Eleanor Zelliot - Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Religion Compass 2/5 (2008): 804818, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00094.
Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Eleanor Zelliot*
Carleton College
Abstract
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, also called Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar in affection and respect, was born in 1891 in a Mahar Untouchable family and died in 1956 after a lifetime of service to his people and to India. His influence has spread throughout India and his image, a Western-dressed gentleman pointing to the future and carrying a book, is found in many villages and all cities. The book represents the Constitution of independent India. His followers know the facts of his life and are so reverential that one right wing critic called him a false God. The word now used broadly for Untouchables, Tribals, and other low castes and classes is Dalit, which means ground down, but began a proud use in the 1970s with a literary movement called Dalit Sahitya, made famous at first by the Dalit Panthers named in reference to the militant American Black Panthers. Like the word Black, it can be a source of controversy today. The term coined by Mohandas K. Gandhi, Harijan or people of God, was resented by Ambedkar as patronizing, and the two also clashed over the idea of separate electorates for untouchables; Gandhis win is still resented by some as depriving Dalits of their chosen leaders. Dr. Ambedkars influence may be seen in literature, in educational and political institutions, in a massive Buddhist conversion, and in increased pride and self-confidence among Dalits.
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (18811956), most distinguished leader of the Untouchables in his day and the founder of a Buddhist movement in India, is even more important today, 50 years after his death. His statue appears in villages and towns all over India. Books about his life and his ideas appear in English and many of the Indian languages several times a year. The original English biography by Dhananjay Keer, published in 1954, is still in print and the multi-volume Marathi biography by Khairmode (1952) has been recently reprinted. There are many web sites about him and his writing (see www.ambedkar.org). A 21-volume Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches edited by one of Ambedkars followers, the late Vasant Moon, has been published by the Maharashtrian government. The Buddhist conversion in 1956 was historic and conversions to Buddhism are still going on in ever wider circles from the original center in Nagpur. However, another side of this phenomenon is that Dr. Ambedkar is a symbol of Dalit rights, and whenever some Dalit individual or group
2008 The Author Journal Compilation 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
805
oversteps what higher castes expect in the way of duty or deference, there may be reaction expressed by vandalism against the image of Ambedkar. In fact, as Ambedkars influence spreads, violence increases. The National Crime Records Bureau reported Every day two Dalits are killed, 12 seriously injured, three women raped and 92 cases of violence against Dalits registered in India. There is no such complete record of incidents of violence against the statue of Ambedkar, but they are commonplace. A recent atrocity against a Dalit family in the Maharashtrian village of Khairlanji, combined with an unrelated beheading of an image of Ambedkar in Lucknow, resulted in a violent reaction from Dalits in Mumbai. Violence by Ambedkarites is confined to the cities and is rare; violence against Dalits occurs chiefly in villages and is commonplace. The reasons for Ambedkars fame and influence lie in his life and work, his life being an example of what an Untouchable can accomplish and a source of pride, and his work ranging from organizing political parties to serving as the architect of the Indian Constitution, and including conversion of over six million Untouchables or Dalits to a rational, humanitarian, caste-less Buddhism. Every follower knows most of the details of Ambedkars life. Born in an Army Camp in Mhow, then in the Central Provinces, where his father, Ramji Sakpal, was a teacher with the army rank of Subhedar, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was the 14th of 14 children. (Mhow is now the site of a large Ambedkar Research Institute.) The family had strong connections with the British Army, and his father after retirement settled first in Dapoli in an area of retired soldiers, then in Satara where Ambedkar could go to an English school, although sitting apart from the other boys, and then finally in Bombay, where Ambedkar matriculated, probably only the second Untouchable in Bombay province to become so educated. Ambedkar was born into the Mahar caste, an Untouchable caste whose duties were those of an inferior village servant (in British parlance). This meant everything from caring for the horses of passing government servants to dragging the carcasses of dead cattle out of the village to carrying the festival Holi fire from village to village. Because of army service and because of the lack of a viable traditional occupation (such as leather work), Mahars early on went to Bombay to work on the docks and in the mills, or took masonry work in nearby cities. Reformers soon arose in the caste in Pune, Amravati, and Nagpur. Most important among them were Shivram Janba Kamble, a butler in Pune, and Kisan Fagoji Bansode, a labor leader in Nagpur, both of whom stressed education, published newspapers, began organization chiefly through conferences, and attempted to secure places in government bodies. There were also higher caste Hindus in the Marathi-speaking area who were interested in education for all. One of these was K. A. Keluskar who presented the young Ambedkar on the occasion of his matriculation with
2008 The Author Religion Compass 2/5 (2008): 804818, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00094.x Journal Compilation 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
806 Eleanor Zelliot
his new book, a life of the Buddha, a gift that has entered the folklore of the Mahar caste as a prophecy. Keluskar also took the young Ambedkar to meet the Gaikwad of Baroda, a reform non-Brahmin prince of great importance in all areas of education and the arts in western India. With a stipend from Baroda, Ambedkar attended Elphinstone College in Bombay, passing exams in English and Persian, a language he had to substitute for Sanskrit, considered as a language too holy for a Mahar to study. The Gaikwad also subsidized Ambedkars education at Columbia University in New York from 1913 to 1916 in a most unusual move. Ambedkar took courses chiefly in Economics at Columbia, but in one Anthropological seminar he wrote what became his first published piece, Castes in India, Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development, which appeared in The Indian Antiquary for May 1917 and is available from Internet today and in Volume I of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, 1979. His PhD thesis however was on The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India. Through the direct intervention of the Maharaja over the objections of his officials, Ambedkar received funds from the Baroda Education Department for a year of study in London. He began his work at the London School of Economics and Political Science and was admitted to Greys Inn to study for the Bar. Then he had to return to India to fulfill his obligation to the Gaikwad, but he could find no place to stay in Baroda, even when he tried to pass as a Parsi, and so he returned to Bombay to teach at the Sydenham College of Commerce to earn money to return to England. During the 3-year interval between his first London experience and his return to finish his British degrees, Ambedkar entered into the life of the incipient Untouchable movement. He attended two conferences of the Depressed Classes as a recognized leader, gave a long testimony to the Franchise Committee on the need for a low franchise so that Untouchables with little economic backing could vote, and in 1920 began a newspaper, Muknayak (the leader of the mute). He also returned that year to London and with the help of another western India non-Brahmin prince, Shahu Maharaja of Kolhapur, he was able to finish his MSc on Provincial Decentralistion of Imperial Finance and his DSc with a thesis on The Problem of the Rupee, a thesis he had to re-write because the original was too critical of the British. He also passed the Bar and returned to India permanently in 1923, probably the best educated man in Bombay province. All of these early activities, conferences, newspapers, testimony to government for Untouchable rights, and writings, were to be continued and intensified in the next 20 years, along with some attempts to secure religious rights. Two events made him even more famous. In 1927, he led an attempt to take water from a public pond in Mahad, a town south of Bombay. He and his followers were driven away but returned later in the year when a Brahmin follower of Ambedkar publicly burned the Manusmriti,
807
the orthodox Brahmanical law book that decreed harsh punishment for all who overstepped their caste or gender boundaries. This radical action cost Ambedkar some caste Hindu associates, but the very word Mahad has meaning for his followers today as an example of both discrimination and courage. There is now an Ambedkar College and a monument beside the pond in Mahad and it may become a place of pilgrimage. The other famous event was Ambedkars designation as a delegate to the Round Table Conferences in London in 19301933, which were to determine the future of India. Here he moved from a position of accommodation in electoral matters to a firm commitment for a separate electorate and representatives elected strictly from Untouchables themselves. This change came in the wake of Sikh, Anglo-Indian, English, Muslim, and other depressed classes demands for separate electorates. The government granted this request for depressed classes to have a separate electorate and a specific number of reserved seats in all elected governmental bodies. That 1932 decision led to a historic clash with Mohandas Gandhi and the famous Poona Pact signed by Ambedkar (under protest) and other Untouchable and caste Hindu leaders that allowed for representation of Untouchables in political bodies but elected by all. This was the beginning of a monumental clash with Gandhi and Congress (see Ambedkar 1946) and is still a matter of passionate advocacy on the part of many of Ambedkars followers. Gandhis sympathy for Untouchables but stress on change of heart among caste Hindus clashed with Ambedkars stress on Untouchable rights and political power. The Poona Pact decreed a certain number of reserved seats for Untouchables in provincial bodies and in the central government, with a complex dual election system to select those standing for those seats, but this feature did not last long. The British government soon created a category for these reservations called Scheduled Castes (and Scheduled Tribes); schedule here means a list of those qualified to receive special benefits by virtue of various kinds of discrimination against them. As recently as in a student magazine, Insight, in 2008 (see Stephen & Prabhakar 2008), the issue of separate electorates and Gandhis blocking of Ambedkars wish is the subject of a major article. Many still feel that their representatives would be less controlled by higher caste Hindu majorities, if they could be elected by Untouchables directly. Throughout his life, Ambedkar wrote, but with one exception, a study of small holdings, no longer on economics. Some of his titles are: Who were the Shudras; Untouchables; States and Minorities; and Pakistan or the Partition of India. A much reprinted document entitled The Annihilation of Caste was published in 1936 (Ambedkar 1979) and is considered a classic statement of his views. A year earlier, after 5 years of an Untouchables fruitless satyagraha to enter the Kalaram temple at Nasik, Ambedkar had declared that he would not die a Hindu. Although he no longer encouraged any attempt to gain rights in the Hindu world, he did not go farther
808 Eleanor Zelliot
than considering the idea of conversion to Christianity or Islam or Sikhism. Instead he threw himself into educational and political work. Dr. Ambedkar founded the Independent Labour Party in 1937 to contest the coming elections and it won 15 of the 17 seats it contested. He spoke often in the Bombay provincial assembly, but none of the causes he embraced, from barring the use of Gandhis term Harijan (people of God) as condescending to eliminating the economic brutality of the Khoti system in the Konkan, was given Congress support and so did not pass. In 1942 in the face of further political developments to come about after the war, Ambedkar founded the Scheduled Castes Federation, the only one of his three political parties to be limited by caste. The third, the Republican Party (named after Lincolns party), took form after his death. Annual Scheduled Caste Federation conferences and other conferences created a huge audience for Ambedkars ideas. A greater opportunity to affect all life in India came when he was asked to serve as Labor Minister in the Viceroys Executive Council from 1942 to 1946. He concerned himself with many labor and economic issues (such as the first multipurpose dam in India, the Damodar), but he was also able to found Siddharth College in Bombay in 1946, open to all but especially concerned with Untouchables or what were by then called Scheduled Castes. Ambedkars service in the Viceroys Council has been used by the Hindu right wing to denigrate his sense of nationalism. Arun Shouries (1997) scathing study of Ambedkar as a false god represents a feeling among some higher caste Hindus rarely put into print. A defense of Dr. Ambedkars nationalism is by Guru (1998). A further venue for Ambedkars ideas came in 1946 when he was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly and in the next year was named Minister of Law. That the enemy of Congress could be chosen by Congress indicates Indias concern for unity, a concern, some say, initiated by Mahatma Gandhi. Ambedkar was also named Chair of the Drafting Committee for the Indian Constitution. He presided over the years of arguments about Constitutional provisions and his guidance justifies calling him the architect of the Indian Constitution (Ambedkar Volume XII 1994). As the Law Minister in Jawaharlal Nehrus first Cabinet, he also attempted to create a Hindu Law Code, which was primarily intended to aid the rights of women (Ambedkar XIV 1995), but this attempt was frustrated by conservative elements in the government, and in 1951 Ambedkar resigned. Ambedkar had begun a serious study of Buddhism years before, but in his retirement years he worked on a Pali Dictionary and on his interpretation of Buddhism, The Buddha and His Dhamma (Ambedkar XI 1992). Here he discarded the mythical elements of Buddhism, stressing a humanistic, rational, compassionate Buddha. The mudra of the teaching Buddha is on every page, and the entire book is presented as the Buddhas thought, rather than about Buddhism. Dr. Ambedkar had been influenced by the
809
approach of Lakshmi Narasus The Essence of Buddhism, which he had republished in 1948 and by the radical Brahmin scholar Dharmanand Kosambi. He was aware of the revival of Buddhist thought in India represented by Kosambi as well as the many scholarly studies by British scholars. Shortly before his death and in spite of illness, he attended the World Buddhist Conference at Katmandu, speaking on the Buddha and Karl Marx and claiming the relevance and superiority of Buddhism. Dr. Ambedkar died in Delhi on 6 December 1956, and his body was flown to Bombay. The funeral procession saw the largest such crowd in the history of Bombay. At the place of his cremation on the beach of Shivaji Park in Dadar, his followers built a stupa and named the site Chaitya Bhumi. The location serves as a central place for an annual pilgrimage on December 6. Every year literally hundreds of thousands come from all over the state of Maharashtra and nearby states to pay their respect to the Buddha and Ambedkars images in the stupa. Long lines quietly wait on the streets of Dadar and then after their tribute in the stupa look at the books, photographs, posters, calendars, and cassettes all relating to Ambedkar and Buddhism on the pathway and in a nearby park. The Chaitya Bhumi pilgrimage is one of three that bring identity and inspiration to the followers of Ambedkar, the others being one in Nagpur in October to commemorate the conversion to Buddhism and a third in Bhima Koregaon on 1 January, the site of a battle of the British against the Maratha Peshwa in 1818. Many Mahar and other Indian soldiers died in that battle and their names are etched on a pillar by the side of the Bhima river. Mahar names are defined by a nak ending. Ambedkar began a yearly observance of Mahar bravery at this site in the 1920s and the practice has been revived. Each of these pilgrimages is an opportunity to declare unity, get material to read and look at and listen to, and in some instances to go from a village to a big city as a group, often staying in Buddhist viharas in the city. In Mumbai, many go after paying tribute to the Chaitya Bhumi to the Prince of Wales museum (now officially the Chhatrapati Shivaji Museum) to admire the Buddhist art and identify themselves with Indias glorious past. Developments since Dr. Ambedkars Death Many developments since Dr. Ambedkars death stem from his teachings. One of the most interesting is Dalit Sahitya, the literature of the oppressed. While short stories appeared occasionally in his newspapers, Dalit literature as a Marathi and then a national phenomenon did not blossom until the 1970s. In the early 1970s, the Dalit Panthers, an organization of youth chiefly from Dr. Ambedkars colleges, arose to protest atrocities and to create literature. The name is a reference to the black
810 Eleanor Zelliot
panthers of America as a tribute to their militancy. The Dalit (Indian) panthers had a profound belief in the printed word and the literary movement they began continues. Dalit literature, especially poetry, became very important in Marathi and later in Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Bengali. Autobiography has become dominant in Marathi now, and an ever-increasing range of castes and tribes are represented by a number of individuals stories (see Dangle 1992; Anand & Zelliot 1992; Moon 2000; Dhasal 2007; Zelliot 2008). The panthers as an activist group diminished in number and influence soon, although elements remain in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamilnadu, but Dalit literature is ever more important. While Dr. Ambedkars Republican Party is split under four leaders and powerful only on the local scene, a new party has reached dominance in the North. Kanshi Ram (19342006) established the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) (the party of the majority) in 1984, building on an organization of Scheduled Caste and Backward Caste representatives who held government jobs and performed social work but could not enter politics. Kanshi Ram was a Ramdasi Sikh, a group converted from Chamars in the Punjab, highly educated and very influenced by Ambedkarian ideas. After minor successes, the BSP under the leadership of Mayavati, an associate of Kanshi Ram, built a powerful party in Uttar Pradesh. After holding the Chief Ministership briefly twice in combination with other parties, she won outright in 2007. Her party includes higher castes and Muslims as well as her dominant caste of Chamars and has begun a controversial program of tribute to Dr. Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram as well as social and political innovations. Mayavati, born in 1956 as Mayavati Kumar, had been a school teacher in Delhi before her political career and is now one of the most powerful women in India. The most important and most controversial aspect of Dalit life today probably is the reservation system, Indias more extensive and stricter version of affirmative action (see Weiskopf 2005 for comparison; Galanter 1984 for history). Although the policy of making sure Untouchables were represented in government positions occurred in Madras state under the Justice Party in the 1920s and in Kolhapur by Shahu Maharaja early in the twentieth century, the reservation system took shape and legitimacy because of Dr. Ambedkars advocacy in the 1930s. Going beyond representation in elected bodies, quotas began to be ordained for educational institutions and anything related to government support. Reservations created a critical mass of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the middle class, but of course affected a small percentage of the total group. The implementation of the system to include Backward Castes most recently created enormous controversy when it was applied to medical colleges in Delhi. As Indian business (and educational institutions) become privatized, reservations become less and less a path to prosperity and there is a movement to bring the system to private business.
811
Buddhist Conversion The original conversion was held in Nagpur (central India) on 14 and 15 October 1956. The oldest Buddhist monk in India, Mahasthaveer Chandramani, originally from Burma, came to conduct the conversion ceremony. Ambedkar received diksha at the hand of the 83-year-old monk and then administered the three refuges (tisarana), the five vows (panca sila) and 22 oaths of his own devising to the assembled multitudes. Eight of the 22 reject various aspects of Hinduism; the rest relate to a belief in the principles of Buddhism and include I believe that today I am taking new birth. Dr. Ambedkar died within 2 months of the ceremony. His cremation ceremony in Bombay was the occasion of another conversion. After the funeral procession on 6 December, the largest Bombay had ever seen, Bhikkhu Anand Kausalyayan administered diksha to 100,000 people. Kausalyayan, ordained in Ceylon, was originally a high caste Hindu from the North, but gave himself wholeheartedly from then on to conversion and education of monks, centering his work in Nagpur. There has been interest in the Buddhist revival from several parts of the world. A Japanese woman built a vihar in Kampti so Japanese in motif that it is called the Dragon Temple. Another Japanese, a bhikkhu who came to Nagpur years ago, has become one of the chief leaders in the area. Sarai Sasai has built many viharas in the city and also led the effort to restore the Bodh Gaya temple to Buddhist control. Taiwanese Buddhists have been helpful in funding the Nagarjuna Institute at the Nagaloka Retreat Centre near Nagpur, the latest organization springing from early British interest in Dr. Ambedkars Buddhism. The founder of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, Bhante Sangharakshita, met with Dr. Ambedkar several times before the conversion, visited Buddhist groups later, and wrote a book on Ambedkar and Buddhism (1986). He also established the TBMSG (Trilokya Bauddha Maha Sangha Gana), which has a center near Pune for worship and classes, a retreat center near the Bhaja Buddhist caves, and several schools for girls. One of the early TBMSG English leaders, Lokamitra, left the TBMSG center so that it could be run entirely by Indian hands and began two other institutions in Pune itself, the Jambudvipa Trust and the Manuski Center. He also has developed the Nagaloka Retreat Center near Nagpur. Maharashtrian Buddhist women have participated in the international conferences of the Sakyadita (daughters of the Buddha) and the ordination ceremony for bhikhshuni held by the Taiwanese order at Bodh Gaya. There are efforts, especially by Lokamitra, to explain Ambedkar Buddhism, sometimes called Navayana, to Buddhists from outside India. Christopher Queen (1996) has written on the Ambedkar movement as part of the worldwide Engaged Buddhism phenomenon. For an observers view of Bodh Gaya, Nagpur, and the Sangha with many illustrations, see Kantowsky 2003.
812 Eleanor Zelliot
Needless to say, there continues to be criticism of the Ambedkar conversion movement, some labeling it political (although it is hard to see the political value of conversion), others taking exception to the Ambedkarian definition of karma and the four great truths. It is difficult for a former Untouchable to assume that his lowly position was caused by bad karma, that is, his behavior in a previous birth, nor to assume that greed is the basis for all suffering. A Buddhist poet, Daya Pawar, has declared that there is a new relationship of the Buddha and suffering, seeing the Buddha as a figure wandering the slums, healing the suffering (Anand & Zelliot 1992, p. 127). For further study, see Omvedt 2003; Jondhale and Beltz 2004; Mungekar and Rathore 2007. Conversions have continued sporadically through the years. One of the most recent was also one of the most unusual. To prepare, Laxman Mane, a nomadic tribal whose autobiography had brought him fame and distinction in the Marathi speaking world, traveled throughout Maharashtra for months, talking about Buddhism. The ceremony was held on 17 May 2007, at the race course in Bombay. A hundred thousand nomadic tribals and other backward castes gathered, some in full tribal regalia, together with Bhikkhus and political leaders, to be admitted to the Buddhist community. Nomenclature The position and the history of Dalits can be traced through the names used for them. Caste, the most commonly used word, is from the Portuguese word casta, or pure, used to describe the rigid social system the Portuguese observed in India. But it is, however, necessary to use two Indian words to accurately describe the system: Varna. There are four varnas in classical Hinduism, enunciated in the final book of the Rg Veda: the Brahmins (who sprang from the head of the original man) who are priests and ministers in government; Kshatriyas (from the arms) who are kings and warriors; Vaishyas (from the thighs) who originally were land owners but now merchants; and Shudras (from the feet), who were to serve all the rest, but now include anyone who works with his hands, from farmer to musician. The varnas are ranked hierarchically but the ranking is not absolute in every area in India. The more realistic term for caste is jati. Jati. Related to the term for birth. Some thousands of jatis can be with difficulty fitted into the varna system, but basically are the unit of identity for a group. Usually the group has a common language and area, common myths, common cultural, and food patterns. Classical terms: avarna (without a varna); antajya (last born); panchama (the fifth); Chandala (one who does unclean work and lives outside the village). Untouchable castes (jatis), however, do not appear until the fourth century ce. Exterior Castes, depressed classes. British terms used when the Census was first brought out in 1872 and when writing about caste began to appear.
813
Untouchables. Those who should not be touched. In use in the twentieth century. Harijans. Gandhis term for Untouchables, from a Gujarati saints discussion of children of God. A kindly meant but patronizing term used widely from 1932 on but rejected by many Untouchables and now chiefly replaced by Dalit (q.v.). Scheduled Caste. In 1935, some 4000 castes were placed on a list (or a schedule) to receive special treatment in elected bodies, in government offices, educational institutions, etc. Aboriginal people were placed on a scheduled tribes list. The scheme was placed in the Constitution of India in 1950 and renewed periodically. The practice of untouchably was made illegal also in 1950. Neo-Buddhist. Initially, the new Buddhist converts were called neoBuddhists but after realization that neo implied something less authentic than its synonym new, they preferred the designation simply of Buddhist. Dalit. A Sanskrit-derived word meaning ground down, now best translated oppressed. Used as a Marathi synonym for depressed, it became a self-chosen term in 1972 when a group of Bombay youths organized the Dalit Panthers in an effort to encourage the militancy of the American black panthers. Like the word black in the USA, it was used proudly. Swiftly catching on, it is now used in most contexts for Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Nomadic Tribes, Ex-Criminal Tribes and any group that feels itself to be discriminated against. Some middle-class Dalits do not like the use of the word since they do not feel oppressed, and some Valmikis, formerly called Bhangis, in the North and other Untouchables in the South prefer to keep the designation Harijan. Sakya and Mulnivasi. Sakya is the Buddhas non-Aryan tribe; Mulnivasi means original inhabitant. Both indicate a new movement to indicate that Dalits are non-Aryan. Outcaste and Pariah. Two words were used for Untouchables that have become part of the English vocabulary for any despised group. But Dalits are not outcasted; they have specific castes of their own, and there are some 400 of them. To be outcasted is to be excommunicated because of some sin against the caste. Mohandas Gandhi was outcasted by his Vaishya caste when he crossed the ocean to England for his law training! Untouchables are outside the varna system, not outside the more meaningful designation of jati. Pariayah is the name of a large caste in Tamilnadu including drumming in its duties. The drum is a Paria. Some in the caste now do not want the name used since it is a reminder of forced caste duties to upper castes. Leadership Contemporary with Dr. Ambedkar The best way to get a sense of the variety and the concerns of Untouchables in various parts of India at the time of Ambedkar is to note a selected list
814 Eleanor Zelliot
of early leaders (information chiefly from Kshirsagar 1994). These brief biographies indicate the importance of religion, the British, economics, and the relative weight of Gandhi and Ambedkar. There is now considerable interest in studying these Dalit leaders, both in the areas indicated and by outside scholars. Although the Untouchable movement is increasingly national and even international, pioneering local leaders who stir pride and emulation are also increasingly important. Any leader or movement especially noted in a published work is indicated. Ayyan Kali (18631941). As a Pulaya from Kerala, Ayyan Kali received no formal education but did know the Malayalyam martial arts. He secured the right of Untouchables to use the public roads in the Trivandrum area by riding with well-armed brothers in a bullock cart, and then winning a pitched battle. He led a successful strike of agricultural laborers in 1904 and founded a primary school in the same year. Many Dalits joined his organization, the Sadhu Jana Paripalana Yogam that taught a reform religion. He was a member of the Travancore Legislative Assembly for many years, and persuaded the Maharajah to grant land to Untouchables and to open temples to them, which resulted in temple entry in 1936. Bhagya Reddy (18881939). As a Mala from Hyderabad (now Andhra), he was born Madari Bhaglah. Without formal education, he was literate and earned his living by domestic service, then as a wireman, then as a preacher for a reform organization. He founded the Jagan Mitra Mandali in 1906 to educate through Harikatha performances and bhajans. He became a pioneer in the Adi-Hindu movement and in 1917 presided over the first Andhra Panchama Conference at Vijayawada. Not an orthodox Hindu, he believed in the Brahmo Samaj and in 1913 began the celebration of Buddha Jayanti. The birthdays of the Untouchable Saint-poets Nandanar from Tamilnadu and Chokhamela from Maharashtra were also celebrated. He supported Dr. Ambedkars demand for separate electorates. His son, M. B. Goutam, continues his leadership. Iyodhi Dass (18451914). As an Adi-dravida, Dass was born at Nilgiri in Tamil country. A scholar in Tamil and Pali, he was also a native medical doctor with a dispensary called Buddhist Medical Hall that treated the poor without charge. In 1891, he met Colonel H. S. Olcott and asked him to help revive Buddhism in India and also encouraged Olcott to establish four schools for Untouchables. He believed that Untouchables were originally Buddhists and he established the South Indian Buddhist Conference in 1910 together with the influential writer, Laxmi Narasu. In addition, he began a newspaper and wrote a number of Tamil books exposing caste injustice (see Aloysius 1998). Gurram Jashua (18951971). Born of a mixed Untouchable/caste Hindu marriage, Jashua completed teachers training and was a teacher for some time. He also was Publicity Officer under the Government of Madras and was a producer for All India Radio. Although he was a Christian, he suffered from being from the Panchama community. He
815
served in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council from 1965 to the end of his life. However, his great gift was in Telugu literature, especially poetry, which eloquently spoke of the misery of untouchability. He received the Padma Bhushan honor from the Sahitya Akademy in 1971. Jogendra Nath Mandal (19041968). A Namashudra from Bengal, Mandal was highly educated, with a BA and a law degree. He was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1937 as an independent, and in 1943 was in the ministry of Bengal along with two other Scheduled Caste ministers. He then joined Ambedkars Scheduled Caste Federation. In 1946, the Muslim League government included him in its ministry. Mangu Ram (18861980) was the chief proponent of Adi-Dharm (first religion) in the Punjab and United Provinces. He aided his father in the development of his leather trade after a minimal education and then spent 16 years (19091925) in the USA in the interests of trade. There he joined the Ghadar (mutiny or revolt) Party, was arrested for smuggling arms, and escaped and returned to America. Then he decided that his chief battle was against untouchability rather than the British. Begun in 1926 in the Punjab, the Ad-Dharm was aimed at creating a separate community such as existed among Muslims and Sikhs. In the 1931 Census, it was listed as a separate religion, pre-Aryan and not Hindu. The Ad-Dharm office in Jullundur was closed in 1946 and converted into the Ravidas High School, which still exists. Mangu Ram supported Ambedkar in the separate electorate battle and also worked on acquiring land for Untouchables and the abolition of bonded labor (see Juergensmeyer 1982). Swami Achutanand (18791933) was an important leader in the United Provinces in the 1920s and 1930s. As was the case of many early leaders, his father had been in the British army. As a member of the Arya Samaj until 1912, he left to chalk out an independent path, especially leading the adi-Hindu movement in Agra and Kanpur. Rao Bahadur M. C. Rajah. (18831947). As a Pariah born in Madras, Raja was probably the most prominent pre-Independence Untouchable leader next to Ambedkar on the all India scene. A graduate of Christian schools and colleges, his life-long interest in education included starting a Dravidian School in 1936. He presided over the All India Depressed Classes Association established in 1928 and over its ninth session in Punjab in 1931 at which he criticized Gandhi and the Congress. However, he also entered into a pact for joint electorate and reserved seats with Dr. Moonje of the Hindu Mahasabha, but later repudiated that stance, joining again with Ambedkar in 1942 as a critic of the Cripps proposals for independence. He was a nominated member of the Madras Legislative Council from 1920 to 1926 and then the central Legislative Assembly until 1937. He was presented with the title of Rao Bahadur in 1922 (see Gupta 1985). Jagjivan Ram (19061986). Born in a devout and educated Chamar family in Bihar, Ram was educated up to the BSc degree, which was from
816 Eleanor Zelliot
Calcutta University. There he started the Ravidas Maha Sabha, and one of his last activities was the building of a Ravidas temple at the downstream end of the Varanasi ghats. He joined the Congress in 1930 and although he did not like the name of Harijan, he stayed with Congress almost all his life, a valued protg of Rajendra Prasad. In 1936 after Ambedkars conversion announcement he attended a conference that asked for an indefinite postponement of any conversion. The next year he was elected to the Bihar Provincial Assembly on a Congress ticket and in 1942 took part in the Quit India movement, spending 14 months in jail as a result. Nehru invited him to be Labour Minister in 1946 and thereafter he led communication, railways, defense, food, agriculture, and irrigation departments. He left Congress in 1977, formed the Congress for Democracy, merged with the Janata Party, and was President of his own Congress (J) Party at the time of his death. His daughter Meira Kumar is a prominent leader in Congress (see Bakshi 1992). Tukaram Bhau Sathe, known as Annabhau Sathe (19201969). Born into a Mang rope making family, Sathe had no formal education but learned to read and write. He joined in a Tamasha group (folk musical drama) managed by a relative and then worked in the cotton mills in Bombay where he came into contact with Communists. He then devoted his talents to revolutionary matters, composing a powada (a heroic song) about the Stalingrad defense against the Germans in World War II. He then began to write novels, of which Fakira, about a nineteenth-century rebel, was the most important. He honored Ambedkar but remained with the Communist Party. Although honored as a shahir (traditional poetsinger) and writer, he died in abject poverty. He is, however, the chief hero of the Mang (Matang) caste in Maharashtra (see Korde 1999). Baddhula Shyamsunder (19081975). As a Mala whose father was a railway constable, Shyamsundar secured a BA and LLB from Osmania University, Hyderabad. He became President of the Depressed Classes Student Union in 1942 and of the Depressed Classes Association in 1947. In the controversy over the fate of the princely state of Hyderabad in 1946, he stood for independence, but after the police action, he contested unsuccessfully a number of elections. He founded the Bhim Sena in 1968 and attempted to revive the Scheduled Castes Federation in the same year. His pleas were for separate settlements, separate electorates, and a separate university, with the base that Untouchables were original sons of the soil, not Hindus but Buddhist. He was a prolific writer in English and Urdu. Recent Dalit Achievements Martin Macwan, an educator and activist in Gujarat, founder of the Navsarjan Trust and a director of the Human Rights Campaign, has won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
817
Dr. Sukhdeo Thorat of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi has been appointed Chair of the University Grants Commission. He received the high government award of a Padma Shri in 2008. He has written much on Scheduled Caste economics and Ambedkars economic policies. Dr. Bhalchandra Mungekar of Maharashtra, formerly Vice Chancellor of Bombay University, is now serving on the Planning Commission for the Government of India. He has co-edited a book on Buddhism and the Contemporary World: An Ambedkarian Perspective. K. G. Balakrishnan of Kerala was selected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India in 2006. Dr. Narendra Jadhav, author of Untouchables, published in New York and as Amca Bap ani Amhi (our father and us) in Marathi, served as chief economist for the Reserve Bank of India before becoming Vice Chancellor of the University of Pune. The late K. R. Narayanan of Kerala, (19202005), formerly in the Foreign Service, served as President of India with great distinction from 1997 to 2002. Ilayaraja, doyen of Tamil film music and an experimental composer, prefers not to be associated with his roots in the Pariah caste, traditionally a caste of drummers. Short Biography Eleanor Zelliot pioneered Western studies of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (18911956) and his movement, beginning in 1963. For the next 40 years, she traveled regularly to Ambedkars state of Maharashtra, studying the effects of his movement on the ground and also meeting scores of people who knew him. A collection of many of her published articles appeared in From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement (Manohar 1992, 3rd edition, 2005) and her thesis was available as Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Untouchable Movement (BluMoon 2005). She co-edited The Experience of Hinduism: Essays on Religion in Maharashtra with Maxine Berntsen (SUNY 1988) and Untouchable Saints: An Indian Phenomenon with Rohini Mokashi-Punekar (Manohar 2005). Zelliot introduced and edited the first Dalit autobiography to be published in the USA, Vasant Moons Growing Up Untouchable (Rowman and Littlefield 2000). Her early (1972) essay on the contrasting leadership of Dr. Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi has been reprinted several times. Eleanor Zelliot is Laird Bell Professor of History emerita at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, where she taught the History of South Asia for 27 years. Note
* Correspondence address: Eleanor Zelliot, Carleton College, Northfield, MN 55057, USA. Email: ezelliot@carleton.edu.
818 Eleanor Zelliot
Works Cited
Aloysius, G, 1998, Religion as Emancipatory Identity: A Buddhist Movement among the Tamils under Colonialism, New Age, New Delhi, India. Ambedkar, BR, 1946, What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables, 2nd edn, Thacker and Company, Bombay, India. , 1979, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches. Government of Maharashtra, Bombay, India (21 volumes as of 2007). Anand, MR, & Zelliot, E (eds.), 1992, An Anthology of Dalit Literature (Poetry), Gyan, New Delhi, India. Bakshi, SR, 1992, Jagjivan Ram: The Harijan Leader, Anmol Publications, New Delhi, India. Dangle, A, (ed.), 1992, Poisoned Bread: Translations from Modern Marathi Dalit Literature, Orient Longman, Hyderabad, India. Dhasal, N, 2007, Dhasal, Namdeo: Poet of the Underworld, Poems 19722006, selected, introduced and translated by Dilip Chitre, with photographs by Henning Stegmuller, Navayana Publishing, Chennai, India. Galanter, M, 1984, Competing Equalities: Law and the Backward Classes in India, UCLA Press, Berkeley, CA. Gupta, SK, 1985, The Scheduled Castes in Modern Indian Politics: Their Emergence as a Political Power, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, India. Guru, G, 1998, Understanding Ambedkars Constructions of National Movement, Economic and Political Weekly, vol. XXXIII, no. 4, pp. 567. Jondhale, S, & Beltz, J, (eds.), 2004, Reconstructing the World: B. R. Ambedkar and Buddhism in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, India. Juergensmeyer, M, 1982, Religion as Social Vision: The Movement against Untouchability in 20th-century Punjab, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. Kantowsky, D, 2003, Buddhists in India Today: Descriptions, Pictures and Documents, translated from the German by Hans-Georg Tuerstig. Manohar, New Delhi, India. Keer, D, 1954, Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission, Popular Prakashan, Bombay, India. Khairmode, CB, 1952, Da. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Vol. l, author, Bombay. Other volumes published by Bauddhjan Panchayat Samiti, Mumbai, and the Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya ani Sanskriti Mandal, Mumbai [In Marathi]. Korde, B, 1999, Anna Bhau Sathe, Makers of Indian Literature series, Sahitya Akadami, New Delhi, India. Kshirsagar, RK, 1994, Dalit Movement in India and its Leaders (18571956), M D Publications, New Delhi, India. Moon, V, 2000, Growing Up Untouchable in India: A Dalit Autobiography, translated by Gail Omvedt, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD. Mungekar, B, & Rathore, AS, (eds.), 2007, Buddhism and the Contemporary World: An Ambedkarian Perspective, Bookwell, New Delhi, India. Omvedt, G, 2003, Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahminism and Caste, Sage Publications, New Delhi, India. Queen, C, 1996, Dr. Ambedkar and the Hermeneutics of Buddhist Liberation, in C Queen and S King (eds.), Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia, State University of New York, Albany, NY. Sangharakshita, B, 1986, 1989, Ambedkar and Buddhism, Windhorse Publications, Glasgow, UK. Shourie, A, 1997, Worshiping False Gods: Ambedkar and the Facts which have been Erased, ASA publications, New Delhi, India. Stephen, C, & Prabhakar, R, 2008, Revisiting the Poona Pact, Insight-Young Voices, FebMar, pp. 2829. Weiskopf, T, 2005, Affirmative Action in the United States and India, Routledge, London. Zelliot, E, 2008, Dalit Literature, in B Kachru and SN Sridhar (eds.), Language in South Asia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Eleanor Zelliot - Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Enviado por

Dados do documento

Título original

Direitos autorais

Formatos disponíveis

Compartilhar este documento

Compartilhar ou incorporar documento

Opções de compartilhamento

Você considera este documento útil?

Este conteúdo é inapropriado?

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Eleanor Zelliot - Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Enviado por

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Religion Compass 2/5 (2008): 804818, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00094.

Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

806 Eleanor Zelliot

Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

808 Eleanor Zelliot

Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

810 Eleanor Zelliot

Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

812 Eleanor Zelliot

Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

814 Eleanor Zelliot

Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

816 Eleanor Zelliot

Understanding Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

818 Eleanor Zelliot

Você também pode gostar