Ambedkar &.

Dalit Movement

Q. In what ways did Dr. B.R. Ambedkar raise the concerns of Dalits in the
first half of twentieth century?

B.R Ambedkar emerged as a spokesman of the untouchables in 1919. His rise is

reflective of the changing political atmosphere in India which allowed an Untouchable
leader to rise to prominence. Ambedkar, was born in 1891 into a Maharashtrian Mahar
untouchable family and studied in army cantonments and then in Bombay, graduating
from Elphinstone College in 1912. His educational attainment and social background
gained the recognition of the Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda, who gave him a
scholarship for travel to Columbia university in New York, where he did his Ph.D. After
an unsuccessful attempt to practice as a lawyer in Baroda- he went to Bombay and
became a lecturer and practitioner before Bombay High Court. By 1927, Ambedkar was
officially nominated to the legislative council as one of the two representatives of the
depressed classes. Ambedkar maintained a role as a prominent figure in official circles
as well as in government, at the same time he took up a series of political and social
struggles on behalf of untouchables.

When we look at the Mahar movement, Eleanor Zelliot has argued that between 1890
and 1956, the Mahar caste of Maharashtra experienced a political awakening, a
development of unity and a push towards equal rights with higher castes, which marked
it out as unique among Untouchable groups. Zelliot points out that the political
awakening of Mahars not only involved the Mahars in the political process, but also
produced a series of political parties and a leader of all- India fame. The traditional role
of Mahar caste was that of village servant. Mahars had no special skill or craft , but
performed necessary duties for the villages as watchmen, wall- menders, street-
sweepers etc. The movement’s beginning, according to Zelliot, rests on economic
change. Its direction reflects the social and political forces that shaped Maharashtrian
life in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The life of B.R. Ambedkar was, as pointed
out by Zelliot, shaped by these forces, and he, in turn, was able to use the energies
released by political changes to further Mahar progress.

Ambedkar differed from previous Mahar leaders as he did not lay claim on a higher
caste status for untouchables since that would mean an acceptance of upper caste
superiority. He did not emphasise on the common claim that Untouchables were pre-
Aryan, the original settlers of the land. Ambedkar argued that the Untouchables’ position
was social and not racial which made it subject to change. Ambedkar argued that
genesis of caste lied in the Brahmanic practice of endogamy, a social system of
exclusion that began with Brahmans and was imitated by other groups both because of
the prestige accorded by Hinduism to Brahmans and because of the social logic of
exclusion. Even if Brahmans did not impose caste as a system by strict force, they
nevertheless invented caste to suit their own concerns and predilections. Ambedkar
sees the origin of untouchability in the practices of separation and denigration imposed
on those who remained Buddhists during an earlier period of renascent Hinduism.
However, his views on Hinduism remained ambivalent for much of his life according to
Zelliot. Despite being known as a Mahar leader, Ambedkar attempted to include all
Untouchable castes in his movement. While he stressed the social and religious
handicaps of Untouchables, he was conscious of the need for economic opportunities
In the early 1920s he participated in efforts at ‘Sanskritization’ in which Untouchables
imitated high caste religious rituals. But he soon found that the performances of Vedic
style weddings, the donning of sacred thread, and similar efforts to emulate upper caste
ritual practice had little effect on the attitude of others. So, such innovations were
dropped in the 1930s.

Ambedkar first put his attention to educational access for untouchables and looked to
three other important issues, the abolition of the traditional duties of Mahars in village
society, the campaign to gain access for common water and the movement for temple
entry for untouchables. Of the various methods of education, holding conferences was
used by him for spreading the message of the awakening of Untouchables and for
gathering mass support for public action. S. Natarajan has pointed out that In 1930, by
a process of repeated conferences, the depressed classes were led into the camp by
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Meetings were initiated locally, and outside speakers were called in
to draw crowds and represent a more sophisticated message than local talent was able
to do. Ambedkar’s address to these conferences were a mix of explanation of political
scene, exhortation to organise and to press for rights, and occasional chastisement for
Untouchables continuing to live in degraded condition. Ambedkar’s commitment to
education as a major means for Untouchable advancement led him to initiate in the
1920s a program for the creation of hostels for Untouchable students. This effort
resulted in the development of a system of colleges organised by the People’s
Education Society, founded by Ambedkar in 1945. While Ambedkar exhorted numerous
conferences of Untouchables to expand their educational opportunities at every level,
much of his own effort was aimed at producing highly educated men, capable of raising
the image of the Untouchable through their ability to function at the highest level of
urban society. He advocated the abandonment of customs and practices associated
with the stereotype of the Untouchable, including the consumption of alcohol and
carrion beef. Ambedkar ‘s pronouncements on the need to live clean and moral lives
sounds similar to Gandhi’s according to Zelliot. However, Zelliot does point out that
Ambedkar’s vision of the Untouchable’s future role went far beyond that of Gandhi’s.
For Ambedkar, modernisation and application of western concepts was the way to go
and for him political power must be assured to the Untouchable minority even if
separatism was fostered by the granting of such power. His adaptation of western
concerts to the Indian scene is evident from the terms he used to justify Untouchable
political rights: democracy, fraternity and liberty as well as ‘manuski’ which stood for
‘human- ness’.

Amongst the many conferences, the Mahad conferences of 1927 are considered by
Mahars to be the beginning of their unity and political awakening. Ambedkar led the
Mahad satyagraha of 1927, in which speeches were delivered about internal reforms of
the Depressed class wherein things like the need for Mahar women to wear their saris
in the manner of the upper castes was stressed. He concluded the rally by marching to
the high-caste tank, the Chowdar Tank and drawing water to drink. Orthodoxy claimed
to be outraged, the tank underwent ritual purification, and the municipal council
withdrew its support for Ambedkar’s efforts. He performed his most dramatic act in
December 1927, when in a public gathering he set fire to a copy of the ​Manusmriti​, a
gesture that outraged many sympathetic social reformers. The conference’s four
resolutions included a declaration of human rights, a repudiation of Manusmriti, a
demand that hindu society be reduced to one class and an advocation of priestly
profession to be open to all. According to Nicholas B. Dirks, Ambedkar’s symbolic
assault on Hindu scriptures illustrated his general sense that caste had become an
integral component of the Hindu religion.

In the same year, temple entry movements were adopted as another method to carry
the movement forward. Ambedkar greeted the untouchable victory in Vaikkam, which
had been spearheaded by E.V.R. (Periyar), with great enthusiasm, and subsequently he
led a campaign to open up the Thakurdwar temple in Bombay in 1927. This was
followed by struggles around the Parvati temple in Poona in 1929, and around the
Kalaram temple in Nasik beginning in 1930. These events were indicative of at least
some degree of unity and independence necessary to risk the social and economic
boycott as well as the defiance of customary restrictions by Mahars. The basis of the
temple entry movements was like the conferences wherein there was a call by local
leaders in an urban area to call a mass meeting, cooperation by caste- Hindu
sympathisers and inspiration from the presence or atleast the blessing of Ambedkar.
The name used for these ‘temple entry movements’ was ‘temple satyagraha’ came from
the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi; however, neither Gandhi nor his associates were
involved with the Untouchables’ efforts. For Zelliot, Ambedkar’s role in the satyagraha
effort is ambiguous. Although he was present in the initial stages of the two temple entry
satyagrahas and his name was invoked in the third, he seems to have been the
instigator or the leader in the ground of any of the three. His distaste for violence that
accompanied it, his dilemma over his own relationship to Hinduism, and his preference
for education and parliamentary procedure over efforts to gain in religious rights did not
prevent him from approving the satyagraha attempts, but did keep him out of the front
ranks. According to Ambedkar, the problem of the depressed classes will “not be solved
by temple entry. Political, economics, education, religion are all part of the
problem…..Darshan and Puja will not solve our problems. But we will start out and try to
make a change in the minds of the Hindus.” The temple entry movement was a direct
attack on the brahmanical orthodoxy and imposition of the ban on temple entry to the
lower classes. One interpretation of the ‘Satyagraha’ effort is to assume that it was
designed to underwrite the pleas of Ambedkar in London for recognition of the suffering
and rights of the Depressed Classes. Though temple entry was not achieved, the effort
made an impact in the Mahar community down to the village level.

Ambedkar used newspapers as a method of modernising the thinking of the

Untouchable community. He established a Marathi newspaper early in his career, in
1920. Ambedkar’s newspapers were the ‘Mooknayak’ (1920), ‘Bahishkrit Bharat’ (1927),
‘ ‘Janata’ (1929) and ‘Prabuddha Bharat (1955). In elegant bookish Marathi he
emphasised that the Depressed Classes must strive for education. These papers were
also used to comment on various public figures’ activities, to urge participation in
conferences and the later satyagrahas and to inform the depressed classes of world
events. There was increased awareness among the Mahra that both literacy and
literature were necessary for the place in society they hoped to achieve.

In order to ensure permanent organisation Ambedkar came up with the Bahishkrit

Hitakarini Sabha which seems to have functioned chiefly in Bombay and in outlying
schools and hostels from 1925 until sometime in the mid- 1930s. Ambedkar ‘s new
approach was to expand the existing pattern of organisations was to broaden the basis
of the group to include all untouchable castes and to extend the function of the
organisation to all areas of Depressed caste life. The Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha or
Depressed Classes Institute, was established in Bombay in 1924 after the Conference
of the Depressed Classes at Barshi had resolved to form a central organisation for their
amelioration and upliftment. The institution had a written constitution, created by
Ambedkar who made provision for representation on the governing body for all
geographic areas of Bombay and all Untouchable castes. The aims and objectives of
the new organisation broke little new ground according to Eleanor Zelliot. It rather re-
stated the methods for seeking improvement like promotion of education by hostels or
other means , promoting the spread of culture among the Depressed classes by
opening libraries, social centres and classes or study circles, to advance and improve
the economic conditions of Depressed classes by starting industrial and agricultural
schools and to represent the grievances of the depressed classes. In the matter of
redress of grievances, the institute maintains a special establishment to make
representations to the government on behalf of aggrieved members of the Depressed
Classes. In the economic field, two efforts met with success. The institute secured
enrolment for depressed classes in the department of government and got enrolment in
departments which were not open to them earlier which was the police department.
Application to the government led to government provision which allowed depressed
classes to share in the renting of the government waste lands and this helped
depressed class families working as agricultural labourers to rise to a status of
independent farmers. The emphasis on hostels and libraries gave way to emphasis on
propaganda and the pursuit of civil rights as Ambedkar became increasingly involved in
a mass movement and he increasingly tried to get legal redress and political
representation as solutions for social disability of the depressed classes.

Eleanor Zelliot categorises these developments as marking the first phase of the
Ambedkarian era from 1919 to 1935. The benchmarks of this movement according to
her show an intermixture of internal achievements with the granting from above of new
rights and privileges in the social and political spheres. As the social protest continued
effectively, political gains were also being made as Mahar representatives now
appeared before all the government reform bodies like the Southborough Committee on
Franchise , the Simon Commission, the Starte Committee, the Round Table
Conferences, the Franchise Committee of 1932. They also took advantage of their
legislative representation, granted by the Southborough Commission, on the provincial
council.

The Mahars now shifted from presentation of grievances, pleas for representation and
nominal participation in the political process to the formation of a political party. In this
context we may also look at the Gandhi- Ambedkar dynamic on the issue of
Untouchables. Ambedkar expanded his critique on caste and transformed an academic
argument into an explosive political intervention in an addressin 1936 where he wrote
that the annihilation of caste required an assault on Hinduism itself. Gandhi responded
to his address by insisting that Caste had nothing to do with religion. He went on to say
that “The law of Varna teaches us that we have each one of us to earn our bread by
following the ancestral calling. It defines not our rights but our duties.” He felt that caste
as a ranked structure of groups was bad but that the principles of varna and asrama
(stage of life) on which caste was based, and of which caste could be seen as a
degraded form, were noble and well worth reviving as ideals. Ambedkar took Gandhi as
his most significant rhetorical adversary. Ambedkar grew increasingly suspicious of
Gandhi’s defense of the caste system as an organic, unifying, and inclusive system that
could divest itself of all hierarchical traces. Ambedkar saw caste as part of the problem,
not part of the solution, and rejected Gandhi’s call for untouchables to be included within
the compass either of the caste system or of Hindu society.

Ambedkar’s fundamental quarrel with Gandhi had, in fact, begun in earnest in relation to
the question of separate representation for untouchables in the wake of negotiations
with Britain after the civil disobedience campaign of 1930–1931. Communal Award of
August 17, 1932, granted untouchables Ambedkar’s demand for separate electorates in
areas of their largest concentration. Gandhi responded to the award by announcing that
he would fast unto death, a deci- sion that Nehru, among others, thought was
disastrous, since it elevated what for him was a side issue in the nationalist struggle to
center stage and threat- ened the Mahatma’s health and life once again Ambedkar was
unable to withstand public pressure to defer to the force of Gandhi’s fast, and in the
resulting compromise, known as the Poona Pact, the electorate was maintained as joint
while the numbers of seats specifically reserved for un- touchables was doubled. The
circumstance under which the Poona Pact came about led to an intensification on both
sides of efforts to eliminate untouchability. Gandhi attempted to bring about change in
practices of caste Hindus through moral pressures and Ambedkar continued to work in
the field of education and politics in order to gain legal rights for untouchables. Although
he had been forced to back away from the idea of separate electorates, he nevertheless
pursued constitutional measures designed to protect depressed classes from either
limited representation or misrepresentation. 1935 onwards, full scale representation of
Untouchables was ensured on all political bodies and governmental reforms which
broadened their base of power within the legislative councils. In 1935 Ambedkar and the
majority of Mahars decided to reject all claims to Hinduism and to convert to another
religion.​ ​At the same time, he continued to defend separate electorates on the grounds
that he did not trust the majority to elect minority representatives who would genuinely
represent minority interests. In 1937, his newly formed Independent Labour Party won
eleven reserved and three general seats. Though it was successful in election, it was
rarely successful in labour and agricultural policies, as Zelliot points out. In 1942,
Ambedkar went on to reform his political plans wherein he formed a new party known as
the Scheduled Caste Federation and limited it to Untouchables in the hope of uniting all
untouchables to compete for political power. It was during this period, the mid 1940s
when he grew even more critical of Gandhi and Congress. He became suspicious of the
majoritarian politics of Gandhi and Congress.
​Ambedkar, in 1956 converted to Buddhism in an attempt to link the Untouchables to the
greatness of India’s past while denying the contemporary concept of caste. In his final
conversion to Buddhism, he gave voice to his conviction that even as untouchability was
not simply a political (or social, or economic) problem, the stigma of untouchability could
not be erased simply by political means. If caste was so fundamental to Hindu society, it
could only be annihilated by abandoning Hindu society altogether. A nationalist to the
end, he chose a religion which was as Indian as Hinduism and this was what he
considered to be the final and most decisive rejection of the claims and hegemonic
character of caste Hinduism, as Dirks points out.

The untouchable castes had begun their movements way before the coming of
Ambedkar as their leader. His leadership added a new dimension to the movement,
raising it to a level of efficiency where it could attain a mass religious conversion, build a
political party and increase its participation in education at all levels. Moving beyond the
Mahars, the caste to which Ambedkar belonged, he was able to secure for the
depressed classes a program of legal rights and safeguards. He directly influenced
some other untouchable castes through his conversion movement and his political
parties. Ambedkar stands as an example of what an Untouchable could become and
achieve.