Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and Constitutional Feminism in India: Caste, Gender, and Social Justice

Abstract

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s contribution to women’s rights has frequently been overshadowed by his widely acknowledged role as a critic of caste and the principal architect of the Indian Constitution. This paper argues that B. R. Ambedkar developed a distinctive and theoretically sophisticated model of constitutional feminism grounded in the intersection of caste, gender, class, labour, and religion. Moving beyond reformist and nationalist approaches that framed women’s issues within moral, cultural, or paternalistic paradigms, Ambedkar sought to institutionalise gender justice through constitutional guarantees, legislative reform, and active state intervention. His feminist vision located women’s oppression within broader structures of social hierarchy and emphasised that democracy could not survive without substantive equality for women.
The study critically analyses Ambedkar’s writings, speeches, parliamentary interventions, and legislative initiatives—particularly his engagement with the Hindu Code Bill—to examine his critique of patriarchy, caste endogamy, Brahmanical social order, and religious authority. It further explores his sustained emphasis on women’s education, labour rights, maternity benefits, equal wages, and economic independence as indispensable foundations of social democracy. Ambedkar’s insistence that women’s rights must be constitutionally guaranteed and legally enforceable represented a decisive shift from symbolic reform to structural transformation. His interventions challenged not only social customs but also the institutional mechanisms through which caste and patriarchy reproduced inequality.
By situating Ambedkar within contemporary debates on intersectional and Dalit feminism, the paper demonstrates the continuing relevance of his thought in addressing gender inequality in neoliberal India. It argues that Ambedkar anticipated many key concerns of contemporary feminist theory by foregrounding the interconnected nature of caste, gender, class, and labour exploitation. The paper also contends that his concept of constitutional morality provides a powerful normative framework for reconciling legal equality with substantive social justice in a society marked by persistent structural inequalities. The paper concludes that Ambedkar must be recognised not merely as a social reformer or constitutional architect but as a foundational feminist thinker whose integrated vision of equality, dignity, democratic citizenship, and social justice remains indispensable for achieving transformative gender justice in contemporary India.