Talk abstract:
With doctorates from two great institutions, the London School of Economics, and Columbia University, also a qualified lawyer, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956) was the most erudite Indian in public life in the leadup to India’s freedom from colonial rule in 1947. Born into a family of Hinduism’s historically most discriminated and marginalized castes, literally untouchables, Ambedkar rose above restrictive societal and economic limitations to be the most consequential of India’s leaders. He played a pivotal role in the emergence of India as a secular republic with a landmark first-of-its kind-affirmative action programme, incredible for its scope and depth. Ambedkar deserves to be much better known outside India than he is presently. In his talk, Dr Uday Balakrishnan will argue that the single most consequential action of Ambedkar - the signing of the Poona Pact on 24th September 1932, downplayed by most historians - reinforced Mahatma Gandhi’s position as the leader of all Hindus, giving him a religiously consolidated base which acquiesced to the creation of the secular Indian Republic based on a constitution that Ambedkar was largely instrumental in framing.
Speaker:
Dr. Uday Balakrishnan (73) is a former member of one of India’s higher civil services.Through much of his career (1975-2010) he has worked both at policy implementation and policy making levels. He has served across India in areas of logistics, financial inclusion, child, women bonded and unorganised labour, human resource development, banking, vigilance, and anti-corruption as well as large institutional management banking and life insurance at senior levels in the Government of India.To pursue his interest in contemporary history, especially India’s, Dr Balakrishnan voluntarily retired as Member, Postal Services Board & Chairman of the then USD 3.2 billion Investment Board of the Postal Insurance Fund - Government of India. Dr Balakrishnan holds a doctorate in Political Science from Karnatak University, Dharwad - India. A former Visiting Fellow at CEU- Budapest (2010-11) he has developed and taught a public policy and contemporary history course, Introduction to Governance in India at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science – Bangalore to undergraduate students pursuing a 4-year Bachelors programme by research in the sciences. since 2013-14.