Students Corner
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Ambedkar and the Algorithm
Imagine a world where your future is not decided by your family, your caste, or your social standing—but by a machine. What if Ambedkar were alive today, facing a system not built on human prejudices, but on the invisible biases coded into artificial intelligence? Would he fight the system again, not with words, but with algorithms?
When we think of B.R. Ambedkar, we usually picture the man with the blue suit and the Constitution in hand. But what if we placed him in today’s world—where decisions are made not in courtrooms or Parliament, but by algorithms?
It might sound like a stretch, but honestly, it’s not.
Ambedkar wasn’t just a freedom fighter or a reformer. He was a system-thinker. He understood how invisible structures control lives. Back then, it was Caste. Now? It’s Code. And the scary part is, this new system might seem neutral—but it’s not.
Take algorithms used in hiring. A few years ago, Amazon had to shut down an AI recruiting tool because it was quietly rejecting resumes from women. Why? Because the model learned from past hiring patterns where men dominated tech roles. So it assumed that’s what “qualified” looked like.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Like how Caste once decided who was “fit” to be a teacher, or a priest, or even to read.
Then there’s the COMPAS tool in the U.S.—used to predict which prisoners are likely to re-offend. Studies found it flagged Black defendants as “high risk” way more often than white ones, even when their actual records didn’t back it up. It’s like a digital version of social profiling. If that doesn’t scream structural bias, I don’t know what does.
Even the AI we use for daily things—Google Translate, for example—once defaulted to gender stereotypes. Translate “They are a doctor” from a gender-neutral language, and boom: “He is a doctor.” “She is a nurse.” Same old ideas, just running quietly in the background.
Now, imagine Ambedkar seeing all this. He’d probably raise the same questions he did back then: Who is writing these rules? Who benefits? Who gets left behind?
But he wouldn’t stop at critique. He’d learn the system. Master it. And then—rewrite it.
Ambedkar saw education as the path to liberation. Today, that might include learning to code, understanding algorithms, and making tech inclusive from the ground up. If he built the Constitution to protect the rights of all, today he’d be pushing for digital laws to do the same.
This isn’t just about tech—it’s about power. Ambedkar’s fight was always about dignity, access, and representation. And just like caste rules were once treated as “normal,” algorithmic bias today often hides behind the label of “efficiency.”
But here’s the truth: code is not neutral. Data is not neutral. And the systems we trust can’t be trusted blindly.
Ambedkar doesn’t just belong in history textbooks. His legacy belongs in boardrooms, data labs, and policy meetings. Especially now, when invisible systems are deciding who gets hired, who gets a loan, and who gets seen.
He might not write Python, but he’d definitely make sure it’s ethical.
And maybe—just maybe—that’s the kind of debugging our world still needs.
– Garv Gupta
“The Vision He Dreamed”
Born in silence, he dared to rise,
With clarity and truth in his eyes.
He fought for those who were left behind,
A vision of equality, pure and kind.
Not just for self, but for the denied,
He built a world where all could reside.
He dreamed of schools, where all could learn,
Of justice, where no soul would burn.
His book of laws, a nation’s call,
To break the chains, to uplift all.
The fight continues, it’s ours to carry—
Equality for all, we must not tarry
– Majeti Sampath
Digital poster of artwork
– Krutika Shankar Kinge
