The time he spent in London earning his law and second doctorate degrees was among the most important part of the polymath’s life. The interrupted stint shaped his worldview and philosophy, introduced him to new and exacting teachers, and sharpened his legal skills

When BR Ambedkar stepped off the boat in London in the summer of 1916, he was already an accomplished man. The 25-year-old had a PhD degree in economics from Columbia University and his dissertation Castes in India: Their mechanism, genesis and development was making waves for its theoretical underpinnings of endogamy.