Payal Kapadia

. .
Saviour of the Masses
PUFFIN BOOKS
 Contents

About the Author

Other books in the Puffin Lives series

1: A Train Ride

2: Lessons at School

3: A Man of Maharashtra

4: A New Love for Books

5: Unaccustomed Freedom

6: A Second Chance Abroad

7: A New Political Class Emerges

8: The Knights of the Round Table

9: Two Leaders, Two Visions

10: An Outcaste among Muslims

11: A Place beyond Hinduism

12: A New Party Is Born

13: The 1940s

14: The New Manu

15: Independence, Now What?

16: Bhim’s Legacy

Trivia: Treasury

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Copyright
 PUFFIN BOOKS

B.R. AMBEDKAR

Payal’s debut novella, Wisha Wozzariter, won the Crossword Book Award
2013 for Children’s Writing and is also featured in the 101 Indian
Children’s Books We Love! compilation.

Payal finds that stories abound everywhere, sometimes in real life,

sometimes in the imagination. She studied English Literature at St Xavier’s
College, Bombay, and earned a Master of Science degree in Journalism
from Northwestern University, Chicago. She worked with Outlook in
Bombay and The Japan Times in Tokyo. Journalism, however, was meant
only to be a pit stop, and today Payal is living her dream of being a full-
time author.

She lives in Bombay with her husband, Kunal; her two daughters, Keya and
Nyla; and their three imaginary friends: Klixa, Pallading and Kiki. She has
three exciting children’s books lined up for this year: the first of a two-book
series about the world’s most horrible school; a novel about two unlikely
princesses; and this biography for which the great life of B.R. Ambedkar
provided ample inspiration.
 Other books in the Puffin Lives series

Indira Gandhi: Child of Politics

by Sreelata Menon
Mother Teresa: Apostle of Love
by Rukmini Chawla
Jawaharlal Nehru: The Jewel of India
by Aditi De
Ashoka: The Great and Compassionate King
by Subhadra Sen Gupta
Rani Lakhsmibai: The Valiant Queen of Jhansi
by Deepa Agarwal
Akbar: The Mighty Emperor
by Kavitha Mandana
Mahatma Gandhi: The Father of the Nation
by Subhadra Sen Gupta
The 14th Dalai Lama: Buddha of Compassion
by Aravinda Anantharaman
Swami Vivekananda: A Man with a Vision
by Devika Rangachari
Gautama Buddha: The Lord of Wisdom
by Rohini Chowdhury
Guru Nanak: The Enlightened Master
by Sreelata Menon
Chanakya: The Master of Statecraft
by Deepa Agarwal
 1
A Train Ride

It was his very first train journey, and the boy could not contain his
excitement. He was only nine, and he had never so much as seen a train, let
alone been on one. This was the year 1901, and passenger trains had only
been recently introduced. A train ride was a big deal indeed, and it was a
wonderful stroke of luck that the summer break had begun with one!
The boy’s mother had died recently, so the prospect of a summer break
was a welcome one. The boy and his older brother had been left in the care
of their aunt after their father was called away on work to a place called
Koregaon. With the summer holidays around the corner, the father had sent
word to the two boys to visit as soon as school closed.
The children sent word back to their father asking him to meet them at
the station. In their joyful preparations, no expense was spared—they
bought new shirts, new silk dhotis, bright, bejewelled caps and new shoes.
The boys waited eagerly, counting the days, one by one, and finally, the day
of the great train journey arrived.
It was hot as ever, and as the children clambered into the tonga that
would take them to the station, their new clothes itched a little. But they
gave this no thought, waving cheerfully to their aunt who sobbed bitterly to
see them go. At the station, the boy’s elder brother bought the tickets, and
then gave the boy and their cousin two annas each to spend as they saw fit.
Two whole annas! That was a grand haul, a king’s ransom, and the children
celebrated their new riches by splurging on bottles of cool lemonade.
Soon enough, the train chugged into the station, and it was every bit as
grand as they had imagined it to be. The children climbed in quickly for
fear of being left behind. They were to get off at Masur, the closest railway
station to Koregaon, where their father was working as a cashier.
The train swallowed up the tracks as it sped forward, the wind tangling
the children’s hair as villages and fields whizzed by. The hours flew, and it
was evening when the children gathered their luggage and got off the train
at Masur.
They looked around, expectant, for a familiar face—their father’s
servant, or better still, their father himself. But there was no one at the
station to receive the boys. In but a few minutes, all the other passengers
who had got off with them had disappeared.
The children waited. A whole hour passed. The sun was beginning its
descent into the evening sky. The early elation of their train trip was turning
into a niggling worry.
A man walked up to the children and asked to see their tickets. It was the
stationmaster. When the children told him of their plight, he seemed moved.
‘What caste do you belong to?’ he asked them.
This question might seem odd today, but it was perfectly normal to ask
this of someone more than a hundred years ago. In those days, Hindu
society was divided into four varnas, or castes: Brahmins, Kshatriyas,
Vaishyas and Shudras. There was nothing new about these divisions; they
went back thousands of years.
In the Vedic period, there was no caste system, or chatur varna, as we
know it today. In Sanskrit, varna literally means colour and chatur means
four. The Purush Sukta, one of the first hymns of the Rig Veda, alludes to
four social divisions, when it tells the story of how the world was created.
This hymn is dedicated to Purush, a primeval giant. The gods sacrificed this
giant, the story goes, and from his body, the world was created. From his
mouth were created the Brahmins, his arms, the Kshatriyas, his thighs, the
Vaishyas, and from his feet, the Shudras.
 The Vedic Aryans divided themselves on the basis of occupation, so
people fell into four categories depending upon the work they chose to do.
Those who took to books and learning became the Brahmins; those who
preferred warfare and governance became the Kshatriyas; traders were
known as Vaishyas; and those who served these three classes were termed
the Shudras.
But over time, these divisions became watertight, especially after the
decline of Buddhism—Buddhism had been the dominant religion for over a
thousand years—in 600 CE or 700 CE. You were born into a caste and you
could never escape it. This was fine, perhaps, if you were a Brahmin, with
all the privileges of money and education. But if you were a Shudra, you
were condemned to serve the upper castes. The plight of an Untouchable
was still worse. Being an Untouchable was even worse than being a Shudra,
because Untouchables fell outside the Hindu fold. They were outcastes, or
a-varna.
Before his elder brother could stop him, the boy blurted: ‘We are
Mahars.’ The boy’s reply might not mean much to us now, but it held great
significance for the stationmaster. The Mahars were one of the largest
Untouchable castes of India, and in Maharashtra, every village had its
Maharwada, or special Mahar quarters. The Mahars were the watchmen of
the village, but they also served as porters for travellers, village guides,
sweepers of roads, couriers for messages, and collectors of cattle carcasses.
What was it like to be an Untouchable? It was a living death.
Untouchables had to eke out a meagre living on the outskirts of villages and
towns, sweeping streets, skinning carcasses and tanning hides to make
shoes, or worst of all, clearing the urine and excrement of the upper-caste
Hindus. It was because the Untouchables had to clear cattle carcasses and
human excrement that they were stigmatized and considered impure.
Untouchables existed all over India, only known by different names:
pariahs, panchamas, atishudras, namashudras and avarnas. No high-caste
Hindu would touch an Untouchable; even his shadow was considered to be
polluting. If a caste Hindu was approaching, an Untouchable was expected
to clear the way for him. It was not uncommon for Untouchables to wear
earthen pots around their necks so that their spit would not defile the
ground. They also had to tie a broom behind them so that it would sweep
away their footprints as they walked.
Untouchables could not draw water from any of the village wells, and
they had to drink filthy water wherever they found it. Their children could
not attend schools attended by upper-caste Hindu children. Hindu temples
were out of bounds to them. Barbers refused to cut their hair; washermen
refused to wash their clothes. Upper-caste Hindus led lives full of
contradictions. While they were happy to throw sugar to ants or grain to
birds, they did not have any kind thoughts to spare for an Untouchable.
The Untouchables had no freedom to decide what to wear, what to eat, or
even what domestic animals to rear in their homes. Their rough-hewn
clothes told them apart, and they were forced to beg for food at the back
doors of high-caste Hindu homes, or to stand outside the doorway of a shop
to buy rations.
As soon as the stationmaster heard the boy’s answer, his attitude
underwent a transformation. The boy was a Mahar, but because he was
dressed in fancy clothes, he hadn’t been recognized as one. Now his honest
reply to the stationmaster had changed everything. The stationmaster’s
concern for the children gave way to revulsion, and he returned to his room,
leaving the children standing there, bewildered and alone.
The stationmaster returned a half-hour later. What were the children
going to do, he asked. There were many bullock carts plying for hire
outside the station, but the boy’s reply had already made its rounds among
the drivers. No driver would risk being polluted by carrying Untouchable
children in his bullock cart. The children offered to pay double the fare, but
they discovered that money was of no use in persuading people to change
their beliefs.
Suddenly, the stationmaster seemed to have an idea. ‘Can you drive a
cart?’ he asked the children. The desperate children shouted, ‘Yes, we can!’
The stationmaster negotiated with the driver of a cart on the children’s
behalf, and so it turned out that the children would drive the cart themselves
and pay the driver double the fare to walk beside the cart.
 By now, the sun had set, and the children were anxious to reach
Koregaon before it became dark. The driver assured them that it would take
no more than three hours to get there. The children set off, reins in hand, the
driver walking by their side. A short while later, they came across a trickle
of water in the dark, a small river of sorts. The driver told them to stop here
for their meal as they would find no water later on. Then he took a portion
of the fare that they owed him and went off to eat his own meal, promising
to return soon.
The hungry children opened the tiffin box their aunt had packed for them
and started eating. They needed water to wash their food down, so one of
them went to the trickle of water that ran near the cart. But it was not a
small river—far from it. It was nothing more than a sludge of mud, cattle-
urine and cow-dung. It stank so much the children could not drink from it.
The children’s stomachs were hardly full, but they shut their tiffin box for
want of water, and waited for their driver to return. There was no sign of
him for a long time, and just when the children feared that they had been
abandoned, he reappeared. For a few miles, he walked beside the cart.
Then, suddenly, he sprang into the cart, taking the reins himself, as though
he were no longer fearful of being polluted by the presence of the
Untouchable children. What strange behaviour, the children thought, but
they were anxious to get to Koregaon and did not dare to ask him any
questions.
Night was falling fast. There were no street lights to illuminate their way.
The road was deserted, and the children grew fearful of how alone they
were in the gathering darkness. More than three hours had passed, and yet
there was no sign of Koregaon. Then a terrifying thought took a hold of
them: what if the driver intended to spirit them away to a desolate spot and
then kill them for the gold ornaments they were wearing?
‘How long until we reach Koregaon?’ they asked him repeatedly. But
when he did not reply, the children grew even more frightened and started
crying. That was when they saw a small light burning in the distance. ‘The
toll-collector’s hut,’ said the driver, ‘we will rest there for the night.’ The
relieved children stopped crying. It was midnight when they reached the
hut, and the boys were painfully hungry. ‘Will we get some water here?’
they asked.
‘Not if you tell the toll-collector that you are Mahars,’ said the driver
brusquely. ‘Tell him you are Muslims.’
The boy, tired, thirsty and hungry, went to the toll-collector and asked for
water. ‘We are Muslims,’ he said. But his lie did not pay off. ‘Do you think
I have kept water for you?’ asked the cruel toll-collector. ‘If you want it,
you must go get it from the top of the hill yourself.’
His elder brother’s face was expressionless when the boy told him what
the toll-collector had said. Perhaps it was all too much to bear. ‘Lie down,’
he said simply. The cattle had been unyoked, the cart had been placed
sloping down on the ground, and the children made their beds inside the
cart. Hunger burned inside them. They could not eat because they had no
water, and they had no water because they were Untouchables. That
indignity hurt more than all the hunger and thirst in the world.
It was not easy to sleep on an empty stomach. After a restless night, the
children left for Koregaon at eight the next morning, arriving at their
father’s home at eleven. Their father was shocked to see them. It turned out
that the servant had forgotten to convey the children’s message to their
father, and he had not known of their date of arrival.
Perhaps some of the terror and the humiliation the children had
experienced melted away with the sudden joy of being reunited with their
father, but the boy remembered this train ride for the rest of his life. It was
not as if he was new to the stigma of being untouchable, but for the first
time, he found himself thinking hard about what it really meant.
The boy, this Untouchable child from a small rural town, was none other
than Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. He rose from the poorest, the most
oppressed class of society to become the architect of the Constitution of
India, and yet he never forgot the burning shame of untouchability. He
fought bitterly against the caste system and led a lifelong crusade to win for
the rights of the Untouchables.
And where it all started, like all great stories that begin small, was a
single train ride and a night spent thirsty, frightened and Untouchable.
Who were the Untouchables?
The first mention of untouchability is found in the Chandyoga Upanishad: ‘Those who are of
delightful conduct will quickly attain a delightful womb—a Brahman womb, a Kshatriya
womb or a Vaishya womb. But those who here are of foul conduct will quickly attain a foul
womb—a dog’s womb, a pig’s womb or a Candala womb.’ ‘Candala’ stands for the
Chandalas, or the Untouchables, those who were given the task of disposing of dead bodies.
Even in the philosophical texts of the Upanishads, Untouchables were considered no better
than pigs or dogs!
What is the Vedic period?
The Vedic age or the Vedic period refers to the time when the most ancient scriptures of the
Hindus, the Vedas, were written. The exact dates for the Vedic period can only be guessed at,
but it is considered that the oldest Veda, the Rig Veda, was composed somewhere between the
17th century BCE and the 11th century BCE. There are four main Vedas, or ancient Sanskrit
texts of the Vedic period: the Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Atharva Veda.
 2
Lessons at School

Perhaps it was always clear that B.R. Ambedkar, known affectionately in

his childhood as Bhim or Bhiva, was destined for greatness. He was born in
Mhow, a small garrison town in Madhya Pradesh, on 14 April 1891, the last
of fourteen children. Before his birth, a prophecy was made by a great-
uncle of his who had renounced the world and become a sanyasi. He
predicted that Bhim’s father, Ramji Sakpal, and his mother, Bhimabai,
would have a son who would leave his mark on history. The great-uncle
could not have been more right.
In his earliest years, Bhim did not directly feel the insult of being
Untouchable. To begin with, his father dropped the family name, Sakpal, as
it was obviously low-caste. Instead, he used the name of his ancestral
village, Ambavade, as was the practice at the time in Maharashtra, changing
the family name to Ambavadekar (‘kar’ meaning ‘belonging to’).
The family also had greater access to education and resources than usual
because of Bhim’s father’s job as a subedar-major in charge of a military
school. Bhim’s paternal grandfather, Maloji Sakpal, was a retired military
man. On his mother’s side, her father and her six uncles were all subedar-
majors in the army.
Among the Mahars, joining the military was an old tradition. The Mahars
were a huge presence in the British army, so they enjoyed the advantages of
cantonment life, such as compulsory schooling and living in military
quarters, instead of dark, unsanitary shanties. Because of the peculiar
combination of being educated but poor, the Mahars were more politically
conscious and their leaders were acutely aware of their rights. It is no
surprise then that a leader like Bhim arose from the ranks of the Mahars.
Bhim was barely two years old when his father retired from military
service. The family moved from Mhow to Dapoli in the Konkan region. In
Dapoli, Bhim first went to school. His father did not stay long at Dapoli and
soon secured a job in the Public Works Department at Satara.
Soon after their arrival in Satara, the family faced a tragic blow—Bhim’s
mother died. Bhim was barely six years old at the time. Of Bhimabai’s
fourteen children, only three sons and two daughters had survived. Her
death was a devastating blow for them all. Balaram was the eldest,
Anandrao was the second, then came two daughters, Manjula and Tulsi, and
finally, Bhim, the youngest. In the absence of a mother to raise the boys, the
two daughters, both married, took turns looking after their brothers. Ramji’s
sister, Mirabai, also helped bring up the children. Bhim was her favourite
because he was the youngest.
It was in Satara that Bhim first experienced caste discrimination. In
school, he was forced to sit apart from the other students, squatting on a
piece of gunny cloth that he had to carry home with him at the end of the
day because the school cleaner would not touch it.
The teachers would not so much as touch his notebooks. Some of them
hesitated to ask him questions or assign him a poem for recitation because
they feared that he would pollute them if he spoke to them directly. When
they were thirsty, the other children could go to the school tap, open it and
drink. But when Bhim was thirsty, he had to wait for the school peon to
pour water into his cupped hands from above. If the peon was not at school
the boy had to go thirsty. He put it in his own words quite well: ‘No peon,
no water.’
There were isolated acts of kindness in his life, though. There was a
Brahmin teacher at Bhim’s school called Mahadev Ambedkar, who, it is
said, was a most infrequent visitor to his own classroom. He had another
day-job as an accountant at a tobacco shop nearby. During class hours, he
would sneak off to the shop, leaving the class in the care of a grown-up
Muslim student. But when the school inspectors made their annual visits,
Ambedkar showed his sympathy for his students by standing behind the
inspector and giving out the answers to arithmetical problems!
Ambedkar took a liking to Bhim. Every day, he shared some of his own
lunch with Bhim, dropping it into his outstretched hands. In the school
register, he changed Bhim’s name from Ambavadekar to Ambedkar, giving
the Untouchable boy his own name. In later years, Bhim would remember
his teacher fondly, although he was not as much a good teacher as he was a
good person.
Bhim’s greatest teacher, though, was his father. Ramji Sakpal was a
teacher by training, and he served as headmaster in the military school at
Mhow for fourteen years. He was a well-read man, reciting the epics of the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata to his children. He also sang them the
spiritual songs of great Marathi poet-saints like Tukaram and Mukteshwar.
The family followed the Kabir school of thought, like many other
Untouchable families at the time. Typically, Kabir followers worshipped
Lord Krishna or Lord Rama, but most significantly, they did not believe in
the rigidity of the caste system as Kabir had clearly condemned it.
In the military quarters at Mhow, life followed strict military rules. Every
household put out its lights at a fixed time. Ramji Sakpal would stay up late
into the night, crooning softly to his children with the doors and windows
tightly shut so no sound carried outside. Constant recitals of these songs
gave the children a certain command of Marathi from an early age.
Bhim’s father also studied English and liked arithmetic, and introduced
his sons to both subjects. Discipline and religion were very important to
him. Prayers were offered twice a day, and he expected his children to
attend without fail and to participate in singing the hymns. Any
disobedience on this front was met with unforgiving sternness.
Bhim also inherited from his father a deep interest in the welfare of
society. Ramji Sakpal was a friend and admirer of Jyotirao Phule, the
founder of the anti-Brahmin movement in Maharashtra. In 1892, the
government of India issued orders banning the recruitment of Mahars into
the Indian army, mainly because the Hindu soldiers who came from other
castes objected to sharing their barracks with Untouchables.
Gopalbaba Walangkar, a former soldier, led the first protest against this
order. Walangkar’s is a prominent name in Dalit history because he fought
hard to secure the rights of the Untouchables much before Bhim emerged as
a leader. Though Walangkar’s petition did not find any support at the time
because people were too fearful to speak out against the injustice, several
other petitions were filed later.
Bhim’s father also took an active role in the protest. He approached M.G.
Ranade, another noted reformist, to draft a petition to the government to
retract its orders. Years later, Bhim would come across his father’s old
papers, and it would make him proud to see his father so concerned with the
fate of the Untouchable community—and to realize that he was truly his
father’s son.

Who were the Mahars?

It is held by some that the Mahars were the original inhabitants of Maharashtra, which, they
say, was a ‘Mahar-rashtra’, or ‘land of the Mahars’. The Mahars were Maharashtra’s poorest
Untouchables. In spite of their extreme poverty, the Mahars were certainly not the worst off
among the Untouchables. They did not specialize in any craft, so they were the first to leave
the villages and experience modern city life.
Who are Kabir, Tukaram and Mukteshwar?
Kabir, Tukaram and Mukteshwar were mystic poets and saints associated with the Bhakti
movement. The Bhakti movement originated in Tamil Nadu and then spread northwards
during the late middle ages. This was an unorthodox movement, emphasizing absolute
devotion to God or Bhakti, and setting aside caste distinctions and Brahmanical rituals. The
progressive Bhakti movement revived Hinduism at a time when the Islamic rulers of north
India were pressuring their Hindu subjects to convert to Islam, but it would be wrong to call it
a Hindu movement. One of its leading saints, Kabir, was raised in a Muslim family, and even
in Tukaram’s famous songs, there is no mention of the word ‘Hindu’.
 3
A Man of Maharashtra

The story of any human being cannot be fully understood without looking
closely at where he comes from. Bhim’s rise to greatness had plenty to do
with his iron will, his vast intellect and his public-spiritedness, and these
values were his father’s legacy to him.
But Bhim was also heir to a strong regional tradition. His ideas of
equality and justice found their early roots in the anti-Brahmin movements
that emerged in Maharashtra from the mid-19th century onwards, and in
Western patterns of thought brought in by British rule.
What was Bhim’s home, Maharashtra, like before the British arrived?
Under the rule of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, social relations at the village
level were organized according to the balutedari system, also known as
bara balutedar, or twelve balutedars. These balutedars provided hereditary
services to the village. There was a caste system even among the balutedars
and they were by no means equal. The Patil (or moneylender) and the
Kulkarni (or village accountant) typically came from the higher castes and
had dominant roles. The astrologers came from the Brahmin caste, but the
other balutedars were all from the lower castes. They included, among
others, the Sonas (or goldsmiths), Lohars (or ironsmiths), the Mangs (or
ropemakers) and the Chambhars (or leatherworkers).
After the death of Shahu, Shivaji’s grandson, the Peshwas usurped the
throne. The Peshwas were Brahmins, and they were bitterly resented by the
Marathas, who belonged primarily to the peasant classes, although a few
Maratha clans claimed to be Kshatriyas. This tension between the Peshwas
and the Marathas points to a conflict between Brahmins and non-Brahmins
very early in the history of Maharashtra.
The last Peshwa surrendered his power in 1818 after being defeated in
war by the British East India Company. Through the 19th century, British
colonialism began to undermine the caste system. The Brahmins were
already accustomed to education and found it easy to enter the educational
system that the British had set up to train local administrators. The superior
education of the Brahmins gave them an upper hand when it came to
bagging the best jobs in the British bureaucracy.
The British-run schools were closed to the Untouchables because upper-
caste pupils opposed the idea of studying along with them. At best,
Untouchable children could study sitting on the school verandah. The
government had set up special schools for Untouchables, but these schools
were too few in number to provide a proper education to large numbers of
Untouchables.
In 1813, Christian missions were allowed to settle in India. At first, the
missionaries focused on providing education, but soon enough, they were
conducting public debates to promote Christianity as a better alternative to
Hinduism. They used the printed word to spread their ideas, publishing
pamphlets, books and newspapers. They challenged the idea of idol
worship; they professed that there was only one God; and they denounced
the caste system.
Their egalitarian ideas began to take hold in the minds of lower-caste
Hindus who had long suffered under the caste system. The Brahmins’
greater access to both education and employment aroused hostility among
them. This paved the way for the birth of the anti-Brahmin movement.
In the face of this steady assault against Hinduism, some Brahmins
became convinced of the need to reform themselves and their beliefs in
order to counter the impact of the missionaries. This led to the parallel
emergence of reform movements dominated by the upper castes, although
none of them argued for the abolition of the caste system itself.
 The anti-Brahmin movement, on the other hand, was much bolder in its
scope, denouncing the caste system altogether. It is closely linked to the life
of a man called Jyotirao Phule, who was the founder of India’s first low-
caste organization, the Satyashodhak Samaj. Bhim was born within a year
of Phule’s death and was deeply influenced by him. He later dedicated one
of his books to the memory of Phule.
Phule was a Mali, born into the caste of gardeners. He was very fortunate
to receive an education at the Scottish Mission in Pune, and his schooling
brought him in touch with Western philosophy and thought. He was very
drawn to the figure of Christ, who stands for equality and brotherhood. In
fact, Christian values had a strong impact on Mahars till the early 20th
century, with some of them converting to Christianity. Phule opposed the
caste system and described Brahmins as oppressors—either as greedy
moneylenders or as priests who took advantage of the blind faith of the
poor.
One day, Bhim’s political career would echo Phule’s own. From Phule,
Bhim learnt to distrust upper-caste reform movements and to believe that
the Untouchables must liberate themselves on their own. Phule distanced
himself from the Indian National Congress, founded in 1885 in Bombay,
and regarded it as a Brahmin pressure group. Like his predecessor, Phule,
Bhim’s relationship with the Congress would be rocky at best.
When Bhim first appeared on the political scene in Maharashtra, a new
social and political consciousness was emerging among the lower-castes.
They were eager for change and hungry for good leadership. This presented
a unique opportunity to Bhim to prove himself. This is where his education
and his intelligence were of great use to him. If he had not doggedly
pursued an education, there might have been no story to tell.

Who were the Peshwas?

The Peshwas served as prime ministers to the Marathas. The title of Peshwa was first created
by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to oversee the administration of his massive empire, with its
capital in Raigad. The Maratha Empire flourished from 1674 to 1818, and at its peak, it
covered much of South Asia. During Shivaji’s rule, the Marathas fought a twenty-seven-year
war with the Mughals, the longest war in Indian history, and they emerged victorious. After
the death of Shivaji’s grandson, Shahu, the Peshwas became the de facto rulers of the Maratha
Empire, which reached its zenith during their reign.
What reform movements arose within upper-caste Hinduism?
Christianity influenced the Prarthana Samaj, or the Society of Prayer. Its founders wanted to
replace the idol worship of Hinduism with the belief in one God. The most well-known
member of the Prarthana Samaj was M.G. Ranade. He believed that man and God should have
a direct connection, and he wanted Hinduism to rid itself of Brahmins, or priests.
The Arya Samaj was founded in 1875 in Bombay by Swami Dayanand Saraswati. He, too,
like Ranade, denounced idol worship and the caste system, but he argued that these faults were
only modern-day corruptions of an ancient Vedic model.
 4
A New Love for Books

As a young boy, Bhim did not take to his studies easily and had no interest
in examinations, in spite of his father’s educative influence. It wasn’t that
surprising, really, when you think of all the shame and ridicule that he had
to endure at school. However, in the face of such cruelty, Bhim stood
fearless and defiant.
Once, a classmate dared him to walk to school without an umbrella. Not
one to let a challenge go, Bhim marched to school in the torrential rain,
arriving soaked to the bone. The class teacher took pity on him and asked
his son to take Bhim to their home, and to give him a hot bath and a piece
of cloth to wear. Bhim was thrilled at the prospect of getting a day off from
school, but his joy quickly melted into disappointment when he was called
back to the classroom, to spend the rest of the day doing his lessons half-
naked.
Little known to Bhim, his aversion to studies was about to undergo a
dramatic change. Something would happen to transform Bhim from a truant
boy into a promising student. And then there would be no looking back.
When Bhim was less than ten years old, his father remarried. Bhim hated
the idea of another woman replacing his mother. Feeling angry and defiant,
he decided that it was time to stop depending upon his father. Bhim had
heard his sisters tell stories of boys from Satara finding jobs in the mills of
Bombay, and this filled him with hope. But how was he to go to Bombay
without any money of his own?
So he hatched a plan to steal money from his aunt, who slept next to him
on the floor every night. His aunt would tuck her purse safely into her waist
belt, and for three stressful nights, Bhim tried to reach it without waking her
up. On the fourth night, at long last, he got his hands on the purse, only to
find, to his utter disappointment, that it contained only half an anna in it—
certainly not enough to buy a trip to Bombay!
The guilt of being a thief was so intense that Bhim decided to give up his
shameful plan. Instead, he resolved to study hard so that he could clear his
examinations and do something on his own merit. From a shirker he grew
into a dedicated pupil, so much so that his teachers now told his father to
give him the best education or opportunities possible.
In 1904, when Bhim was thirteen, the family moved to Bombay. Home
was now a small room in Dabak Chawl at Lower Parel. Bhim and his
brothers were admitted to Maratha High School. By now, Bhim was better
at English than most of his classmates and he had discovered the wonderful
world of reading. He had an unquenchable thirst for new books, but you can
only imagine that books were not easy to come by for an Untouchable boy
living in a modest one-room tenement.
But Bhim’s father indulged this desire of his, taking small loans from his
married daughters and even leaving the jewellery he had gifted them on
their wedding days at the pawn shop. He would redeem their jewellery at
the end of the month when his own pension payments came through. He
was very keen on his son becoming a scholar, and he oversaw Bhim’s
studies with a stern eye and a firm hand.
After a few months, Bhim was sent to Elphinstone High School. He
learnt early on that if you want to succeed at something, you have to give it
your best. He had no desk of his own and no money for a private tutor, yet
he made no excuses and studied hard. It was hard to find any quiet time in
this tiny home for a boy to study in peace, but Bhim’s father devised a plan.
Before his exams, Bhim would go to bed early, with a grindstone near his
head and a goat asleep beside him, because the single room he lived in was
a shed, kitchen and study all in one. His father would stay up until two in
the morning, only to awaken his son to study and then sleep in his place.
Bhim would study till the early hours of morning in the faint light of a
kerosene lamp. After a short nap, he would bathe and go to school.
Bhim’s new school had as many humiliations in store for him as all the
schools he had attended earlier. Once, a teacher called upon Bhim to solve a
sum on the blackboard. The caste Hindu children, who kept their lunch
boxes behind the blackboard, were furious. Before Bhim could do as the
teacher had told him to, the other children had rushed to the blackboard and
flung their tiffin boxes aside, because they did not want Bhim to touch the
blackboard and pollute their food. Another time, a teacher tried to advise
Bhim to give up his studies, saying that it was useless for him to spend time
on education. Anger welling up inside him, Bhim told the teacher to keep
his opinions to himself!
There were many little dreams and ambitions that he had to sacrifice
because he was an Untouchable boy. He was very keen to study Sanskrit,
but Sanskrit was the language of the Vedas and no Untouchable was
allowed to read or listen to the Vedas. Instead, he was forced to take
Persian. In later years, Bhim would study Sanskrit himself and become a
self-taught scholar in the language.
Bhim had no friends as a student and most of his teachers had nothing to
say to him. He spent his free time reading in a nearby garden. Here, the
principal of Wilson High School, Krishna Arjunrao Keluskar, noticed the
studious boy and often loaned him books to read.
It is strange how the people we seem to meet by accident often affect our
lives in profound ways. It was Keluskar who helped Bhim secure admission
in Elphinstone College after he passed his matriculation exams in 1907. It
was also Keluskar who gifted Bhim a copy of his book, Bhagwan Gautam
Buddhache Charitra (Life of Gautam Buddha).Buddha’s teachings would
move Bhim deeply as he grew older.
In 1905, at the age of fourteen, Bhim was married to Ramabai, who was
only nine years old! Of course, it seems unimaginable now that such young
children could be married, but this was a normal practice at that time.
Bhim’s wedding took place in a rather strange venue: the open shed of
Bombay’s Byculla Market. At night, after the day’s haggling and
purchasing had been done, the bridegroom and his family took shelter in
one corner of the shed, the bride and her family in another. Narrow, open
drains of filthy water flowed beneath their feet, but they were unmindful of
the squalor. They turned the little stone platforms of the market into
makeshift benches for the guests to sit on, and the marketplace was
transformed into a marriage hall.
Right after the wedding, Bhim plunged into his college studies again. In
1907, when he cleared the Standard Ten exam, it was an incredible
achievement. At that time, only one out of every hundred Mahars could
read and write! When his father ran out of money to pay for his college
education, Keluskar came to Bhim’s rescue. He called upon the Maharaja of
Baroda, Sayajirao Gaikwad III, a progressive ruler who had announced only
a few days earlier that he would help any worthy Untouchable in the pursuit
of higher studies.
The Maharaja met Bhim and was so impressed that he granted him a
scholarship. Bhim’s friendship with Keluskar had proved to be a fortuitous
one! Around this time, the family moved into another chawl at Parel. There,
they had two rooms opposite each other. One was used as a study and the
other for household purposes. As the final exams drew closer, Bhim
concentrated all his energy on studying hard, with his father seated outside,
keeping vigil.
In 1912, Bhim passed his BA exams. His oldest son, Yashwant, was born
the same year. During this time, the British government clamped down on
the rights of Indian citizens. The Indian Press Act of 1910 muzzled the
press. Public gatherings and discussions were banned, and anyone who
protested was branded a traitor.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a powerful nationalist leader, had been deported by
the British and sent to Mandalay, in Burma, to suffer six years in exile. Veer
Savarkar, another Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary, was arrested in
1910 and sentenced to prison in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Maharashtra was in the grip of severe political unrest and this must have
had an impact on the mind of young Bhim.
Later, in a historic thesis of his, titled The Evolution of Provincial
Finance in British India, Bhim indicted the British government for its
repressive measures in no uncertain terms.
After his graduation, Bhim decided to take up a service position in the
state of Baroda state to express his gratitude to the Maharaja. His father
dissuaded him from going, warning him that he would face far more
discrimination in Gujarat than he had ever faced in Bombay. But often, you
will agree, we tend to think that we know better than our parents. Bhim was
no different at that age. He was adamant, and even quarrelled with his
father to go to Baroda.
But when he reached Baroda in January 1913, he found to his total
dismay that his father was right. No one would give an Untouchable
lodging and he had to eat in the Untouchable quarters of the city. At work,
he was shifted around from one place to the next as no department wanted
him.
Fifteen days later, he received a telegram from Bombay: his father was
terribly sick. He reached home only in time to see his father die. For Bhim,
it was an indescribable loss, and he cried bitterly for no one had done as
much for him as his father had. With the death of his father, he had lost his
greatest ally and friend.
Heartbroken, Bhim resolved not to return to Baroda. He made his case to
the Maharaja, and the kind ruler of Baroda offered him a scholarship to
study at Columbia University in the United States of America. In return,
Bhim agreed to serve the Baroda State for ten years on the completion of
his studies.
It was an opportunity of the most unbelievable kind. An Untouchable
was to venture abroad to study at one of the world’s finest universities.
What a long way Bhim had come! From a boy who wanted to run away to
the mills of Bombay, he was now an eminently qualified young man about
to embark on an educational journey with the best minds of his generation.
He was the living, breathing proof of the fact that education can liberate
you and transform you, no matter where you come from.

What is a chawl?
Chawl is an Anglicized version of the Marathi word chaal, which is typically a four- or five-
storeyed building with a long common corridor on each floor, and many kholis (or one-room
homes) leading off it. Every floor has a common set of latrines. Chawls were instrumental in
the growth of Bombay. As the city’s cotton mills boomed, there was a demand for cheap
labour. Chawls were built in the 19th and early 20th centuries to accommodate the huge flood
of rural migrant labourers who came to Bombay looking for work. Their residents were a
hardy, resourceful lot who found creative ways to solve their common problems of food and
childcare. The common corridors of the chawl became bustling social hubs. The shared
experience of eking out a living in Bombay brought the residents together, so that chawls
became a sort of community, with a unique life and colour.
 5
Unaccustomed Freedom

In July 1913, Bhim embraced a whole new world. New York was an
exciting experience for him. Untouchability was of little or no significance
to both the Indians and the Americans there. It was like the doors of a
prison had been thrown open. For the first time in his life, Bhim enjoyed the
company of his fellow students. He could think and speak freely, he could
go where he liked, he was accepted as an equal. Nothing could be a greater
revelation to young Bhim. In the early days he watched plays, played
badminton and learned how to ice skate.
He began to appreciate how his education had become the key to his
freedom. The thought was a powerful one—a person could, through hard
work and study, overcome his situation. This way of thinking would deeply
influence how Bhim led his community in the years to come—by preaching
self-help and self-respect as the tools of emancipation.
For the first week, Bhim stayed at the university dormitory, but most of
the dishes contained beef and Bhim could not eat them. He soon shifted to
another dormitory where he forged a lasting friendship with a Parsi student
called Naval Bhathena.
There were so many new things to learn and discover, from eating with a
fork and knife to exploring the dynamic city of New York. But Bhim was
not the carefree son of a rich man. He had a family of ten people back at
home, struggling to survive on the meagre earnings of Bhim’s brother
Balram, who worked as a common labourer.
Soon enough, Bhim regretted all the frivolity of his early days in New
York, and with a renewed sense of purpose, turned to his studies. He had an
insatiable thirst for knowledge, the sort of intellectual curiosity that can
never be quenched. He spent all his free time reading anything he could get
his hands on at the library, or hunting for deals at second-hand bookstores.
He purchased about 2000 old books, using his money for little else. He had
a hearty appetite, yet he ate sparingly, saving a part of his stipend to send
home to his family every month.
He took up political science, anthropology, sociology, economics and
moral philosophy, studying eighteen hours a day, and was determined to
learn as much as he could. He was a student of America’s most famous
philosopher, John Dewey, who taught him to believe in the power of
democracy to bring about social equality.
Bhimrao was also inspired by Booker T. Washington, a black leader who
promoted education as the tool for African American freedom. His
favourite teacher, though, was Edwin R.A. Seligman, an economist. It was
Seligman who guided Bhim towards earning his MA in 1915 and writing
his PhD dissertation in 1916.
Studying at Columbia University might have been enough for Bhim to
rest on his laurels and go home. But, instead, aiming higher still, he turned
his attention to London. He set off the same year to study advanced
economics at the London School of Economics and to train for Law at
Gray’s Inn, one of the four associations of barristers and judges in London.
His Baroda scholarship had expired, and Bhim appealed to the Maharaja for
an extension.
He was given one year to wind up his studies, after which he would be
forced to return to India. What an unbearable interruption this must have
felt like for a young man in a hurry to make the most of every opportunity
given to him! There was so much to learn and so little time! But Bhim
promised himself that he would return once he had earned some money to
pay his way. He got permission from London University to resume his
studies within four years.
It was the time of World War I, and as Bhim sailed back to India in 1918,
a steamer was torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea. His family assumed that
Bhim was on that ill-fated steamer and mourned their loss, only to discover
to their joy that he was travelling on another ship, and the steamer that was
sunk carried only his luggage. Bhim, however, wasn’t as overjoyed as the
rest of his family. He shed tears for his lost bags as they contained many of
his treasured books.
Back in India, the British government was in crisis. World War I was a
watershed in the relations between India and Britain. The news of Indian
soldiers fighting and dying side-by-side with British soldiers travelled far
and wide. It also intensified the demands for self-government among
nationalist Indians.
Beset by war losses on one side and by the clamour for home rule in
India on the other, Edwin Montagu, the Secretary of State for India,
declared in August 1917 that the British would gradually try to promote
self-government in India. Montagu visited India to study public opinion on
the subject, and for the first time, the Untouchables were also able to
present their case. However, Bhim was not on the political scene at the
time. He was busy making preparations to set off for Baroda to take up his
new post as military secretary to the Maharaja.
After the openness of America and England, Bhim had forgotten what it
was like to be an Untouchable. Baroda was a harsh reminder that nothing
had changed in India. He had to pay his own passage to Baroda, and being
short of funds, he used the money he had been awarded as damages for his
torpedoed luggage.
No one came to the station to receive him and guide him in the new city.
No Hindu hotel or hostel would accept a Mahar. He had friends in Baroda
who had studied with him in America, but they were not Untouchables like
him. No high-caste Hindu friend would want to welcome an Untouchable
guest into his home, so Bhim stood at the railway station, undecided and
lost, quite like the boy at Masur station many years ago.
 Finally, he found boarding at a Parsi hostel, pretending to belong to the
community. Bhim was quite alone there, and he dreaded returning to such a
dark bat-ridden dungeon at night. There were no electric lights, not even oil
lamps, only a small hurricane lamp whose light could not extend more than
a few inches. He felt enraged, even saddened, that even after being educated
and employed, this dungeon was his only shelter in an unfriendly, narrow-
minded town. His sister’s son came from Bombay, bringing his remaining
luggage. When the boy saw how his uncle was living, he cried so loudly he
had to be sent back immediately.
At work, things were as oppressive. Brahmin colleagues insulted him to
his face and peons threw papers on his desk in the rudest fashion to avoid
making contact with him. Things finally came to a head when a group of
angry Parsis discovered his true identity and forced their way into the
boarding house to beat him up. At that time, Bhim valued a roof over his
head more than his very life, and he implored the Parsis to give him some
time to find new accommodation. But he discovered that they were not
different from high-caste Hindus. They were adamant and told him to be
off.
Shaken to tears, he thought of where else to go. Baroda was a large town,
and yet there was no room in it for an Untouchable like him. He had two
friends there, a high-caste Hindu and an Indian Christian. But the Hindu
said, ‘If you come to my house, my servants will leave,’ and the Christian
said he could not take a decision without consulting his wife, who was out
of town. It was a tactful answer because, in truth, the Christian friend’s wife
was orthodox and would not like the idea of an Untouchable in her home.
Defeated and disillusioned, Bhim took the train to Bombay that night. He
spent the evening in a public garden, thinking of how even something as
basic as shelter was out of the reach of an Untouchable, no matter how
educated he might be; of how an Untouchable could not count on having
friends from other castes; of how an Untouchable would always cause
problems for himself and for others, no matter where he went.
Who was Edwin Montagu?
Montagu was Secretary of State for India between 1917 and 1922. He was primarily
responsible for the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms. These reforms were laid out in the
Montagu-Chelmsford Report of 1918 with the purpose of gradually introducing self-governing
institutions to India. They were put into the Government of India Act of 1919, which was
meant to expand the participation of Indians in the governance of India. It committed the
British to the task of eventually granting India the status of a dominion. Many countries that
were formerly ruled by the British Empire were later given dominion status, which means that
they were under British sovereignty, at least in name, but they were otherwise independent.
Several of them, like India, became republics later.
 6
A Second Chance Abroad

Returning to Bombay, Bhim struggled to earn a livelihood. There was so

much prejudice against Untouchables that this was no easy thing. No one
would trust an Untouchable lawyer with a case. The solicitors would not
have any business dealings with him.
At last Bhim heard of a teaching vacancy at Sydenham College. He
accepted it in 1918 with a view to earning his way back to London. He
realized, very quickly, that as an Untouchable professor, he did not enjoy
any credibility with his students. What could a Mahar possibly teach them,
they thought. But in time, the students came to realize that their thinking
had been erroneous. They were won over by Bhim’s insightful teaching
methods and his breadth of knowledge. It was not as easy to win over the
other teachers, who objected to Bhim drinking water from the tumbler
reserved for professors.
At about the same time, another reform-minded ruler, Shahu Maharaj of
Kolhapur, was also taking interest in the removal of untouchability. Over
the years, he would develop a close relationship with Bhim, exchanging
warm letters with him.
Shahu Maharaj helped Bhim to start a bimonthly paper called Mook
Nayak in 1920. Here, Bhim’s voice was heard for the first time as a leader
of the Untouchables. India was the home of inequality, he wrote, like a
multi-storeyed tower with no ladder. In another article, he wrote that if the
Brahmins were justified in their opposition to British rule, the Depressed
Classes, as the Untouchables were known in British times, were far more
justified in their opposition to the rule of the Brahmins.
In March of the same year, Bhim presided over a conference of the
Untouchables in Mangaon in the state of Kolhapur. This conference was
sponsored by Shahu Maharaj, and after the conference, he invited Bhim to
join him for dinner. Later, Bhim requested Shahu Maharaj to preside over
another conference for the Depressed Classes in Nagpur. Here, Bhim told
his community about his distrust of any caste Hindu organization working
for the betterment of the Untouchables. He felt that any movement to uplift
the Untouchables should originate from within the community.
At the end of the Nagpur conference, Bhim attempted to unite the
Depressed Classes by hosting a dinner for them. While eighteen subcastes
of the Mahar community attended the dinner, Bhim was not able to
persuade all the other Untouchables to come. It is ironic that while Bhim
was fighting for the abolition of caste, the Untouchables were still very
much divided among themselves by the same system they were being told
to destroy.
During these early years, Bhim did not enter the political arena, except to
speak on behalf of the Untouchables before British committees. It was his
reasoning that while political rights were very important for the
emancipation of the Untouchables, social reform was equally pressing.
Viceroy Lord Chelmsford and Secretary of State Montagu were
recommending reforms for British India. In a follow-up to the Montford
reforms, as they were known, the Southborough Committee was set up to
tour India and survey the opinions of Indians on the idea of voting. The aim
was to revise the qualification criteria for voting and to allow more Indians
to vote during the assembly elections. Bhim was called before the
committee because he was the only Untouchable in the Bombay Presidency
with a graduate degree. He demanded separate electorates and reserved
seats for the Depressed Classes.
Bhim was concerned that the Depressed Classes would not get true
representation. This is because India follows a system known as First-Past-
the-Post or the FPTP system. For the purpose of elections, the country is
divided into constituencies, but only one candidate is elected from each
constituency, the candidate with the largest number of votes, or the
candidate first past the post. It is like a running race where there can only be
a single winner, the first runner to cross the finish line.
This means that even if there are Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Hindus
and Muslims living together in one constituency, only the candidate
selected by majority voters will go to Parliament. In India, in most
constituencies, the majority voters are Hindu. And so if a Hindu candidate
typically bags the most votes, minority voters will never be able to field
their own candidate.
In Bhim’s time, it was assumed that the two major religious communities
in India were the Hindus and the Muslims, and the British were busy
appeasing both of these groups. But Bhim felt that there was one more
division that was often overlooked but was very significant—that between
the caste Hindus and the Untouchables. He feared that in an FPTP system,
only a caste-Hindu candidate would get the most votes, and that the
Untouchables would be shut out. That didn’t seem very fair to Bhim.
To find a solution to the problem, Bhim first looked at the system of
separate electorates, a system that had been used by the Muslims. By this
method, only Untouchables could vote for Untouchable candidates.
But this method was not free of drawbacks. If a minority group were to
get its own quota of representation and nothing else, the rest of the
legislative assembly would owe no allegiance to that group. In other words,
separate electorates are divisive in nature and do not achieve the aim of
integrating the minority group into the mainstream.
On the other hand, by the reserved seats method, a certain number of
legislative seats would be demarcated for Untouchables. But there was
further danger here. High-caste Hindus, who were in a majority, could elect
the Untouchable of their choice, one who would do their bidding in the
legislature in exchange for a seat.
Bhim argued that a multi-seat constituency, in which more than one
candidate was elected from each constituency, would be a fairer form of
representation. Seats would be allotted proportionally to different parties
based on the number of votes they had won. Although Bhim did not call
this the system of Proportional Representation—it is known as such today
—he had the foresight to imagine such a system could exist.
Bhim finally had to drop his demand for separate electorates and to settle
for reserved seats. As a result, the current electoral system has never been
questioned and rethought as it should have been. The outcome is that even
though the Constitution provides for reserved seats for Dalits today, they
are not adequately represented because the majority parties often sponsor
their own Dalit candidates to capture a Dalit seat.

Bhim was paid well as a professor, yet he continued to live frugally, in the
same two rooms of the Parel chawl where he had once studied for his BA
degree. He gave a fixed portion of his monthly pay to his wife Ramabai to
be directed towards household expenses. It was not an easy life at any point,
and both poverty and ill health were constant companions. Ramabai gave
birth to her second son, Ramesh, when Bhim was in America, but the child
died in infancy. Their third child, too, later passed away in childhood.
Of all the children Ramabai had borne, only her firstborn, Yeshwant,
survived, and his frail health caused his mother tremendous worry. Yet she
lived as thriftily as she could, keeping away from Bhim’s study, not wanting
to distract him with concerns about the family.
Where there is a will, there is a way—it was this belief that kept Bhim
going. At long last, after drawing on his savings, borrowing money from his
friend Naval Bhathena and receiving some help from the Maharaja of
Kolhapur, Bhim returned to London in 1920. Ramabai was left to her own
devices again.
Life in London was not easy for Bhim either. It took a lot of resolve to
live on little money, but Bhim was not to be discouraged by hardship. He
had seen enough of it all his life. He would rise at 6 a.m., wolf down the
meagre breakfast that his landlady provided him, and then set off for the
library at the British Museum. Here he would sit, from opening to closing,
chased out by the watchman in the evening as the last to leave, his pockets
bulging with the notes he had written down. After a short walk in the
evening, he would return to a sparse dinner at the boarding house, then
study into the wee hours, sustained by a cup of tea and a couple of papads
(a gift from an Indian acquaintance) that he would fry for himself.
He had no money to spare for the cinema, for the theatre, for lavish
dinners, and sometimes even for a bus ride home. He walked endlessly
through the mighty city of London, exhausting one library after another in
his quest for knowledge. In all those arduous years, Bhim did not forget the
plight of the Depressed Classes back home. He took great interest in the
running of Mook Nayak. He was also concerned about the education of his
son and his nephew and had a tutor engaged to look after them.
Here, in London, Bhim also developed a close relationship with his
landlady’s daughter, Fanny Fitzgerald. She took notes for him on various
subjects, possibly lent him money and took care of his books for him when
he returned to India. It cannot be said for certain what Bhim’s feelings for
her were, but she was evidently in love with him.
In 1921, Bhim earned his Master’s degree in economics, and in 1922, he
submitted his doctoral thesis to the University of London. Around the same
time, he was called to the Bar. Yet, yearning to learn more, Bhim went to
Germany to study at Bonn University. He had hardly been there a few
months when his professor called him back to London. His thesis, he was
told, had offended his British examiners because of its anti-imperialist tone.
Bhim was asked to rewrite it without changing its conclusions.
This was not the first time that Bhim’s controversial ideas had caused a
stir in the academic circles of London. Only a few days before, he had read
a paper at the Students’ Union titled Responsibilities of a Representative
Government in India. It had triggered heated debate, which had to be called
to an end on the grounds that the topic being discussed was too
revolutionary for a student group.
By this time, Bhim’s money had run out and he could not imagine
staying back in London to rewrite his thesis. He returned to Bombay in
April 1923, and submitted the same thesis a few days later. The examiners
accepted it and he was overjoyed to be awarded a doctorate. Bhim became
the first Indian to receive a Doctor of Science degree from the London
School of Economics. What a crowning achievement it was! Instead of
using his difficult circumstances as an excuse for failure, Bhim had
overcome them, through sheer hard work and perseverance. He had kept his
promise to himself.

Shudras, Untouchables, Depressed Classes, Dalits, Scheduled Castes—what do all these

terms mean?
Simply put, Shudras were the fourth varna. They were heavily disadvantaged, but they were
not as badly off as the Untouchables, or outcastes, who were outside the folds of the caste
system, or a-varna. ‘Depressed Classes’ was a term used during British rule. Dalits, which
literally means ‘ground down,’ is probably the most preferred term today. Jyotirao Phule first
used the term in the 19th century. The Dalits are referred to as ‘Scheduled Castes’ in the
Constitution.
Who was the Maharaja of Kolhapur?
Shahu IV, also known as Rajarshi Shahuji Chhatrapati and Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaja, was
the ruler of the Indian princely state of Kolhapur between 1894 and 1922. He turned anti-
Brahmin after the Brahmins of Kolhapur refused to grant Kshatriya status to the Marathas,
barring them from all Vedic rites, including family ceremonies. Shahu IV did a lot to advance
the lower castes in his state, making education free for all and building hostels for lower-caste
students.
 7
A New Political Class Emerges

Bhim returned from London to an India in the throes of social turmoil. The
fall of the tsars in Russia and the rise of Marxism had fuelled a working-
class awakening. The Depressed Classes were beginning to assert
themselves. A South Africa-returned lawyer named Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi was infusing fresh blood into the nationalist movement spearheaded
by the Congress Party. Gandhi made the removal of untouchability an
integral part of the Congress manifesto.
Bhim wanted to begin practising law so he registered at the Bombay
High Court. Caste Hindus were reluctant to approach him with cases, so he
earned money by teaching law part-time and by working as an examiner for
Bombay University.
It was at this point that Bhim became more actively involved in politics.
The Depressed Classes were beginning to grow restless for social change.
People of the Untouchable community routinely gathered at his house. In
March 1924, he set up the Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha, an organization to
promote education and culture among the Depressed Classes, to advance
their economic condition and to represent their grievances. It was also the
first time that the Untouchables, in their use of the word ‘bahishkrit’, had
tried to arrive at an acceptable name for their own community.
In 1926, Bhim was appointed to the Legislative Council of the Bombay
Presidency. This was the beginning of his long, impressive career as a
legislator.
His leadership skills were put to the test when the small town of Mahad
became the seat of the first great mass struggle of the Untouchables in
1927. Here, the municipality had passed a resolution allowing Untouchables
to draw water from the Chavdar Tank. But the caste Hindus were against
this resolution and hence, no Untouchable dared to drink water from the
tank. On 19 and 20 March, a conference was staged at Mahad to assert the
Untouchables’ right to draw water from the tank. More than 10,000
Untouchables gathered at Bhim’s call. ‘We are going to the tank to assert
that we, too, are human beings like others,’ he thundered.
Led by Bhim, the Untouchables marched to the tank and drank its water.
Soon after, a band of angry upper-caste people set upon the Untouchable
delegation to teach them a lesson and beat them. Many of the Untouchables
were wounded, and others had to find shelter in Muslim houses. The
Untouchables were enraged by the brutal attack, and it was tempting to
think of revenge. But Bhim held them back, preaching self-restraint and
non-violence. Their protest, he insisted, should be a peaceful one.
The Mahad conference made headlines for months. Some newspapers
criticized the Depressed Classes for making such a brazen move, others
condemned the shameful behaviour of the caste Hindus. Either way, the
first public attempt of the Untouchables to assert their civic rights became a
historic event. The Untouchables were now bristling from the indignities
they had suffered at Mahad. They awoke to a new sense of self-respect and
gave up skinning carcasses or begging for crumbs. They also realized that
they had a right to drink water from public watercourses, just like anyone
else. It was this day, 19 March, that the Depressed Classes began to observe
as their day of independence.
In August the same year, the Mahad Municipality withdrew its resolution
to declare Chavdar Tank open to the Untouchables. The tank was purified
by pouring into it 108 pots of a mixture of cow-dung and cow-urine. It
seems incredible that for the traditional Hindus, cow excrement was more
pure than the hands of a thirsty Untouchable!
 In response Bhim announced a second satyagraha, or a peaceful protest.
The town of Mahad began to stir again. Police were posted at the Chavdar
Tank. Untouchables began to pour in from everywhere, singing songs and
shouting slogans. On 24 December, Bhim addressed a huge gathering of
15,000 people of his community. Standing in front of the crowd, he
declared that India must adopt the principle that all men are born equal.
Beasts and birds can drink this water, he told his followers in a
memorable speech, but Untouchables are barred because caste Hindus do
not want them to be considered as social equals. The Mahad satyagraha is
not a march for water, he said, it is a march for equality. Drinking water
from the tank would not make any great change in their lives, said Bhim,
but it would help reconstruct society on the lines of the same principles that
had once guided the French Revolution—liberty, equality and fraternity.
He declared war on the Manusmriti, the ancient scriptural text of the
orthodox Hindus. The Manusmriti, followed zealously by devout Hindus,
forbade the Shudras from reading or listening to the Vedas. That night,
copies of the Manusmriti were placed on a pyre and burned by
Untouchables, just as Indian nationalists had burned foreign-made cloth to
challenge colonial exploitation. The Chavdar Tank battle eventually turned
out to be a long one, and Bhim fought the case in the Lower Civil Courts
for nearly ten years.
But just as Bhim was beginning to prove himself a leader to reckon with,
tragedy struck his family yet again. In 1926, Bhim’s son Rajaratna died as a
baby, of double pneumonia. Bhim had loved him dearly, spending happy
hours playing with him. Before the birth of Rajaratna, a girl, Indu, had been
born, but she too, had died in her infancy. Rajaratna’s death was a cruel
blow from which Bhim never fully recovered. He was so devastated that he
would not let go of his son’s body, and for days, could not bring himself to
enter the room where his son had breathed his last. In a letter to a friend, he
wrote, ‘With his passing away life to me is a garden full of weeds.’
The following year, Bhim’s older brother, Balram, passed away and with
his death, Bhim inherited the responsibility of looking after Balram’s wife
and son. Now his meagre finances would have to suffice for not just his
own family, but also his brother’s. It seemed like the situation couldn’t get
any worse.
For all the education that Bhim had sought and found in the Western
world, Bhim’s life was also a lesson in the reality of being poor in India.
Sickness and early death—these were the things that most Indians
experienced at the time. Bhim’s mother died early; so did his elder brother
and four of Bhim’s five children. Poor sanitation, malnutrition, lack of
medical care and disease made life a cruel journey for the poor. This was a
truth in Bhim’s time, and it holds true even today.
In 1929, Bhim tasted the utter humiliation of being an Untouchable once
again. On behalf of the Bombay government, he was touring the province to
investigate the grievances of the Untouchables. His travels took him to
Chalisgaon station, where he was met by the Untouchables of the area.
They entreated him to spend the night in their homes. Overwhelmed by
their love, he accepted the invitation.
The Maharwada was but walking distance from the station, across a river.
There were many tongas for hire outside the station, and yet it took an hour
for a tonga to be arranged. Soon after Bhim boarded the tonga, they almost
collided with a motor car.
Bhim was taken aback by the tonga driver’s lack of experience, but
before he could remark on it, they approached the culvert on the river. The
culvert was at right angles to the road, and the tonga had to take a sharp
turn. Near the very first side stone of the culvert, the horse bolted and
turned instead of going straight. The wheel struck the side stone so
forcefully, Bhim was thrown into the air by the impact, landing hard on the
stones of the culvert. The horse and carriage fell into the river.
Bhim had fractured his leg, and after a little while, he was carried to the
Maharwada. No one told him at the time, but the truth was that the tongas
outside the station had refused to carry an Untouchable. Embarrassed,
Bhim’s followers did not want their leader to go on foot. Finally, a tonga
driver had agreed to rent out his tonga to the Mahars, as long as they drove
it themselves. The Mahars ended up risking Bhim’s safety for the sake of
his dignity. The incident forced Bhim to swallow a bitter truth once again—
that despite being a qualified lawyer, he would always be considered
inferior by anyone who wasn’t an Untouchable.

Who was Karl Marx?

Karl Heinrich Marx was many things—a writer, a philosopher, a historian and a journalist,
among others. But he is best known for developing the theory of Marxism. Marxism is the
collective name for Marx’s theories about society, economics and politics, and it still
influences the world today. What does the theory say? It’s very complicated, but to put it
simply, Marx said that society progressed through class struggle. He was against capitalism,
which he called the rule of the upper classes for their own benefit. He predicted that capitalism
would eventually wear down and give way to socialism, or the rule of the working classes. He
predicted that the world would eventually move to a classless society, or communism.
Although his predictions have not quite come true, his Marxist ideas had a major hold on the
former Soviet Union and modern-day China.
What is satyagraha?
The word ‘satyagraha’ is a combination of two Sanskrit words, satya (or truth) and graha (or
holding on to). Satyagraha, meaning ‘the force of truth’, is an idea that was developed by
Gandhi to fight for Indian independence. It is a form of non-violent, or civil, resistance.
Gandhi believed that violence would only beget violence, so the aim of satyagraha was to
eliminate injustice without harming the wrongdoer. The idea of satyagraha was so effective
and moving, it influenced many justice struggles across the world, including Nelson Mandela’s
struggle against apartheid in South Africa and Martin Luther King Jr’s struggle for black rights
in the United States.
What does the Manusmriti say about the lower castes?
A Shudra’s role, according to the Manusmriti, is to serve Brahmins so that he may attain a
higher caste in his next birth. If a Shudra curses an upper-caste man, he shall have his tongue
cut out. If he uses contemptuous words to refer to an upper-caste person, he shall have a red-
hot iron nail thrust into his mouth. If a Shudra tries to teach a Brahmin his duty, hot oil will be
poured into his mouth and ears. If he tries to seat himself next to an upper-caste person, his hip
will be branded. Shudras should not be allowed to acquire any wealth. They should wear the
clothes of the dead, adorn themselves with only ornaments of black iron, and eat from broken
dishes.
The Manusmriti was also probably the foundation of our patriarchal system. It said that a
woman should never be independent: as a child, she should be under the control of her father;
as an adult, under the control of her husband; and as a widow, under the control of her son.
 8
The Knights of the Round Table

Soon after the Mahad protest, Bhim found himself at the centre of a new
controversy. The Act of 1919—the Montford Reforms—was only valid for
ten years. So in 1928, the British set up the Simon Commission—after its
chairman, a great parliamentarian called Sir John Simon—to come up with
constitutional reforms for India. The commission visited India to consult
representatives of different social groups, but the Congress boycotted the
commission as it had no Indian members. Its arrival was greeted with black
flags and banners that said: ‘Go back, Simon!’
Instead, the Congress formed the Nehru Committee to draft its own
constitution for free India. The Congress version reached out to all
minorities, including the Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Anglo-
Indians. However, it ignored the Depressed Classes and made no provisions
to protect them. This made Bhim sceptical of the Congress’s commitment to
safeguard the rights of the Depressed Classes. It was his view that the
Untouchables needed certain constitutional guarantees if they were ever to
be integrated into the mainstream of Indian society.
In 1929, Bhim made the difficult decision to cooperate with the all-
British Simon Commission. He appeared before the commission and was
instantly labelled a British stooge and a traitor by other national leaders.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. Bhim was as patriotic as
any of our other freedom fighters, but for him, the interests of the
Untouchables took precedence over everything else—even independence
for India. He understood that cooperating with the British was key to
winning political rights for his community. It is likely that Bhim expected
the British to be more egalitarian in their outlook than high-caste Hindus.
Bhim submitted a memorandum on behalf of the Bahishkrit Hitkarini
Sabha, arguing for a seat quota for Untouchables rather than separate
electorates. The memorandum demanded twenty-two seats in the 140-seat
Bombay Assembly to be reserved for Untouchables and also for voting
rights for all the Untouchables. The Commission finally granted reserved
seats for the Depressed Classes, but these were just empty words on paper
because the Congress had taken no part in the drafting of the Commission’s
report. To end the deadlock, the first Round Table Conference was held in
London in 1930.
The Round Table Conference was a historic event. For the first time,
British and Indian statesmen and rulers met in one place, around one table,
to discuss the future government of India. Bhim made a demand for self-
government, and once again asked for reserved seats for the Depressed
Classes. He argued passionately for the setting up of an Indian republic, in
which political power was also shared with the Untouchables. ‘We feel that
nobody can remove our grievances as well as we can,’ he said. No
conclusion was reached at the conference because the Congress Party
boycotted it, but Bhim’s visit to London was far from fruitless.
He grabbed every opportunity to speak to the foreign press, writing for
various publications and addressing meetings to publicize the humiliation
and the injustice that India’s Untouchables had been subjected to for
centuries. For the first time, the Western world woke up to the fact that the
predicament of the Untouchables of India was even worse than that of the
black community in America.
The conference came to an end in January 1931, and by March the same
year, Viceroy Lord Irwin had signed a pact with Congress leaders. This pact
ended the Civil Disobedience Movement and permitted, among other
things, the peaceful picketing of foreign cloth shops, the release of all
political prisoners (except those found guilty of violence) and the free
collection or manufacture of salt by persons living near the coast. Most
importantly, it paved the way for Mahatma Gandhi’s attendance at the
Second Round Table Conference in September. This conference would pit
Gandhi against Bhim in a historic confrontation, with each claiming that he
was the rightful representative of the Untouchables.
At Round Two, Bhim was selected to sit on the Federal Structure
Committee, which was to play a crucial role in the drafting of a new
constitution for India. There was uncertainty about whether Gandhi would
attend the second session. However, on 6 August 1931, Gandhi wrote to
Bhim, asking for a meeting. A week later, Bhim went to meet Gandhi at his
home at Mani Bhavan in Bombay. Bhim was shown into a room where he
found Gandhi eating fruits and talking with his partymen. Bhim and his
colleagues bowed to Gandhi, and then sat on a blanket on the floor, waiting
for Gandhi to finish.
Finally, Gandhi turned to Bhim, only to ask him why he had so many
complaints against both the Congress and him. ‘I have always been
concerned with the question of the Untouchables,’ said Gandhi, ‘and I
fought to make the removal of untouchability a major plank of the Congress
manifesto.’ He added that the Congress had spent twenty lakhs to uplift the
Untouchables and wondered why that was not enough to appease Bhim.
Bhim countered that Congress spending was a superficial measure and
that the party was not sincere about removing untouchability. Every
member of the Congress Party, Bhim argued, should have to employ
Untouchables in their home, or provide shelter to an Untouchable student,
or dine with an Untouchable. But opposing untouchability was not
considered a condition for membership to the Congress Party. Bhim went
on to express his distrust in the Congress Party and in the Mahatma. He
bristled with anger at being labelled a traitor by the Congress.
‘Gandhiji, I have no homeland,’ he said, his face flushed.
When Gandhi disagreed, Bhim continued, ‘How can I call this land my
own homeland and this religion my own when we are treated worse than
cats and dogs, wherein we cannot get water to drink?’ Then, Bhim asked
him the most important question of all. The first Round Table session had
recommended adequate representation for the Depressed Classes.
‘What is your opinion?’ Bhim asked.
‘I am against the political separation of the Untouchables from the
Hindus,’ replied Gandhi. ‘That would be absolutely suicidal.’
This response set Gandhi and Bhim on a collision course that would last
their entire lifetimes. For Bhim, the Untouchables were already separate
from the caste Hindus. Being ruled by the caste Hindus was an unbearable
thought.
At the second session of the Round Table conference, the confrontation
continued. Gandhi and Bhim both sat on the Minorities Committee, which
discussed what sort of political representation the Muslims and the
Depressed Classes would enjoy in a new India. Gandhi opposed Bhim’s
demand for separate electorates for the Depressed Classes, arguing that
separate electorates would fragment the Hindu community. Any hopes that
Gandhi and Bhim might see eye-to-eye ended then and there.
The second session wound up inconclusively, and finally the president of
the Minorities Committee, Ramsay MacDonald, said that he would come up
with a method of his own to end the impasse.
 9
Two Leaders, Two Visions

It is a sad fact of history that Gandhi and Bhim, two great leaders, both of
whom wanted to free the country from British rule, had deep-seated
differences over how to help the Depressed Classes find a place in
independent India. Gandhi’s approach was more like that of a kindly old
uncle, seeking to protect the Untouchables from social persecution. Bhim
dismissed the notion that the Untouchables were so helpless that they
needed to be protected by high-caste Hindus. He believed strongly in self-
help and self-empowerment.
Gandhi was deeply attached to varnashrama dharma, or an idealized
version of the caste system, a sort of caste without hierarchy. He contested
Bhim’s view that the Untouchables were demeaned because they had to
clear the excrement of others. Gandhi talked of the dignity of all labour and
insisted that every resident of his ashram in Ahmedabad should clean
toilets. He also talked a lot about swadharma, that children should follow
their fathers’ professions. To Bhim, this was a most unfair idea, as he could
not imagine how any man would want to become a scavenger just because
his father had done the same sort of work before him!
Gandhi’s vision for India was conservative, and he refused to endorse
inter-caste marriage, or even the notion of people from different castes
eating and drinking together. To be fair, Gandhi’s views changed over the
years, and he did eventually accept the idea of inter-caste marriage, but he
never challenged the notion of caste as a form of social organization. Bhim,
on the other hand, felt that the caste system was the root of all Hindu evils
and should be destroyed.
Gandhi had a romanticized view of village life, where people had few
needs and worked harmoniously in occupations that had been traditionally
assigned to them. For Bhim, villages were cesspools of caste tyranny. An
urbanized, industrialized society, hated by Gandhians, was a path for social
equality for the Untouchables.
At the root of Gandhi and Bhim’s differences were two very divergent
ways of looking at the Indian nation. Gandhi assumed that India was
already a nation and he made a Hindu identity the basis for national
identity. It is interesting that when the Depressed Classes adopted Gandhi’s
strategy of non-violent satyagraha to fight caste oppression, they did not
gain Gandhi’s support. Satyagraha, according to Gandhi, could not be used
by one Hindu to fight another. In other words, he assumed that the
Depressed Classes were as much a part of Hinduism as caste Hindus.
But were they really Hindus? Bhim argued that if the lower castes and
the upper castes belonged to the same religion, they must have the same
rights. If not, there was no place in the Hindu fold for an Untouchable.
Bhim recognized that India was not a nation, but a nation-in-the-making,
full of feuding castes and sub-castes. There could be no political identity for
India without social equality.
Although the independence of India was necessary for the Depressed
Classes to be liberated, Bhim was more concerned with the kind of nation
that would be created by the Independence struggle than with the struggle
itself. If India was a nation in which equality had no meaning, was it a
nation worth making?
It was not an easy thing to oppose Gandhi, and Bhim had to pay a heavy
price for doing so. Gandhi had become the beloved Mahatma of the people
because of his simplicity and his peace-loving ways. Bhim’s thundering
voice and his ferocity of purpose simply didn’t appear as sympathetic as
Gandhi’s gentle demeanour. People started talking badly of Bhim, about
how he was rude and uncivilized to oppose some of Gandhi’s views.
Orthodox Hindus feared that he would become the destroyer of Hinduism.
Things came to a head on 16 August 1932, when the British government
decided to end the deadlock by announcing what was known as Ramsay
MacDonald’s Communal Award. It gave separate electorates to the
Muslims, the Sikhs, the Christians and the Depressed Classes.
Gandhi opposed it vehemently, going on an indefinite fast unto death in
September. Gandhi was in Yerwada Jail at the time, from where he sent a
message to the British. He said that he would resist with his life the
separation of the Untouchable Hindus from the caste Hindus.
Gandhi’s fast was not a fair response to the Award. He had signed a
written agreement that allowed the British prime minister to arbitrate a final
solution to the communal problem. He should have honoured his word. But
with the announcement of his fast, there was shock and confusion in Hindu
circles. The Hindus were afraid that their hero would lose his life fasting
against the Communal Award.
Bhim was angered by the fast. He felt that Gandhi was using emotional
blackmail to get his own way. Sure enough, there was a tremendous
outpouring of emotion from all over India, and a furious campaign was
launched against Bhim, labelling him a monster and a traitor.
Bhim stood firm and adamant in the face of all this opposition. ‘To save
Gandhi’s life, I would not be a party to any proposals that would be against
the interest of my community,’ he said.
His strong, cutting words didn’t win him any friends. He received death
threats, and passers-by on the street cast him angry looks. There was
mounting pressure on Bhim to renegotiate the terms of the Communal
Award and save Gandhi’s life. If Gandhi were to die, Bhim rightly feared,
India would never forgive the Untouchables.
In but a few days, Gandhi’s health took a turn for the worse. He was too
weak to even sit up. His son, Devdas, went to Bhim teary-eyed, begging for
a resolution. Bhim was faced with a great dilemma. On the one hand was
the life of India’s most beloved leader, and on the other, the future of his
community. Defeated, Bhim signed the Poona Pact with Gandhi on 24
September 1932, establishing a system of reserved seats for the
Untouchables but setting aside the principle of separate electorates.
With the Poona Pact, both sides had to compromise. The caste Hindus
had to grant 148 seats to the Depressed Classes in the Legislative Council,
almost double of what the Depressed Classes had been promised in the
Communal Award. But the Depressed Classes lost the advantage of having
separate electorates. Nobody could fail to recognize now that Bhim was the
undisputed leader of the Depressed Classes. But in the face of Gandhi’s
fasting tactics, even he was rendered helpless.
Three days after he broke fast, Gandhi set up the All India Anti-
Untouchability League and went on a campaign to promote the interests of
the Untouchables. This led to a reconciliation of sorts between Gandhi and
Bhim, but sadly, the closeness between the two was short-lived. Differences
quickly arose on how the League should function.
The League was dominated by upper-caste Hindus, and although Bhim
visited Gandhi in prison to suggest a stronger presence of Untouchables in
the League, his recommendations were ignored. The League focused its
efforts on fostering values like temperance and cooperation among
Untouchables and fighting for their right to enter temples. But for Bhim,
temple entry was not the answer to Dalit problems. He wanted the League
to focus on social change by fighting for the Dalits’ access to water, and
their right to go to schools and use other village amenities.
Bhim and the other Dalit representatives soon resigned from the League,
which was renamed the Harijan Sevak Sangh. It continued to work for
Untouchables in a patronizing manner. Incidentally, the word ‘Harijan’
gained currency after it was used by Gandhi as the title of a newspaper he
published from Yerwada Jail in 1933.
Differences also arose between Bhim and the Congress over other issues.
At the end of 1932, some upper-caste Congressmen sought to introduce a
bill abolishing untouchability, but Bhim faulted the bill because it did not
condemn untouchability as a sin. He argued that it was not enough to
abolish untouchability; it was the caste system that had to be eradicated.
‘There will be outcastes as long as there are castes,’ he wrote.
 Finally, for the Untouchables, the Poona Pact was a terrible let-down. It
took away any hope they might have had of becoming a political force. It
shaped the 1935 Government of India Act, and the reserved seats granted
by the Act did not give the Untouchables the sort of representation that was
proportional to their demographic weight. Even though the Untouchables
were a populous class, they were given only seven seats out of 156 in the
Council of State (the Upper House of Parliament), nineteen out of 250 in
the Central Assembly (Lower House) and 151 seats out of 1585 in the
various provincial legislatures.
Later, in 1945, Bhim published a book called What Congress and Gandhi
have Done to the Untouchables. It was a scathing attack on Gandhi and the
Congress Party. It argued that the Congress’s work to uplift Untouchables
was driven by the desire to prevent the Untouchables from having a
separate political identity of their own.
It must be said that Gandhi had his own limitations. He was perhaps the
only Indian politician to make the abolition of untouchability central to the
freedom movement, but he also had to appease the orthodox Hindus who
dominated the Congress Party and believed he was breaking down social
constructs too fast.
Bhim thought just the opposite. He felt Gandhi was pushing social
change too slowly, and gradually Bhim moved closer to the British. His
fears were very real: that foreign rulers who were indifferent to caste were
about to be replaced by upper-caste Hindus who dominated the Congress
Party. Would Indian Independence spell a new form of oppression for the
Depressed Classes?

What is the Civil Disobedience Movement?

On 12 March 1930, Gandhi inaugurated the Civil Disobedience Movement by conducting the
historic Dandi Salt March to oppose British salt laws. The British had imposed heavy taxes on
Indian salt in order to favour imported British salt, which was of an inferior quality. The
production of Indian salt was gradually outlawed. Even though fine salt had been produced in
India for centuries, the commodity became unaffordable during the British Raj. It became
almost a luxury to sprinkle salt in your food.
 To oppose this injustice, Gandhi, along with an entourage of seventy-nine ashramites,
marched from his Sabarmati Ashram, near Ahmedabad, to the coastal village of Dandi, 390
kms away, on the shores of the Arabian Sea. On 6 April 1930, Gandhi violated the Salt Law by
picking up a fistful of sand and salt on the seashore. The satyagrahis manually made salt on the
shores of Dandi.
The Dandi Salt March had an immense impact on the entire nation. Each and every corner
of the country was gripped by the feeling of nationalism. There were reports of satyagrahas
from all over the country. Besides the breaking of the salt laws, the Civil Disobedience
Movement involved the picketing of shops selling foreign goods and liquor, the burning of
foreign textiles and a refusal to pay taxes. Public officers stayed home from work, students
from school. Perturbed by the growing popularity of the movement, the British government
imprisoned Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. But the movement was a resounding success in
involving the masses in the freedom struggle.
 10
An Outcaste among Muslims

Fighting for the rights of the Depressed Classes was an all-consuming

mission. Bhim often said that he had drowned his own identity, his own
needs and wants, in this crusade for equality for his community. Bhim had
precious little time for his family or himself. His health began to suffer—his
eyesight deteriorated and, he was worried that he would lose his vision
completely. No disease or hardship frightened him as much as the thought
of losing his sight, because if he were to go blind, he would not be able to
read. And for Bhim, a life without books was not a life worth living.
In 1934, he was appointed part-time professor at the Government Law
College. A man of his education should have been nothing less than the
principal of the college, but it was a difficult, prejudiced time. Bhim’s
achievements went unrecognized because of the caste he belonged to. He
only became principal on 1 June 1935.
It was a constant battle, but Bhim did not let these matters dampen his
spirits. He was preoccupied with a new dream, of building a beautiful
bungalow in Bombay to house a library of books. He bought books on
architecture and studied the subject, building the house, even tearing parts
of it down if they didn’t please him. Finally, Bhim and Ramabai moved into
the house, which was named Rajagriha.
Rajagriha was a high point in their lives. Bhim and Ramabai had seen
some terrible times together, including the deaths of four of their children.
You might recall all the sacrifices Ramabai made while Bhim was in
England and America, pursuing a higher education. She scrounged to make
ends meet, raising her children in extreme poverty, and was always careful
not to trouble Bhim with her problems.
It could not have been easy for her, being a single mother while her
husband was away for long periods of time, staying up long nights waiting
for him to come home and worrying about his safety. Ramabai often blamed
Bhim’s colleagues for burdening him with so much responsibility and
putting his life in danger. Once, in an emotional outburst, she insisted on
accompanying Bhim to a conference rather than waiting at home for him to
return. Bhim dismissed her fears as nonsense, but of course, there was
nothing irrational about them.
Ramabai was very ill at this time, but Bhim could not tear himself away
from his work to tend to her more closely. Once, he managed to take her
away for a change of air to Dharwar, but there was no change in her
condition. She began to waste away, her cheeks shrinking, her eyes losing
their sparkle.
She nursed a deep desire to make a religious pilgrimage to Pandharpur,
like almost every devout Hindu in those days. But this desire of hers was to
suffer the fate of all her other wishes, and would remain unfulfilled. As an
Untouchable, she would have had to stand at a distance from the temple,
offering her prayers from afar. This was unacceptable for a proud man like
Bhim and he discouraged her from going. Instead of that Pandharpur where
you cannot worship your God as an equal, we will create another, more
equal Pandharpur, he said.
On 27 May 1935, Ramabai passed away. Bhim was present at her
deathbed. Almost 10,000 people, across all sections of society, attended her
funeral. On his return from the cremation, Bhim kept to his room, crying
bitterly and inconsolably. It is said that behind every successful man, there
is a woman. This is certainly true for Bhim and Ramabai. Everything Bhim
did was large and grand: he fought for Dalit rights, and he eventually wrote
the Indian Constitution. Ramabai’s contribution was seemingly more
modest and traditional—raising Bhim’s children and running his home—
but without her working behind the scenes, Bhim might never have grown
to become a leader of the Untouchables.
If you look at the lives of great people anywhere, you will find that there
are other individuals, not as great or as well-known, who helped them
achieve greatness. In Bhim’s life, his father and his wife were those people.

In 1934, there is another story about Bhim and one more bitter experience
of untouchability to be recounted. A group of Bhim’s co-workers invited
him on a trip to visit the Buddhist caves at Ellora. Desperately in need of a
vacation, he was excited about the prospect of going sightseeing for the
very first time.
It was common knowledge that Untouchables were met with revulsion
wherever they went. So the busload of thirty-odd Untouchables decided not
to make their travel plans public, but to move about incognito as far as was
possible. On their way to Ellora, this party of Untouchable tourists had
decided to make a stop at Daulatabad because the fort there was an ancient
historical monument and a major tourist attraction.
The Untouchable community in Daulatabad had been informed of Bhim’s
arrival, and they waited eagerly for him at the entrance of the town. They
pressed Bhim to have some tea and refreshments first, but he was keen to
see the fort before nightfall. Bhim and his colleagues proceeded to the fort,
with the receiving party soon to follow them.
It was the holy month of Ramzan, and Daulatabad was primarily a
Muslim area. Outside the majestic fort was a tank of water, full to the brim.
The dusty and weary travellers decided to wash their arms, legs and faces
here before carrying on through the large gates, guarded by armed soldiers.
They had just started inquiring from the guard about the procedure for
entering the fort, when an old Muslim man with a white, flowing beard
came up from behind, shouting, ‘The Dheds have polluted the tank!’
Soon all the Muslims who were nearby, both young and old, started
abusing the Untouchable party and shouting, ‘They have become arrogant!’
and ‘They must be taught a lesson.’
 The tourists pleaded with the Muslims to hold their anger. ‘We are
outsiders and did not know your local customs,’ they said. But the
Muslims’ anger would not be appeased. They turned on the local
Untouchables.
‘Why did you not tell these outsiders that this tank could not be used by
outsiders?’ they said. ‘You are to blame for this!’
The local Untouchables had only just caught up and protested that they
had not foreseen that something of this sort would happen. But the Muslims
continued to shower the choicest abuse on Bhim and his group. It was not
easy for Bhim’s party to restrain themselves when so many insults were
raining down upon them. But at the same time, they did not want to be
provoked. A fight could very quickly turn into a riot, and lives would be
lost for nothing.
A young Muslim in the group insisted, repeatedly, that people should
conform to their religion. What did he mean by that? He meant that
Untouchables should know their place and drink water only from a public
tank. By now, Bhim had grown impatient and he could not hold his silence
anymore.
‘Is that what your religion teaches?’ he asked angrily. ‘Would you
prevent an Untouchable from taking water from this tank if he became a
Muslim?’
These questions silenced the Muslims. Bhim then turned to the guard and
said: ‘Can we get into the fort or not? If we can’t, we don’t want to stay.’
The guard asked Bhim to write his name on a piece of paper. Then he
took the note inside to his Superintendent. A short while later, he returned
to say that the Untouchable tourists could enter the fort as long as they
promised not to touch any water inside the fort. An armed guard was to
accompany them to make sure of this.
The incident brought back old and terrible memories for Bhim, of being
homeless and alone in Baroda, of waiting as a boy for his father to arrive at
Koregaon. It seemed that no matter how much he achieved, discrimination
and prejudice would pursue him wherever he went. It was enough to crush
his spirit, but as a leader of the Untouchables, he realized, perhaps, that
giving up the fight would never be an option.

What are the Ellora Caves

The Ellora Caves are located twenty-nine kilometres north of Aurangabad in Maharashtra and
are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The thirty-four caves were built between the 5th and 10th
century CE and are Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples, mathas, and viharas carved out of the
Charanandri hills’ vertical face. The Ellora caves are a wonderful testament to the religious
harmony which was prevalent during this time in Indian history.
 11
A Place beyond Hinduism

The year was 1935. For Bhim, it marked a decade-long struggle, fighting
for his community to be accepted into mainstream Hindu society.
Everything was a battle, from the right to drink water out of public tanks to
the right to receive an education, or the right to enter a Hindu temple.
Hinduism appeared most unwelcoming, and it seemed that there was no
place in the Hindu fold for an Untouchable and nor would there ever be.
The Mahad struggle over the right of the Untouchables to drink water
from the Chavdar Tank had caused Bhim great anguish. The case was being
heard in the Mahad court, and as a lawyer, Bhim had to make frequent visits
to Mahad. One such trip took place during the monsoons. Heavy rains had
caused flooding, and Bhim’s car was forced to stop on the way for two
days. Bhim found himself in the middle of nowhere, with no Untouchable
locality in sight. No one else would give him shelter or food.
The experience caused him so much pain that he returned and shut
himself in his room and would not come out. He had laboured so hard to
reform Hinduism, to make a place within it for the Untouchables, but now
all his efforts seemed hopeless.
It was possibly at this point that he realized that the struggle to reform
Hinduism was a dead end. The thought of renouncing Hinduism completely
seized his mind. Perhaps, he hoped, this would close one chapter in his life
and open another one.
 The idea of conversion as a method of escaping the brutalities of the
caste system was not a new one. Most Christian converts in late 19th-
century Maharashtra were Mahars. Bhim, too, had thought about
conversion and spoken about it as far back as 1927, during the Mahad
conference where he said:
‘We want equal rights in society. We will achieve them as far as possible
while remaining within the Hindu fold or, if necessary by kicking away this
worthless Hindu identity.’
But in the early 1930s, Bhim came to an important understanding of the
religion he had been born into. Other religions, such as Christianity and
Sikhism, spoke of how all human beings were equal before God, Hinduism
said that God had divided human beings into four varnas. ‘Hindus cannot
destroy their caste system without destroying their religion,’ he concluded.
An important conference was called at a place called Yeola in October
1935, and it was attended by about 10,000 Untouchables. Bhim addressed
the crowd and asked them why so much energy, time and money had been
spent trying to make the Hindu religion more just. Instead, he suggested,
why not abandon Hinduism and seek another faith that would give them
equal status?
‘I solemnly assure you that I will not die a Hindu,’ he said.
Those words would prove to be prophetic. At the conference, a resolution
was passed to abandon Hinduism. The Untouchables pledged not to
worship Hindu gods, to visit Hindu holy places and temples, or to to
observe Hindu festivals and holidays.
Bhim’s decision to renounce Hinduism created a massive uproar.
Orthodox Hindus were worried that if the Untouchables converted to
another religion, they would swell the numbers of that faith and Hinduism
would be weakened, both demographically and electorally. Gandhi
criticized Bhim for proposing such a mass conversion and argued that it
would discourage reformers who had been working to abolish
untouchability. Gandhi also said that religion was a spiritual matter, and one
could scarcely change one’s religion at will, as you might change a coat or a
house.
 However, the leaders of other minority groups were very happy with this
new development. Muslim and Christian leaders made welcoming gestures
towards Bhim in the hope that the Untouchables would convert to their
religions. The Buddhists also made friendly overtures, but it appears that
Bhim had not decided on Buddhism at that point. Instead, he explored the
idea of conversion to Sikhism.
In November 1936, Bhim travelled to London to seek constitutional
guarantees from the British for Untouchables converting to Sikhism. But by
the end of 1937, Bhim had abandoned the idea. What changed his mind?
For one, the British refused to extend constitutional concessions that were
available to Sikhs in the Punjab to Sikh converts as well.
Additionally, the Sikh Dalits told Bhim of the injustices they had suffered
at the hands of the Jats. Their accounts made Bhim realize that even
Sikhism was not free of inequality. Besides, many Sikh political leaders
were worried that with the influx of so many Untouchable converts, their
own influence would become diminished. They were possibly relieved
when Bhim gave up the idea of converting to Sikhism and did not try harder
to woo him.
However, Bhim did not stop considering an alternative to Hinduism. His
first efforts at abandoning Hinduism weren’t successful, but they did
demonstrate that the idea of mass conversion was a powerful political
strategy. It could pressure caste Hindus to reform their religion or to risk
losing large numbers of low-caste Hindus to conversion.
In a booklet titled Annihilation of Caste, Bhim argued that the Hindus did
not practise caste because they were inhuman; they practised caste because
they were deeply religious and their religion demanded it. The fault lay in
Hinduism, he said, and to reform the religion, belief in the scriptures-the
Shastras and the Vedas-had to be challenged.
There had been signs, early on, that Bhim was drawn to Buddhism.
Bhim’s first introduction to Buddhism came in the form of a biography of
the Buddha, written by his old teacher K.A. Keluskar and gifted to him
when he was just a boy. His young mind had been very affected by the life
of Gautama Buddha and this manifested in different ways throughout his
life. When he built himself a house in Mumbai in 1934, he called it
Rajagriha, the name of the capital of the ancient Buddhist kings of Bihar. In
1948, he published Untouchables, in which he argued that the Untouchables
were descendants of the Buddhists, who had been neglected after the bulk
of Indian society crossed over to Hinduism. The first college opened by the
People’s Education Society founded by Bhim in the mid-1940s was called
Siddharth College, named after the Buddha.
Buddhism was a religion that was more open to interpretation and
reinterpretation than any other creed Bhim had come across so far. The
Hindus have the Bhagvad Gita and the Muslims have the Koran, but while
the Buddhists, too, have many sacred texts, they do not have a canonical
text whose teachings they have to rigidly follow. In other words, Buddhism
did not appear to be as unchangeable as Hinduism. There was no caste
system among the Buddhists, and the Buddha taught that all human beings
were one in the eyes of God.
Eventually, Buddhism came to exert such a powerful influence on Bhim
that he was able to keep his promise to ‘not die a Hindu’. It was in 1956,
twenty years later, that Bhim officially converted to Buddhism. As the
father of the Indian Constitution, he lobbied hard for the official recognition
of Buddhism. He threw a great challenge to orthodox Hindus, and he
demonstrated that conversion to Buddhism was a viable method of social
revolt and change. And although conversion to Buddhism did not bring
about the social transformation that Bhim had dreamed of, he became a
guru to his community by showing them a spiritual way out of centuries of
oppression.

Is Dalit Buddhism the Navayana?

The word ‘yana’ means mode or method of spiritual practice. There are two traditionally
recognized branches of Buddhism: Mahayana and Hinayana. Both are considered alternative
paths to enlightenment. Navayana, or the new vehicle, is often used to refer to the Dalit
Buddhist movement, because Buddhism enjoyed a major revival in the 1940s and 1950s, after
Bhim explored it as an alternative religion for the Untouchables.
 Perhaps, the term ‘Navayana’ derives from a press interview Bhim gave in 1956, in which
he said: ‘I will accept and follow the teachings of Buddha. I will keep my people away from
the different opinions of Hinyan and Mahayan, two religious orders. Our Bouddha Dhamma is
a new Bouddha Dhamma, Navayan.’
 12
A New Party Is Born

The developments of the 1930s left Bhim very disillusioned about the
future of the Untouchables who desperately needed a strong political
presence if their voices were to be heard. With a view to giving his
community this platform, in 1936, Bhim founded the Independent Labour
Party (ILP).
As its name indicated, it was not a party confined to the Untouchables.
This was a key dilemma that Bhim struggled to resolve. Should the
Untouchables think of themselves as a separate group, or be more inclusive
in nature? Bhim understood that he needed to widen his support, and his
new party attempted to speak not just to the Untouchables, but also to the
landless labourers in the villages and industrial workers in the cities.
The year 1936 was coming to a close and elections in eleven provinces—
as mandated by the Government of India Act of 1935—were coming up
fast. Every party was making frantic preparations to fight elections. Bhim’s
own party was a David to the Congress’s Goliath. The Congress Party had
men and money at its disposal and enjoyed the reputation of being a party
of patriots. It was an all-India party and had members across the country,
whereas Bhim’s party was confined to the Bombay Province.
There were 175 seats up for grabs in the Bombay Legislative Assembly,
but only fifteen seats were reserved for Untouchables. This election
presented a unique challenge. A party that managed to capture all the seats
in the Untouchable quota would still not be able to stand up to the might of
the ruling party. In other words, there would be no effective opposition to
the Congress if the ILP only had fifteen seats. And so, Bhim decided to set
up some more candidates for the general seats and also supported a few
independent candidates.
The Congress Party put up candidates in all provinces. But the Congress
fought its hardest for one particular seat—the seat that Bhim contested
himself in Bombay. Bhim was their most bitter enemy, their archrival, the
challenger of their values and ideals. They could not bear the thought of
losing to him.
Bitter as defeat was, Congress had to swallow it eventually. Bhim was
elected with a resounding majority. Of the eighteen candidates put up by the
ILP in the Bombay Province, fifteen were elected. The Congress shuddered
at the idea of meeting Bhim head-on in the Assembly. They knew, without
doubt that he would make a tough opponent. This wasn’t the only victory to
come Bhim’s way. The Bombay High Court finally decided the long-drawn-
out case over the Chavdar Tank in March 1937, in favour of the Depressed
Classes.
Once elected, Bhim did not waste any time getting down to business. In
September 1937, he proposed a bill to abolish the vatan system. Introduced
by the British, a vatan was a fragment of land given to a Mahar as payment
for services rendered to the village. The vatan was a bittersweet gift,
because in its exchange, the Mahar had to slave day and night, often
performing demeaning duties that no caste Hindu would stoop to.
His bill was met with stiff resistance and all sorts of excuses were made
for why the bill could not be passed. It was impossible to put a money value
on the customary duties performed by Mahar vatandars, the government
argued. It is more likely that the government feared that paying Mahars for
their services according to the market rate would take its toll on the
treasury. In fact, the Mahar vatan system was not abolished until in 1959,
after Independence.
At the same time, Bhim also proposed a bill to abolish the khoti system.
Under this system, land tax was collected by the khot, typically an upper-
caste Hindu, who served as middleman for the government. The Congress
opposed this bill, too, arguing that they had already planned their own
separate reforms of the khoti system. The reality was that the Congress was
reluctant to annoy the Brahmin and Maratha property owners who
dominated the party. As a result, the khoti system was not abolished until
1949.
Bhim was also eager to reach out to urban workers, and in 1935, he
formed a trade union for the municipality workers of Bombay, the Bombay
Municipal Kamgar Sangh, which grew from 800 members in 1937 to 1325
workers in 1938.
In 1938, Bhim protested against the Industrial Disputes Bill being
considered in the Bombay Legislative Assembly because it made it illegal
for an industrial labourer to go on strike. Calling it a ‘bad, bloody and
brutal’ piece of legislation, Bhim argued that making a man serve against
his will amounted to slavery.
The ILP and the Bombay Municipal Kamgar Sangh called for a one-day
rally on 6 November 1938. After the rally, a huge procession, almost
80,000-strong, wound its way through the city. They planned to peacefully
picket outside all mills and factories. Expecting that the procession would
turn violent, the Government of Bombay called in 300 armed Reserve
Police to man the mill gates. Bhim, in a lorry decorated with red flags,
reminded the workers to stay peaceful. Almost all the textile mills and
municipal workshops closed down that day. As a finale to the successful
strike, another rally was held that evening and workers charged with a
heady sense of victory burned an effigy of the bill.
In 1938, there was yet another occasion for Bhim to lock horns with the
Congress Party. The Untouchables were to be renamed Harijans, or the
children of God. Bhim argued that a mere change of name would not
improve the conditions of the Untouchables. The term ‘Harijan’ annoyed
Bhim because it assumed that Untouchables were the children of a Hindu
god even though Hinduism had been nothing but cruel to the Untouchables.
Bhim proposed an amendment to reject this new name for the
Untouchables, but the amendment was shot down and the term ‘Harijans’
was forced upon the Untouchables. It was an almost tragic irony that the
Untouchables were not even given the right to decide what they should be
called.

Why was there a need to liberate Mahars from the vatan system?
The vatan was a bittersweet gift, because the Mahar vatandar had to slave day and night for it.
A vatandar had to perform services that were often demeaning in nature, services that no caste
Hindu would stoop to perform. In addition to the land, a vatandar was paid a small pittance for
his hard work.
Bhim wanted to abolish the vatan system so that Mahars could enjoy a new sense of self-
respect and could explore other sources of livelihood. However, he argued, they should not be
evicted from the land that had been given to them, but instead they should be allowed to
occupy it as payment for their services. He wanted to transform them into property owners,
and free them from their customary duties. His bill was nothing less than an overhaul of the
traditional village economy.
What was wrong with the khoti system?
The khoti system was liable to be abused by the khot, who could keep a part of the revenue he
collected. He often set himself up as a local gang-lord, bullying the tenants who lived on his
land and forcing them to work for free.
 13
The 1940s

In 1939, World War II broke out, drawing in more than 100 million people
from thirty different countries. Germany invaded Poland, and in response,
Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. Almost every country
of the world was forced to pick sides between the Allies and the Axis in the
worst conflict in human history.
India, as a British colony, was committed to the war by a proclamation of
the British Viceroy. But Indians were divided on this issue. Some, like
Bhim, supported the war effort because they believed that cooperation with
the British would win them eventual freedom. Bhim also argued that if
India did not support Britain, the country would only fall to new masters.
Others, like the Congress, were unhappy that the British government had
involved India in the war effort without consulting Indian leaders. The
Congress ministries introduced a war resolution in all the provincial
assemblies. It declared that the British government had made India a
participant in the war without consulting Indians. To protest this, the
Congress resigned in all the provincial governments where it held power.
It was only in mid-1940, when the war looked grim for Britain and her
allies, that Congress leaders did a volte-face. They abandoned Gandhi’s
leadership and decided to extend their cooperation to British war efforts.
What they asked for in exchange was an assurance that a fully
representative National Government would be formed at the centre. This
came to be known as the Poona offer.
The Poona offer was rejected. In response, the Congress threw its support
behind Gandhi again. In October 1940, Gandhi initiated the Civil
Disobedience Movement, preaching that India should not take part in the
war on the grounds of non-violence. Almost all Congress leaders were
thrown into prison.
Later, in an interview to The Times of India, Bhim described Gandhi’s
rebellion as both irresponsible and insane. The barbarians were at the gates
of India, he said, and this was no time to weaken the British. He called
Gandhi an old man in a hurry.
Meanwhile, the British were beginning to recognize Bhim’s growing
stature as a political and economic thinker. In early 1941, he asked for and
was granted expanded recruitment of Untouchables in the armed forces. He
also successfully pushed for the reinstatement of the Mahar battalion in the
Indian Army.
Later that year, Bhim was appointed to the Viceroy’s Defence Advisory
Committee. The aim of the committee was to involve Indian politicians in
the war effort. In 1942, Bhim was nominated to the Viceroy’s Executive
Council, becoming the first Untouchable Hindu to hold this post.
It was once said that the sun never sets on the British Empire. What this
means is that the British Empire was once so vast, the sun was always
shining on some part of it. But the experience of fighting two world wars
had turned Britain into a ghost of its former self. In 1942, British-held
Singapore fell to Japan, and the British Empire reeled from the shock.
In March 1942, the British government hastily sent out a delegation led
by Sir Stafford Cripps, a senior British politician, to end the political
deadlock in India. The aim of the Cripps mission, as it came to be known,
was to persuade Indian leaders to join Britain in the war for a promise of
eventual independence for India. The Cripps proposal offered India
dominion status and promised to form a constituent assembly after the war
ended. The constituent assembly would draft the constitution.
 However, the mission failed because the Congress was wary of Cripps’
promises and wanted immediate self-government for India in return for war
support. Gandhi described the Cripps proposal as a post-dated cheque. The
Muslim League also rejected the Cripps proposal as it did not contain a
definite guarantee in favour of the creation of Pakistan. Bhim, too, did not
accept the Cripps proposal as there was no mention of representation for the
Untouchables, and he feared that the Untouchables would be bound to
Hindu rule forever.
Though the Cripps proposal did not find support, it brought about major
changes in the Untouchable movement. During an interview with Bhim,
Cripps asked him whether he represented the labouring classes or the
Depressed Classes. The ILP was not a pure Scheduled Caste party, and the
British were questioning how Bhim could call himself a leader of the
Scheduled Castes without a specific scheduled caste organization behind
him. As a result, Bhim decided to shut down the ILP, and at a conference in
Nagpur in July 1942, the All-India Scheduled Caste Federation was formed.
The Scheduled Caste Federation took shape as a national party,
something the ILP had not succeeded in doing. It brought together all the
emerging leaders of Dalit movements all over the country. At the
conference, the proposals of the Cripps mission were declared
unacceptable. The Untouchables also said that no constitution would be
acceptable to them unless it recognized the Scheduled Castes as being
separate from the Hindus.
In August of the same year, the Congress launched the Quit India
Movement. It was a response to Gandhi’s call for immediate independence
for India, and as a result, Congress leaders all over the country were
arrested. The arrests prompted mass uprisings that were ruthlessly clamped
down on by the British all over the country. India was plunged into chaos
for two years.
In all the fervour of the Quit India Movement, Bhim took a different
stand. He reasoned that non-cooperation with the British would be playing
into the hands of fascists.
 Bhim was right to have concerns about the spread of fascism which was a
radical authoritarian political ideology born in Italy under the dictatorship
of Benito Mussolini. The fascists are united in their belief in war and
political violence as a method to rejuvenate the nation. During World War
II, there were many fascist stirrings in Europe, particularly the regime of
Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany. Japan, which had allied with Italy and
Germany, was also heading in a fascist direction since the 1930s. The
Japanese army was on the brink of invading India, and if the British were
weakened, India would fall to Japan.
It was perhaps this tendency of Bhim’s, to stand apart from the crowd, to
think differently from the others, that often earned him the undeserved title
of a traitor. He was not afraid of following his convictions, even when he
could not find others to agree with him.
In spite of his support of the British, Bhim’s expectations were to be
largely disappointed. In 1942, the Depressed Classes were still terribly
underrepresented in government. There were only two Untouchables in the
National Assembly and only one—Bhim himself—in the Executive
Council. Out of 1056 members of the Indian Civil Service, only one was an
Untouchable.
Bhim appealed to the British to treat Untouchables as a minority, just like
the Muslims, Sikhs or Parsis, and to reserve a quota for them in
administrative jobs because business and industry were inaccessible sectors
for them. In the field of education, there were only about 500 Untouchable
graduates in 1940. Bhim proposed granting more scholarships to
Untouchable students, but his suggestions were ignored.
In June 1945, Lord Archibald Wavell came to India to try to negotiate
what came to be known as the Wavell Plan, an agreement for the self-rule
of India. Congress leaders were released from jail and a conference was
called in Shimla. Wavell began discussions with Gandhi, Nehru and
Muhammad Ali Jinnah but projected an indifferent attitude toward the
Untouchables. This made it quite clear that the politics of the day still
mainly revolved around the Muslim League and the Congress. In the days
ahead, Bhim would have to focus all his energy on ensuring that the Dalits
were not left out.
The Wavell talks stalled, however, over differences between Jinnah and
the Congress. Lord Wavell returned to London in August 1945 to consult
others on the problem. He returned to India in September and announced
general elections that year to test the support enjoyed by different political
parties.
All the parties contested elections. This was the first election in which the
Scheduled Caste Federation was fighting as a national party of the
Depressed Classes. The Congress stood with the Quit India slogan. Jinnah
entered with the Pakistan or Perish slogan. The Scheduled Caste Federation
had no funds or election machinery. The party was badly defeated in the
elections. At least one thing was now clear—to secure a future for the
Untouchables, Bhim would have to make amends with the Congress Party.
In March 1946, Cripps visited India again as part of a new cabinet
mission. The mission met with the Congress, the Muslim League and with
princely leaders. The Scheduled Caste Federation’s failure at the elections
made Bhim’s position as the undisputed leader of the Untouchables a shaky
one. Bhim was interviewed, but other leaders of the Untouchables were
given a hearing, too.
There were a number of ideas that Bhim put forward at this time. He
asked the mission to make a constitutional provision for separate electorates
for the Depressed Classes. He also asked for adequate representation for the
Depressed Classes in the Legislature and the Executive, both provincial and
central, and in public services. He appealed for an educational allowance to
be earmarked for the Untouchables so that more students from the
community would have access to education.
On 16 May 1946, the mission declared its decision to form an Indian
union with three groups of provinces which would be broken up into the
following groups: Madras, UP, Central Provinces, Bombay, Bihar and
Orissa; Punjab, Sindh, Northwest Frontier Province, Baluchistan; Assam
and Bengal. It recommended an undivided India and the Muslim League’s
clamour for a separate Pakistan was ignored.
 The mission also recognized India’s right to withdraw from the
Commonwealth. A constituent assembly would be formed and an interim
government would be set up. This interim government would be made up of
Indians with minimal interference from the Viceroy. The union government
would only have power with regard to Finance, Foreign Affairs, Defence
and Communication, or Union subjects. The provinces would have all
subjects other than Union subjects, and the princely states would have all
subjects, including Union subjects. There was no mention of any of the
demands that Bhim had put forth.
Now, as a new government was to be formed by the winning parties, the
Viceroy disbanded his Cabinet. Bhim left Delhi and returned to Bombay.
He found himself facing a political stalemate, and this weighed down his
spirits. He sensed that this was his last chance to secure the rights and
interests of his community.
At a Poona conference in July the same year, he called for the
Untouchables to launch a satyagraha against the mission’s proposals. His
satyagraha was criticized bitterly by the Congress, who accused Bhim of
being frustrated because his party had lost the elections. But Bhim was not
being a sore loser. Instead, he argued that India’s Untouchables had a right
to demand a blueprint from the Congress regarding their rights and interests
after independence.
Meanwhile, members were elected by the provincial legislatures for the
new Constituent Assembly. The Congress elected its representatives, not so
much on the basis of whether they had the knowledge required to draft a
constitution but as a reward for suffering imprisonment in the Independence
struggle and being loyal party members. Having lost elections, Bhim had no
one to back him in the Bombay assembly, but he managed to be elected
from the Bengal assembly.
In June, the names of the members of the Interim Ministry were
announced. Bhim was not on the list. Yet again, the Dalits were poorly
represented, this time in the newly formed Cabinet. This was a bitter
setback for Bhim and his party. In a last-ditch effort to win the rights of the
Untouchables, Bhim went to London to sway British politicians in his
favour.
The visit was a futile one. It appeared that the only way forward was for
Bhim to seek assurances from the Constituent Assembly that the rights of
Untouchables would be safeguarded. He would have to work side-by-side
with his old arch-enemy, the Congress Party. This would test all his
diplomatic skills in the months to come.

Who were the Allies and the Axis?

The Axis powers, primarily made up of Germany, Japan and Italy, fought World War II against
the Allies. The Allies entered World War II either because they had been invaded, or because
they feared imminent invasion, or because they feared that the Axis powers would control the
world if they went unchallenged. The Allies included Great Britain, France, the United States,
China, Australia, New Zealand and India.
What is a constituent assembly?
A constituent assembly is formed to write a new constitution or to adopt an existing one. The
Constituent Assembly of India was elected to draft the Constitution of India. Its members went
on to form India’s first parliament.
What was the Quit India Movement?
The Quit India Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched by Gandhi in August
1942. Also known as the August Movement, it was meant to force the British to grant
immediate independence to India in return for Indian cooperation during World War II. In his
stirring speech to the people, Gandhi used the slogan ‘Do or Die’. But less than twenty-four
hours after his speech, the movement was repressed. Gandhi and other Congress leaders were
thrown in jail. Processions and assemblies were banned. But there were many popular riots
and demonstrations all over the country in support of the movement.
 14
The New Manu

Marginalized by the British, Bhim was politically astute enough to

recognize that the time had come to make friends. His exclusion from the
interim ministry had left him isolated, and with the partition of Bengal, he
had lost his seat in the Constituent Assembly. Bhim needed Congress
support to reclaim his seat in the Constituent Assembly, without which he
would not be able to influence the Constitution of independent India. It was
a delicate moment, and Bhim, every bit a politician, needed to make
amends with the Congress. The reconciliation occurred in the Constituent
Assembly in December 1946.
Although the Muslim League had boycotted the Constituent Assembly,
the assembly met as scheduled. Nehru had moved a resolution to declare
India an independent sovereign republic. The resolution was going to be
passed when Bhim stood up and advised the Constituent Assembly to
postpone a vote until the Muslim League joined the Assembly.
In a passionate speech, Bhim said, ‘I have not the slightest hesitation that
we shall in some form be a united people.’
After years of opposing the Congress, his talk of unity and oneness
thrilled the hearts of all the Congressmen present, and won them over. The
harmony between Bhim and the Congress continued to build and grow
through 1947.
 In March 1947, he presented to the Constituent Assembly his own
version of an ideal constitution. In it, he demanded separate electorates for
the Untouchables as well as the redistribution of state land so that the
Untouchables could be settled in separate villages. Bhim’s suggestion for
separate electorates met with great resistance from the Congress majority.
Separate electorates would divide the community, argued the Congress.
Congressmen did not want to betray Gandhi, who had gone on a fast unto
death in Poona in 1932 to oppose the principle of separate electorates.
Also, these were the early days post-Partition. India had recently been
torn into two countries. There had been bloody riots and violence, with a
heavy human cost for both the Hindus and Muslims. The Congress felt that
the root cause of Partition was the granting of separate electorates to the
Muslims decades earlier. By granting separate electorates to the Dalits, they
feared that history would repeat itself. In such an environment, Bhim
abandoned his demand for separate electorates, but it was only a tactical
retreat, because there was a bigger battle to win.
On 29 April 1947, a momentous day in the history of the Untouchables,
the Constituent Assembly agreed to abolish untouchability and made its
practice a punishable crime. It was no longer legal to practise
discrimination based on caste, race and gender.
Finally, it seemed that there was light at the end of the tunnel. Here was
new hope for the Untouchables that they would finally be integrated into
Indian society. But while the world press lauded this day as one of freedom
of the Untouchables, the credit for attaining this freedom went to the
Congress Party, and to Gandhi. No foreign publication mentioned Bhim’s
name.
On 3 August 1947, Nehru appointed him law minister in the first
government of independent India. In both the Constituent Assembly as well
as in government, Bhim lobbied hard for greater rights for the
Untouchables.
Three weeks after being appointed law minister, Bhim was also
appointed chairman of the constitutional drafting committee. In his able
hands, a radical new constitution was taking shape and he needed support to
push his ideas through. This was his hour of glory and the focus of all his
attention from 1947 to 1950. It was certainly no time to alienate the
Congress.
The drafting committee was composed of some of India’s most learned
people. Although Bhim was at the helm, it is only fair to say that all the
members of the drafting committee contributed valuable thoughts and ideas
to the constitution we have today. They did not draft the primary text of the
Constitution, because the Constitution drew a lot from the 1935
Government of India Act. But this does not mean their job was an easy one.
The committee read and studied the constitutions of many other
countries, absorbing what was best from each of them. They knocked the
primary text of the Constitution into shape on the basis of articles submitted
by specialized subcommittees, which were then submitted to the
Constituent Assembly for approval.
In the Assembly, the drafts were read and discussed, and Bhim played a
leading role in guiding the debate and gently nudging it forward. Bhim was
also one of the few members of the Constituent Assembly who belonged to
more than one of the fifteen other committees besides the drafting
committee. This way, he could closely follow all the debates on vital
constitutional articles. It was a long painstaking process, and the debate
over the Constitution continued for three whole years!
Bhim drew heavily upon the Western political ideas that had influenced
him during his years studying abroad. He championed the creation of a
liberal democracy. What did this mean? The Constitution, Bhim argued,
was a mechanism for regulating the work of the various organs of the state.
It was not supposed to tie down people to live in a predetermined society
that could not be changed. It was supposed to allow people the liberty to
decide what sort of society they wished to live in.
In the Constitution, he enshrined the ideas that he had spent his entire life
struggling for: liberty, equality, fraternity and justice. Having sat outside the
classroom, having been forbidden from touching water, he knew how
important equality and liberty were to a person’s quality of life.
 It was under Bhim’s leadership that the principle of reservation was
written into the Constitution so that the rights of women, children and
backward classes would be protected. ‘If all communities are to be brought
to the level of equality, then the only remedy is to adopt the principle of
inequality and to give favoured treatment to those who are below the level,’
he said.
He was very concerned that India would transform itself into a political
democracy, but not a social and economic one. ‘In politics we will have
equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality,’ he said.
To ensure socio-economic change, Bhim outlined the Directive Principles
of our Constitution. A concept borrowed from the Irish Constitution, the
principles cannot be legally enforced. Instead, they are meant to be
guidelines to attain socio-economic change. They are the very spirit of our
Constitution.
Some Directive Principles were political ideals that were ahead of their
time. For example, Bhim imagined a uniform civil code throughout India,
but the idea was too radical and would never get passed to become a part of
the main Constitution. Instead, it found its way into the Directive Principles
as something that India should aspire to in the future. Other Directive
Principles were Gandhian ideas that Bhim found too conservative to work
into the Constitution, such as the promotion of cottage industries in rural
areas, or the prohibition of cow slaughter. Instead, these ideas were cleverly
embodied in the Directive Principles.
Bhim’s work on the Constitution is a matter of great pride for Dalits
across India. It earned him the title of father of the Indian Constitution, the
modern Manu, which is a little ironic because Bhim had rejected and
burned the old laws of Manu, many years ago, during the Mahad
satyagraha.
All the freedoms that we take for granted today found permanence in
Bhim’s Constitution. On 4 November 1948, it was a historic moment when
the draft Constitution of India was presented in the Parliament by a former
Untouchable! And on 26 November 1949, the Constituent Assembly, in the
name of the people of India, adopted the Constitution with its 395 articles
and eight schedules.
That moment gave Bhim the image we see today, on statues of Bhim that
stand all over the country: blue suit, tie, horn-rimmed spectacles, hair
carefully combed, and the Constitution of India in one hand.

How does the Constitution protect the Untouchables and promote their interests?
The Constitution provides a three-pronged legal framework to protect the rights of the
Untouchables and it also provides for the setting up of a National Scheduled Castes
Commission to ensure that these laws are properly implemented.

1. Laws to protect Untouchables from discrimination and cruelty, and laws to punish
such acts.
2. Laws for affirmative action so that Untouchables get preferential treatment with
regard to access to jobs or to education.
3. Laws that provide the resources required to bridge the gap between the Untouchables
and the rest of society.

What is reservation and why is it so controversial?

Affirmative action was a term that was first used in the United States. It refers to policies that
give equal opportunity to a particular group of people who have been historically
discriminated against, on grounds of race, gender, colour or religion, to name a few.
Reservation is one form of affirmative action.
In India, certain seats in educational institutions and government jobs are reserved for
underprivileged communities. The Constitution of India divides them into Scheduled Tribes,
Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes. The system of reserving seats for backward
communities goes back to pre-Independence times. In the first official example of reservation,
Shahu Maharaj introduced reservation for backward classes in his princely state of Kolhapur.
Reservation is a controversial issue because many people from the higher social classes
think that it goes against the basic right to equality, but it is meant to be a counter to centuries
of oppression.
 15
Independence, Now What?

With Independence, the political struggle against the British had ended. But
for Bhim, the struggle continued, the far-more important struggle for social
reform. Despite Independence, India was still a country plagued by
inequality and injustice in many forms. The Untouchables were yet to
become equal members of Indian society. Women were still to win rights of
inheritance. They could be forced to live with their husbands and had no
right to divorce, and nor could they control money or open their own bank
accounts.
A spate of new laws aimed at reforming regressive Hindu traditions had
marked the century before Independence. Sati, or the burning of a widow
on her husband’s funeral pyre, was banned in 1829. The Hindu Women’s
Right to Property Act was introduced in 1937. The British decided to club
all these reformed Hindu laws into one code, which was known as the
Hindu Code Bill. The bill was introduced in the legislature in April 1947,
but in all the turmoil of Independence and Partition, the text of the bill
could not be discussed. In 1948, Nehru nominated Bhim as the head of a
sub-committee charged with drafting a new Hindu Code Bill.
Bhim was now at the zenith of his popularity. He was the architect of the
Indian Constitution, and now he could vindicate himself in front of all the
people who had named him pro-British and anti-Hindu. His birthday in
April 1950 was celebrated on a nationwide scale and attended by many
prominent dignitaries. Now, the drafting of the Hindu Code Bill gave him, a
Mahar, the golden opportunity to reform the basic framework of Hindu
society. It was a chance that he could not pass up!
Little did Bhim foresee that his efforts to get the Hindu Code Bill passed
would rake up huge controversies in a newly independent India. He poured
all his energies into drafting this bill. An entire room in his home was filled
with all the reading material he would need for the job. He studied the
scriptures closely, holding lengthy discussions with jurists and religious
scholars alike. His progressive ideas of equality and justice shaped the bill.
He knew that the bill would be one of the cornerstones for a modern-
thinking India. Essential principles were written in, such as equality
between men and women on the question of property inheritance, and
making monogamous marriages the rule, to ensure that a Hindu husband
could not take more than one wife. Divorces would have to be justified, said
the bill. A man would now have to present good reasons for wanting to end
his marriage. The bill aimed at giving women more power and equality in
their marriages.
The new Hindu Code Bill was submitted on 16 August 1948. It created a
very emotionally charged atmosphere across the country and polarized
opinion. Many Congress leaders were too traditional and set in their ways to
accept these new ideas and so railed against them. Hindu marriage was
sacred, they argued, and dissolving a marriage would ruin society. Women
who supported the bill were attacked for being too aggressive.
The debate dragged on and the bill came up for final reading only in
September 1951. The new marriage system, Bhim said in a speech, was not
an imitation of the West, but based on the values of liberty, equality and
fraternity found in the Constitution. The sacred marriage that the orthodox
Hindus spoke of, Bhim said, was nothing more than slavery for the woman.
His logic and arguments fell on deaf ears. As a result, the bill was
watered down in the legislature and finally buried. In disappointment and
frustration, Bhim resigned as law minister. In his letter of resignation, he
wrote that by ignoring social reforms, Indian leaders were trying ‘to build a
palace on a dung heap’.
 Newly independent India was moving forward without resolving its
glaring social inequities, which was a matter of grave concern to Bhim.
What sort of country would the Dalits inherit? Would they have any voice
in independent India?
With the electoral defeat of his party, the Scheduled Caste Federation,
Bhim saw the need to transform the leadership of the Depressed Classes. He
envisioned a new party based on the principles of liberty, equality and
fraternity. He called it the Republican Party, after the party of American
president Abraham Lincoln, whose leadership had brought an end to slavery
in America. While most of its members were Untouchables, the party was
now meant to represent all oppressed sections of society.
Meanwhile, Bhim’s health was failing. He was suffering from
rheumatism and diabetes. He had not been sleeping well, and excruciating
pain in both his legs kept him up. He felt keenly the need for a companion
to look after him in his old age. He felt that he wanted to be with an
educated lady who could practice medicine, and so in April 1948, Bhim
married Dr Sharda Kabir, his physician. Keeping with Maharashtrian
customs, she took a new name, Savita. It is also interesting to note that she
was a Brahmin!
By 1955, Bhim was having trouble moving about the house on his own.
His eyesight was fast failing and he also had trouble breathing, needing to
be given oxygen a few times a week. He kept these details a secret because
he did not want to frighten his followers with the thought that he might be
dying, but he had lost weight and his clothes hung upon him.
Despite his poor health, Bhim never stopped reading and writing. He
would sit at his desk for hours, working on books about Buddhism and
Hinduism. He was very drawn to Buddhism, believing that it was the only
religion that could emancipate the Dalits. In a speech that was broadcast on
British radio, he explained why he was drawn to Buddhism. It was the only
religion that preached three important principles of prajna (understanding),
karuna (love) and samata (equality).
Bhim had once taken a vow: ‘Even though I am a Hindu born, I will not
die a Hindu.’
 Twenty years later, on 14 October 1956, he kept his vow by converting to
Buddhism in Nagpur. It was the day of the Hindu festival of Dussehra, and
it was a historic occasion. Thousands of his followers came to Nagpur on
buses and trains, even trekking hundreds of miles on foot to catch a glimpse
of their leader converting to Buddhism. They came dressed in white, some
of them bearing ochre flags, the colour of Buddhism.
The Burmese Bhikku Mahasthaveer Chandramani was invited to carry
out the ritual. Bhim and his wife, Savita, were the first to convert, which
they did under a canopy in front of the crowd. Bhim then asked the
thousands of Untouchables awaiting conversion to stand up. He
administered the Buddhist vows to them. Nearly three lakh Untouchables
embraced Buddhism with him that day. This is possibly the largest single
mass conversion in human history.
As part of the Constituent Assembly, Bhim pushed hard for Buddha
Jayanti, the birth anniversary of the Buddha, to become an official holiday.
Constitutional provisions were made to promote the study of Pali, the
language of the earliest Buddhist scriptures. Between 1947 and 1950, he
was also involved in the adoption of many Buddhist symbols that are an
unquestioned part of our daily lives today: the chakra on the Indian flag, the
lions of Ashoka, and an inscription of a Buddhist proverb on the pediment
of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the residence of the president of India.
And in this way, Bhim became a guru to his community, yet unlike most
gurus, he was honest enough to warn them that converting to Buddhism
would not be a cure-all. Under any new religion, they would have to fight
for liberty and equality. He was also pragmatic enough to warn his
followers against worshipping any leader and elevating him to the status of
a deity. He warned, presciently, ‘. . . Bhakti, or what may be called the path
of devotion or hero worship, plays a part in [Indian] politics unequalled
[elsewhere] . . .’
By converting, Untouchables did not need to suffer for a moment longer,
the indignity of being low-born within the Hindu fold. After being rejected
by the Hindus for centuries, they, in turn, rejected the Hindus, and their
leader, Bhim, had found a spiritual refuge for them in Buddhism, whose
teachings had been all but forgotten for the last 1200 years.

What is Bhim’s place in Indian Buddhism today?

Despite warning his community against hero worship, Bhim is worshipped as a bodhisattva
today, an embodiment of the Buddha, in Maharashtra as well as among the Jatavs of northern
India. Many converts worship only Bhim and Buddha, and their birthdays alone are observed
as religious holidays.
 16
Bhim’s Legacy

On 6 December 1956, Bhim’s lifelong struggle against the injustice of the

social systems of India came to an end, two months after his conversion. He
died in his sleep at his home in Delhi at the age of sixty-five. Bhim had
always worried that his ill health would cut short his life before he had
completed his mission of bringing freedom to the Dalits. At the end of his
life, untouchability had been abolished, seats had been reserved in
Parliament for Dalits, and millions of people could imagine a more equal
world. It was a task large enough to daunt a giant, and Bhim had fulfilled it.
His funeral procession on 7 December was one of the largest in the
history of Bombay. Over half a million people gathered, crying, even
fainting in grief, and they showered petals and garlands on his body. He was
cremated by the seashore in Bombay. Interestingly, one lakh people
embraced Buddhism at the funeral pyre of their leader. Buddhists rose in
number from 2500 in 1951 to 2.5 million in 1961! In Maharashtra, the
palanquin of the village goddess, which was typically kept and looked after
by the Mahars of every village, was returned to upper-caste Hindus. There
was tension, often violent outbreaks, too, as Mahars shook off their ritual
obligations.
After his death, Bhim was worshipped as a bodhisattva, an embodiment
of the Buddha, clad in a saffron robe (even though being worshipped would
have been the last thing he wanted). His birthday was declared a national
holiday, and today, many converts observe only two religious holidays—
Bhim’s birthday and the Buddha’s.
Bhim’s was a short life, and yet a most remarkable one. He rose up from
dust, from being treated worse than an animal to becoming the father of the
Indian Constitution. He spent his boyhood being shunned constantly,
friendless and alone at school. He starved through university life, saving
every penny for his family back home and to buy books.
It was not easy at any point to fight his way forward without a family
fortune behind him, and yet he did. He turned his hardships into an
opportunity to become stronger and to fight harder. He was unafraid of
opposition, of thinking differently from the crowd, and of speaking his
mind.
Bhim always led by example. He showed his followers, through the way
he lived his own life, that education and hard work alone held the key to
their liberation. The Untouchables had been a demoralized, helpless group
of people, but Bhim taught them to stop waiting for help to come from the
outside, and to rely upon themselves instead. This idea was a revolutionary
one for a people who had always been told that their lot in life was
preordained and that they had no control over it.
You can change your lot, Bhim said, but do not flock to temples hoping
for justice to come to you in heaven. There is justice to be found on earth if
you can fight for it. This idea gave them a new courage and a sense of self-
respect that they had never known before.
The Untouchables had been treated like outsiders in their own country,
but Bhim ensured that they got constitutional rights, something they could
never have even dreamt of a hundred years ago. By his relentless
campaigning against the caste system, both in India and abroad, he gave
untouchability a global face and made it a burning issue. It became part of
national and international debate.
Bhim, in his brief lifetime, managed to acquire several university degrees
at the finest schools in the world, to edit newspapers, to write books, to
become the principal of a law college, to lead mass movements, to address
public conferences, and to work on committees involved with the making of
the Indian nation. It was as though he sensed very early on that he had a lot
to achieve and that time would always be running out for him.
He was an intellectual giant, and perhaps if the plight of the
Untouchables had not pushed him into politics, he would have been a
scholar. Books were his best friends, and yet he never read for amusement.
He read to learn. ‘What instructs me amuses me,’ he once said. His library
was his refuge, and no one was allowed to touch a single book without his
permission. He finally parted with his library to donate it to Siddharth
College, but continued to purchase new books.
He was a true Renaissance man, a person who excelled in many different
areas of inquiry. Books were not his only weakness. He had a penchant for
fountain pens of all kinds. He enjoyed well-tailored clothes, and loved
pedigree dogs. As an adult, he took up both painting and playing the violin
because he believed that every man should love music and art. His hobbies,
be it reading or music, spoke of his softer side. But in his political career,
not many people saw this side of Bhim, though. He was often described as a
British bulldog and Sarojini Naidu once called him Mussolini. There is
perhaps no one who had escaped his sharp tongue and unforgiving sarcasm,
especially if those rebukes were deserved. He was truthful to the point of
being harsh.
Perhaps his childhood experiences steeled him for a life in which
popularity did not come easily. He had many enemies and detractors. But he
had the self-confidence to know that future generations of Hindus would
come to understand his services to the nation. He did not let the fear of
disapproval stop him from doing the right thing.
He once said: ‘I am the most hated man in Hindu India.’
Though he was hated by orthodox Hindus and labelled as a destroyer of
Hinduism, historians now realize the crucial role Bhim played in
reorganizing Hindu society. Far from being a traitor, he played an important
role in revitalizing Hinduism, reviving it by challenging everything that was
unjust and unfair within it. In fact, he brought about a renaissance of
Hinduism by provoking the Hindus to rethink some of the basic tenets of
their religion.
 He was as outspoken about his ideas of nation-building. He possessed
great foresight, and his warnings about the future of India ring so true today.
In a speech before the Constituent Assembly, he cautioned his fellow-
legislators against the use of non-constitutional methods of protest, such as
civil disobedience and satyagraha, because they were essentially anarchic in
nature.
He railed against the Indian tendency to engage in hero worship. He was
afraid that the people of India would lay their liberties at the feet of
someone they worshipped, or entrust them with extraordinary, limitless
powers. He also underlined the importance of creating not just a political
democracy, but also a social and economic one.
Although he is mainly remembered for his work to uplift the
Untouchables of India, Bhim had other significant achievements that go
unremarked upon. As a Labour member of the Viceroy’s Executive
Council, he passed the Indian Trade Unions (Amendment) Bill, making it
compulsory for a trade union to be recognized in every business enterprise.
He fought for minimum wage and safe working conditions, for laws to
regulate female employment and for miners’ conditions to be improved. He
also concerned himself with formulating policies to promote irrigation and
electric power. He emphasized the need for a power grid system, one that
we use even today.
It is a true contradiction that while Dalits across India erect countless
statues of Bhim, our history books only refer to his work on the Indian
Constitution or his stature as a leader of the Untouchables. It is a terrible
failing that Bhim is not counted among the legions of great Indian freedom
fighters. The most educated Indians are often unaware of his life and its
impact on society. Everyone speaks of Gandhi’s social reforms and Nehru’s
secular vision, when it was probably Bhim who understood these ideas
more deeply than anyone else.
There was no mention of him in official speeches for decades after
Independence, and it was only in 1990 that he was awarded a Bharat Ratna
posthumously, India’s highest honour. In the same year, his portrait was put
up in Parliament, next to the portraits of other Indian greats. What a great
omission for it not to have been done earlier!
Bhim drew flak for being too sympathetic of the West, and for opposing
the Mahatma so vehemently. Perhaps he is forgotten because he did not
align himself with the Congress Party. In a letter to Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel, he wrote that he was a nationalist without being a Congressman.
This observation of his points to a grave error in our history books, where
the Indian Independence movement is often considered synonymous with
the Congress Party. Patriots and freedom fighters, as Bhim’s example
clearly shows, can also be found outside it. Our history books also make the
mistake of assuming that the only Indian struggle of note in the first half of
the 20th century was the struggle for independence from the British.
Bhim was a freedom fighter of the truest kind, not merely dreaming of
setting India free from British rule, but of transforming India into a country
where freedom holds meaning for everyone. While Gandhi led fellow-
Indians in a struggle against discrimination in South Africa, Bhim led a
battle, too, against prejudice within his own country. By securing equality
for his community, he was creating a more equal world for us all.
‘Turn in any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your
path,’ he wrote. The story of Bhim’s life is as relevant today, when we are
still to rid ourselves of the monster of caste. Bhim’s journey is as eventful
and as eye-opening as the train ride that began it all, where a little boy
discovered, for the first time, the terrible agony of being born Untouchable.

Does untouchability exist only in India?

It doesn’t. The Dalits exist as a group in Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh as well. The
Burakumin of Japan, the Al-Akhdam of Yemen, the Baekjeong of Korea and the Midgan of
Somalia are also groups that have been traditionally persecuted.
The Burakumin were given the ‘impure’ work in feudal Japan—they worked as
slaughterers, leather tanners, executioners and undertakers. Although the feudal caste system
has been abolished, the Burakumin still face discrimination.
The Al-Akhdam of Yemen (Akhdam means ‘servant’) live on the fringes of society and are
given menial jobs to do. Similarly, the Baekjeong (Baekjeong means ‘common people’) of
Korea were the untouchable outcastes in traditional Korean society, and there were strict rules
about how they could behave and dress. The Midgan or Madhibaan of Somalia were
traditionally hunters. These days, they are engaged in leatherwork and shoemaking, but they
are still looked down upon by the rest of Somali society because of the work they do.
 Treasury

Turn the pages to discover more fascinating facts and tantalizing tidbits of history about this
legendary life and his world.
 INDIA UNDER BRITISH RULE
Company rule or Company Raj refers to that period in history when India
was directly ruled by the British East India Company. There isn’t a single
agreed date for the beginning of Company Raj in India. It could be said to
have started in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when the Nawab of Bengal
surrendered his dominions to the Company.
It could also be said to have begun in 1765, when the Company was
granted Diwani, or the right to collect revenue in Bengal and Bihar.
Additionally, 1772 was the year when the Company established a capital in
Calcutta and appointed its first Governor-General, Warren Hastings, and
became directly involved with governance.
Following the revolt of 1857, Company rule ended and the British
government directly took over the administration of India and ushered in
the British Raj. The India Office was created in 1858. This was a British
government department in charge of the administration of India and other
territories, which included the modern-day nations of India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Burma, and parts of Southeast and Central Asia, the Middle
East and the east coast of Africa.
The post of Secretary of State for India, or India Secretary, was created
the same year. The Secretary of State was a British Cabinet member
responsible for the governance of India and he was the political head of the
India office. The India Office and the office of the Secretary of State were
both abolished in 1947 when the Partition of India led to the creation of two
separate countries, the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan.
The office of Governor-General of India was a much older one. Before
1858, the Governor-General was selected by the East India Company’s
Court of Directors. But after 1858, the territories governed by the East India
Company came under the direct control of the British government. The
Governor-General was now appointed by the British monarch on the advice
of the British government, and the Secretary of State for India was meant to
advise him on the exercise of his powers.
The title of Governor-General of India was first created in 1773, but it
was only in 1833 that the Governor-General was given complete authority
over British India. In 1858, when the British Raj began, the Governor-
General of India was head of the Central Government of India. This
included eight major provinces: Burma, Bengal, Bombay, Madras, United
Provinces, Central Provinces and Berar, Punjab and Assam. There were also
a few minor provinces, such as the North-West Frontier Province and the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Apart from these provinces, there were hundreds of native states or
princely states that were not ruled directly by the British government. These
states recognized the ultimate authority of the Crown, but they also enjoyed
internal autonomy. For the rulers of these native states, the Governor-
General of India represented the monarch, and so his title was altered to
Viceroy and Governor-General of India.
The Governor-General was always advised by a Council, although its
composition changed over the years. At first, it was composed of four
counsellors elected by the East India Company’s Court of Directors. Later,
in 1919, an Indian Legislature, comprising a Council of State and a
Legislative Assembly, took over the legislative functions of the Viceroy’s
Council.
The title of Viceroy was abandoned when India and Pakistan gained
Independence in 1947, but the title of Governor-General continued till both
countries became republics, India in 1950 and Pakistan in 1956.

THE WORLD IN BHIM’S TIME

1853: The first commercial passenger-train service in India left Bombay’s Bori Bunder for
Thane.
1892: Homer Plessy is arrested for sitting on the whites-only train-car in Louisiana.
1894: The first Sino-Japanese War is declared between the Qing Empire of China and the
Empire of Japan.
1895: The Treaty of Shimonoseki is signed between China and Japan, ending the first Sino-
Japanese War; Wilhelm Röntgen discovers a type of electromagnetic radiation later known
as X-rays; Auguste and Louis Lumière display their first motion picture film in Paris.
1897: Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee.
1898: The Spanish-American War begins; Marie and Pierre Curie discover radium.
1901: The Commonwealth of Australia is formed; Queen Victoria dies.
1902: Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson’s Discovery Expedition
is hailed as a landmark in British exploration of the Antarctic, but it does not reach the
South Pole.
1903: Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India.
1904: The Russo-Japanese War begins. It ends in 1905 with Japan’s victory, establishing
Japan as a world power.
1905: The Russian Revolution starts with police firing on a crowd of peaceful
demonstrators, giving rise to the Russian Constitution, limited monarchy and the
establishment of the Duma in 1906.
1910: George V becomes king upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
11911: The Delhi Durbar is held to mark the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary
as Emperor and Empress of India, and the shift of the capital of the British Raj from
Calcutta to Delhi.
1912: The Republic of China is established; The Titanic, the unsinkable ship, strikes an
iceberg in the northern Atlantic and 1500 lives are lost.
1913: Raja Harishchandra, the first full-length Indian feature film, is released, marking the
beginning of the Indian film industry.
Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.
1914: Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, triggering World War I.
1918: The Spanish Flu becomes pandemic; over thirty million people die in the following
six months (almost twice as many died during World War I).
1919: Benito Mussolini founds Fascist movement in Italy. The Treaty of Versailles is
signed, formally ending World War I.
1921: Adolf Hitler becomes Fuhrer of the Nazi Party; Albert Einstein is awarded the Nobel
Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect.
1922: Benito Mussolini becomes youngest premier in Italian history.
1925: Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf.
1926: Francisco Franco becomes General of Spain.
1927: Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, from New York
City to Paris.
1930: The Great Depression, the longest, most widespread and deepest depression of the
20th century, hits worldwide.
1932: The Battle of Shanghai marks the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese war.
1934: Adolf Hitler becomes dictator of Germany.
1936: King George V dies. His eldest son succeeds, becoming Edward VIII.
1938: German troops invade and occupy Austria.
1939: Albert Einstein signs a letter addressed to President Franklin Roosevelt about
developing the atomic bomb, leading to the creation of the Manhattan Project; Germany
invades Poland. The United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Australia declare war on
Germany.
1940: Germany invades Denmark, Norway, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and
Luxembourg; Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom;
Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps, opens in occupied
Poland. Between 1940 and 1945, around 1.1 million people will be killed here.
1941: Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece; German forces besiege Leningrad; the
Japanese Navy attacks Pearl Harbour, drawing the United States into World War II.
1945: Two atomic bombs, code-named Little Boy and Fat Man, are dropped on the Japanese
cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively. A week later, Emperor Hirohito of Japan
announces Japan’s surrender on the radio.
1947: The Cold War begins when U.S. President Harry Truman implements the Truman
Doctrine to fight the spread of Communism; India becomes independent from British rule;
The Indo-Pakistan War, also known as the First Kashmir War, breaks out.
1950: The Korean War begins between Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North
Korea) and Republic of Korea (South Korea) over the control of the Korean Peninsula.
1951: Libya gains independence from colonial rule.
1952: George VI of the United Kingdom dies after a long illness. He is succeeded by his
daughter, Princess Elizabeth, who is crowned Elizabeth II.
1953: President Truman announces that the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.
1954: The First Indochina War ends. The Algerian War begins, with Algeria fighting for
independence from French colonialism.
1956: Sudan becomes independent from British occupation, and Morocco and Tunisia
become independent from France. Oct 29—The Suez Crisis begins.

BHIM’S LIFE: WHAT HAPPENED AND WHEN

14 April 1891: Bhim is born at Mhow (Madhya Pradesh), the fourteenth child of Subedar
Ramji Sakpal and Bhimabai.
1896: Bhim’s mother dies.
1900: Bhim is enrolled at the Government Middle School in Satara.
1904: Bhim attends Elphinstone High School in Bombay.
1907: Bhim passes the Matriculation Examinations.
1908: Bhim is admitted to Elphinstone College, Bombay.
1912: Bhim passes the BA exams from University of Bombay. Bhim’s first son, Yashwant,
is born.
Feb 1913: Bhim’s father dies.
July 1913: Bhim goes to Columbia University.
1915: Receives an MA degree from Columbia University.
June 1916: Leaves Columbia University after completing work for a PhD, and joins the
London School of Economics and Political Science. He also trains for Law at Gray’s Inn.
1917: Returns to India after his scholarship is terminated by Baroda State.
Appointed as Military Secretary to the Maharaja of Baroda, but leaves Baroda soon after.
1918: Accepts a professor’s job at Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics,
Bombay.
1919: Appears before the Southborough Commission.
Jan 1920: Starts a Marathi newspaper, Mooknayak.
Mar 1920: Presides over a Depressed Classes conference at Kolhapur.
July 1920: Bhim leaves India to resume his studies in London.
June 1921: London University accepts Bhim’s thesis Provincial Decentralisation of
Imperial Finance in British India and awards him an MSc. (Econ) degree.
1922: Bhim is called to the Bar.
1922-23: Spends some time reading economics at the University of Bonn in Germany.
1923: Bhim returns to India. His thesis The Problem of the Rupee—Its origin and its
solution is accepted for a DSc. (Econ) degree.
1924: Starts law practice in the Bombay High Court. Founds the Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha.
1926: Nominated member of the Bombay Legislative Council.
Mar 1927: Starts Mahad Satyagraha to secure the Untouchables’ right to drink water from
the Chavdar Tank.
Apr 1927: Starts and edits a bimonthly Marathi paper, Bahiskrit Bharat.
June 1927: Awarded PhD degree from Columbia University.
Dec 1927: Second conference at Mahad.
1928: Introduces the Vatan Bill in the Bombay Legislative Council. Becomes professor of
Government Law College, Bombay.
1930-32: Represents India’s Untouchables at the Round Table Conferences.
Sept 1932: Signs the Poona Pact to save Gandhi’s life.
1934: Leaves his home in Parel and moves residence to ‘Rajagriha’ at Dadar. This was done
to accommodate his ever-increasing collection of books.
May 1935: His wife, Ramabai, dies.
June 1935: Appointed Principal of Government Law College, Bombay.
Oct 1935: At the Yeola Conference in Nasik, he urges his community to leave Hinduism
and embrace another religion. He declares: ‘I solemnly assure you that I will not die a
Hindu.’
Aug 1936: Bhim founds the Independent Labour Party.
Feb 1937: The first General Elections are held. Bhim is elected member of the Bombay
Legislative Assembly.
March 1937: The Chavdar Tank case is decided in favour of the Depressed Classes.
Sept 1937: Bhim introduces two bills in the Bombay Assembly, one to abolish the Mahar
Watan and the other to abolish the khoti system.
May 1938: Bhim resigns as principal of Government Law College, Bombay.
Nov 1938: The industrial workers strike.
Oct 1939: Bhim meets Jawaharlal Nehru for the first time.
1941: Bhim fights to recruit Mahars in the army. The Mahar Battallion is formed. Bhim is
appointed to the Defence Advisory Committee.
 June 1942: Bhim becomes the first Untouchable to join the Viceroy’s Executive Council.
July 1942: Bhim founds the All-India Scheduled Caste Federation in Nagpur.
1946: Bhim is elected member of the Constituent Assembly of India.
April 1947: Article 17 for the abolition of untouchability is moved by Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel in the Constituent Assembly.
Aug 1947: India gets independence. Bhim joins Nehru’s cabinet as the first Law Minister of
independent India. The Constituent Assembly appoints him to the drafting committee.
Feb 1948: Bhim completes the draft Constitution.
Apr 1948: Bhim marries Dr Sharda Kabir.
Nov 1948: Bhim presents the draft Constitution to the Constituent Assembly.
Nov 1949: The Constituent Assembly adopts the Constitution.
Sept 1951: The Hindu Code Bill comes up for a final reading. Bhim resigns from the Nehru
cabinet because it fails to support the bill.
Jan 1952: Bhim faces defeat in the first Lok Sabha elections.
March 1952: Bhim enters Parliament as a member of the Rajya Sabha, representing
Bombay.
June 1952: Columbia University confers on Bhim the honorary Degree of LL.D. (Doctorate
of Law), in its bi-centennial celebrations held in New York.
Oct 1956: Bhim embraces Buddhism at a historic ceremony in Nagpur, witnessed by
thousands of followers. He declares that he will dissolve the Scheduled Caste Federation
and establish the Republican Party.
6 Dec 1956: Dies at his residence in New Delhi.
7 Dec 1956: Ambedkar is cremated at Dadar Chowpatty, which is now known as Chaitya
Bhoomi Dadar (Bombay).

BHIM’S LEGACY
In India

14 April, or Bhim’s birthday, is observed as a national holiday. It is known as Bhim Jayanti

or Ambedkar Jayanti.
19 March is observed by Bhim’s followers as Independence Day because it marks the day
their struggle first began at Mahad.
Buddha Jayanti, or the birth anniversary of Lord Buddha, is now a national holiday.
The Ashoka Chakra, a Buddhist symbol, is recognized as our national symbol.
A Buddhist aphorism is inscribed at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
An image of Buddha, installed by Bhim, stands in the Buddha Vihara at Dehu Road, near
Pune.
In every city in India, there is possibly a hospital, an educational institution or a street
named after Bhim.
 Numerous statues of Bhim can be found all over the country, including some notable ones
like the one standing outside the Rajya Sabha in Delhi, or the one at Oval Maidan in
Mumbai.
In 2000,Jabbar Patel made a film called Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, starring Mammootty in
the lead role. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor. The film also won the
National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English.

Abroad
The European Romas or Gypsies are as alienated from mainstream society
as the Dalits in India. They describe themselves as the Untouchables of
Europe. Inspired by Ambedkar, they have set up the Jai Bhim network. The
network runs educational and social organizations for the Gypsies. A large
number of them have also converted to Buddhism. As Ambedkar did as
well, the Jai Bhim network emphasizes self-help. Bhim’s message to
‘Educate, Agitate, Organize’ finds an echo with them, and they look up to
Bhim as their hero.

Ambedkar in Literature
Scores of books have been written on the life of Bhim, his influence on
Buddhism, his work on the Constitution and his struggle against
untouchability. (To begin with, look at our Reading List.)
Bhim himself authored several books in his lifetime. Here are a few
titles:
1. Annihilation of Caste (1936)
2. Thoughts on Pakistan (1946)
3. Buddha and His Dhamma (1957)
4. What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables (1945)
5. Who Were the Shudras? (1946)

THE GROWTH OF DALIT LITERATURE

Bhim didn’t just inspire India’s Untouchables to fight for their freedom, he
also gave rise to a new genre of Dalit literature. Though stories about the
experience of being Dalit have been around as far back as the 11th century,
the term ‘Dalit literature’ came into use only after 1958, when the first
conference of the Maharashtra Dalit Sahitya Sangha was held, in Mumbai.
It was Jyotiba Phule who first voiced the idea of a separate genre of
literature that could express the Dalit experience. Bhim was supposed to
preside over the first conference for Dalit literature, but the conference was
postponed with his untimely death on 6 December 1956.
Bhim’s struggle to free India’s Untouchables inspired a group of Dalit
writers and poets to express the ‘Dalit voice’. In the years following Bhim’s
death, there was an explosion of writing by Dalits—poetry, fiction and
autobiographies. Dalit literature emerged as a steady voice, first in Marathi
and then in other languages like Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telegu. It is
often likened to African-American literature because it deals with similar
issues of injustice and segregation.
Baburao Bagul was the pioneer of Marathi Dalit literature, although the
most memorable name in Marathi Dalit literature remains that of Namdeo
Dhasal, who died only recently, on 15 Jan 2014. In 1992, the Ambedkari
Sahitya Parishad was formed in Wardha, Maharashtra, to provide a new
platform for Dalit literature. The next year, the parishad made moves to
reconceptualize Dalit literature as ‘Ambedkari Sahitya’ after its hero.
What makes Dalit writing so powerful? Perhaps it is the frankness with
which it deals with the pain of being an Untouchable. Perhaps it is its depth
and maturity. Either ways, Dalit writing has earned a place as one of the
distinct forms of Indian writing.

BOOKS TO READ
Here are some books you can read if you want to find out more about Bhim
and his ideas:

1. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar by Dhananjay Keer (Popular Prakashan, 1954)

2. Ambedkar: Towards an Enlightened India by Gail Omvedt (Penguin, 2004)
3. Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability by Christophe Jaffrelot (Permanent Black, 2005)
4. We, the Children of India: The Preamble to Our Constitution by Leila Seth (Puffin, 2010)
5. Makers of Modern India by Ramachandra Guha (Penguin, 2011)
6. There are several books written by Bhim himself, including Waiting for a Visa, which is a
collection of his reminiscences. This is available on the Internet.
7. To read some remarkable examples of Dalit writing, look for poetry by Namdeo Dhasal,
such as Golpitha, or read Arjun Dangle’s Poisoned Bread: Translations from Modern
Marathi Dalit Literature.
 THE BEGINNING

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