Revisiting the special bond between Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and his Parsi businessman friend Naval Bhathena on Mahaparinirvan Diwas

Rama Ambedkar and Parvin Jariwala, granddaughters of the illustrious friends, meet in December 2024. Pic/Rafique Elias

Even great men need friends who are not overawed by their greatness, who tell them like it is and stand by them through thick and thin. In Naval Bhathena, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar had one such friend. The two men hailed from two extremes of Indian society — one, a dalit from a poor family, lived in a one-room house in a chawl in central Bombay. The other, a Parsi and the son of an industrialist, lived in a bungalow a couple of kilometres away in what was then an elite neighbourhood. The former, scarred by his bitter experience of discrimination, which engendered a deep commitment to eradicating the brutal caste system, eventually became the messiah of the dalits and the architect of the constitution of free India; and the other, a successful businessman, industrialist, and stock investor.

Perhaps the first dalit to receive higher education anywhere, Ambedkar’s brilliance and determination won him a scholarship offered by Maharaja Sayajirao of Baroda to study abroad. So the young graduate from Parel’s BIT Chawl No. 1 sailed out to New York and in 1913 met up with the well-to-do Parsi, whose bid to do his Master’s in Industrial Chemistry at Columbia University  the leading US varsity at the time, was supported by his wealthy father. 

Though there were four other Marathi-speaking students in Ambedkar’s batch, he became closest to Bhathena. This might have initially........

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