Founding a Movement

The Dalit Panthers were committed to the mission of fighting cruelty and oppression

- J.V. Pawar

AFTER Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s death (Mahaparinirvan) on 6 December, 1956, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India, described Dr Ambedkar as a jewel of his ministry, a revolutionary and a challenge to Hindu society. His differences with Gandhiji were known to all. There was this equation at the time that the Congress Party was Gandhi and Gandhi was India. Gandhism or Congressism existed at the ground level in villages. The Congress Party was in power and hence, Congressmen were responsible for atrocities on Dalit communities. So long as Babasaheb was alive the atrocities perpetrated on Dalits were comparatively less.

Babasaheb was a nationalist. He wanted to convert the country into a nation whereas Gandhiji was casteist, religious and regionalist. Babasaheb used to say that I am first Bharatiya and Bharatiya last, too. Gandhiji was first a Baniya, secondly a Gujarati and last, a Hindu. He was never Bharatiya. After Babasaheb’s Mahaparinirvan, several atrocities on Dalits were committed in inhuman ways to take revenge on Babasaheb. 

We were writers. We used to write that we will fight against cruelty but that was only on paper. During this time, we learnt about the agitation of the Black people of America against the Whites under the banner of the Black Panther militant movement. This movement was formed by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton.