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 Reserved is a Polish apparel retailer headquartered in Gdańsk, Pomerania, Poland. It was founded in 1999 and remains the largest company of the LPP group, which has more than 1,700 retail stores located in over 20 countries and also owns such ...

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 British India. It functioned until 1960, when separate states of Maharashtra and Gujarat were formed. History The first session of thi ...

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 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 c ...

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 Sou ...

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 Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

Ramnarayan Rawat Ramnarayan Rawat (also spelled Ram Narayan Rawat and Ram Rawat) is a professor at the University of Delaware and a historian of the Indian subcontinent and has also had appointments at the University of Pennsylvania (as a postdoctoral scholar) and ...

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: Help:IPA/Marathi, 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, Nag ...

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

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 Damodar Tatyaba Rupwate (28 February 1925 – 23 July 1999), commonly known as Dadasaheb Rupwate was an Indian politician, Ambedkarite social activist and newspaper editor from Maharashtra. Initially he was a member of the Scheduled Caste Feder ...

, 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 The Second Lok Sabha (5 April 1957 – 31 March 1962) was elected after the 1957 Indian general election. The 2nd Lok Sabha lasted its full tenure of five years till 1962. 15 sitting members from Rajya Sabha were elected to 2nd Lok Sabha after ...

. 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 Prakash Yashwant Ambedkar (IAST: Prakāśa Yaśavanta Āmbēḍakar) (born 10 May 1954), popularly known as Balasaheb Ambedkar, is an Indian politician, social activist, writer and lawyer. He is the president of political party called the Va ...

Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh The Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (IAST: Bhāripa Bahujana Mahāsaṅgha; BBM) was an Indian political party founded by Prakash Ambedkar on 4 July 1994. The party was a splinter group of the Republican Party of India and had its roots in the Sched ...

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 Rajend ...

". 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 Ramdas Bandu Athawale () (born 25 December 1959) is an Indian politician and social activist from Maharashtra. He is the president of the Republican Party of India (A), a splinter group of the Republican Party of India and has its roots in the S ...

split again from the united party. Splinter groups of RPI include: *

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

of R. S. Gavai and

Rajendra Gavai Rajendra Gavai is the President of Republican Party of India (Gavai). Occupation Physician, Politician. Early life and education He is the son of the late Kerala Governor R.S. Gavai. obtain M.B.B.S. from Govt. Medical College, Nagpur in 1986. He ...

*Rashtriya Republican Party of Annasaheb Katare * Republican Party of India (S) of

Shyam Gaikwad Shyam is a name of Krishna and an Indian masculine Indian given name, given name and surname. Notable people with this name include: ;Shyam *Shyam (actor), Indian Hindi film actor *Shyam (composer), an Indian music composer from Kerala *Shyam Beneg ...

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 ...

founder Kanshi Ram 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