Ambedkar's grandson Prakash, on behalf of all the patriarch's legal heirs, has filed a complaint with the Delhi police against Roli, trying to stop the publication of the letters. All of Ambedkar's writings and speeches, in 17 volumes, have so far been published by the Maharashtra government's education department. "Kamble cannot claim ownership of these letters, irrespective of who he procured them from," says Prakash.
Kapoor told Outlook: "If there's a legal bar against publishing them, and if it is not in national interest, we shall withdraw. As of now, we do not have evidence to that effect." What's irked scholars like Omvedt and Eleanor Zelliott, professor emeritus of history at Carleton College, Minnesota, and doyen of Ambedkar studies, is Kamble's and Roli's haste and their not bothering to authenticate Frances' letters or trace Ambedkar's letters to Frances, which might give a better picture about their relationship. Says Padgaonkar: "The original understanding was that Kamble should travel to London and try to trace Fanny's legal heirs and do some archival work." Roli and Kamble have clearly not moved in this direction.
Says Anand Teltumbde, historian of the Dalit movement and married to Ambedkar's granddaughter: "This relationship flowered in a relatively dark period of Ambedkar's life and this correspondence, if properly contextualised, would certainly enrich our understanding of his enigmatic personality. In the absence of Ambedkar's letters to Frances, these letters can only give rise to motivated gossip and consequently public strife, considering Ambedkar's god-like status for 170 million Dalits."
Ambedkar had publicly acknowledged Frances. One of his most serious works, What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables (1945), a trenchant critique of Gandhi and the Congress, is prefaced by a long dedication which ends: "To F., In Thy Presence is the Fullness of Joy." The second acknowledgement comes in Khairmode's multi-volume biography.
So, why the fuss over the Roli-Kamble effort? Says poet Dilip Chitre, who's writing a biography of Namdeo Dhasal, another Dalit Panther: "Censorship of these letters is not welcome, but their content and the manner in which Kamble and Roli want to publish them shows they've nothing more than a voyeuristic interest. The sufferings and tribulations of the Dalits in the Indian Republic have nothing do with these letters or Ambedkar's private life."
What Ambedkar biographers know already is that Frances worked at the House of Commons and the two met at the British Museum in 1920. In July 1920, he left for London with a loan from Shahu Maharaj to complete his studies. According to his biographer Dhananjay Keer, Ambedkar had to go to work with little food; "the keeper of the boarding house was a harsh and terrible lady". He moved from this to another boarding house, apparently that of Frances or her mother. After Ambedkar's return to India, Frances began corresponding with him since 1923, addressing him often as 'My darling Bhim'. She was instrumental in shipping a lot of books to Ambedkar and in sourcing material from the India Office library.
What is evident from a letter published in Khairmode's biography is that Ambedkar had suppressed his marriage to Ramabai from Frances. In 1905, Ambedkar, then 14, was married to nine-year-old Ramabai (who died in May 1935). Expressing concern over Ambedkar overworking himself, Frances wrote on March 11, 1925: "It is not as if you had a wife and family depending on you." Ambedkar chose to make this letter public in his own lifetime.
Having declared in 1936 that he was born a Hindu but shall not die one, Ambedkar had faced bitter criticism from the pro-Congress press of the time. There were even newsreports in January 1937 that Ambedkar was to return from England having "secretly married an English widow". Ambedkar, of course, never married Frances, who died in 1945.
Ambedkarites are not unduly worried about the publication of Frances' letters per se. Their concern is over how they are handled, and by whom.