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| Dalits of India: History, Movements and Politics — A representative image. |
File Information
| Document Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | DALITS OF INDIA |
| Article Credit | (Pubd in: researchgate.net) |
| Author | Prof. N. Sudhakar Rao (Retired, Former Head of the Department, Department of Anthropology, University of Hyderabad, Gachibowli, Hyderabad) |
| Subject | A unit on the historical background, theoretical interpretations, socio-economic conditions, social movements, and political participation of Dalits in India, with attention to Ambedkar's influence. |
| Category | Academic unit |
| Institution | University of Hyderabad |
| Country of Publication | India |
| Main Topics | Dalits in India, Scheduled Castes, Caste system and untouchability, Theoretical perspectives on Dalits, Socio-economic conditions of Dalits, Dalit movements, Dalit politics, Dr B.R. Ambedkar |
| Number of Pages | 11 |
| Language | English |
| File Type | |
| File Size | 268.7 KB |
Summary Note of this Document
DALITS OF INDIA
Dalits of India examines the historical formation of Dalit identity, the caste hierarchy that produced untouchability, and the ways scholars have explained Dalit social position. It moves from ancient textual roots and the rigidification of Varna into caste to modern classifications such as Depressed Classes and Scheduled Castes. The unit compares several perspectives on caste, including Gandhian, structural-functionalist, Dumontian, Marxist, racial, and Ambedkarite interpretations, and it places Dalit self-understanding alongside these accounts through myths of origin and claims of indigeneity. A substantial section reviews the socio-economic condition of Scheduled Castes through census figures, literacy, poverty, labour patterns, landholding, health, and rural-urban change. It also discusses state welfare measures, reservations, protective discrimination, and legal remedies against atrocities. The final sections trace Dalit movements from scattered protests to organised campaigns, the influence of Bhakti and social reform traditions, the rise of Dalit Panthers, and the shift into electoral politics through Ambedkar, the Independent Labour Party, the All India Scheduled Castes Federation, the Republican Party of India, and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Core Themes
- historical roots of untouchability
- theoretical interpretations of caste
- socio-economic inequality among Scheduled Castes
- Dalit movements and resistance
- electoral politics and representation
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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