Page 79 - SST Class 08

Cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru. He was posthu- refused to attend the First Conference. Later,
mously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s
highest civilian honor, in 1990.
He started publishing a weekly Mooknayak
(Leader of the Silent) in Bombay. He used this
journal to criticised orthodox Hindu beliefs. He
organised Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha (Group for
the well-being of the Excluded) to promote
education and socio-
economic upliftment of
the depressed classes.
In 1926, he became a
member of the Bombay
Legislative Council and
led a Satyagraha or
non-violent protest to
fight for the rights of
the untouchables.
It was Ambedkar who Dr B.R. Ambedkar
squarely put social reform on the agenda during
the freedom struggle and launched a simulta-
neous movement against untouchability and the
caste order and championed the interests of the
dalits.
A dalit is a person whose ancestors performed
duties which were important to the well being of
society, but dirty in nature. These included
people who were leather workers (chamars),
poor farmers and landless labourers, scavengers,
handicraftsmen, folk artists, etc. Due to the
nature of their menial jobs, they were considered
untouchables.
Between 1927 and 1932, Ambedkar led his
followers in a series of non-violent campaigns to
assert the right of the untouchables to entire
Hindu places of worship and to draw water from
public tanks and wells.
During 1930s, the demand for Swaraj by Indians
rose manifold. The British Government invited
representatives of its Indian subjects for Round
Table Conferences in London. The Congress
Social Science-8
with the signing of a pact between Gandhi and
the then Viceroy Lord Irwin, the Congress agreed
to attend the second Round Table Conference.
Ambedkar was also invited to this Second Round
Table Conference. He was not satisfied by what
he felt were inevitably hollow promises given
with reluctance by orthodox Hindus to re-visit
caste doctrines. This is the reason why he insisted
on the necessity of separate electorates for the
depressed classes.
Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Party were
opposed to separate electorates for the depressed
classes, and Ambedkar and Gandhi clashed on
the subject at the Second Round Table
Conference in 1931, However, when Gandhi
went on fast protesting th separate electorates
Ambedkar accepted defeat.
Today, Dr Ambedkar is credited with the crafting
of the Indian Constitution. He was the chairman
of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution
and his presence made sure that the interests of
the lower castes were not neglected. This is
significant—for other nations who won inde-
pendence at about the same time as the Indian
subcontinent, failed to enshrine the rights of all
their citizens. India alone, is the exception and
Dr. Ambedkar’s contributions are openely recog-
nized.
CONSEQUENCES AND IMPLICATIONS
The social and cultural awakening, the impact of
western education and liberal ideas of the West
and improved communications which facilitated
the growth of social mobility, proclaimed the end
of privileges, political influence of the higher
castes, broke down the rigidities of the caste
system, on the one hand and stirred the lower
castes for social recognition, jobs and political
favours. The lower caste movements in the 19th
and 20th centuries were of two types :
Those manifested through a kind of false
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