"The irony, of course, is that Ambedkar is anything but obscure. Statues of the man in the blue suit, a copy of the Constitution in one hand and the other upraised with the forefinger pointing towards an egalitarian future, are everywhere - more ubiquitous than those of any god, goddess or Gandhi. Without doubt the most radical of India's founding fathers who refused to be co-opted by - even when he cooperated with - the Congress-led national movement before Independence, Ambedkar became a much bigger icon for the erstwhile 'untouchables' and other oppressed castes in the years after his death and is today their veritable deity. Since Ambedkar was an 'untouchable' himself, and his words and thoughts provide a virtual ideological armoury, his deification among the victims of India's caste system is only too understandable."

Read Manini Chatterjee's column for the Telegraph.