Post-independence India

Dalits are those groups of people who have faced social discrimination including the untouchability. They largely belong to the economically disadvantaged groups of our society. Dalit movement raises issues of caste-based discrimination and economic inequality. It is a struggle for social justice. There is no single unified Dalit movement in the country either in the past or in the present. Different movements highlighted different issues related to Dalits based on different ideologies. The common thread however among all the movements is all of them assert a Dalit identity.

Dalit Movements During Pre Independence Period

1. During the pre-Independence period, there were Dalit movements at both levels in India – the national and the provincial. At the national level M K Gandhi and Dr B R Ambedkar attempted to take up the problems of Dalits. But Ambedkar and Gandhi followed different approaches to solve them.
2. Gandhi found untouchability as a corrupt form of Hinduism and suggested that it can be solved by moral reform of the Hindus. He coined the term “Harijans” with the purpose to say that Dalits or untouchables were also “people of God” like those of the high castes.
3. Dr B R Ambedkar, on the other hand, saw the real cause of untouchability in the very nature of Hinduism and believed that unless the caste system is destroyed the social evil of untouchability cannot end and that it is possible only if Dalits acquire power. Hence in 1942, he formed the All India Scheduled Caste Federation (AISCF).
4. At provincial levels, there were also single caste movements in different parts of India – of Nadars, Pulayas, Ezhavas in South; of Namsudra movement in West Bengal; Adi Darm movement led by Mangu Ram of Punjab. 5. Narayana Guru led a movement among the Ezhavas in Travancore and Ayyankali- led a movement among the Pulayas of Kerala. These movements were committed to self-reform in the rituals, advancement of their education, gaining access to employment under the state.

Dalit Movements During Pre Independence Period

1. Republican Party of India (RPI) – RPI was formed based on the ideas and principles of Ambedkar. In the late 1950s and 1960s, RPI launched a cultural and political movement in UP and Maharashtra for achieving political and cultural autonomy from the dominant formations. A large number of Dalits converted to Buddhism.
2. Dalit Panther – An educated group of Dalits – young Dalit writers and poets, from Maharastra set up an organisation known as Dalit Panther in 1972. Influenced by Amedkarism, Marxism and “Negro literature”, they aimed at rejecting the caste system, which according to them was based on the Brahminical Hinduism.
3. Bahujan Samaj Party – The formation of the BSP by Kanshi Ram in 1984 marks a new beginning in the history of Dalit mobilisation and politics in the country. The BSP has not only succeeded in establishing a stronghold in some states in northern India but it has also been able to form governments in the critically important state of Uttar Pradesh.
4. The post-independence movements saw Dalits consciously distancing themselves from patronizing politics of upper caste. The period of 1970s saw the popularization of the word Dalit as a critique of the term Harijan.
5. The term “Dalit” referred to those who have broken, ground down by those above them ”, in a deliberate way there is in the word itself a denial of pollution, karma and justified hierarchy.
6. The post-Ambedkar Dalit movement had revolutionary practice. It ranged from providing alternative ways of living, changes in behaviour such as giving up beef, to religious conversions.
7. While the pre-independence movements by many reformers were mostly focused on reforming the existing caste system and in creating space for Dalits in that system, post independence movements ranged from reform the caste to abolishing the system altogether.

Dalit movements cannot be explained satisfactorily by referring only to economic exploitation or political oppression. The movement at its core is a struggle for recognition of fellow human beings. Dalit mobilisation and movements in India have helped in the virtual disappearance of untouchability in urban areas and in rural areas that it has declined drastically. It helped in creating awareness among Dalits about their Political rights. But still, there is a need for greater participation, assertion and mobilisation of Dalits at the all India level for the complete annihilation of Caste.