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 been because Ambedkar would have felt assured of equal treatment from Bhathena, who, being a Parsi, had not been brought up to discriminate amongst acquaintances based on caste.
Naval Bhathena in the early 1970s
But it was also due to a confluence with Bhathena’s political leanings. Bhathena belonged to that small section of his community, led by Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, and Dinshaw Wacha, who participated in the freedom struggle. These men were keenly aware that the merging of Parsis into an Indian identity while simultaneously retaining their ethnic identity was only possible as long as the emerging Indian nation remained detached from Hindu socio-religious influences. Bhathena was attracted to the Indian National Congress early in his life, and it was Wacha who eventually became his mentor.
At Columbia, Ambedkar and Bhathena lived together in a dormitory. Always short of money, they survived by scrimping on food. The money thus saved was spent on their only indulgence — secondhand books.
After returning to India, Bhathena became active with the Congress from 1921 and would participate in all the bonfires of videshi goods in Bombay for the remainder of the decade. For the rest of his life, Bhathena reportedly wore only khadi clothes.
Bhathena’s involvement with the Congress and allegiance to Gandhi posed many challenges to the continuance of the friendship. In his reminiscences, Bhathena narrated how Ambedkar and he once got into a heated argument over a political issue on a bus, and things got so acrimonious that Bhathena got off midway in anger!
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges to this friendship arose during the time of the Poona Pact of 1932, when the British proposed having separate electorates for the depressed classes, as were being considered for minorities such as Muslims and Sikhs, for the elections to provincial legislative assemblies. Gandhi believed this move would “vivisect and disrupt” Hinduism, while Ambedkar was firm that the depressed classes needed to have their own representatives in government.
Since Gandhi’s view was initially not accepted, he went on a fast unto death in Poona's Yerwada Prison, where he was then imprisoned. Ambedkar, the depressed classes' leading voice, firmly stood his ground. As Gandhi’s health slowly deteriorated, Congress leaders tried every effort, including putting pressure on Bhathena, to make Ambedkar relent. Bhathena refused to comply, saying that Ambedkar’s staunch stand stemmed from deep conviction, and he found it unprincipled to force Ambedkar to act against his beliefs. Eventually, however, Gandhi’s deteriorating health compelled Ambedkar to give up the demand and settle for a small increase in reserved seats instead. Bhathena returned to Bombay after his studies at Columbia University and set up a chemical factory in Saat Rasta. He also dealt in stocks and shares.
On returning to Bombay in 1917, Ambedkar could not land a job, but Bhathena got him two private tutoring assignments as well as a teaching job at Davar’s College in Fort. A little later, with some help from Wacha, Bhathena also helped Ambedkar get a teaching position in Sydenham College. Ambedkar was trying not only to support his family but to save up to pay for his stay in England to complete his studies. By July 1920, Ambedkar had managed to save some money but was falling short of Rs 5000. Bhathena loaned him the money, and Ambedkar set out for London. After returning in 1923 with a law degree, Ambedkar decided to make a living by practising in the Bombay courts, but here again, he found that he did not have the money to apply for a licence. Once again, Bhathena found him a teaching job at the Batliboi Institute of Accountancy in 1925.
When Ambedkar started the Marathi weekly paper ‘Mook Nayak’ in 1920, it was Bhathena who got him the first paid advertisement to keep it going.
When Ambedkar decided to marry Dr Sharda Kabir (later known as Savita Ambedkar) in 1948, he faced opposition from all quarters. At this juncture, Bhathena’s letter of congratulations to Ambedkar, which emphasised the need that existed for him to get remarried, put the latter at ease. Savita wrote in her autobiography: “I consider the friendship between Dr Ambedkar and Bhathena to be an example of an ideal friendship...”
Ambedkar became the law minister of India, but never did Bhathena hold any expectations, nor did he try to make capital out of his friendship.
After Ambedkar’s death in 1956, the two families lost contact. Bhathena was married and had a daughter, Roshni. He passed away in the early 1970s, followed by his wife Motibai. Contact between the two families was revived only late last year. Keshav Waghmare, a journalist and Dalit activist from Pune, who is writing a book on the little-known associates of Ambedkar, approached me to assist him in tracing Bhathena’s family. I eventually came in contact with Parvin Sohail Jariwala, Roshni’s only child, a widow with a grown-up daughter, who lives in Surat. She travelled to Mumbai to meet us and especially Rama, Ambedkar’s granddaughter. So, the families of the two friends connected after 66 years and the granddaughters have remained friends since.
The writer is a retired law lecturer and human rights activist
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
