Marriage

Baba Saheb Ambedkar was now an old man. Over working and six decades of struggles and travails had told upon his life. He was not keeping well. Diabetes and other ailments were ravaging his body. He needed medical attention constantly. In one spell of weakness he spent a long time in Mavlankar Hospital of Bombay. There, Dr. Sharda Kabeer was assigned the task of taking care of Dr. Ambedkar. The doctor and patient relationship brought them closer and eventually they decided to get married. Sharda Kabeer was Brahmin by caste. The caste that tormented him all his life in the end provided him his life partner. In some way it was a psychological compensation for all the pain he had suffered.
Now Dr. Ambedkar had in-house doctor to keep a close watch on his failing health.
Soon after submitting the Draft Constitution Dr. Ambedkar introduced ‘Hindu Code Bill’ which he had prepared after a long research and labour. The aim of the Bill was to remove the distortions and evil aspects of Hindu society.
The bill raised the hornet’s nest. All the orthodox leaders who were earlier showering praise on Dr. Ambedkar for the constitution turned against him. Even Dr. Rajendra Prasad who was earlier paying tributes to him was up in arms against him. (It should be noted that later as the President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad visited Haridwar where he washed the feet of a Brahmin priest and drank the wash as the ignorant ones steeped in blind faiths do). The opposition to the Hindu Code Bill by orthodox mob angered the progressive block. Sarojni Naidu swore by the bill. Jawahar Lal Nehru threatened to resign if the bill was not passed.
But the orthodox sections were hell bent on blocking the Bill. They refused to budge from their hard stand. All the leaders who were against Dr. Ambedkar got a chance to show their real colours and run him down.
The bill could not be passed. It was dead.
In anguish Dr. Ambedkar left Delhi. His followers had invited him to lay foundation stone of ‘Ambedkar Bhavan’ on his birthday on 14th April, 1951. Meanwhile the orthodox section celebrated the defeat of the Bill as if it were a great victory.
On the occasion of Buddha Jayanti Dr. Ambedkar spoke and he severely castigated the caste system of Hinduism. Lately Dr. Ambedkar had been attending Buddhist celebrations and reading Buddhist literature. He was moving closer to Buddhism. He was now thoroughly disenchanted with Hindu religion. Opposition to the Hindu Code Bill made it clear that caste Hindus will never agree to any kind of reforms or change of hearts.
In one of the meetings of the backwards he clearly declared, “I was born an untouchable Hindu. That was not under my control. But I promise you that I won’t die a Hindu.”
It was clear that he had made up his mind to convert to some other religion. Muslims and Christians had approached him to entice him to their religions but he refused to fall in their trap. He was too Indian to accept anything alien. He would rather convert to Buddhism, a religion born in India.