The Republican Party of India (RPI, often called the Republican Party or simply Republican) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

in India. It has its roots in the Scheduled Castes Federation led by B. R. Ambedkar. The 'Training School for Entrance to Politics' was established by Ambedkar in 1956 which was to serve as an entry point to the Republican Party of India (RPI). The first batch of the school consisted of 15 students. Its first batch turned out to be last batch as the school was closed after Ambedkar's death in 1956.

Origins

Independent Labour Party

The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a political Organisation formed under the leadership of B. R. Ambedkar on 15 August 1936. It opposed the brahmanical and capitalist structures in India, supported the Indian working class and sought to dismantle the

caste system 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 cultural ...

. The formation of the ILP was not welcomed or supported by the

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

leaders, who argued that it would lead to a split in the working-class votes. Ambedkar replied that communist leaders were working for the rights for the worker but not for the human rights of Dalit workers. In his work ''

Annihilation of Caste ''Annihilation of Caste'' is an undelivered speech written in 1936 by B. R. Ambedkar, an Indian academic turned politician. He wrote ''Annihilation of Caste'' for the 1936 meeting of a group of liberal Hindu caste-reformers in Lahore. After rev ...

'', Ambedkar put forth the idea that caste is not merely the 'division of labour' but 'division of labourers' based upon graded inequality. In the 1937 Provincial elections, the ILP secured 14 of the 17 seats in which they contested. This included 11 of the 13 contested seats that were reserved for traditionally oppressed communities. In 1938, the ILP, with the support of the

Congress Socialist Party The Congress Socialist Party (CSP) was a socialist caucus within the Indian National Congress. It was founded in 1934 by Congress members who rejected what they saw as the anti-rational mysticism of Gandhi as well as the sectarian attitude of ...

, organised a march of 20,000 tenants from the Konkan region to

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, marked the largest pre-independence peasant mobilisation in the region. In the same year, it also joined with Communists to organise Bombay textile labourers in opposition to the Industrial Disputes Bill intended to control

strike actions Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...

by the labourers. ILP opposed the bill in the

Bombay Legislative Assembly Bombay Legislative Assembly came into existence in 1937, as the legislature of Bombay Presidency, a province of Presidencies and provinces of British India, British India. It functioned until 1960, when separate states of Maharashtra and Gujarat w ...

Scheduled Castes Federation

Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) was an organisation in India founded by B. R. Ambedkar in 1942 to campaign for the rights of the Dalit community. An executive body of All India SCF was elected in the convention.

N. Sivaraj Rao Bahadur Namasivayam Sivaraj (29 September 1892 – 29 September 1964) was an Indian lawyer, politician and Scheduled Caste activist from the state of Tamil Nadu. Early life and education Sivaraj was born into a Paraiyer family to Namsiv ...

from

Madras State Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu (except Kanyakumari district), Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and ...

was elected as President and P. N. Rajbhoj from

Bombay State Bombay State was a large Indian state created at the time of India's Independence, with other regions being added to it in the succeeding years. Bombay Presidency (roughly equating to the present-day Indian state of Maharashtra, excluding So ...

was elected as general secretary, including founder body member P. T. Madhale and others. Ambedkar had founded the Depressed Classes Federation (DCF) in 1930 and the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1935. Sources vary regarding which of these two bodies was succeeded by the SCF. SCF later evolved into the Republican Party of India. There was also a party called Scheduled Caste Federation in Pakistan after Partition. Ramnarayan Rawat stated that the SCF "created the space for an alternative to Congress-type 'nationalist' politics in post- 1947 Uttar Pradesh".

Republican Party of India

On 30 September 1956, B. R. Ambedkar had announced the establishment of the "Republican Party of India" by dismissing the "Scheduled Castes Federation", but before the formation of the party, he died on 6 December 1956. After that, his followers and activists planned to form this party. A meeting of the Presidency was held at

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nagpur is projected to ...

on 1 October 1957 to establish the party. At this meeting,

Yashwant Ambedkar Yashwant Bhimrao Ambedkar (12 December 1912 — 17 September 1977), also known as Bhaiyasaheb Ambedkar, was an Indian socio-religious activist, newspaper editor, politician, and activist of Ambedkarite Buddhist movement. He was the first and on ...

, P. T. Borale, A. G. Pawar, Datta Katti, Dadasaheb Rupwate , Abba P. T. Madhale were present. The ''Republican Party of India'' was formed on 3 October 1957. N. Sivaraj was elected as the President of the party. In 1957, six members of the party were elected to the second Lok Sabha. This is the biggest achievement of Ambedkar's party so far.

Factionism

During the recent years RPI suffered severe internal strife. Several distinct parties claim the name of RPI. There are more than 50 factions of RPI. In 2009, all factions of RPI except Prakash Ambedkar's Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh reunited to form a united "

Republican Party of India (United) The Republican Party of India (United), or RPI(U) is a coalition of many factions of the Republican Party of India (RPI). It was formed in preparation for the 2009 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election. The party was initially led by Rajendr ...

". One of the main people responsible for this was Rabbi Madan. Later,

Republican Party of India (Gavai) The Republican Party of India (Gawai) is a political party in India. It is a splinter group of the Republican Party of India. The leaders are former Governor of Kerala R. S. Gavai and his son Rajendra Gawai.The current President of the Repub ...

and

Republican Party of India (A) The Republican Party of India (Athawale) ( RPI(A)) is a political party in India. The party is a splinter group of the Republican Party of India and has its roots in the Scheduled Castes Federation led by B. R. Ambedkar. The president of the pa ...

led by Ramdas Athawale split again from the united party. Splinter groups of RPI include: *

of Ramdas Athawale *

of M.G. Nagamani *Peoples Republican Party Jogendra Kawade *

R. S. Gavai Ramkrishna Suryabhan Gavai (30 October 1929 – 25 July 2015), popularly known as Dadasaheb Gavai, was an Indian politician, social activist, senior leader of the Ambedkarite movement, and founder of the Republican Party of India (Gavai). He w ...

and Rajendra Gavai * Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh of Prakash Ambedkar *Rashtriya Republican Party of Annasaheb Katare * Republican Party of India (S) of Shyam Gaikwad *

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), al ...

founder

Kanshi Ram Kanshi Ram (15 March 1934 – 9 October 2006), also known as Bahujan Nayak or Manyavar or Saheb, was an Indian politician and social reformer who worked for the upliftment and political mobilisation of the Bahujans, the backward or lower cast ...

worked with RPI for eight years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Republican Party of India Political parties established in 1957 1957 establishments in Bihar Ambedkarite political parties Progressive parties Secularist organizations B. R. Ambedkar