LOOK BACK AND WONDER
JV Pawar’s book on the Dalit Panthers is essential reading. This excerpt explains the movement’s importance
The golden period of the Ambedkarite movement after the demise of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar belonged to the Dalit Panther. The militant organization was formed on 29 May 1972. Five years later, it was disbanded through a declaration at a press conference held in Mumbai on 7 March 1977. An ideological schism among its leaders prompted Namdeo Dhasal to sack Raja Dhale and me by announcing it in the newspapers published from Mumbai on 30 September 1974. It culminated in Dhasal being sacked at the first convention of the organization held in Nagpur on 23 and 24 October 1974. In June 1975, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared Emergency in India, imposing restrictions on newspapers and organizations. Hence, the period from May 1972 to June 1975 was the most crucial in the activities of the Dalit Panther movement.
... The struggle of the Dalit Panther movement was not just for the economic upliftment of the Dalits but also for the implementation of their Constitutional rights and the establishment of liberty, equality and fraternity.
The Dalit Panther was at its prime until 4 January 1974. On 5 January 1974, a masterminded riot engulfed the entire Mumbai metropolis, especially Worli and Naigaon, and claimed the lives of Dalit Panthers Bhagwat Jadhav and Ramesh Deorukhkar. The riot devastated the lives of numerous youngsters, who lost their jobs and had to languish in prisons. Their sacrifices, however, rejuvenated the Ambedkarite movement, in sharp contrast to those who had mortgaged it at the feet of the rich and the powerful in return for crumbs of power and wealth. During its short life, the Dalit Panther made a lasting impact on Indian society and politics. The impact of the movement has been so historic that after four members of a Dalit family (including a woman and her teenage daughter) were brutally killed in Khairlanji village in Bhandara district of Maharashtra in 2006, there were spontaneous demands for a militant organization like the Dalit Panther to take on the perpetrators of caste atrocities...
I feel that only three persons can write the history of the Dalit Panther movement: Raja Dhale, Namdeo Dhasal and JV Pawar (myself). I was the organizer and later, the general secretary of the organization and therefore I am in possession of all the relevant correspondence and documentation. During those days, there were no photocopying machines and I had to use carbon paper to make copies of letters or statements, all of which I have preserved... I have written a series in Marathi on “The Ambedkarite movement after Dr BR Ambedkar” and this book is the fourth in the series...
Since Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Mahaparinirvana on 6 December 1956, the Ambedkarite movement has tasted both victory and defeat. The victory has been that the movement has, through the years, attained social, educational and cultural maturity. In literature and the arts, the movement reached the pinnacle at various moments – especially Ambedkarite literature, which has now gained respect and acceptance as the only literature that matters, because it is based on realism. So much so that what was so far called Dalit Literature is now referred to as Ambedkarite literature... I did not want to merely document the post-Ambedkarite movement but also analyze it. I was involved in the movement myself. I wasn’t merely an observer sitting on the sidelines...
In 1972, with my poet-friend Namdeo Dhasal, I co-founded the Dalit Panther. Although it was a short-lived movement, just like the Black Panther in the United States, among all the post-Ambedkarite movements, the Dalit Panther enjoys the greatest admiration.
It was the period of struggle and hardships that earned Dalit Panthers their credibility and reputation in society. What Babasaheb Ambedkar had envisaged for the Republican Party of India (RPI) had failed to materialize. The post-Ambedkarite movement had begun to decline in the 1960s due to the ulterior motives of the Republican Party leaders – and today the party has become an object of ridicule. Instead of concentrating on RPI’s growth, its leaders helped strengthen the Congress party. The Congress party thus became more arrogant and exploitative... Even today, when Dalits in villages face atrocities, people yearn for the resurgence of a movement like the Dalit Panther.
...Social scientists have realized the importance of the Dalit Panthers. Even today, both Indians and foreigners seek to understand and analyze the history of the Dalit Panther... The militant activism of the Dalit Panther is one that needs to be revived, hence the need to translate this work into Hindi and English...
Angela Davis from the Black Panther, USA, on her visit to India on 16 December 2016, had expressed her desire to me for an English translation of Dalit Panthers, for the benefit of the African-American brothers and sisters involved in their struggle in the USA.
I hope that the activists and researchers who benefited from the Marathi edition of Dalit Panthers will find the English translation equally rewarding.