B. R. Ambedkar, John Dewey, and the Meaning of Democracy

This paper looks at the influence of American pragmatist philosopher, John Dewey, on Indian leader and intellectual, B. R. Ambedkar and Ambedkar’s refashioning of Deweyan thought into a tool for his own investigations of Indian society. Ambedkar studied at Columbia University from 1913 to 1916, and Dewey was his favorite teacher there. Ambedkar’s writings quote widely from Dewey, especially his book Democracy and Education . Ambedkar was deeply influenced by Deweyan idea of democracy as “associated life” which went beyond electing a government at regular intervals. Indeed, for both Ambedkar and Dewey, this idea encapsulated their understanding of humans as both products of their social environment and as agents who continuously changed their social environment through communication and education. Ambedkar used these Deweyan ideas about the human and social life to critique the caste-based Hindu society, to fight for the rights of untouchables, and to envision an Indian democracy based on the ideals of equality, liberty and fraternity.