“Who else but the ones who have suffered can truly understand the pain of the suffering?” asked Akka Mahadevi in one of her vachanas. Her words carry a timeless truth: only those who have tasted pain can truly recognise it in others. Gandhi and Ambedkar are often compared through this lens. Gandhi, despite his compassion, could never feel the sting of untouchability the way Ambedkar did, because Ambedkar lived it, carried it, and fought it from within.