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| Dalit Movement in Vidarbha before Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar — A representative image. |
File Information
| Document Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | Dalit Movement in Vidarbha before Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar |
| Article Credit | THIRD CONCEPT, Year: 2020, (Pubd in: Academia.edu) |
| Author | Dr. Avinash Digambar Fulzele (Associate Professor & Head, Department of History, Dr. Ambedkar College, Deekshabhoomi, Nagpur.) |
| Subject | The article examines pre-Ambedkar Dalit activism in Vidarbha, focusing on local leaders, educational initiatives, religious reform, and organized resistance to untouchability before 1920. |
| Category | History |
| Institution | Dr. Ambedkar College, Deekshabhoomi, Nagpur |
| Country of Publication | India |
| Main Topics | Pre-Ambedkar Dalit movement in Vidarbha, Untouchability and caste discrimination, Dalit education and hostels, Mahar community activism, Temple access and religious rights, Dalit journalism and pamphlets, Labour strike and social mobilization, Local leaders in Nagpur, Akola, Amravati, and Gondia |
| Number of Pages | 4 |
| Language | English |
| File Type | |
| File Size | 54.7 KB |
Summary Note of this Document
Dalit Movement in Vidarbha before Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar
Dalit Movement in Vidarbha before Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar reconstructs the regional roots of Dalit assertion in Vidarbha before 1920. The article argues that Ambedkarite politics in the region grew on an earlier foundation built by local Mahar and untouchable leaders who promoted education, social reform, and collective protest. It highlights figures such as Januji Khandare, Vithoba Moon Pande, Kisan F. Bansode, Rewaram Kawade, Kalicharan Nandagawali, V. D. Makesar, and Ganesh Gawai, showing how they created hostels, schools, councils, libraries, journals, and public meetings to challenge exclusion. The discussion moves across Akola, Nagpur, Ramtek, Amravati, Gondia, and other parts of Vidarbha to show how access to education, bathing rights, temple entry, and social dignity became linked to organized activism. The article also stresses the role of print culture and reformist associations in spreading consciousness among Dalits. In the conclusion, the author presents pre-Ambedkar efforts not as isolated gestures but as an organized movement that prepared the ground for Ambedkar’s later leadership and the wider struggle for rights and justice.
Core Themes
- Regional origins of Dalit mobilization in Vidarbha
- Education as a tool of upliftment
- Resistance to untouchability
- Organized social and religious reform
- Leadership of Mahar activists
- Print culture and public awareness
Keywords
About Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was born in 1891 as the fourteenth and youngest child of an army Subedar in Mhow. Born into the Mahar caste, which was considered untouchable, Bhimrao faced many hardships at school. He had to sit on a gunny sack that he brought from home. He was not allowed to touch the water vessel or cup, so he could drink water only when the school peon was present to pour it for him. He later described this experience with the words, “No peon, no water.” His mother died when he was very young, and he had a difficult childhood. However, he was the only one of his siblings to pass his examinations and continue to high school, becoming the first person from his community to attend Elphinstone College. With a scholarship from the Maharaja of Baroda, he went on to study at Columbia University and the London School of Economics. He earned doctorates in economics and trained as a barrister at Gray’s Inn. According to the account supplied for this biography, his books were lost when his ship was torpedoed during the First World War.
Despite his education, Ambedkar continued to face prejudice. When he returned to India, he was required to work in Baroda but had to leave the position because of discrimination. His business providing investment consultancy failed when clients learned that he belonged to a community considered untouchable. While working as a professor in Mumbai, his colleagues objected to the idea of him sharing a water jug with his students. These experiences helped spur his activism. He established newspapers to give a voice to marginalized people. He led the Mahad Satyagraha, asserting Dalits’ right to collect water from a public tank, and publicly burned the Manusmriti in 1927. In 1932, he negotiated the Poona Pact with Mahatma Gandhi. Although it involved a difficult compromise, the pact provided reserved seats in legislatures for the Depressed Classes. Ambedkar was outspoken in public life but private by nature. His wife Ramabai died in 1935, and he filled his home in Bombay with a large personal library reported to contain more than 50,000 books. He declared, “I am born a Hindu, but I will not die as one.”
During the period of Indian independence, Jawaharlal Nehru invited Ambedkar to become India’s first Law Minister. Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee that prepared the Constitution of India, which abolished the practice of untouchability and established civil liberties and constitutional safeguards, including reservations for historically oppressed communities. He acknowledged the contribution of other constitutional experts, including B. N. Rau, who had prepared an earlier draft. Because of his poor health, including diabetes, Ambedkar married Savita, a doctor who cared for him. In October 1956, he converted to Buddhism in Nagpur along with a vast gathering of followers, commonly estimated at around half a million. He died in his sleep just weeks later, shortly after completing his final major work, The Buddha and His Dhamma. He was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1990. His message, “Educate, agitate, organise,” continues to inspire people seeking equality and social justice.
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