Ramabai Ambedkar Jayanti: Ramabai Bhimrao Ambedkar is fondly remembered as Ramai or Mata Ram. Known for her humility, resilience and compassion, she was the first wife of Dr BR Ambedkar, an Indian jurist and economist. Ramabai was a pioneer of social justice and a source of great inspiration and support for the framer of the Constitution. It was his flexibility that made it possible for Ambedkar to pursue higher education abroad. Since most of her power was practiced behind the scenes of the revolution led by Ambedkar, very little is known or written about Ramabai.
History has been witness to the virtue of perseverance she displayed even in difficult circumstances, and it is important to shed light on a woman who showed the grit and determination of the highest order.
On Ramabai’s birth anniversary, we take a look at some lesser known facts about her:
1. Born in a poor Dalit family, Ramabai was the second daughter of fish laborer Bhiku Dhatre Valangkar to Dabjol and Rukmini.
2. After losing her mother in childhood, Ramabai grew up with her three siblings – Gorabai, Mirabai and Shankar in the village of Walang.
3. Ramabai and her siblings were later raised by their uncles in the then Bombay.
4. Nine year old Ramabai was married in 1906 to a teenager Ambedkar in a simple ceremony in the market of Byculla.
5. Ambedkar affectionately called him Ramu while she used to call him Sahab.
6. They had four sons – Gangadhar, Yashwant, Ramesh and Rajaratna – and a daughter, Indu. Unfortunately, the couple’s four children died in infancy, leaving their only surviving child, Yashwant.
7. While Ambedkar earned a doctorate degree abroad, Ramabai lived alone in abject poverty in British India.
8. The couple had been married for 29 years until Ramabai’s death in 1935 after a prolonged illness.
9. Ambedkar dedicated his book Thoughts on Pakistan to his beloved wife’s “goodness of heart, nobility of her mind and purity of her character and calm patience and readiness to suffer.”
Ramabai has been the subject of a few films and books, mainly in Kannada and Marathi. Some of them are the following:
- Ramabai Bhimrao Ambedkar, a 2011 film by Prakash Jadhavi
- Ramabai, M. Ranganathy’s 2016 film
- Yugpurush Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, a 1993 film by Shashikant Nalawade
- Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, a 2000 film by Jabbar Patel
- Bhim Garjana, 1990 film by Vijay Pawar
- Ashok Gawli’s play in Ramai, 1992
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