QUESTION 11: Why did Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar use his surname as Ambedkar despite his father's name was Ramji Sakpal?

The following is from series of questions answered by Shekhar Bodhakar        

There are three points arising from the question, which must be discussed in order to correctly answer the question.

FIRST POINT:

The concept of surnames was introduced to Indians by the colonials and surnames can be changed. Indians had no concept of surname before the British arrived.

When it became a requirement to use surnames (for example if you were employed by the British army), people just opted to write their village/town/city/tribe/religion/jati or fathers/grandfather's name as their surname.

SECOND POINT:

The system of names most Indian used and still use today is to write their father's/husband's name after their name. To further distinguish themselves from other people who had the same name as them, and in case their fathers had the same name too, they would use their grand father's name after the father's name and so and so forth with great grand father's name.

According to this system Dr Ambedkar’s name, Bhimrao would be written as

BHIMRAO RAMJI MALOJI (Maloji being Bhimrao’s grand father) and NOT as Bhimrao Ramji Sakpal.

Dr Ambedkar’s father name would be written as

RAMJI MALOJI SAKPAL (Sakpal was Ramji’s grand father's name)

My Question: After reading the above, would you say SAKPAL is a surname?

OR is Sakpal just a name like any other? In this case name of Maloji’s father.

SAKPAL is just written as Maloji’s surname because no one seems to know Maloji’s grand father's name. Otherwise his name would be written as:

(MALOJI SAKPAL ***** )

THIRD POINT:

Let's now rewrite the question a little more accurately.

Why did Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar use his surname as Ambedkar despite his father's name was Ramji Maloji?

According to this question, what has Bhimrao's father’s name (Ramji) got to do with Bhimrao's surname (Maloji)? NOTHING.

Let's rephrase the question again to make more sense of it.

Why did Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar use his surname as Ambedkar despite his father’s surname was Maloji?

Though the information in the question may not be accurate, the question itself now makes sense and can be answered

ANSWER:

Babasaheb Ambedkar used his surname as Ambedkar because that was the surname of his father, Ramji which he adopted for himself and his family when it was required of him to write it on official documents.

History is full of rumors and one of those rumours surrounds the Ambedkar surname. It has been said that a Brahmin teacher gave the young Bhimrao his surname but no school records have been found which mention any teacher with the surname Ambedkar. There are no authentic records /proofs verifying this claim. There is simply mention of this fake story in various writings.

The name Ambedkar was the surname of Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar’s father ‘Ramji Maloji Ambedkar’. This information was also mentioned in Indian Information under the caption ‘Personalities’ dated 1st March 1943.

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ALSO READ:

1. Why don’t Dalits acknowledge the Brahmin teacher of Ambedkar who gave him the knowledge and also his surname?

2. Despite being a Brahmin why didn’t Ambedkar’s teacher hate Ambedkar?

3. Are there any surviving Brahmins with the surname Ambedkar? If no doesnt this indicate that Ambedkar is not a Brahmin surname?

4. What is the full form of B. R. Ambedkar?

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