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The Dalit Panthers are a social organisation that seeks to combat
caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
discrimination. It was led by a group of
Mahar Mahar, meaning "original inhabitants of Maharashtra" (in various languages), is an Indian caste found largely in the state of Maharashtra and neighbouring areas. Most of the Mahar community followed B. R. Ambedkar in converting to Buddhism i ...
writers and poets, including
Raja Dhale Rajaram Piraji Dhale (30 September 1940 – 16 July 2019), commonly referred to as Raja Dhale, was an Indian writer, artist and activist for Dalit rights. In April 1972, he, along with Namdeo Dhasal and J. V. Pawar, founded the Dalit Panther ...
,
Namdeo Dhasal Namdeo Laxman Dhasal (15 February 1949 – 15 January 2014) was a Marathi poet, writer and Dalit activist from Maharashtra, India. He was one of the founders of the Dalit Panthers in 1972, a social movement aimed at destroying caste hierarchy ...
, and J. V. Pawar in some time between the second and the third semester of 1972. The movement's heyday lasted from the 1970s through the 1980s, and it was later joined by many Dalit-
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
activists.


History

Litterateur J. V. Pawar first became interested in the activism against Dalits discrimination by the time of
B. R. Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served ...
's death on 6 December 1956. "Stunned" by Ambedkar's work, he was inspired to wrote critical pieces in collaboration with poet
Namdeo Dhasal Namdeo Laxman Dhasal (15 February 1949 – 15 January 2014) was a Marathi poet, writer and Dalit activist from Maharashtra, India. He was one of the founders of the Dalit Panthers in 1972, a social movement aimed at destroying caste hierarchy ...
. Pawar and Dhasal's attention to the Dalit question was further increased by 1971, when a special committee by the then Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...
reported on atrocities against Dalit and two Dalit women were forced to walk naked in a
Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
village. By mid-1972, there was a vacuum created in Dalit politics resulting from
Ambedkarite Ambedkarism is called as the teaching, ideology or philosophy of B.R. Ambedkar, an Indian econonist, polymath, barrister, social reformer, human-rights advocate, and the architect of Indian Constitution. Ambedkarism includes the principles of Nava ...
Republican Party of India The Republican Party of India (RPI, often called the Republican Party or simply Republican) is a political party in India. It has its roots in the Scheduled Castes Federation led by B. R. Ambedkar. The 'Training School for Entrance to Polit ...
(RPI) splitting into factions. Pawar and Dhasal started the Dalit Panthers as a response to what was perceived as a factionist, corrupt and ageing politics of the RPI. Hoping to break with all established parties, the Dalit Panthers originated with the
Scheduled Caste The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...
community of the Mahars as its social base. The Dalit Panthers were largely inspired by the
Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...
, a socialist political party that sought to combat racial and economic discrimination against
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
s, during the
civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
in the United States, which occurred in the mid-20th century. Because of this, they adopted Black Panther's organisational structure and strategies, as well as were influenced by
African-American literature African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley. Before the high point of slave narratives, African ...
. During the first public meeting of Dalit Panthers', Pawar invited writer
Raja Dhale Rajaram Piraji Dhale (30 September 1940 – 16 July 2019), commonly referred to as Raja Dhale, was an Indian writer, artist and activist for Dalit rights. In April 1972, he, along with Namdeo Dhasal and J. V. Pawar, founded the Dalit Panther ...
to give a speech after being impressed by an opinion piece of Dhale ("Black Independence Day") about unfair laws towards Dalits. Dhale's speech was lauded, and Pawar invited him to join the Panthers, which he immediately agreed. After that, Dhale, Dhasal, and Pawar took the role of organisation's president, defence minister and general secretary respectively. Prior to the foundation of the Dalit Panthers,
Shiv Sena Shiv Sena ( IAST: ''Śiva Sēnā'') () was a right-wing to far-right Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by cartoonist Bal Thackeray. Originally emerging from nativist movements in Bom ...
, a
Hindu nationalist Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent. "Hindu nationalism" or the correct term ''Hindū rāṣṭ ...
political party, was the most influential organisation among the Maharashtrian youth. Especially in the
Worli Worli (ISO: ''Varaḷī'', əɾ(ə)ɭiː is a locality in South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is one of the four peninsulas of Mumbai while the other being Colaba, Bandra and Malabar Hill. The sea connects it with Bandra via the Band ...
neighbourhood of Mumbai, Sena influenced both Dalit and non-Dalit youngsters who formed gangs united by their lower-class status that were mobilised by Sena for support in elections. However, the formation of the Panthers led to a declining support for Sena among Dalits and eventually culminated into conflict between the two groups. Sena's partisans said the Dalit Panthers were undermining Maharashtrian unity by raising issues of
caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
, while the Panthers's counterargument was that the Sena only represented upper-caste individuals. In January 1974, in opposition to both Shiv Sena and RPI leaders who were backing Congress candidate
Ramrao Adik Ramrao Wamanrao Adik (24 December 1928 – 30 August 2007) was a Maratha politician and a notable lawyer from Maharashtra. He was a member of the Indian National Congress and the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra from 1984 to 1987. He died ...
, they called for an
election boycott An election boycott is the boycotting of an election by a group of voters, each of whom abstains from voting. Boycotting may be used as a form of political protest where voters feel that electoral fraud is likely, or that the electoral system ...
of the
by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
to the
Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...
from the South-Central Bombay constituency and for the
Maharashtra Legislative Assembly The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha or the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the legislature of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is situated in the Nariman Point area of South Mumbai in the capital Mumbai. Presently, 288 memb ...
. This happened in the context of a "Maharashtra Bandh Day" ("Shut Down Maharashtra"), called 2 January, led by
Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...
(CPI) and supported by some opposition parties, including the Panthers. They previously backed a CPI-led mill workers' strike, and, according to Pawar, they wished the win of
Roza Deshpande Roza Vidyadhar Deshpande (1929 – 19 September 2020) was an Indian politician of the United Communist Party of India. She was associated with All India Communist Party during 1980 to 1987 and with Communist Party of India earlier, with her hus ...
of the CPI. In the same year, the organisation was attacked by civilians, mostly Shiv Sena's supporters, and by police at least in two occasions in January. On the fifth day of that month, a Dalit Panther's meeting in Worli was attacked with stones, and police made a
lathi charge A baton charge is a coordinated tactic for dispersing crowds of people, usually used by police or military in response to public disorder. In South Asia, a long bamboo stick, called ''lathi'' in Hindi, is used for crowd control, and the expressi ...
and arrested 19 persons. Five days later, police arrested four important leaders of the Dalit Panthers durring a march against police brutality and partisan attitude against Scheduled Caste persons on a BDD Chawl violence case. During what become known as the
Worli riots The Worli riots occurred in the ''chawl'', or tenement, in the Worli neighborhood of Mumbai between January and April 1974. The riots began on 5 January 1974 after the police attempted to disperse a rally of the Dalit Panthers that had turned viol ...
, Bhagwat Jadhav, a member of the Dalit Panthers, was killed by a grinding stone thrown from an apartment at the rally. The organisation's heyday lasted until 1977.


Ideology

The Dalit Panthers advocated for and practised radical politics, fusing the ideology of
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
to Indian authors like Ambedkar and
Jyotirao Phule Jyotirao Govindrao Phule, also known as Mahatma Jyotiba Phule (11 April 1827 – 28 November 1890) was an Indian social activist, thinker, anti-caste social reformer and writer from Maharashtra. His work extended to many fields, including erad ...
—the latter two being the only authors they recognised being influenced by. Thus, they adopted the idea of
class conflict Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...
, directing their criticism towards upper-caste capitalists and those who oppressed the Dalits. They openly defended the use of violent strategies, if necessary, and affirmed a complete revolution was needed to fulfill Dalits' emancipation. Accordingly, their manifesto, published in 1973, read as the following: "We do not want a little place in the ''Brahmin Alley''. We want the rule of the whole land, we are not looking at persons but at systems and change of heart ... liberal education will not end our state of explotation. When we gather a revolutionary mass, rouse the people, out of the struggle, the giant mass will become tidal wave of revolution". According to Satyanarayana and Tharu, their manifesto fit the Ambedkarite spirit into a broader Marxist framework and heralded the rise of an autonomous Dalit perspective in post-Independence India. Although they indirectly supported Deshpande of the CPI in 1974, Pawar noted Dhasal was the only Marxist, while he and Dhale were
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
s, which caused divergences that led to the dissolution of the organisation. Despite its name and of being generally accepted as a party of the Scheduled Castes of Maharashtra, the organisation did not seek to be an only-Dalit movement; instead, they used of the term "Dalit" to refer to all lower-caste communities and poor among the caste Hindus. In their manifesto, the Dalit Panthers they proclaimed themselves defensor of all exploited people in spite of caste or community, namely citing agricultural workers, small peasants, industrial workers, the unemployed and women. It was a characteristic of its distinctive trait: a radicalism that seemed to indicate they were a political force committed to the overthrow of social and political system. This feature was seen by a commentator on ''
Economic and Political Weekly The ''Economic and Political Weekly'' (''EPW'') is a weekly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all social sciences, and is published by the Sameeksha Trust. In January 2018, academic Gopal Guru was named the new Editor of the journal. Guru wil ...
'' as derivative of its contact of other
Left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...
groups in Bombay and Poona and their disgust of the RPI. As part of this radicalism, they attacked Hindu deities and popular heroes like
Shivaji Shivaji Bhonsale I (; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680), also referred to as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle Maratha clan. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the declining Adils ...
and campaigned for election boycott. Instead of focusing on the traditional parliamentary arena, they aimed to create an independent mass-based political movement through demonstrations,
sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...
s, and strikes.


Legacy

The Dalit Panthers prompted a debate on what should be the ideological focus of the struggle of the down-trodden of Indian society: Buddhism or Marxism and caste or class. Although their political impact is source of controversy, the Dalit Panthers' impact in the literary and cultural area is more clear. They led a renaissance in
Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...
literature and art, and created a new literature of protest that expanded the frontiers of traditional Marathi works. Their works introduced a multi-caste perspective that seek to depict the fears and hopes of all Indian exploited segments, conceiving the idea of an Indian "proletariat". Opposing what was perceived as "bourgeios" literature, the Panthers used the ''
patois ''Patois'' (, pl. same or ) is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, ''patois'' can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon or ...
'' of the Dalit suburban people to represent those who lived in the ghetto. Ultimately, literary critics recognised their innovative and independent style of expressing the hitherto mute masses. The Black Panther Party acknowledged and supported the Dalit Panthers through the ''
Black Panther A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been d ...
'' newspaper, which circulated worldwide on a weekly basis from 1967 to 1980. Pawar commented that no organisation fully continued their legacy or replaced the Dalit Panthers' spot as a radical group. He said, "I cannot think of anyone who could replace us, as many end up compromising on their idealism in quest for power in politics. But, the movement for a new radicalism is waiting to be born".


See also

*
Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a national level political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), alon ...
*
Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti The Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti, abbreviated as DS-4 or DSSSS ( lit. "Dalit and other Exploited Groups Struggle Committee") was founded on 6 December 1981 by Kanshi Ram to organise dalits and other oppressed groups of India. It was related ...
*
Namantar Andolan Namantar Andolan (English: Name Change Movement) was a Dalit and Navayana Buddhist movement to change the name of Marathwada University, in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India, to ''Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar University''. It achieved a measure of succ ...
*
Anuradha Ghandy Anuradha Ghandy (28 March 1954 – 12 April 2008) was an Indian communist, writer, and revolutionary leader. She was a Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). She was one of the founding members of the Communist Pa ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * *


Further reading

* Contursi, Janet A. (1993)
Political Theology: Text and Practice in a Dalit Panther Community
The Journal of Asian Studies 52 (2), 320-339 * Murugkar, Lata (1991). ''Dalit Panther Movement in Maharashtra: A Sociological Appraisal'', South Asia Books. . * Sebastian, M. (1994). ''Liberating the Caged Dalit Panther'', Emerald Publishers * Pawar, J. V. (2017). ''Dalit Panthers: An Authoritative History'', Forward Press. {{Black Panther Party 1972 establishments in Maharashtra Dalit history Dalit politics Identity politics Organisations based in Mumbai Ambedkarite organisations Marxist organizations