip. Ashamed, he made a new decision: to study hard, pass his exams and become independent ⁵. His teachers noticed the change and advised his father to give him the best education he could ⁵.

In 1904 the family left Satara for Bombay, and a new chapter of Bhimrao’s education began ⁴.

Where sources disagree

• Birth year. Most sources give 14 April 1891, which Khairmode found in school records. Some official documents give 1892 or 1893 ². A 1943 government profile printed “1893”; the editors of his collected works corrected it to 1891 ¹⁶.
• When his father retired. Gopal, using Khairmode, says 1893 ²; Pritchett’s timeline says 1894 ¹.
• When his mother died. Pritchett gives 1896 ¹. Forward Press gives 1897 ¹⁷. Keer says Bhim was “about six” ⁵.
• When the family moved to Bombay. Dr. Ambedkar wrote that they lived in Satara “till 1904” ⁴. Pritchett’s timeline puts the move in 1901 ¹⁵.
• Koregaon or Goregaon, and the details of the journey. The printed text of Waiting for a Visa spells the place both “Koregaon” and “Goregaon” ¹². Keer adds that the cartman first threw the boys out and that the elder brother drove ⁵. Dr. Ambedkar’s own account does not mention being thrown out, and says only that “One of us took the reins” ¹³.
• The surname story. Keer places the teacher in the High School ⁵. Khairmode calls him Bhim’s first teacher, in the Marathi school before the High School ⁶. The teacher’s full name is widely given as Krishnaji Keshav Ambedkar, and some accounts say Bhim’s father first registered him as “Ambadawekar” ¹⁸. We did not find either detail in a primary source.

Read more

• Waiting for a Visa (Columbia University text) — Dr. Ambedkar’s own account of the Koregaon journey and his school days.
• Pritchett timeline: the 1890s and the 1900s — a Columbia University timeline with extracts from early biographies.
• Khairmode’s biography in translation — everyday stories of Bhiva’s childhood from the Marathi biography.
• Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission by Dhananjay Keer — the classic 1954 biography, written with Ambedkar’s help (Internet Archive).

Sources

1. Columbia University – Pritchett timeline franpritchett.com ↗ ↩
2. Ashok Gopal, A Part Apart, excerpt in Scroll scroll.in ↗ ↩
3. Indore District, Government of Madhya Pradesh indore.nic.in ↗ ↩
4. BAWS Vol. 12, p. 665 Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
5. Keer, Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission, p. 10 archive.org ↗ ↩
6. Khairmode, translated on the Pritchett site franpritchett.com ↗ ↩
7. Ambedkar’s unpublished preface (1956) franpritchett.com ↗ ↩
8. The Tribune (2022) tribuneindia.com ↗ ↩
9. BAWS Vol. 1, p. 211 Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
10. BAWS Vol. 12, p. 670 Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
11. BAWS Vol. 12, p. 671 Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
12. BAWS Vol. 12, p. 666 Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
13. BAWS Vol. 12, p. 667 Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
14. BAWS Vol. 12, pp. 668–670 Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
15. Pritchett timeline franpritchett.com ↗ ↩
16. BAWS Vol. 10, p. 4 Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
17. Forward Press chronology forwardpress.in ↗ ↩
18. Wikipedia, B. R. Ambedkar (pointer only; it cites Marathi press reports) en.wikipedia.org ↗ ↩