The most reactionary, fascist forces in India — the Hindu Mahasabha, RSS, and Jana Sangh — neither supported nor assisted Ambedkar in any election. Nor did Ambedkar ever seek their help.
Published Oct 24, 2025 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 24, 2025 | 9:00 AM
Dr BR Ambedkar in Columbia University (Wikimedia Commons)
Synopsis: The Sangh Parivar has long tried to appropriate Dr BR Ambedkar to suit its narrative. One of these is the claim that the Bharatiya Jana Sangh supported Ambedkar’s election to the Rajya Sabha in 1952. The fact remains that they had no role whatsoever in Ambedkar’s election, and the claim is an outright fabrication.
The Hindutvavadi Sangh Parivar has long tried to appropriate the egalitarian Dr BR Ambedkar, weaving many falsehoods to suit its narrative. One of these is the claim that the Bharatiya Jana Sangh supported Ambedkar’s election to the Rajya Sabha in 1952. Another is that Hindutva organisations tried to help him win in the 1952 and 1954 elections.
Both are baseless lies.
Let’s check the myth of Jana Sangh’s support for Ambedkar in the Rajya Sabha election. Rajya Sabha members were then elected indirectly by members of state legislative assemblies.
In 1952, the first Rajya Sabha had 219 members. The Bombay Legislative Assembly — from which Ambedkar’s seat came — had 281 members, and 17 seats were allotted to the Rajya Sabha. A minimum of 16 MLAs’ votes was needed for a candidate to win.
In the 1951–52 Bombay Assembly elections, Congress won 269 of the 281 seats. The remaining went to Ambedkar’s SCF (one), the Socialist Party (nine), and the CPI (one).
The Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) — the current BJP’s erstwhile avatar — contested only two seats in Bombay and lost both miserably, forfeiting deposits and securing a total of just 4,876 votes.
So, how could a party with no MLAs have possibly voted for or helped Ambedkar win?
If Ambedkar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, it was clearly done with Congress support — whether directly from the Union government or through the Bombay Assembly.
That does not mean Congress was ideologically friendly to him. Their mutual disagreements in parliamentary debates on several government policies are well recorded. But one fact remains: Jana Sangh had no role whatsoever in Ambedkar’s election. The BJP’s claim is an outright fabrication.
Before the 1952 Lok Sabha elections, Ambedkar had resigned from Nehru’s cabinet and declared that his Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) would contest independently against Congress. His manifesto clearly stated there would be no alliances with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu Mahasabha, or Communists — only with the Socialist Party.
Thus, there was no question of Hindutva organisations helping him. In fact, they were hostile toward him.
By 1954, Ambedkar had begun preparing openly to embrace Buddhism. Leaders like Savarkar (Hindu Mahasabha) and Golwalkar (RSS) routinely denounced him as a traitor to Hinduism, mocking Buddhism as a religion of cowardice. In retaliation, Ambedkar used to sarcastically refer to “Veer Savarkar” in his journal Prabuddha Bharat.
By the time of the 1954 parliamentary by-election, the RSS, Hindu Mahasabha, and Jana Sangh hated Ambedkar as much as Congress did. Claims that the Jana Sangh supported him against Congress are false — these are WhatsApp-era myths, not borne out in any historical record, speech or writing of that time.
In fact, one of the RSS’s own founders and a senior Hindu Mahasabha leader, BS Moonje, had openly said, “Helping Ambedkar is like offering milk to a snake.” That summed up the official stance of Hindutva groups toward Ambedkar in both 1952 and 1954.
Hence, the claim that Hindutva forces supported Ambedkar is entirely false.
This does not mean Congress was sympathetic to Ambedkar’s politics. His vision of independent and sovereign Dalit politics, social and economic democracy, and self-respect was never acceptable to Congress. Remember, it was Sardar Patel who had once said that Ambedkar would not be allowed even a “window” in the Constituent Assembly. Congress leaders tried their best to ensure his defeat in the Assembly elections.
Yet, after Independence, Congress eventually chose Ambedkar for the Constituent Assembly, as a political strategy and also supported his Rajya Sabha nomination in 1952.
Ambedkar, in turn, accepted that cooperation to shape an inclusive Constitution in favour of the oppressed within the limits of that time. However, after the Constitution was completed, he distanced himself from both Congress and the reactionary right, trying instead to align with progressive forces.
Congress opposed this progressive political stance, and Ambedkar consequently lost both elections.
The Communists, too, failed to forge an alliance with Ambedkar despite his potential to strengthen a working-class movement. Though Ambedkar himself had ideological biases against Communism, history shows that the failure of this potential alliance was largely due to the Communists’ short-sightedness.
Thus, while it is true that Congress contributed to Ambedkar’s electoral defeats, it is equally true that Hindutva leaders like Savarkar and ideologically rigid Communists like Dange also played a role in isolating him.
Whatever the case, the historical fact remains clear: The most reactionary, fascist forces in India — the Hindu Mahasabha, RSS, and Jana Sangh — neither supported nor assisted Ambedkar in any election. Nor did Ambedkar ever seek their help.
That is the historical truth.
(Views are personal. Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
