Columbia University

In July 1913 a young man from Bombay stepped off a ship in New York. He was 22 years old. In India, the caste system treated his community, the Mahars, as “untouchable”: people who were kept out of temples, wells and many schools. In America, he later wrote, he could forget that he was “an untouchable” at all ¹. For the next three years Dr. Ambedkar lived and studied at Columbia University, and the experience changed his life ².

A scholarship from Baroda

Dr. Ambedkar had graduated from Elphinstone College, Bombay, in 1912 with a BA in economics and politics ^{2 3}. In 1913 the ruler of Baroda State, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, offered scholarships for higher study at Columbia University. Dr. Ambedkar was given one worth £11.50 a month for three years ².

The money came with a condition. In return, he had to work for Baroda State after his studies. According to The Beacon, which draws on the Marathi biography by C. B. Khairmode, the agreement asked for ten years of service and the scholarship ran from 15 June 1913 to 14 June 1916 ⁴. The historian Eleanor Zelliot noted that the stipend came through Baroda’s Education Department, and that it is not clear whose idea the American plan was ⁵.

Arriving in New York

He reached New York in the third week of July 1913. He first stayed in Hartley Hall, a university dormitory, but disliked the food and left after a week. In August he moved to the Cosmopolitan Club at 554 West 114th Street, a house run by Indian students. Finally he settled in Livingston Hall (now called Wallach Hall), sharing with a Parsi student, Naval Bhathena, who stayed his friend for life ².

Years later he told his biographer that he enjoyed the social side of campus at first. Then one night he decided to study “in dead earnest” ². He spent long hours in the reading room under the dome of Low Library ².

A huge course load

Columbia’s records show just how hard he worked. Over three years, including summer terms, he took 29 courses in economics, 11 in history, 6 in sociology, 5 in philosophy, 4 in anthropology and 3 in politics, plus beginner French and German ². The course list includes public finance, statistics, socialism, railway economics, the history of India and Persia, and the French Revolution ⁶.

He was admitted to Columbia’s Graduate School as a whole, not to one narrow department ².

His teachers

Some of America’s best-known thinkers taught him:

• Edwin R. A. Seligman, an expert on taxes and public money. He became Dr. Ambedkar’s main mentor and they wrote to each other for years ².
• John Dewey, the philosopher of democracy and education. In Annihilation of Caste (1936), Dr. Ambedkar called Dewey “my teacher” ^{2 5}.
• James Harvey Robinson and James Shotwell, historians ².
• Alexander Goldenweiser, an anthropologist (someone who studies human societies), and Franklin Giddings, a sociologist ⁶.

In 1930, Columbia’s alumni magazine printed his memory of those years:

“The best friends I have had in my life,” Dr. Ambedkar says, “were some of my classmates at Columbia and my great professors, John Dewey, James Shotwell, Edwin Seligman, and James Harvey Robinson.”

— Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, quoted in Columbia Alumni News, 19 December 1930 ⁷

His first Columbia degree: an MA in 1915

An MA (Master of Arts) is a degree you earn after a first degree, usually by taking advanced courses and writing a long essay called a thesis. On 15 May 1915 Dr. Ambedkar submitted his MA thesis, “Administration and Finance of the East India Company”. It looked at how the British trading company that ruled much of India was run and how it raised and spent money ⁸. Columbia lists his degree as “MA 1915” ⁹. He passed the MA examination in June 1915, with economics as his main subject ².

The thesis was never published in his lifetime. In 1979 a copy was obtained from Columbia, and it now appears in his collected works ¹⁰.

“Castes in India” (9 May 1916)

On 9 May 1916 Dr. Ambedkar read a paper to Alexander Goldenweiser’s anthropology seminar. It was called “Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development” ¹¹. He argued that caste was not caused by race ⁵. Its key feature, he said, was endogamy: the rule that people may marry only inside their own group ¹². The paper was printed in the journal Indian Antiquary in May 1917 ¹¹. He stayed proud of it all his life ².

The PhD: finished early, awarded late

A PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) is the highest research degree. It needs a long, original study called a dissertation.

By the time he left New York in 1916, Dr. Ambedkar had done most of the work ². In 1920 Professor Seligman wrote that he “passed his examination for the Doctor’s degree with considerable distinction” ¹³. Yet Columbia’s own records say the PhD was given in 1927 ⁹. His official transcript gives the date as 8 June 1927 ¹⁴. Why the ten-year gap?

The sources point to three reasons:

1. Columbia needed a printed book. At that time Columbia’s Faculty of Political Science did not award a PhD until the dissertation was actually published and copies were handed in. A 1936 faculty memo describes this rule ¹⁵.
2. His manuscript sank. In 1917 the ship carrying his books and papers home was torpedoed. In 1922 he wrote to Seligman that he had lost “my manuscript of the original thesis” this way ¹⁶. (The next chapter tells this story.)
3. He had to earn a living first. He had to work in India before he could return to his studies ².

The dissertation finally appeared in London in 1925 as The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India. It studied how money was shared between the British government of India and the provinces ¹⁷. Seligman wrote the foreword, dated October 1924, calling it Dr. Ambedkar’s “excellent dissertation” ¹⁸. Dr. Ambedkar dedicated the book to the Maharaja of Baroda “as a token of my gratitude for his help in the matter of my education” ¹⁹. Columbia conferred the PhD two years later.

No source says outright that the book caused the timing. But the rule, the lost manuscript and the 1925 book fit together, so this is the most likely explanation.

Breathing free air

Looking back about twenty years later, probably in 1935 or 1936, Dr. Ambedkar wrote ²⁰:

“My five years of stay in Europe and America had completely wiped out of my mind any consciousness that I was an untouchable …”

— Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Waiting for a Visa ¹

Columbia says he later called it the place where he first experienced social equality ²¹. After this freedom, his return to India’s caste rules in 1917 came as a shock, as the next chapter shows ¹.

Columbia remembers him

In January 1952 Columbia renewed an earlier offer to give him an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD), a degree given to honour someone’s life work. Dr. Ambedkar agreed, but wrote that the trip would cost him nearly Rs. 15,000. Thanks to gifts from friends of the university, Columbia then offered $1,500 towards his travel ²². He received the degree at Commencement, Columbia’s graduation ceremony, on 5 June 1952. The citation called him “a great social reformer and a valiant upholder of human rights” ^{22 21}.

On 24 October 1995 a bronze bust of him was presented to Columbia’s Lehman Library. It was donated by the Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations UK ²¹. Columbia’s archives still keep his file, photographs and honorary degree letters ⁹.

Where sources disagree

• When did he get his PhD? Four dates appear:
  • In his own 1921 application to the University of Bonn, he wrote that he gained the doctorate in 1916 ²³.
  • A 1951 career summary in his LSE file, apparently the one his biographer C. B. Khairmode sent to LSE, says 8 June 1917 ²⁴.
  • Columbia’s archives and his transcript say 1927, specifically 8 June 1927 ^{9 14}.
  • Columbia’s own 1930 alumni magazine calls him “‘28PhD”, and a 1950 Columbia card says “Ph.D. … 1928” ^{7 22}.
  • The best way to read this: he finished his studies and examinations in 1916–17, but the degree was formally conferred in 1927. When he gave evidence to the Southborough Committee in January 1919, he was introduced only as “an M.A. of the Columbia University” ²⁵.
• The MA thesis title. Columbia’s catalogue and his collected works give “Administration and Finance of the East India Company” (1915) ^{9 8}. Dhananjay Keer’s biography names “Ancient Indian Commerce” ².
• The PhD thesis title. Keer says his 1916 thesis was “National Dividend of India – A Historic and Analytical Study” and that it grew into the PhD ². Columbia lists the dissertation as The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India ⁹. The lost 1917 draft may explain the change.
• Where the “best friends” quote first appeared. Columbia’s archives give the Columbia Alumni News of 19 December 1930 ⁹. Columbia’s anniversary website says it came from a 1930 New York Times interview ²¹.
• The 1952 ceremony. The letters in Columbia’s files describe the normal annual Commencement of 5 June 1952 ²². Pritchett’s timeline calls it part of a “Bicentennial Special Convocation” ²⁶.

Read more

• Columbia University Archives – notable alumni guide — lists his degrees, theses and every Ambedkar record Columbia holds.
• Frances Pritchett’s timeline, 1910s — a detailed, sourced year-by-year account from a Columbia professor.
• His Columbia courses — every course and teacher, taken from his transcript.
• Eleanor Zelliot, “Dr. Ambedkar and America” (1991) — a leading scholar’s talk on what America meant to him.
• BAWS Vol. 1 – “Castes in India” — the full text of the 1916 seminar paper.
• BAWS Vol. 6 – his economics theses — the MA thesis and The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India.
• Columbia Libraries exhibition: “Caste, Ambedkar, and Contemporary India” — Columbia’s online exhibition on him.

Sources

1. BAWS Vol. 12, p. 673 Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
2. Columbia University – Pritchett timeline franpritchett.com ↗ ↩
3. Supreme Court of India sci.gov.in ↗ ↩
4. The Beacon thebeacon.in ↗ ↩
5. Zelliot, “Dr. Ambedkar and America” (1991) franpritchett.com ↗ ↩
6. Pritchett – list of courses franpritchett.com ↗ ↩
7. Columbia University Archives – Alumni News scan guides.library.columbia.edu ↗ ↩
8. BAWS Vol. 6, p. 18 of PDF Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
9. Columbia University Archives guides.library.columbia.edu ↗ ↩
10. BAWS Vol. 6, p. 20 of PDF Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
11. BAWS Vol. 1, p. 18 of PDF Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
12. BAWS Vol. 1, p. 9 (PDF p. 24) Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
13. Seligman’s letter of 23 Sept. 1920, LSE student file, PDF p. 56 lse.ac.uk ↗ ↩
14. Pritchett timeline franpritchett.com ↗ ↩
15. Irwin Collier, Columbia PhD printing requirement irwincollier.com ↗ ↩
16. Ambedkar to Seligman, 16 Feb. 1922, Seligman papers franpritchett.com ↗ ↩
17. BAWS Vol. 6, title page Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
18. BAWS Vol. 6, foreword Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
19. BAWS Vol. 6, dedication Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
20. Pritchett’s note on Waiting for a Visa franpritchett.com ↗ ↩
21. Columbia – “Columbians Ahead of Their Time” c250.columbia.edu ↗ ↩
22. Columbia honorary degree correspondence guides.library.columbia.edu ↗ ↩
23. Bellwinkel-Schempp, with facsimile franpritchett.com ↗ ↩
24. LSE student file, PDF pp. 34–36 lse.ac.uk ↗ ↩
25. BAWS Vol. 1, p. 274 (PDF p. 289) Read this page on the site · Official PDF ↗ ↩
26. Pritchett timeline franpritchett.com ↗ ↩