The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru is organising a public lecture on “Babasaheb Ambedkar on the Limits of Law” by Ashok Gopal on 24 July 2026.

Abstract:

Dr B. R. Ambedkar was a lawyer, deeply committed to legal education, and one of the principal architects of the Constitution of India. His legal acumen is evident in the argumentative style of many of his writings. He had a strong faith in the power of law to bring about progressive social change. Yet he was equally conscious of its limits. Deep and lasting changes in social relations and behaviour, he maintained, ultimately depended on the ‘social conscience’ of the majority and the moral values that shaped it. This talk examines this tension in Ambedkar’s thought and argues that his recognition of the limits of law contributed to his turn towards Buddhism as an ethical framework for building an egalitarian and democratic society.

About the Speaker:

Ashok Gopal is the author of the acclaimed biography A Part Apart: The Life and Thought of B. R. Ambedkar, which received the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize (2024). He is currently working on an annotated edition of Ambedkar’s The Buddha and His Dhamma, which is forthcoming.