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Why Ambedkar quit Nehru Cabinet? Hindu Code Bill triggered his exit

Why Ambedkar quit

The resignation of BR Ambedkar from Nehru’s cabinet in 1951 surfaced as a point of political contention after ‘Ambedkar’ remarks by Home Minister Amit Shah sparked a controversy. PM Modi, too, claimed that Nehru sidelined Ambedkar over the former’s Hindu Code Bill. This is how the Bill, aimed at reforming Hindu personal laws to ensure equality, proved to catalyse Ambedkar’s Cabinet exit.

ambedkar oath nehru cabinet interim rajendra prasadIn August 1947, President Rajendra Prasad administered the oath of office to BR Ambedkar, who was the Law Minister in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s interim Cabinet. 

“Compare the concern the government shows over safeguarding Muslims. The Prime Minister’s whole time and attention is devoted to the protection of Muslims. I yield to none, not even to the Prime Minister, in my desire to give the Muslims of India the utmost protection wherever and whenever they need it. But what I want to know is, are the Muslims the only people who need protection? Are the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Indian Christians not in need of protection? What concern has he shown for these communities?,” Law Minister BR Ambedkar lashed out in Parliament as he resigned from Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s interim Cabinet in October 1951.

As BR Ambedkar, the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution, emerged as the centre of political attention,BJP leaders also focussed on his resignation from the Nehru Cabinet.

Why did Ambedkar resign? What charges did he level? Did the stalling of the Hindu Code Bill, championed by Ambedkar, trigger his resignation? These are some of the questions we aim to seek answers to.

It was Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks in the Rajya Sabha about Ambedkar that snowballed into a controversy, and led to an ugly ruckus in the Parliament premises on Thursday.

Shah, in his address, claimed that invoking Ambedkar’s name had become a “fashion”. “There’s a fashion now of saying ‘Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar’. If one takes God’s name this many times, one would get into heaven for seven lifetimes,” he said, before adding, “Take Ambedkar’s name 100 more times, but I will tell you how you really feel about Ambedkar ji.”

The Opposition, led by the Congress, did not take it kindly and has been attacking the Home Minister and been demanding his resignation, saying the statement was “derogatory and disrespectful”.

Amid protests by Congress MPs, BJP President JP Nadda said that Jawaharlal Nehru celebrated after Ambedkar resigned from his Cabinet.

“Nehru was proudly writing to people overseas, expressing joy that Ambedkar was no longer in the Cabinet,” Nadda said.

HOW AMBEDKAR JOINED NEHRU’S INTERIM CABINET

As India gained Independence on 15 August 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru took office as India’s first Prime Minister and had to constitute the inaugural interim Cabinet.

Since elections had not yet been held, the legislature (the Constituent Assembly) and the executive (the interim Cabinet) were chosen indirectly by the members of the provincial assemblies, rather than being directly elected by the people.

The Prime Minister appointed a 15-member Cabinet to serve until the Constitution came into effect and elections were held, and Ambedkar was inducted to look over the Law and Justice portfolio.

Nehru and Ambedkar, were known to have ideological differences and belonged to opposite camps during the freedom movement.

“I was left to speculate as to what could have happened to bring about this change in the attitude of the Prime Minister. I had my doubts,” said Ambedkar in his farewell speech in the Parliament.

However, Congress leader Jagjivan Ram’s wife, Indrani, revealed in her memoir that Ambedkar himself had advocated for his inclusion.

Ambedkar convinced the wife of Congress’ Dalit stalwart Jagjivan Ram to approach MK Gandhi for his inclusion in the Nehru Cabinet, according to Indrani Jagjivan Ram’s Milestones: A Memoir.

Jagjivan Ram first consulted Vallabhbhai Patel before requesting Gandhi to recommend Ambedkar, noting that he had “given up his antagonism to Congress and Gandhiji”, according to the memoir.

Following Gandhi’s recommendation, Ambedkar was appointed India’s Law Minister in the first Nehru ministry.

WHAT WAS AMBEDKAR’S HINDU CODE BILL ALL ABOUT?

It was in April 1947 that Ambedkar presented the Hindu Code Bill to the Constituent Assembly, even before India gained Independence. The Bill proposed several reforms to Hindu family laws. BR Ambedkar, through the Bill, attempted to reform several aspects of Hindu personal law.

Ambedkar, who faced caste discrimination throughout his life yet earned prestigious degrees such as MA, PhD, DSc, LLD, and DLitt from the US and the UK, returned to India determined to reform Hinduism and eliminate discrimination against vulnerable groups, including women.

The Hindu Code Bill was meant to bring equality in Hindu society consistent with the Constitution.

The Bill proposed several reforms in Hindu family laws, such as granting of equal inheritance rights to widows, sons, and daughters; prohibiting polygamy for Hindu men; providing women with the right to seek divorce; eliminating the birthright to property and legalising widow remarriage. It also sought to end practices like marriages within the same caste.

“To leave inequality between class and class, between sex and sex, which is the soul of Hindu society, untouched and to go on passing legislation relating to economic problems is to make a farce of our Constitution and to build a palace on a dung heap. This is the significance I attached to the Hindu Code,” Ambedkar was quoted as saying in Collected Works of Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar, released by the Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment.

Although Nehru supported the bill initially, saying, “I will die or swim with the Hindu Code Bill”, Ambedkar soon found his proposed legislation had been put on the back burner.

HOW HINDU CODE BILL TRIGGERED AMBEDKAR’S RESIGNATION

The Constituent Assembly referred the Hindu Code Bill to a Select Committee in April 1948

“The response to the motion to send the Bill to a select committee was far from enthusiastic,” academic Chitra Sinha noted in her book Debating Patriarchy: The Hindu Code Bill Controversy in India.

After the Constitution was finalised in November 1949 and came into effect in January 1950, the Hincu Code Bill lapsed.

Ambedkar reintroduced the bill in Parliament in 1951, again with Nehru’s backing.

However, the Bill faced significant resistance both inside and outside Parliament. Some sections of the Congress resisted too. They questioned why the bill was restricted to Hindus and not extended to all communities.

“While the correspondence between the two is crucial to the understanding of the process of communicative action in the legislature, it also revealed that even within the Congress Party, as also in other political parties, a unified feminist consciousness failed to emerge,” wrote Sinha.

Questions were also raised about the legitimacy of the Interim Cabinet and the Constituent Assembly, as the people did not directly elect them. Critics argued whether such a body had the authority to implement a massive overhaul of personal laws like the Hindu Code Bill.

Politically, leaders like Shyama Prasad Mukherjee opposed the bill within Parliament, citing cultural and religious concerns. Public protests were also seen.

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“The stir caused by the Bill in the political sphere was unprecedented, though there has been almost no detailed historical account of the event. On one side of the spectrum were liberals like Gandhi, Nehru and Ambedkar. On the other side, ranged a compelling segment of the legislature, including Rajendra Prasad and Acharya JB Kripalani within the Congress Party, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and other leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha,” wrote Chitra Sinha.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who was also part of the Nehru Cabinet and was a minister of industries and supplies, had already resigned in December 1950.

Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad founder Karpatri Maharaj too led demonstrations supported by organisations such as the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

“The All India Hindu Code Bill Virodha Samiti published a book, Hindu Code Bill: Praman Ki Kasauti Par in Hindi by Swami Karpatriji Maharaj, refuting the government propaganda about the Bill and expressed that the Hindu Code Bill was opposed to the ideology of the Sanatan Dharma,” Sinha wrote.

Karpatriji Maharaj even challenged Ambedkar to have a public debate on the Bill.

WHY NEHRU WAS FORCED TO SHELVE HINDU CODE BILL

When the Hindu Code Bill debate finally commenced in Parliament, Congress permitted its members to vote freely without issuing a party whip. This led to prolonged and unproductive speeches by members, consuming valuable time.

“You should take things easy as there is opposition inside and outside to the Hindu Code Bill; the Cabinet has decided that it should be taken up at the beginning of September 1951,” Nehru wrote to Ambedkar.

Meanwhile, India’s first election in the winter of 1951–1952 was fast approaching, and Jawaharlal Nehru was preparing to seek the people’s mandate. The Prime Minister must have been wary and mindful of the Hindu majority’s sentiments, which might have stirred protests against the Hindu Code Bill.

Ultimately, Ambedkar’s Hindu Code Bill was set aside due to the constraints. This decision deeply upset Ambedkar, who believed that passing the Hindu Code Bill would bring him greater joy than the Constitution itself.

Feeling disillusioned, Ambedkar submitted his resignation to President Rajendra Prasad in September 1951.

“I will now deal with a matter which has finally led me to decide to resign. It is the treatment which was accorded to the Hindu Code. The Bill was introduced in this House on the 11th April 1947. After a life of four years, it was killed and died unwept and unsung…,” Ambedkar said in Parliament while resigning.

Interestingly, according to a report in The Hindu, Ambedkar’s resignation letter is now missing from official records, leaving only fragmented accounts from media reports and government sources.

The President’s Secretariat informed the Central Information Commission (CIC), which is mandated to furnish RTI appeal responses, in writing that an extensive search in the Constitutional Affairs Section had failed to locate the document, The Hindu reported in 2023.

PARTS OF AMBEDKAR’S HINDU CODE BILL LIVE ON IN FOUR LAWS

Although Ambedkar’s Hindu Code Bill was sidelined in its entirety, its provisions were later introduced as four separate laws, championed by Nehru.

After securing a resounding victory in the first Lok Sabha election in 1951-1952, the Hindu Marriage Act, Hindu Succession Act, Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, and Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, were enacted, based on the components of the Ambedkar Bill.

By 1958, the Hindu Code Bill had effectively become a reality.

Reacting to Nehru implementing parts of the Hindu Code Bill, Ambedkar said, “He [Nehru] will be remembered also for the great interest he took and the trouble he took over the question of Hindu law reform. I am happy that he saw that reform in a very large measure carried out, perhaps not in the form of that monumental tome that he had himself drafted, but in separate bits”.

Not just Ambedkar and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but also Finance Minister John Matthai, Minister of Food and Agriculture Jairamdas Daulatram, Mukherjee’s successor in the Industries and Supplies portfolio, Harekrushna Mahatab, and Minister of Relief and Rehabilitation KC Neogy, all left Nehru’s interim Cabinet in 1950, before Ambedkar’s resignation next year.

Ambedkar resigned from the Nehru Cabinet because of their differences over priorities, and the Hindu Code Bill acted as the trigger.

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