Discuss the contribution of the Dalit struggle to establish egalitarianism in Indian society during freedom movement. (2024, 20 Marks)
Two struggles ran side by side before 1947: one against the Raj, and one against a graded hierarchy that denied the untouchable castes water, schooling and temples. The second, fought by Dalits and anti-caste reformers, supplied most of the egalitarian content of the Republic. Its contribution came in three phases: contesting the social order, asserting civic rights, and winning political and constitutional power.
Contesting the Social Order (1848–1920s)
- Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule opened schools for girls and untouchable children in Pune from 1848, making education the first instrument of equality. His Satyashodhak Samaj (1873) and Gulamgiri attacked priestly authority from below and joined Shudras and Ati-Shudras into one oppressed majority.
- In Kerala, Narayana Guru consecrated a Shiva idol at Aruvippuram (1888) in defiance of Brahmin monopoly, and his SNDP Yogam (1903) spread the maxim one caste, one religion, one God for man.
- Ayyankali drove a bullock cart down roads closed to Pulayas (1893), founded the Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangham and led farm labourers in a strike until Pulaya children were admitted to schools.
- E. V. Ramasamy (Periyar) launched the Self-Respect Movement (1925), with priestless marriages; Mangoo Ram Mugowalia‘s Ad-Dharm (1926) in Punjab and Swami Achhutanand‘s Adi-Hindu movement claimed an identity outside the varna order.
Asserting Civic Rights: Ambedkar’s Satyagrahas
- B. R. Ambedkar built a Dalit public through Mooknayak (1920) and Bahishkrit Bharat (1927), under the call to educate, agitate, organise.
- The Bombay Legislative Council had resolved in 1923 that public water sources be open to all. At Mahad (20 March 1927) Ambedkar and thousands drank from the Chavdar tank to test that right; the Manusmriti was burnt that December, and the Bombay High Court upheld Dalit access in 1937.
- The Kalaram temple satyagraha at Nashik (from 1930) tested whether Hindu sacred space would open; its failure turned Ambedkar from admission to power. The Vaikom struggle (1924–25) and the Travancore Temple Entry Proclamation (1936) showed what sustained pressure could win.
Winning Political Power
- At the Round Table Conferences Ambedkar established Dalits as a distinct political interest. The Poona Pact (1932) surrendered separate electorates but fixed 148 reserved provincial seats, founding the principle of statutory representation.
- The Independent Labour Party (1936) joined caste to class, fighting landlord tenure and anti-strike legislation in Bombay; the Scheduled Castes Federation (1942) gave Dalits an all-India party.
The Constitutional Culmination
As chair of the Drafting Committee, Ambedkar converted these struggles into law:
| Struggle | Constitutional outcome |
|---|---|
| Mahad, access to tanks and roads | Article 15(2): no bar to wells, tanks, shops, public places |
| Untouchability itself | Article 17: abolished, its practice an offence |
| Temple entry | Article 25(2)(b): state may open Hindu temples to all classes |
| Poona Pact, representation | Articles 16(4), 330, 332: reservation |
| Phule’s schools | Article 46: educational and economic interests of SCs and STs |
Limits
- Gains were largely legal and civic; land, wealth and ritual status changed far less, as Ambedkar himself warned in November 1949.
- The movement stayed regionally fragmented, and the Poona Pact tied Dalit legislators to caste-Hindu electorates: the Federation fared badly in 1946.
- The Congress contributed too, through its 1917 resolution against untouchability and M. K. Gandhi‘s Harijan Sevak Sangh (1932), though Dalit leaders read this as charity rather than rights.
Conclusion
The Dalit struggle turned egalitarianism from a reformer’s sentiment into an enforceable constitutional right, and made social democracy a test the new state must pass. That test still binds: in State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh (2024) the Supreme Court allowed sub-classification of Scheduled Castes so that the least advantaged among them are not left behind.