Dalit Movement: A Struggle Against Injustice, Untouchability — Mohd Ayoub Kumar,

Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh, Irshad Ahmad Lone

Introduction:
● Social and political movement —started by B.R. Ambedkar — t rejects Hinduism; it
challenged the brutal caste system and promulgated the rights of Dalit.
● The Brahmo Samaj, the Prarthana Samaj, The Ramakrishna Mission, and Arya
Samaj are examples of such institutions founded with a view to fight against Social evils
practiced by the Caste Hindus.
● Throughout the history – existence of Class Division → In history of India these

subordinate classes usually womens, lower casts, Dalits, adivasis, poor people, etc.

These sections are exploited from centuries through politically, morally,

economically, socially…
● The division of labor, dependent
● DALITS: socially, economically, politically suppressed
● These people are – untouchables,
►compels to live in outside the villages as well as cities depending on lower
wage occupation,
►sweeping the streets,
►cleaning the draining
►work as labor in cities,
►they have not giving full status of human being + no respect / dignity.
● Dalit is a word which may be derived from Sanskrit word, which means ―crushed‖ or
Broken into pieces
● Dalit writer Jyotirao phule – 19th century – 1st used the word “DALIT” – coz he faced
the difficulty of being untouchable.
● Mahatma Gandhi used the word ―Harijan‖, instead of Dalit, it means childrens of
God.
● womens and Dalits are the first victim of inequality, and they are marginalized sections
of the society – root cause lies in the caste system itself.
 ● According to Gail Omvedt in her book, Dalit Visions equated Hinduism with
Brahmanism.
►It is actually Brahmanism with the name of Hinduism is constructed
in order to hide the Discriminatory laws of Brahmans which they constructed
under the name of Hindu religion in India.
►It is created by Brahmans not by God, not firmly rooted in the Hindu
society.
►Varnasrama theory is a theory about the structure of caste system in
India, it was the basic duty of a person to maintain Dharma, which was to retain
the caste structure of Hindus.
►Caste ideology is based on twin religious doctrines of Karma and
Dharma are the two caste ideologies of Hindu religion.
● Not only Manu, Kautilya, another Brahmin, also emphasized on retaining the Caste
structure as the basic structure of Indian society that cannot and should not be changed.
The same was asserted by Gandhi, the Father of the Nation ,to change is to create
disorder.
BHIMRAO RAMJI AMBEDKAR
Leadership:
● The leadership of Dr. Amberdkar has strengthen in emergence of Dalit political
leadership with completely new dimension of socio – political consciousness among
the Dalits and equipped with this consciousness within the Dalit Leadership.
● programmes were intended to integrate the untouchables (Dalits) from a state of
dehumanization and slavery into one of equality through the use of modern methods
based on education and the exercise of legal and political rights.
● Before ambedkhar, Only a few Dalit leaders had their independent organizations and
asserted themselves for achieving a separate social identity for Dalits.
● Before Dr. Ambedkar there were no lower caste leaders of national stature who could
speak the language of the educated elite without being too closely identified with them.
● Dr. Ambedkar was the first major leader of the Dalits who rose to the height of logical
articulation and materialization of their socio – political aspirations and interests of
larger Dalit community in India.
 ● The year 1919,seems important in trading the historical beginning of the Dr. Ambedkar’s
movement, because he appeared on the political scene for the first time in the year 1919,
when he was called to testify to the Southborough Committee.
● The first Public political appeal of Dr. Ambedkar’s for Dalits in 1919 resulted in failure.
● In 1920, he established a Marathi fortnightly, “Mooknayak” (Hero of the Dumb) which
was dedicated to making the Dalits aware of their conditions.
● In clarifying his own stand on the national movement for transfer of political power and
the upper caste-led reformist movements, he argued, as Gore writes “in such a stratified
society self – government was not enough. There must be an equal emphasis on good
government – a good government dedicated to opening up the channels of
development to all sections of society”
● Ambedkar argued that the untouchables (Dalits) should receive not just a proportionate
representation but also a weighted representation in the legislatures.
● His main objective was to prepare the Dalits for having their own identity and not being
used any more by caste Hindus in the Indian Society.
Three phases of his leadership:
● The periodization of his leadership is also necessary to understand the rationale of his
changing socio – political stances in his log struggle.
First Phase: Social Reforms Movement
★ sanskritization failed to accord them a higher status in the caste hierarchy
★ 1924: Before taking on to mass action to gain socio – religious and political rights
for the Dalits. Dr. Ambedkar formed a society called the Bahishkrit Hitkarini
Sabha, a society to serve the interests of outcastes on July 20, 1924, which could
place their social and political problems before the government.
★ The prime motto of this organization was ‘Educate, Organize and Agitate’;
first necessary to awaken them.
★ Any community before it can progress must develop a consciousness.
★ To overcome this inactivity and indifference it is necessary that they should
become charged with resentment of the injustice of their own condition.
★ 1927: Dr. Ambedkar went for a mass action programme and in the same year he
was nominated by the Governor to the Bombay Legislature. The event that
 catapulted Dr. Ambedkar to the front – rank of Dalit leadership was the Mahad
Satyagrah campaign. This was the first act of public protest by Dr. Ambedkar.
○ assertion of the right of Dalit to drink water from Chowdar and open
public tank in the Teshil town of Mahad in Konkan.
★ another conference at Mahad to reiterate the Dalit right to use the public water
supply.
★ not only to gain access to the water or the temple or to remove the barriers to
commonality. But its aim was to break down the Varna system, which supported
inequality in society
★ Manusmriti the sacred law book of the Hindus– during this satyagrahas.
★ The Indian National Congress and the contemporary reformers were

concerned mainly with reform of the high caste Hindu family→ emphasized

widow remarriage, prohibition of child marriage etc

★ That is why the social reforms did not provide any help to Dalits
Second Phase : Ambedkar’s Leadership for Political Power
★ Why did Dr. Ambedkar resort to the political weapon to get over the age – old
disabilities, degradation and backwardness of the Dalits? This may be because
“religious movements have failed to bring about any improvement in the social
status of Dalits in a substantial measure, it was thought that the Hindu social order
should be attacked from more secular grounds like economic betterment,
education and political representation of the downtrodden in the body politic
★ “it is wrong to say that the problem of the untouchables is a social
★ problem. For it is quite unlike the problems of dowry, widow remarriage, age of
consent, etc.,
★ which are illustrations of what are properly called social problems. Essentially it
is a problem of quite a different nature in as much as it is a problem of securing,
to a minority, liberty and equality of opportunity at the hands of a hostile
majority, which believes in the denial of liberty and equal opportunity of the
majority and conspires to enforce its policy on the minority. Viewed in this light,
the problem of the untouchables is fundamentally a political problem.
★ 1928: Simmon commision: BR. asked for separate electorates for Dalits. (The
Congress boycotted the Commission).
★ Government of India Act, 1919, provided for one seat to the depressed classes
in the central Legislative Assembly.
★ At the First Session of the Round Table Conference held in November 1930, Dr.
Ambedkar put the list of the safeguards to be providing to the untouchables
(Dalits) for their protection against the tyranny and oppression of the Hindus. The
list included subjects like equal citizenship, fundamental rights, free enjoyments
of equal rights, punishment for boycotting of Dalits, their protection against
discrimination, adequate representation in the Legislatures and cabinet adequate
representation in the services, special departmental care, etc. The list of demands
proves his knowledge of law and also his ability to use the Round Table
Conference as a forum for asking for political safeguards for Dalits so that social
justice can be assured to them.
★ In 1932, British Government headed by Ramsoy Macdonald announced the
‗Communal Award‘.
The award envisaged separate electorate for the Depressed Classes.
Mahatma Gandhi went on a historic fast in protest against Communal Award
especially in respect of depressed classes.
★ Gandhi – opposed : Gandhi further said that the separate electorate would create a
division in Hinduism
★ Dr. Ambedkar founded the independent Labour Party in 1936. As a Dalit his main
aim is to abolish this artificial tradition of inequality.
★ With the rising process of democratization, Dr. Ambedkar demanded sufficient
representation for Dalits in the legislatures and in the administration.
★ . It failed in the areas concerned with labour and agricultural policies. It also
failed to secure a base among caste Hindus.
★
★ first person who politically fights against the inequality of Dalits.
★ political activism against socio-economic problems.
 ★ It provided for reservation of seats for depressed classes out of general
electorates sets. He tried to convince the Government to recruit the Mahars in
Military. Ultimately he became successful in 1941 when the first Mahar
Regiment was formed.
★ The Constitution of India now provides for reservation of seats for Scheduled
Castes in proportion to their population in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha under
Article 330 and 332.
★ Law Minister → resigned from the Cabinet in 1951
★ Ambedkar resigned from the cabinet in 1951 following the stalling in
parliament of his draft of the Hindu Code Bill, which sought to expound gender
equality in the laws of inheritance and marriage.

Dalit Literary Movement

● NO means of communication to support the Dalits, pen was the only solution.
● The media, newspapers were all under the control of the powerful class – the
Brahmins. Given that the Brahmins would never allow the Dalits voice to be expressed,
as it would be a threat for their own survival, the Dalits began their own magazine and
began to express their own experiences.
● Dalit literature, the literature produced by the Dalit consciousness, emerged initially
during the Mukti movement.
● Later, with the formation of the Dalit Panthers, they began to flourish a series of Dalit
poetry and stories depicting the miseries of the Dalits the roots of which lies in the
rules and laws of Vedas and Smritis
● MAIN AIM- ATTAINING POLITICAL POWER.
● In the words of Ambedkar, Educate, Organize and agitate.
►Education, the major source of reason, inflicts human mind with extensive
knowledge of the world, whereby, they can know the truth of a phenomena
that is reality.
► It therefore, would help to know the truth of Brahmanism in Indian society,
and will make them to agitate against caste based inhuman practices.
 ►Only when agitations begin, in the real sense, can the Dalit be able to attain
power and win the movement against exploitation.
● His emphasis on the education of Dalits Education is the system which eliminates this
brutal system. It is education who changes this system and provides us equality in
society.
● But Education is not the only tool to eradiacte the system, BUT ONLY THE MEANS.
Third Phase : Ambedkar’s Leadership in embracing Buddhism
★ he declared his intention to relinquish Hinduism at the Yeola Conference in 1935. It was
because of his growing detachment with efforts to change the orthodox Hindu opinion
and with Hindu reformist elements. He saw no future for his people in Hinduism. “His
major critique against Hinduism was that it supported institutionalized inequality in
society inequality based on the birth in a caste.
★ Buddhism had no place for caste system and Chaturvarnya”. He thus embraced
Buddhism because, Buddhism spoke of this worldliness, social equality between human
beings, and self –respect to the individual. It emphasised compassion as a central moral
and spiritual principal. In sum, it had all the three elements of liberty, equality and
fraternity, which a democratic system should have.
★ Conversion to buddhism in 1956.

(AMBEDKHAR VS GANDHI DEBATE: REFER PDF)

(DALIT LEADERSHIP IN INDIA – REFER PDF MAIL)- overveiw– every thing more
precisely, 21st century also there.
(POLITICS AND SOCIAL IN DALIT MOVEMENT: REFER PDF)-- fragmentation and
21st century.