Ramabai Ambedkar Birth Anniversary: Lesser-known Facts About Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s Wife

RAMABAI AMBEDKAR BIRTH ANNIVERSARY: Ramabai Bhimrao Ambedkar is fondly remembered as Ramai or Mother Rama. Known for her humility, resilience and compassion, she was the first wife of Indian jurist and economist Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Ramabai was a great inspiration and source of support for the doyen of social justice and the architect of the constitution. It was her resilience that made it possible for Ambedkar to pursue higher education overseas. Since most of her strength was prevalent behind-the-scenes of the revolution led by Ambedkar, little is known or written about Ramabai.

History has been witness to the virtue of perseverance she exhibited even in the face of hardships, and it is vital to shed light on a woman who showed grit and determination of the highest order.

On Ramabai’s birth anniversary, we look at some lesser-known facts about her:

1. Born in a poor Dalit family, Ramabai was the second daughter of Bhiku Dhatre Valangkar, a fish labourer near Dabjol and Rukmini.
2. After she lost her mother in early childhood, Ramabai grew up with her three siblings – Gorabai, Meerabai and Shankar in Walang village.
3. Ramabai and her siblings were later brought up by their uncles in erstwhile Bombay.
4. A nine-year-old Ramabai was married to a teenage Ambedkar in 1906 in a simple ceremony in the market of Byculla.
5. Ambedkar would affectionately call her Ramu while she called him Saheb.
6. They were blessed with four sons – Gangadhar, Yashwant, Ramesh and Rajratna – and a daughter, Indu. Unfortunately, the couple’s four kids died in infancy except Yashwant, their only surviving child.
7. While Ambedkar pursued his doctoral degrees abroad, Ramabai lived alone in erstwhile British India under abject poverty.
8. The couple were married for 29 years until Ramabai passed away after prolonged illness in 1935.
9. Ambedkar dedicated his book Thoughts on Pakistan to his beloved wife’s “goodness of heart, her nobility of mind and her purity of character and also for the cool fortitude and readiness to suffer.”

Ramabai has been the subject of a few movies and books, mainly in Kannada and Marathi. Following are some of them:

1. Ramabai Bhimrao Ambedkar, a 2011 film by Prakash Jadhav
2. Ramabai, a 2016 film by M. Ranganath
3. Yugpurush Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, a 1993 film by Shashikant Nalavade
4. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, a 2000 film by Jabbar Patel
5. Bhim Garjana, a 1990 film by Vijay Pawar
6. Ramai, a 1992 play by Ashok Gawali.

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