Dewey's own works and correspondence contain no mention of Ambedkar, per Scott Stroud's archival search

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Scott R. Stroud — the scholar behind the 2023 University of Chicago Press book on Dewey and Ambedkar — states plainly, after searching Dewey's own archived works and correspondence, that Ambedkar never appears in them: "there's no mention of Ambedkar in his teacher John Dewey's works or correspondence, and Ambedkar apparently never tried to write to Dewey" (Stroud, Round Table India, 2024). The same piece states, in Stroud's own first person: "I have found no evidence that Ambedkar attempted to meet or correspond with Dewey either." A companion post adds that Dewey "did not seem to remember Ambedkar, communicate or correspond with him, or even read Ambedkar's works."

This sits in contrast with Hu Shih, who is thoroughly present in Dewey's own papers and public life — funding and hosting Dewey's two-year stay in China, translating his lectures, corresponding with him for decades (see claim-dewey-lived-in-china-1919-1921-invited-by-hu-shih). The asymmetry is the direct answer to whether Dewey experienced his two former students' later careers as one connected project: on the documentary evidence, from Dewey's own side, he did not experience a connection to Ambedkar at all. See also claim-hu-shih-and-ambedkar-shared-dewey-seminar-1915-1916 for the one point at which the two do appear together, in Stroud's own later archival reconstruction rather than in a Dewey-side document.