Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Apr 14 (PTI) Babasaheb Ambedkar wanted to write a biography of Baroda Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad, said Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar-based writer Baba Bhand on Monday on the birth anniversary of the chief architect of the Constitution and legendary social reformer.

Bhand said he has included the contents of a letter Ambedkar wrote on October 10, 1950 to Sayajirao Gaekwad’s grandson Pratapsinhrao Gaekwad in this regard.

“I came across this letter five years ago. In the letter, Babasaheb said he had been cherishing the idea of writing on the life of his late Highness Sayajirao Gaekwad. I have included the letter in my book ‘Maharaja Sayajirao ani Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’,” Bhand informed.

“You can well understand the desire in this behalf. It was he who gave me higher education which has enabled me to reach the high status which I occupy today in the public life of the country. He was my patron and the architect of my fortune. I owe a deep debt of gratitude which I wish I could adequately repay. The only way I could do this is to write (about) his life,” Ambedkar wrote in the letter.

“He has played a great part in the history of this country both as an individual and a ruler. It would be very unfortunate if the life of such a noble and great personality were to go unrecorded,” the letter by Ambedkar further said.

If the biography had ended up getting written, it would have added more information about the relation of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad and Babasaheb Ambedkar, asserted Bhand.

Born in a Dalit family in 1891 in Mhow in Madhya Pradesh, Ambedkar went on to become one of the finest legal minds of his generation as well as a committed social reformer revered by millions. He died on December 6, 1956. PTI AW BNM