AMBEDKAR AND HIS HANKERING FOR A MODERN INDIA

Abstract

Ambedkar was a man of modern thought, unlike many of his contemporaries. While many of them lived in a pre-renaissance state idolizing and romanticizing the traditional Indian systems like the caste and village, Ambedkar preferred India to live in a post-renaissance prismatic state. The British rule in India paved the path of modernization of India, according to Ambedkar. It opened up India with the Western World. His contributions as a theorist, lawmaker and administrator are aimed at making India a modern nation in the lines of the Western World. He argued and proposed that India should align with the West led by the US, as it will mechanize, industrialize and urbanize India. But the then policy makers of India preferred and adopted another way out. This blocked Indian progress for fifty long years. With the fall of Berlin Wall, India is moving close towards the US led Western World, as desired by Ambedkar. For Ambedkar, the US is the synonym of modernization. By employing the thought of Ambedkar, India may reach the ‘drive to maturity’ stage of growth at a higher speed.

Keywords: Ambedkar, Modernity, British India, the US, Industrialize, Urbanize, Digital India.