Self-Respect in Maharashtra
Self Respect Conference, Chittegain, Nasik : Dr. Ambedkar’s Presidential Address
The first session of the Maharashtra Self-respect Conference was held under the auspices of the Samaj Samata Sangh (Social Equality League), at Chitegain on Sunday the 26th May 1929. The President elect Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, M.A. Ph.D., Bar-at-law with distinguished guests arrived at Khairwadi Station on Sunday morning. He was accorded a grand reception and was taken in a procession to the village where the Conference met. The Conference was attended by over five thousand people including ladies. Most of the gathering belonged to the depressed classes who have been roused of late to their sense of degradation through the efforts of their redoubtable leader Dr. Ambedkar who hails from their class. The conference began its proceedings at 1.30 p.m. in a specially erected pandal. Amongst those who attended and addressed the Conference were Prof. Sabnis of Nasik College, Mr. D. V. Naik, Editor, ‘Samata’, M. B. Deshmukh, M.A. S.T.C.., R. D. Kowli, B.A., D.V. Pradhan, S. S. Gupte, B.Sc., B.R. Kadrekar, B. V. Pradhan, B.A., L.L.B., Mr. B. K. Gaikwad, N. T. Jadhav, Mr. Bankhambe, a leading contractor of the Nasik District, T. B. Kale, Dani.
The whole of the proceedings was marked with great enthusiasm. Mr. Rokade, the Chairman of the Reception Committee could not make his speech owing to illness. Dr Ambedkar after being proposed to the Chair spoke extempore for over an hour. It was listened to with rapt attention. He referred in the beginning to the idea of superiority and inferiority that has taken deep root into the Hindu society, and which has killed self respect and sapped vitality, the two essential things of leading a life worth the name. This was particularly so in case of the depressed and backward classes. The very names of the members of these classes he added make a vile suggestion that they were a mean and contemptible sort of people. Particular classes have to use ornaments of particular metal a practice sanctioned by religion and suggesting the idea of inequality. He quoted the examples, where the depressed classes were compelled to use the ornaments of base metals even though they could afford those of gold or silver while in some cases they were subjected to brutalities simply for the disobedience of this so called rule dictated by the Smritis of the type of Manu: Depressed classes particularly suffered from great disabilities and were treated worse than human beings.
The British Government which as a matter of fact should not have recognized the scandalous system of caste in regard to services had to do it even against their declared policy owing to a strong public opinion in favour of this inhuman system. The depressed classes were kept out of public services and were deprived of their just and equitable claim with the result that they have to lead a most degrading and humiliating life. The only remedy to take out this great mass of humanity from the quagmire of slavery political, social, economical lay in imbibing the spirit of self respect and asserting boldly one’s rights. He ridiculed the idea that status of equality could be achieved through mere education, a superstition that haunts many a brain. For he said, that though education might do much to mitigate the hardships and sufferings of the downtrodden, yet it would not raise them in social scale by even a whit and would not solve the problem of their social slavery and economic serfdom. He pointed out his own case. Though he had attained the highest academical qualification with all humiliation he had to admit that he was no better than an ordinary “untouchable”. Their only remedy lay therefore in destroying the tyrannical system of castes and Varnashram which has wrought their downfall and destruction and has killed their self respect.
At the conclusion of his speech, messages expressing success to the conference were read. Notable among them was a letter and telegram from Mr. E. V. Ramasami, the renowned leader of the Self-respect movement in Southern India. The resolutions that were passed, demanded the abolition of early marriages, caste system, priesthood and urging the legislator to bring a bill to proscribe religious books like Manusmriti and Puranas, to stop all state grants to the temples etc. and to utilize it in furtherance of education and uplift of the suppressed classes. The conference came to a close at 9 p.m. The Scout Troop which numbered 150 of the depressed classes kept most excellent order throughout the Conference.
Revolt, 23 June 1929
Brahminism Exploded : Dr. Ambedkar’s Lead
It is a well-known fact that there are very few organizations on the western-coast who would sincerely push forward the depressed class movement with a view to give them equal status with their touchable brethren in the Hindu religious polity. With the above laudable object of giving equal treatment to the so-called untouchables in all religious and social public functions and places of worship, a band of young men of Dadar, Bombay organized themselves into a body last year, called ‘Samaj-Samata Sangh’ (Social Equality league) under the presidentship of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, M.A., Ph.D., D.Sc., Bar-at-law M.L.C., a most outstanding and eminent personality.
The Sangh has launched upon a campaign of raising the social and religious status of the so-called untouchable classes in right earnest. So far they have given the sacred thread, the supposedly exclusive right of the higher classes, to nearly 20,000 depressed class members in the Bombay presidency. Only the other day they gave it to nearly 1,000 men. It is a point to be remembered that the ceremony is performed in the Vedic style which is the exclusive right of the Brahmins. These acts on the part of the depressed classes are keenly resented by the higher castes and specially the Brahmins who suppose them to be an encroachment on their exclusive privileges. And as a result many an untouchable in the Konkan district is being persecuted. But they are happily undeterred in their determination to acquire equal rights with their co religionists.
The Sangh has also brought about numerous inter-caste dinners in Bombay and mofussil. It was only last year that the Sangh launched the campaign of demanding the entry of the ‘untouchables’ in the temple of Ganapati at Dadar. Nearly 2,000 untouchables led by Dr. Ambedkar and Messers Naik, Pradhan, Kowli, Kadrekar and other members of the Sangh gathered near the pandal where the image was installed. They were determined to force their entry into the place where the deity was kept. The forces of Brahminism were all mobilized by the vested interests and the help of the police of the foreign government was sought on knees to keep away the depressed classes. But no power on earth can deter men from acquiring their rights, once they are determined to do so. After a tug-of-war for nearly seven hours, a compromise was arrived at by which the organizers were constrained to treat every Hindu equally. Every one who desired to offer any puja, might do so by putting his materials of worship near the image. Thus the Brahmin was brought down to the level of the depressed class member. In this way, Brahminism had to give in.
This success of the depressed classes made the Brahminism run amock. This year they got a resolution passed in the general body debarring the members of the depressed classes from the right of worship of the image. Not only this, but the management this year led by a so-called Brahmin doctor went so far as to disallow them in the temple where the image would be installed. This was a sort of an open challenge to the Sangh and a further insult to the ‘untouchables’. The Sangh and the depressed classes accepted the challenge and gave a battle royal to the Brahminism on Saturday, the 7th September 1929. Since morning the depressed class members began to pour in and at about 10 o’clock the number rose to one thousand. They threatened the management of forcible entry near the image. This year again a large contingent of police headed by a white sergeant was kept in readiness near the place and the image was protected by the police. It is really an irony of fate to witness the Hindu God being protected by the white man against the imaginary fear of pollution by the touch of their own kith and kin and co-religionists. The president of the management, a Brahmin doctor, in the beginning, feeling well protected by the police refused to yield an inch of place to them. But the determination of the people soon brought him to the senses and he then opened negotiations with Dr. Ambedkar who arrived on the scene at about 10.30 a.m. and was received by the people with continued cheers.
After prolonged conversations the Brahminism yielded and accepted the right of the depressed classes to get near the image and worship it with flowers in person. The compromise was declared at about 3. p.m. after nearly waiting for nine hours. Amidst great cheers of Dr. Ambedkar and Samaj Samata-Sangh two ‘untouchables’ – one mahar and the other mang – triumphantly marched in the temple of the deity and worshipped it with flowers. Thus the Sangh was able to go a step further in their arduous struggle against Brahminism which they are determined to purge the Hindu community of. It is high time that other organizations all over the country who stand for the betterment of the depressed classes launched a similar campaign for obtaining an equal status for them. It will be in the fitness of things to congratulate Messrs. D.V. Naik, S. S. Gupte, Dr. Madhav Pradhan, D. U. Pradhan, R. D. Kowli, B.R. Kadrekar, G. R. Pradhan, Pagare, Jadhav, Shankerdasbuwas, Shanker Wadavalkar and Sakate on their efforts in the matter.
Revolt, 29 September 1929
A Fantastical Statement!
Seth Jamnalal Bajaj in his statement on the Poona Parvati Temple Sathyagraha has revealed what little he is capable of as the Secretary of the Anti-untouchability Sub-Committee of the Indian National Congress. We are glad in so far as the Poona incident has given an opportunity for the public to have a casual look into the green room of the ‘All-India’ Congress Theatre.
Mr. Bajaj, in his statement on the Poona Satyagraha says that “the existing conditions not only in Poona but all over the country do not warrant starting of Satyagraha by ‘untouchables’ for asserting their right of temple worship”. Evidently the munificent giver in Bajaj has developed into a fire-eating politician.” Existing conditions” is a nice phrase more worthy of being handled by political orators and speechifiers of the type of Mr. Satyamurti than a liberal patron like Seth Jamnalal. A safer term for the politician of the present day is hard to conceive of. In most cases, “existing conditions” do not require the necessity of being exemplified or elaborated, and Mr. Bajaj has employed the same stratagem in his statement. He has perhaps thought it wise to refrain from referring in detail to the” existing conditions”, which “do not warrant starting of Satyagraha”.
We are not unaware of the efficacy of worship and of the moral standard of those who have unceasingly worshipped till now. Robbers as well as the robbed, worship the same god. We never believe for a moment that the admission of ‘untouchables’ into the temples will bring in its wake, showers of blessings upon them which were hitherto denied. We sincerely hold and propagate that the temples themselves are no more than mere monuments of waste. We long to see the day when the temples (even as the monasteries were done in Russia) will be converted into workhouses, rest-homes, hospitals and schools and their property is directed to more useful and potential purposes. But then our aim in upholding the right of temple-entry is only to establish the right of all the people both legally and morally. It is our firm conviction that the achievement of this right will be the first step towards the final goal. Hence our sympathy for the Satyagrahis.
The ardent champion of the “untouchables” is unconsciously speaking the truth when he further says that “there is a constant danger of creating internal jealousies among the various Hindu communities and also jeopardizing Hindu unity”. This is perhaps the implication behind the term “existing conditions”. The Hindu-Moslem tension in the North, we know, is the one vital force which is engaging the attention of everyone who calls himself a Hindu and Mr. Bajaj is no exception. That however is not the “existing condition all over the country”. At any rate not so at present. Just because Mr. Bajaj feels that the question of temple entry will weaken the position of the Hindus as against the Muslims, where is the necessity for the “untouchables” to continue in their shameful position in society? Why should six crores of people lose their rights and privileges and be waiting patiently for a change in “the existing conditions”, simply because their fight for equality will “jeopardise the Hindu unity”? This attitude of robbing Peter to pay Paul is more evidenced in the Khadi Movement where one section of the poor is taxed to pay the other.
“We cannot afford to land the Hindu community”, proceeds Mr. Bajaj, “into internecine warfare at this stage of our nation’s affair even on the most burning of the domestic problems”. Our Nero wants to be playing on the fiddle while Rome is burning. He expects the “untouchables” to put up even with the civic disabilities without having free access to the public wells, tanks and roads. This is as harsh as it is heartless. If Mr.Bajaj is really afraid that the agitation of temple entry would endanger the Hindu unity, it is all the more urgent that the energies of all North Indian Leaders should be wholly diverted to the upliftment of the ‘untouchables’. Mr. Bajaj cannot be justified in asking one-fifth of the nation to keep cool and calm when their very existence as human being is at stake. Is he not aware of the painful but inevitable fact that hundreds of “untouchables” are leaving Hinduism every day in South India? Will he calmly receive from us the news that most of them prefer Islam to Christianity for annihilation ad infinitum of the social injustice? Will he wake up the slumbering members of the All India Congress and inform them that their opposite ranks are being swelled every day by persistent conversions?
Kalvankor Shastri, an orthodox Hindu justifying the brutal attack of the mob on the Satyagrahis, has said, “Even if orthodox Hindus had used swords and spears for the vindication of the purity of the temple, I would congratulate them”. What under the “existing conditions” does Mr. Bajaj want us to do with this fanatical Brahmin? There is no surer way for the “untouchables” than to convert themselves into Muslims and retaliate by showing their fists to the Shastri and his clan. Endurance has a limit and Hinduism is not a thing of yesterday. Either the diehards of the Shastri’s type should change, which is impossible or the religion which is responsible for his fanaticism should perish, which is more probable and practicable. A religion which stands on the bedrock of orthodoxy as exemplified by the Shastri who advocates the use of “swords and spears for the vindication of the purity of the temple” is sure to perish sooner or later: the sooner the better.
For, what is it but hypocrisy to talk of ‘purity’ in temples, where lizards, flies, bats and similar insects pour their filth on the images of the so-called God. A ‘God’ or a temple which tolerates the fifth of the non-human elements is said to become polluted even by the mere entrance of human beings! Hypocrisy, thy name is orthodoxy!
There is again another remark of Mr. Bajaj, “whether it is wise unnecessarily to mar a countrywide atmosphere of goodwill by launching an aggressive campaign when there are fairly bright prospects of achieving the end by lesser means”. Where are the “bright prospects” and what are the “lesser means”, we fail to understand. What has been the result of such efforts in the past? How far have the “lesser means” and “brighter prospects” helped the Indian National Congress with its heavy purse, in the eradication of the evil? Is the suggestion intended only as eyewash? We wait for Mr. Bajaj’s reply.
Revolt, 27 October 1929
Temple Entry in Poona (By Chitragupta, B.A., Poona)
13th of October was the proudest day fit to be written in red letters in the social and religious history of Maharashtra because it was on this day that the so-called submerged classes – I mean the untouchables – awoke from their age-long slumber and ringed the death knell of the superstitious Hindoo religion. It was a day on which the irrational and inequitable and inhuman laws of Manu were thrown to the winds, because on this day the Siberian mine and the Bastille of the sham Hindoo religion were sapped and undermined under the banner of Reason and Social equality. Now the eventual collapse of these crumbling citadels of priesthood is a question of time. Up to now the proverbially supine slave of Hindoo Religion was averse and wroth (sic) to part with the iron fetters which he had come to like as he was falsely led to believe by the trickery of the priests that he will attain his Salvation i.e., Moksh by strictly adhering to the traditional precepts and practices of his own caste. It was considered by him to be sacrilegious to touch a Brahmin or to enter the holy premises of a temple. But now the angle of vision is changed and the docile worm has truly been provoked by inequities of centuries to turn at bay with all the fury and fierceness of a mighty dragon.
On the 13th of October 1929, an army of the depressed classes marched in battle array against the “Parvati” temple of Poona with the object of entering into the holy place where the image of so called God was kept under lock and key. Every thing was done most calmly, quietly and not violently. The local Authorities, Police and Magisterial were given intimation of their mission.The District Magistrate with his official retinue was on the spot. All the high class Hindus interested in frustrating the object of this noble mission had mustered strong at the foot and on the top of the “Parwati” hill.
The Crusade began but in the first skirmish, as the report goes, the so called peace-loving Brahmans became aggressive and hurled shoes, umbrellas, brick-bats and such other conventional missiles. In the band that was prepared to face the consequence legal and illegal (sic) of their “Satyagraha” there were some honorable ladies, but all the chivalrous instincts of the Poona Brahmans died when they did not spare to jeer, hiss and hoot at them in all sorts of obscene cries and gestures with the effect that the women had to withdraw from the fight to a place of safety. But the leaders of this Heroic band of warriors were as firm as adamant, and as dauntless as martyrs. They stood to their guns. With the perfect ease of mind, nerved and braced by the righteousness of their cause, they began to scale the hills of the temple.
On their way, the maddened mob of the Brahmin youths all steeped in the superstitious notions of their religion were hooting, heckling, howling at them by wild shrieks. But this noisy opposition did not deter the members of depressed classes from pursuing their course, so as a last resort all the fury of the high class Hindoo, exhibited itself in attacking and assaulting the poor helpless but iron-willed and resolute party. Blows rained thick like hail stones on their heads. Stones were pelt incessantly with the effect that the Police and the Magistrate had to arrest some of the high-handed aggressors and dissuade the ‘Satyagrahis’ from their noble mission. As true soldiers they refused to budge an inch but ultimately discretion prevailed as it was the better of valour. Thus for a time curtain fell on this most edifying spectacle.
Some of the depressed class leaders got wounds for which they are being treated in the Hospital. For a time there is a lull at Poona but I am afraid it is a lull before the storm. I am sure that I shall not be a bad prophet if I prognosticate that in the city of Poona, there will dawn a day, not very distant, on which the depressed class people will have achieved their goal. The awakening is there. The rousing passion is at work. The keen and burning desire will find an outlet for itself because when there is a will there is bound to be a way. Necessity is ever the mother of invention. The fate of orthodoxy in Poona is sealed. The hidebound conservatism is nearing its dooms day. Its days are now numbered.
The blood-shed by the depressed classes at the foot of “Parwati” hill will like a martyr’s blood prove to be the seed of a rising revolt and resolution which will overthrow and pull-down even the sky-scraping mighty structures of temple closets. Imagine how the times are rapidly changing. Only a century and a score of years back was such a thing even thinkable or dreamable much less possible or feasible to attempt and achieve? No, not in the least, for at that time, there was the so-called rotten ‘Swaraj’ the tyrannical and despotic Native rule. A rule of Brahmins who had proved traitors to the descendents of Shivaji and had enhanced their power and prestige at the cost of Satara Gadi, where the scions or Shivaji were ruling as ornamental figureheads. The real reign was of the Peshwas. It was one of their Peshwas – Nana Saheb – who built this ‘historic’ ‘Parvati’ temple in the name of that Goddess on a small hillock about 250 feet from the foot of the hill to the south of Poona, at a distance of about 2 miles from the palace of the Peshwas.
Had in those blessed days of ‘Swaraj’ any one of the depressed class men raised his little finger against the inclination of the Peshwas, or for the matter of that any Brahman of Poona, what would have been his fate? He would have met the most barbarous and cruel death. His eyes would have been burst with red-hot iron rods. His ears filled with molten lead and such other metal and at last even his dead body would not have been spared. It would have been tied to the tail of a donkey and paraded through all the streets of Poona and then the fragments of his bodily frame thrown to the vultures and this would have all been done in the name of damned religion. Better such a religion is damned for ever than a poor soul so ruthlessly killed, limb by limb and inch by inch. The above punishment is not at all imaginary though it is horrid and gruesome.
The students of history full well know how one ‘Ghasiram Kotawal’ met his death at the hands of the angry mob of Poona Brahmins. He was literally lynched and what was his fault that made him liable for such a ghastly punishment? It was that he as a police officer in charge of the town of Poona, got some roaming and ravaging Madras Brahmins who were notorious night hawks, arrested and locked them in one room for the night. Next day in the morning all the Poona Brahmins demanded the handing over of this dutiful police officer whom the weak Peshwas did. The poor Ghasiram was literally stoned to death. So also the brother of Holkar in broad day light was tied to the feet of a furious and mad elephant and trampled to death, for which the then ruling prince of Indore did wreak vengeance more than enough. He not only invaded Poona but like Nadir Shah Durani who had burnt Delhi, he sacked and burnt down Poona and ordered his soldiers to loot every shop and plunder every citizen whose only fault was that he owned his house in Poona and that he happened to be the resident of Poona.
The Native bakhars (accounts of the Maratha rulers of western India, dating back to the 17th century – editors) are replete with such thrilling and blood curling incidents. Thanks to the British Rule that human rights are claimed and clamored for with impunity by the so-called Sub-human classes. Leaders like Lala Lajpatrai and Gandhi were denied entrance in some temples in the south by the superhuman class as whose religion compeers in Poona are dying hard at the hands of the depressed class crusaders. The victory is bound to be with those whose cause is right and righteous. But Satan has got to be hurled into the hell before the rule of God is firmly established in this world.
I again congratulate the leaders of the depressed classes who infused ideas of equality, liberty and fraternity in the docile section of Hindoo society who under the iniquitous laws of Manu are no better than cattle and chattels. Thousands of years back when this Code was compiled in conformity with the then customs and usages, the depressed classes had no social status, they were deemed as sinners whose even shadow would pollute a pure Brahmin. It is high-time now for us all to allow such nonsense to be seen in cold print. The laws of Manu deserve to be observed in their breach. His Book is an emblem of high-handed and cruel orthodoxy and the miss-rule of superstitious rulers following the Dictates of Sham religion as propounded to them by unscrupulous and vicious priests. To bury these antic and ancient silly laws we must unfurl the banner of ‘Self-respect’ and raise the clarion call of equality, liberty and fraternity and the rule of the proletariat which shook and shattered the foundations of the unholy shrines where the lords spiritual and temporal were ruling the roost with iron hand and crushing the dumb millions under their iron heels. But a Voltaire, a Rousseau, a Luther, a Tolstoy or a Lenin turned the tables and tore them to pieces.
The slogan of every Youth in the country should be ‘Down with the priest-craft and up with Self-respect’, then and then alone brother-hood of man and fatherhood of God will loom large on the horizon of pure religion.
I hail the first Batch of crusaders who fired their first shot at the hydra-headed monster of inhuman Seclusive laws of Hindu religion, by besieging the hillock of Parvati to affect an entry into the sacred precincts of the temple. It is the inalienable birth right of every true Hindu to worship his God in any public temple but to uphold this right is neither an easy task nor its path strewn with roses. One has to bear his cross and wear the thorny crown to achieve this noble mission. For the spread of true religion and for the vindication of human and equitable doctrines and for the propagation of true Gospel, Lord Christ had to be crucified, Muhammad had to flee for life from place to place. Buddha and Mahavir in India, even long before Christ and Muhammad had to carry a strenuous war against heavy odds at great personal sacrifice, Luther had to rebel and revolt against the mighty pontiff of Rome at the risk of his life, nearer home and nearer to our times, Tukaram the Socrates of Maharashtra had to pass through fire and brimstone of the opposition of blind and bigoted Brahmin orthodoxy who it is shrewdly suspected buried him alive in the watery grave of the Indrayani (a river).
Within the living memory, Ram Mohan Roy, Dayanand Saraswati and Mahatma Jotirao Phule for their inordinate zeal of social and religious reforms were made a target of attack by the so-called ‘Sanatanis’. Even Mahatma Gandhi rightly called the living Christ of India for his personal purity and piety is not spared by the false prophets of Hindu religion. They curse him with all sorts of abuses and even challenge his integrity. When he gives his opinion on religious matters and hence though he is on the highest crest of political popularity, yet in matters of social and religious reform his prestige is at its lowest ebb. Mahatma Gandhi, the roaring lion in the political field and the live volcano of non-co-operation movement is changed into a bleating lamb and a broken reed when he steps into the close preserves of sacerdotal order to purge it of its abuses and to redress its deep seated wrongs. This high priest of Charka and the idol of Swaraj mongers is pulled down from his high place of power and shattered into pieces as soon as he carries his experiments with truth in the field of religious reform by espousing the cause of the depressed classes and by championing openly the post-puberty and widow marriages. But ultimately in the struggle of vice and virtue the latter is bound to triumph over the former and so I have not the least doubt that there will dawn a proud day when the untouchables of India will rise to the full stature of their height and take their place of honor by the side of their more fortunate brothers. The wind in blowing in that direction and I with my mind’s eye see the shadows cast by those coming events.
Lastly I beseech my miscalled untouchable brethren to push on with their programme and not to drop this noble cause by fighting shy in the midcurrent of their activities if any red-rag is dangled before their eyes from the quarters of their inveterate enemies. It is truly said that the battle of freedom once begun and handed down from the bleeding sire to the sanguine son is never lost but ever won. Let therefore the moribund soldiers of the Self-respecting and God fearing army of the depressed classes gird their loins and start their onward march and fight their battle to the last soldier in the last ditch with the firm and fervent belief that ‘God’ is in Heaven and everything is alright in the world and that He helps those who help themselves.
Revolt, 3 November 1929
Self-Introspection Please!
The Indian Thinker writing on the Parvati Temple Satyagraha has some mischievous things to say on “Progress.” “As part of its (progress) programme”, writes the journal, “people who once married within their own separate compartments are wishing to marry outside, People who had their own temples to worship in and who did so with faith and satisfaction are clamouring and even fighting to use the temples of other people, even though their faith in temples generally, not excluding their own has distinctly waned.”Very splendid indeed! Let us try another idea under the same constructions: “As part of ORTHODOXY’S programme, people who once lived in solitary huts are living in big houses. People who had no temples to worship in and who reveled in drink and sacrifice are clamouring, and even fighting to use the temples of other people, even though their faith in temples, generally including those of others, is distinctly nothing”. Does this remark suit the Editor and his clan?
Revolt, 10 November 1929
