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100 Years of the Problem of Rupee: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's Historic Thesis Shapes India's Economic Future
Lucknow - What was the title of the thesis that Dr. B. R. Ambedkar submitted to the London School of Economics, for which he was awarded his doctorate in 1923? This might appear to be quite an easy question for most Ambedkarites, but Himani Bundela, a native of Jhansi, who breezed through the 15 questions of Kaun Banega Crorepati to win Rs 1 crore, couldn’t answer this question and deprived herself of the chance to win Rs 7 crore, the prize money for this question. The answer to this question – "The Problem of Rupee-its Origin and Solution" – is not an esoteric knowledge among Ambedkarites today. As the thesis completed 100 years in 2023, we take a look at the thesis that surpassed the boundaries of a research paper.
On this day, 15th December 1926, Dr. Ambedkar presented evidence before the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance on his thesis - "The Problem of Rupee." It is said that each member of this commission held a copy of Dr. Ambedkar’s 257-page paper. It is noteworthy that the paper completed 100 years this year, as it was presented and published in 1923 as the thesis for his doctoral research at the prestigious London School of Economics (LSE).
The Doctoral Thesis that Laid the Foundation of the Indian Banking System
Dr. Ambedkar postulated the need, working style, and outlook of the Royal Commission, also known as the Hilton Young Commission. The Commission duly incorporated the guidelines presented by Ambedkar in 1926, and later the legislative assembly passed the recommendations in the name of the RBI Act 1934. Consequently, the Reserve Bank of India was established on 1st April 1935.
During British rule, the Indian currency was pegged to the British pound, and the exchange rate was fixed at a rate that favored British interests. The British Indian government had absolute control over the issuance of currency, and they used this power to manipulate the value of the rupee to their advantage.
In his thesis, he exposed the strategy of the British to keep the exchange rate inordinately high, which tipped the balance in favor of their factory products.
One of the major issues was the constant devaluation of the Indian rupee by the British government. The value of the rupee was artificially lowered to benefit British exporters and to finance the expenses of the colonial administration. This devaluation had severe economic consequences for the Indian population, leading to inflation and a decline in the standard of living.
Gold Exchange Standard
He argued that the gold exchange standard does not have stability, and developing countries like India cannot afford gold exchange standards as they are prone to inflationary pressures. He buttressed his claims with statistical figures. The thesis also advocated the regulation of government deficits and the circular flow of money. The book comprises seven chapters.
In the first three chapters of the book, he touches upon the deficiencies associated with silver currency. In the first chapter of the book known as “From a Double Standard to the Silver Standard,” he has touched upon the economic contours of the Mughal Empire and mentioned that the economic condition during the Mughal era was much better than that in the English Empire. Dr. Ambedkar explained how silver standards had been established through the waning of gold currency and how it had been supplemented by paper currency. He pointed out that Act XXIII of 1870 did nothing new - neither the number of the coins authorized by the mints nor its tender-powers. Rather, it helped make some improvements in monetary laws. Since the invention of coinage, people always thought that the actual value of the coin can be exact with the price of the coin legalized by the mint. So according to him, the exact value of the coin can’t, however, always be the same as the certified value.
In the second half of the chapters, Ambedkar draws a comparison between the rupee and coins. The second chapter is "The Silver Standard and the Dislocation of its Parity." In the introduction to the third chapter, “The Silver Standard and the Evils of its Instability,” Ambedkar was concerned about the economic results of the disruption of the ‘par’ of exchange, and he describes it as the most “far-reaching character.”
In the fourth chapter of the book, titled “Towards the Gold Standard,” Ambedkar focuses on how the establishment of a stable economic system was contingent upon the re-establishment of a common standard of value. In the seventh as well as the last chapter of the book titled “A Return to the Gold Standard,” Ambedkar examined the system of the economy that was moving towards the changes made in the exchange standards.
The Thesis that Left its Imprint on Economy and History
Only a few research papers and theses have left their imprint on the economic structure of an economy as "The Problem of Rupee-its Origin and its Solutions" has. The fact that the Reserve Bank of India, the central bank of the country, was formed based on the guidelines made in the research paper proves the acumen of Dr. Ambedkar as an economist.
The research paper was published in 1923 by P. S. King and Sons and had the foreword by Edward Kennan, who grossly disagreed with the assertion of Ambedkar in his thesis. The Thesis is also published by the Dr. Ambedkar Foundation as a part of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's writings and speeches.
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Why publication of b.r. ambedkar's thesis a century later will be significant, a contemporary relevance of the thesis, written as part of ambedkar's msc degree at the london school of economics, is that it argues for massive expenditure on heads like defence to be diverted to the social sector.
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Now, over a century after it was written, Ambedkar’s hitherto unpublished thesis on the provincial decentralisation of imperial finance in colonial times will finally see the light of the day. The Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Source Material Publication Committee of the Maharashtra government plans to publish the thesis that was written by Ambedkar as part of his MSc degree from the London School of Economics (LSE). The thesis, ‘Provincial Decentralisation of Imperial Finance in British India’, will be part of the 23rd volume of Ambedkar’s works to be published by the committee and will give a glimpse into the works of Ambedkar, the economist. Notably, the dissertation argues for expenditure on heads like defence to be diverted for social goods like education and public health.
The source material committee, which was set up in 1978, has published 22 volumes on Ambedkar’s writings since April 1979. “This volume will have two parts. One will contain the MSc thesis and the other will have communication and documents related to his MA, MSc, PhD and bar-at-law degrees,” confirmed Pradeep Aglave, member secretary of the committee. He added that the MSc thesis had been submitted to the LSE in 1921. Veteran Ambedkarite and founder of the Dalit Panthers, J.V. Pawar, who is a member of the committee, said it was significant that the thesis was being published over a century after it was written. Pawar played a pivotal role in ensuring that the committee was set up.
“This work deals with taxation and expenditure. The contemporary relevance of this thesis is that it seeks a progressive taxation based on income levels. Ambedkar argued that expenditure on heads like defence was huge and this needed to be diverted to social needs like education, public health, and water supply,” said Sukhadeo Thorat, economist and former chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC). Thorat was among those instrumental in the source material committee getting a copy of the thesis from London.
“The sixth volume (1989), published by the source material committee, contains Ambedkar’s writings on economics. This includes his works like ‘Administration and Finance of the East India Company’ (1915) and the ‘Problem of the Rupee: Its Origin and Its Solution’ (1923). However, this MSc thesis on provincial finance could not be included in it because it was not available then,” said Thorat.
J. Krishnamurty, a Geneva-based labour economist located the MSc thesis in the Senate House Library in London and approached Thorat who, in turn, communicated with Gautam Chakravarti of the Ambedkar International Mission in London. Santosh Das, another Ambedkarite from London, paid the fees for permission to reproduce the work in copyright. The soft copy of the thesis was sent to the source material committee on November 18, 2021.
In addition to the MSc thesis, the communication and letters related to his academics, such as the MA, PhD, MSc and DSc and bar-at-law including LLD (an honorary degree that was awarded to Ambedkar by the Columbia University in 1952after he finished drafting the Constitution of India, which remains one of his most significant contributions to modern India), were also arranged and compiled by Krishnamurty, Thorat and Aglave. This also includes the courses done by Ambedkar for his MA and pre-PHD at the Columbia University. These details are being published for the first time.
Ambedkar’s biographer Changdev Bhavanrao Khairmode, writes how Ambedkar worked untiringly in London for his MSc. Ambedkar secured admission for his MSc in the LSE on September 30, 1920 by paying a fee of 11 pounds and 11 shillings. He was given a student pass with the number 11038.
Ambedkar had prepared for his MSc in Mumbai, yet he began studying books and reports from four libraries in London, namely the London University’s general library, Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature and the libraries in the British Museum and India Office. In London, Ambedkar would wake up at 6 am, have the breakfast served by his landlady and rush to the library for his studies. Around 1 pm, he would take a short break for a meagre lunch or have just a cup of tea and then return to the library to study till it closed for the day.
“He would sleep for a few hours. He would stand at the doors of the library before it opened and before others came there,” says Khairmode in the first volume of his magisterial work on Ambedkar (Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Volume I) that was first published in 1952. The library staff in the British Museum would tell Ambedkar that they had not seen a student like him who was immersed in his books and they also doubted if they would get to see one like him in the future!
The volume also contains a letter written by Ambedkar in German on February 25, 1921 to the University of Bonn seeking admission. Ambedkar wanted to study Sanskrit language and German philosophy in the varsity’s department of Indology. In school, Ambedkar was discriminated against on grounds of caste and not allowed to learn Sanskrit. He had to learn Persian instead. Ambedkar secured admission to Bonn University but had to return to London three months later to revise and complete his DSc thesis.
Ambedkar completed his DSc in 1923 under the guidance of Professor Edwin Cannan of the LSE on the problem of the rupee, which is described as a “remarkable piece of research on Indian currency, and probably the first detailed empirical account of the currency and monetary policy during the period”.
Ambedkar was among the first from India to pursue doctoral studies in economics abroad. He specialised in finance and currency. His ‘The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India: A Study in the Provincial Decentralisation of Imperial Finance (1925)’, carried a foreword by Edwin R.A. Seligman, Professor of Economics, Columbia University, New York. Ambedkar also played a pivotal role in the conceptualisation and establishment of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 1935.
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All About Ambedkar
Issn 2582-9785, a journal on theory and praxis, on economics, banking and trades: a critical overview of ambedkar's “the problem of the rupee”.
Janardan Das
The Problem of Rupee is 257-page long paper written by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar that he presented as his Doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics (LSE) in March 1923. In it, Ambedkar tried to explain the troubles that were associated with the national currency of India - the Rupee. He argued against the British ploy to keep the exchange rate too high to facilitate the trade of their factory products.
In this article, I have tried to summarize the aforesaid book by Dr. Ambedkar. I have also tried to focus on how he advances his speech depicting the ups and downs of the Indian economy and currency. He introduces us to the characteristics of trade and business in our country even from the time when it was divided into several monarchical regions. He proclaims that in our country, the trade of any product had been conducted through the exchanges of money and those particular products. So evidently our merchant society is typically crowned as a pecuniary society that only runs on money.
Quoting W. C. Mitchell, Ambedkar reiterates that economists say money is pivotal to every individual in a society. And without the use of money, the distribution of anything can be a matter of disagreement and disturbance. In the next few lines of his speech, in the first chapter, he describes how the standards and currency were in the time of the Mughal empire and he certainly mentioned that the economic condition of the country was far better than that of today's, because it had a world-wide boundary of trade and free use of gold mohur and the silver rupee . Actually, before the administrative and financial invasion of British, Gold and silver were the inevitable parts of the medium of exchange without any fixed ratio. Hindu emperors and the Muslim emperors had some similarity in their trading features- both of them had a permissible use of metal coin in their empire but in the Mughal empire silver coins were at the center of currency, and later gold coins took that place in the Hindi empires. Mohur and rupee were similar in size, weight and composition. But the silver currency was unknown or more precisely unpopular to the southern part of the great Indian sub-continent because of the failure of Mughal administration. Instead of such coins, they normalised pagoda , the ancient gold coin traditioned from the time of Hindu kings. Mughals made allowances to recuperate the problems regarding faulty technology of the mints. Dr. Ambedkar observes that Mughals had initiated a system of provincial mints that had been maintained or ruled by a single unit or division. That made it easy to examine the issues related to monetary funds or mints. But later, these issues continued to be grow larger and made the poor and ignorant people suffer. He also tried to conjugate the great re-coinage of 1996 (?) . In the last half of the chapter, Ambedkar compared the coins as well as the rupee in every possible way.
Our country was divided into three presidencies during the British rule. So the British government set their target to change the parallel standard popular in Mughal times into a double standard by establishing an authorised ratio of exchange between pagoda , rupee , and mohur . But somewhere their effort partially went in vain. He gave a pictorial glimpse of how Bengal took this effort and tried to fix that ratio. Mainly, these types of attempts were taken and recommended by the Court of directors. But these steps were left to carry out by many of the provincial governments of India. In the first chapter of the problem of the rupee, Dr. Ambedkar explained how silver standards had been established through the vanishing of gold currency and how it had been supplemented by the paper currency. He also retorted how the Act XXIII of 1870 actually introduced nothing new - neither the number of the coins authorised by the mints nor its tender-powers. Rather, it helped just to make some improvements in monetary laws. Since the invention of coinage people always thought that the actual value of the coin can be exact with the price of the coin legalised by the mint. So according to him, the exact value of the coin can’t however always be the same as the certified value. That’s why in foreign countries, coins will not be legal tender if they vary from their legal standards beyond a certain limit. So, making coins legal tender without defining a certain limit to its toleration certainly makes way to cheat. Convincingly, the Act set a certain legal limit to the coins of its tolerance. The act also made an improvement that was to recognise the principle of free coinage. But we can not say that this principle of free coinage was perfect in every possible way as Ambedkar himself once said in this chapter that the principle had not been paid that much attention it deserved. Though it was the very basis of well-established currency in that it has an important bearing on the cardinal question of the amount of currency inevitable for the transactions of the people. According to Ambedkar, to solve this problem, two ways can be very useful to regulate such a huge quantity of transactions. One possible way is to close the mints and to leave it to the judgment of the government to handle the currency to suit our needs. The other way is to keep the mint as it is and to leave it to the self-interest of individuals to determine the amount of currency they need. Ambedkar aptly indicated both of the similarities and contradictions of the above-mentioned Act with the other ones where surely, he finds its incapability to regulate such a large quantity of currency.
In the introduction to the third chapter, Ambedkar was concerned about the economic results of the disturbance of the ‘par’ of exchange and he narrates it as the most “far-reaching character”. Our economic world can be sectioned into two neatly defined groups of people. These two categorised community had learned to use gold and silver and their standard money or purchasing standards. By giving a reference to 1873, he said that when a large amount of gold becomes equal to a large amount of silver, it barely matters for international transactions. It doesn’t make so much difference in which of the two currencies its obligations were stipulated and realized. But due to the dislocation of the fixed ratio or par, it becomes hard to indicate particularly how much silver is equal to how much of gold from one year to another, even from month to month. This exactitude of value which is the pivotal potential of monetary exchange, makes space for ambiguities of gambling. So, flatly all countries weren’t drawn to this center of perplexities in the same degree and the same extent; but yet it’s impossible for a nation which is a part of the international commercial world to escape from being dragged into it. This was true of our country as it was of no other country. India was a silver-standard country bound to a gold-standard country, so that her economic and financial picture was at “the mercy of blind forces operating upon the relative values of gold and silver which governed the rupee-sterling exchange.” Later in the discussion, Ambedkar pointed out the burdens of Indian economy and introduced us to an index [Table-XI] chart regarding the rupee cost of gold payments which showed data from year to year. If we give pay attention to the points figured out by Ambedkar, we can see that these burdens never stop, rather it’s been increasing day by day. Gradually, it caused various policies of high taxations and rigidity in Indian finance. Dr. Ambedkar brilliantly analysed Indian budgets between 1872-1882 and he proved that hardly a year passed without making an addition to the everlasting impositions on the country. He also analysed the information found in Malwa Opium Trade and was able to find errors in the economic policies of the Indian government. The taxes that the government standardized in these trades probably help the Indian economy to feel secure around the end of 1882. The government started exercising the virtue of economy along with the increment of resources. They found cheap agency of native Indians instead of employing imported Englishmen. And it was easy to use native intellect because the Educational Reforms of 1853 clearly says about the access of natives in Indian Civil Service. Thus, he finds the British try to set up a strong economy in India under the British Raj.
In the fourth chapter of the book, Ambedkar focuses on how the establishment of a stable economic system was dependent upon the re-establishment of a common standard of value. As it was the purpose just to normalise a common standard of value, its fulfillment was by no means an easy matter. The government found mostly two ways to make an experiment or practice. First thing was to declare any of the common metal as the standard currency and the second was to let gold and silver standard countries keep to these metal currencies and to establish a fixed ratio of exchange as to turn these to metal into a common standard of value. The first idea of normalising metal currency other than gold and silver was to make other countries leave their standards in favour of gold. If we look back at the history of movements for the reform of the Indian currency, we will mainly find two movements. The movement that led to introduce a gold standard first occupies this field. Dragging a reference to a ‘Report of the Indian Currency Committee’ of 1898, Dr. Ambedkar said that the notification of 1868 had bluntly failed and this failure doesn’t affect the history because the movement had already started earlier in the sixties and the movement had still life in it. Clearly, it is shown by the fact that it was revived four years later by Sir R. Temple, when he became the Finance Minister of India, in a memorandum dated May 15, 1872.
In the next few lines, Dr. Ambedkar talks about the second movement for the introduction of the gold standard that was conducted by Colonel J. T. Smith, the able Mint Master of India. Frankly, Dr. Ambedkar mentioned that his plan was a redress for the falling exchange. In this topic, he quoted the actual speech of Smith that was published in 1876 in London. Depicting the whole principle behind the presentation of J. T. Smith, Baba Saheb found it was considerably supported by the fall of silver in British India.
Now in the fifth chapter, we come to know that once somewhere Indian economic system felt that the problem of an erosive rupee was favourably dissolved. The long-lasting concerns and niceties that lingered over a long period even for a quarter of the century could not but have been successfully compensated by the adoption of a redress like the one mentioned in the fourth chapter. But unfortunately, the system originally planned, failed to be designed into reality. In its place, a system of currency in India grew up which was the very reverse or contradictory of it. A few years later when the legislative sanction had been shown the recommendations and suggestions of the Fowler committee, the Chamberlain Commission on Indian Finance and Currency said that the government contemplated to adopt the recommendations made by the committee of 1898, but the contemporary system utterly differs from the plan and had some common feature with the theory and suggestions made by Mr. A. M. Lindsay.
According to Mr. Lindsay’s scheme, he emphasised on how to turn the entire Indian currency to a rupee currency; the government was to give rupees in almost every case in return for gold, whereas gold for rupees only in foreign dispatch of money. The project was to be implicated through the assistance in between of two offices, one was in London and the other located in here, India. The first was to sell drafts on the latter when rupees were wanted and the latter was to sell drafts on the former when gold was wanted. Unbelievably, the same or similar system prevailed in our country. It was rejected in 1898. Then gradually paper currency came up to the Indian economic realm and two reserves one of gold and other of currencies left other than gold. Ambedkar had lengthened his discussion over Indian currencies after these events.
In the sixth chapter of the book, Dr. Ambedkar said about a memorable thing that was to remind the time when all the Indian Mints were shut down to the free coinage of silver. and the economic world in India was surely divided into two parties, one in favour of the step and the other stood in opposition to the closure of the mints. Being placed in an embarrassing and contradictory position by the fall of the rupee, the British Government of the time felt anxiety to close the Mints and increase its value with a conception to sigh in relief from the burden of its gold payments. Whereas it was requested, to produce an increment of interest of the country, that such accretion in the exchange value of the rupee would cause a disaster to the entire Indian trade and industry. One of the reasons, it was argued, why the Indian industry had advanced by such leaps and bounds as it did from 1873 to 1893 was to be found in the bounty given to the Indian export trade by the falling exchange. If the fall of the rupee was discovered by the Mint closure, everyone feared that such an event was certainly bound to cut Indian trade both ways. It would give the silver-using countries a bounty as over against India and would deprive India of the bounty which is obtained from the falling exchange as over against gold-using countries.
However, in the seventh as well as the last chapter of the book, Ambedkar examined the system of the economy that was advancing towards the changes of the exchange standard in the light of the claim made on behalf of it. Though it is very much a matter of uncertainty and hard to explain the history of Indian banking, but sure if being followed, it will be easy to interpret the market, values of products. Unmistakably, the works of Ambedkar led the nation towards the development and advancement of its economics and international banking and trades.
Works Cited
Ambedkar, B. R. History of Indian Currency and Banking. Butler & Tanner Ltd.
______________. The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India. P. S. King & Son Ltd., 1925.
______________. The Problem of the Rupee. P. S. King & Son Ltd., 1923.
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Janardan Das studies English literature at Presidency University, Kolkata.
Ambedkar, Bhimrao Ramji
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Introduction
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, affectionally known as Babasaheb Ambedkar, was born on 14 April 1891 in a small garrison town of Madhya Pradesh to a family of Mahar, the largest group of the Untouchable caste from the state of Maharashtra (central India). His birth acquired status, as well as an exceptional life built to escape this fate, have profoundly impacted Ambedkar’s human journey and remarkable intellectual contribution to the question of equality.
A prolific writer, he produced 22 books and monographs on an amazingly diverse range of legal, political, economic, social, and religious issues. While law and jurisprudence were central to his work, Ambedkar started his intellectual journey in writing his MA thesis on the Administration and Finance of the East India Company , to later engage with the issue of caste, and indeed untouchability, with his 1945 Who Were the Shudras? How They Came to Be the Fourth Varna in the Indo-Aryan Society, and, at the end of his life,...
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Ambedkar BR (2013) Annihilation of caste , the annotated critical edition, with the Doctor and the Saint, an introduction by Arundhati Roy, Navayana
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Marendra Jadhav Ambedkar (2014) Awakening India’s social’s conscience. Kornark Publishers India: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ambedkar-Awakening-Indias-Social-Conscience/dp/9322008369
Thapar R (2015) Early India, from the origin to AD. 1300. The Penguin History of India https://www.amazon.co.uk/Penguin-History-Early-India-Origins/dp/0140288260
Zelliot E (2013) Ambedkar’s world, the making of Babasaheb and the Dalit movement. Navayana India https://navayana.org/products/ambedkars-world/?v=79cba1185463
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Choukroune, L. (2022). Ambedkar, Bhimrao Ramji. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_981-1
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Ambedkar Research Scholars
The sac encourages research scholars to engage with dr b r ambedkar's history, from his time at the lse and beyound..
Dr B R Ambedkar is one of the most important alumnus of LSE, from where he was awarded his MA and PhD. His doctoral thesis on ‘The Indian Rupee’, written in 1922-23, was later published as The Problem of the Rupee: Its Origin and Its Solution (London: P S King & Son, Ltd, 1923). Ambedkar was a Social Reformer, Economist, Parliamentarian, Jurist, and the Principal Architect of the Constitution of India.
A short biography can be found on the LSE History blog, along with a description of his time at the LSE.
2015 Scholars Visits
As part of the 125th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of Dr B R Ambedkar, the SAC hosted two delegations of research scholars and government officials for week-long visits on 24-31 October 2015 and 21-28 November 2015, in collaboration with the High Commission of India in London and the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India.
With two tours of 25 students & three officers each, the objectives of these trips were i) to show how HE institutions function in the UK, ii) the academic and educational facilities available that are relevant to theirresearch interests at LSE, iii) the rare archival collections relevant to India in museums and collections in London, iv) the multiculturallie in London and v) to introduce students to issues of social inequality, injustice and empowerment affecting contemporary Britain.
Whilst here, two students were interviewed by Rozelle Laha from the Hindustan Times , culminating in an article published in the Delhi edition (in page 19) on Wednesday, 2 December 2015.
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Explore the historic impact of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's groundbreaking thesis, 'The Problem of Rupee-its Origin and Solution,' on India's economic future. Uncover how this 100-year-old thesis laid the foundation for the Indian banking system and influenced the establishment of the Reserve Bank of India.
B. R. AMBEDKAR Rajagraha, Bombay, 7-5-1947. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION In the following pages I have attempted an exposition of the events leading to the establishment of the exchange standard and an examination of its theoretical basis. In endeavouring to treat the historical side of the matter, I have carefully avoided
The thesis, ‘Provincial Decentralisation of Imperial Finance in British India’, will be part of the 23rd volume of Ambedkar’s works to be published by the committee and will give a glimpse into the works of Ambedkar, the economist.
He passed his M.A. exam in June 1915, majoring in economics, and other subjects of Sociology, History, Philosophy and Anthropology. He presented a thesis, Ancient Indian Commerce. Ambedkar was influenced by John Dewey and his work on democracy. [21]
Rethinking untouchability: The political thought of B. R. Ambedkar. This book examines the transformation of untouchability into a political idea in India during the first half of the twentieth century. At its heart is Ambedkar’s role and the concepts he used to champion untouchability as a political problem.
The Problem of Rupee is 257-page long paper written by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar that he presented as his Doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics (LSE) in March 1923. In it, Ambedkar tried to explain the troubles that were associated with the national currency of India - the Rupee.
Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the Chief Architect of Indian Constitution was a scholar par excellence, a philosopher, a visionary, an emancipator and a true nationalist.
Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development was a paper read by B. R. Ambedkar at an anthropological seminar of Alexander Goldenweiser in New York on 9 May 1916. It was later published in volume XLI of Indian Antiquary in May 1917.
While law and jurisprudence were central to his work, Ambedkar started his intellectual journey in writing his MA thesis on the Administration and Finance of the East India Company, to later engage with the issue of caste, and indeed untouchability, with his 1945 Who Were the Shudras?
Dr B R Ambedkar is one of the most important alumnus of LSE, from where he was awarded his MA and PhD. His doctoral thesis on ‘The Indian Rupee’, written in 1922-23, was later published as The Problem of the Rupee: Its Origin and Its Solution (London: P S King & Son, Ltd, 1923).