---
product_id: 473271289
title: "Ambedkar: A Life"
price: "€ 19.51"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.sk/products/473271289-ambedkar-a-life
store_origin: SK
region: Slovakia
---

# Ambedkar: A Life

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Ambedkar: A Life : Shashi Tharoor: desertcart.in: Books

Review: A worthy biography - Ambedkar's A Life by Shashi Tharoor is a well-written biography. For someone who has read fairly about Babasaheb, the book had no startling facts. Except for the fact that he contemplated giving up his life if he lost his vision, because it would mean no longer he could read. Growing up, my father used to emphasize a lot on reading books. I am confident that he got this inspiration from Babasaheb. Shashi Tharoor has woven a good connection between events in the life of Dr. Ambedkar. The book is around 200 pages and is a good introduction to the life of Dr. BR Ambedkar by an equally erudite intellectual. The book is not a hagiography and that is the best part of it. It contains a section on Dr. BR Ambedkar's flaws, one which very few apart from Mr. Tharoor would do. The critical analysis is objective and based on the reasoned perceptions of the author and doesn't get personal or stinging. It was a worthy first read of 2023 for me. My ratings are 5 out of 5 for anyone seeking to know about Babasaheb.
Review: LIFE AND LEGACY OF DR AMBEDKAR - Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was educated as an economist and trained as a barrister, but he went on to become a politician, a social reformer, an author, an educationist and much more. This book is a biography of Dr Ambedkar by Shashi Tharoor, formerly an international civil servant, now better known as a politician and best-selling author. “That the son of an untouchable subedar,” says Dr Tharoor in his introductory Note, “scrabbling in the dust in the cantonment town of Mhow, rose to earn two prestigious doctorates and, by sheer dint of his intellectual worth, courage of conviction, and brilliance of articulation became one of the foremost figures among a generation of giants is drama enough for this author.” The first part of this book titled ‘Life’ consists of a concise biography in five chapters. While the details of Dr Ambedkar’s birth, childhood, early struggles, education, maturity and career are quite well known, the author presents them in his own inimitable way. He describes young Bhim, the fourteenth child of Subedar Ramji Sakpal as a “somewhat rowdy infant, with a taste for a fight and an unwillingness to admit defeat in any situation he found himself in…” but notes “as an untouchable, Bhim was segregated at school from other students and made to sit in a corner of the classroom on a gunny sack…” As a student at Columbia University, at the age of twenty-five, Ambedkar participated in a seminar on Anthropology, in which he compared Hinduism with a “multi-storied building in which each floor is occupied by a caste, but there is no staircase which links the different floors. One lives and dies on the floor on which one is born.” When he returned to India, Dr Ambedkar established the ‘Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha’ and coined this famous slogan “Educate, Organize and Agitate.” Later, as the foremost leader of the ‘Depressed Classes’ (now called ‘Dalits’) he participated in all the three Round Table Talks in London. His views often conflicted with those of Mahatma Gandhi, who believed that the Indian National Congress represented all sections of society. He also questioned the Mahatma’s ideal of a village-based economy, by asking rhetorically “What is the village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism?” In 1935, recounts the author, the Jat Pat Todak Mandal, an organization dedicated to breaking down caste barriers, invited Dr Ambedkar to preside over their Annual Conference to be held in Lahore. However, his views turned out to be far too radical for the Mandal, who finally cancelled the event, when they found that Dr Ambedkar was not willing to make any changes in his speech. The text of his speech (which was never delivered) became the basis of his seminal work ‘The Annihilation of Caste’. In 1947, Dr Ambedkar joined Nehru’s cabinet as law minister; and shortly afterwards he was appointed chairman of the drafting committee in the historic Constituent Assembly. In his speech for unanimous adoption of the draft Constitution, he emphasized the need “to hold fast to constitutional methods for achieving our social and economic objectives, abandoning the ‘bloody methods of revolution’ including ‘civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha.’” On the same occasion, he also said “Bhakti in religion may be a path to salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and eventual dictatorship.” The second part of this book, titled ‘Legacy’ explores the themes of Dr Ambedkar’s Constitutionalism and Nationalism, apart from examining his impact on the world and the country today. The author also identifies what he considers the flaws in Dr Ambedkar’s life and records, including “his blind spot about the Adivasis,” his strident critcism of Hinduism and his repeated clashes with Mahatma Gandhi. While there is no dearth of material about Dr Ambedkar, the author has done an excellent job of selection and presentation of information. The book is very well produced and reasonably priced. The only shortcoming, in my opinion, is that it does not contain any photographs.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #18,349 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #379 in Politics #503 in Biographies & Autobiographies (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 437 Reviews |

## Images

![Ambedkar: A Life - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71IEhPCxwcL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A worthy biography
*by A***M on 26 January 2023*

Ambedkar's A Life by Shashi Tharoor is a well-written biography. For someone who has read fairly about Babasaheb, the book had no startling facts. Except for the fact that he contemplated giving up his life if he lost his vision, because it would mean no longer he could read. Growing up, my father used to emphasize a lot on reading books. I am confident that he got this inspiration from Babasaheb. Shashi Tharoor has woven a good connection between events in the life of Dr. Ambedkar. The book is around 200 pages and is a good introduction to the life of Dr. BR Ambedkar by an equally erudite intellectual. The book is not a hagiography and that is the best part of it. It contains a section on Dr. BR Ambedkar's flaws, one which very few apart from Mr. Tharoor would do. The critical analysis is objective and based on the reasoned perceptions of the author and doesn't get personal or stinging. It was a worthy first read of 2023 for me. My ratings are 5 out of 5 for anyone seeking to know about Babasaheb.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ LIFE AND LEGACY OF DR AMBEDKAR
*by A***A on 23 April 2025*

Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was educated as an economist and trained as a barrister, but he went on to become a politician, a social reformer, an author, an educationist and much more. This book is a biography of Dr Ambedkar by Shashi Tharoor, formerly an international civil servant, now better known as a politician and best-selling author. “That the son of an untouchable subedar,” says Dr Tharoor in his introductory Note, “scrabbling in the dust in the cantonment town of Mhow, rose to earn two prestigious doctorates and, by sheer dint of his intellectual worth, courage of conviction, and brilliance of articulation became one of the foremost figures among a generation of giants is drama enough for this author.” The first part of this book titled ‘Life’ consists of a concise biography in five chapters. While the details of Dr Ambedkar’s birth, childhood, early struggles, education, maturity and career are quite well known, the author presents them in his own inimitable way. He describes young Bhim, the fourteenth child of Subedar Ramji Sakpal as a “somewhat rowdy infant, with a taste for a fight and an unwillingness to admit defeat in any situation he found himself in…” but notes “as an untouchable, Bhim was segregated at school from other students and made to sit in a corner of the classroom on a gunny sack…” As a student at Columbia University, at the age of twenty-five, Ambedkar participated in a seminar on Anthropology, in which he compared Hinduism with a “multi-storied building in which each floor is occupied by a caste, but there is no staircase which links the different floors. One lives and dies on the floor on which one is born.” When he returned to India, Dr Ambedkar established the ‘Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha’ and coined this famous slogan “Educate, Organize and Agitate.” Later, as the foremost leader of the ‘Depressed Classes’ (now called ‘Dalits’) he participated in all the three Round Table Talks in London. His views often conflicted with those of Mahatma Gandhi, who believed that the Indian National Congress represented all sections of society. He also questioned the Mahatma’s ideal of a village-based economy, by asking rhetorically “What is the village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism?” In 1935, recounts the author, the Jat Pat Todak Mandal, an organization dedicated to breaking down caste barriers, invited Dr Ambedkar to preside over their Annual Conference to be held in Lahore. However, his views turned out to be far too radical for the Mandal, who finally cancelled the event, when they found that Dr Ambedkar was not willing to make any changes in his speech. The text of his speech (which was never delivered) became the basis of his seminal work ‘The Annihilation of Caste’. In 1947, Dr Ambedkar joined Nehru’s cabinet as law minister; and shortly afterwards he was appointed chairman of the drafting committee in the historic Constituent Assembly. In his speech for unanimous adoption of the draft Constitution, he emphasized the need “to hold fast to constitutional methods for achieving our social and economic objectives, abandoning the ‘bloody methods of revolution’ including ‘civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha.’” On the same occasion, he also said “Bhakti in religion may be a path to salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and eventual dictatorship.” The second part of this book, titled ‘Legacy’ explores the themes of Dr Ambedkar’s Constitutionalism and Nationalism, apart from examining his impact on the world and the country today. The author also identifies what he considers the flaws in Dr Ambedkar’s life and records, including “his blind spot about the Adivasis,” his strident critcism of Hinduism and his repeated clashes with Mahatma Gandhi. While there is no dearth of material about Dr Ambedkar, the author has done an excellent job of selection and presentation of information. The book is very well produced and reasonably priced. The only shortcoming, in my opinion, is that it does not contain any photographs.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Print should be still bright
*by M***N on 6 December 2025*

Very good book know a lot about unknown facts about. Dr Ambedkar

## Frequently Bought Together

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*Product available on Desertcart Slovakia*
*Store origin: SK*
*Last updated: 2026-02-05*