Conduct yourself uprightly. Do not pick fights with anyone. Do not accept anything from anyone for safekeeping. Do not let anyone touch my books.” This was Dr BR Ambedkar writing to his wife Ramabai in July 1920 from London, where he had returned for further studies after a stint at Sydenham College. His Baroda state scholarship had ended, and he was struggling to survive on scarce funds. Ramabai, left behind in Bombay, faced illness, loss, and poverty alone. She pawned her bridal jewellery to support his education and shielded him from the toll of domestic grief, including the deaths of their children. By the time Ambedkar rose to prominence — representing the Depressed Classes at the Round Table Conference in London, becoming a force for Gandhi to reckon with — she herself was seriously ill. 

In another letter, written a few months before his marriage to his second wife, Dr Sharda Kabir, an accomplished medical practitioner who was part of the team of doctors who treated Dr Ambedkar in Bombay, he declares honestly: “My companions have to bear the burden of my austerity and asceticism.”