Importance Of Satyagraha

Dr.B.R.Ambedkar –A mouth piece to the Voiceless

S.J.Ravi Prakash

Research Scholar

JNTUA Anantapuramu [e-mail] Dr.M.Sambaiah

Asst.Professor of English

Dept. of Humanities and social sciences

JNTUA College of Engineering

Pulivdendula,YSRKadapa Dist.

Abstract

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar gained prominence as the principal architect of the Indian Constitution and as a messiah for the depressed classes. Reading Dr.B.R.Ambedkar bridges the gap between what most Indians are schooled to believe in and the reality we experience every day of our lives and also alert everybody to a gaping hole in our pedagogical universe. Democracy hasn’t eradicated caste. It has entrenched and modernized it. In this paper an attempt is made to trace how

The lake of liberation – Mahad Satyagraha

The term ‘satyagraha’ was coined by Gandhi in 1906. While Ambedkar used the method of Satyagraha on many occasions, he always had a great awareness of the questions of 'whose satyagraha ' and 'satyagraha against whom '. If one of Gandhi’s first major political actions was the ‘solution’ to the problem of the Durban Post Office, Ambedkar’s was the Mahad Satyagraha of1927. He had full faith in the utility of the method but the skepticism he had about the effectiveness of Satyagraha is reflected in a speech he delivered at Mahad, where he noted that:

“It is not that you can solve all your problems by Satyagraha. This is only a request to the upper-class Hindu mind. This Satyagraha movement is going to prove whether the Hindu mind treats human beings like human beings. This Satyagraha is to change the hearts of Hindus. This movement will decide whether Hindu mind

On the morning of the March 20th, the second day, people decided to march to the Chavadar Tank and drink water. The privileged castes watched in horror as a procession of Untouchables walked through the town, and drank water from the tank. Immediately a violent counter-attack took place in which twenty Untouchables were injured. Dr. Ambedkar urged his people to stay firm and not to strike back. Once calm returned, the Brahmins ‘purified’ the tank with prayers, cow dunk, cow urine, milk and ghee. Dr Ambedkar was so disgusted by this gesture, he and his comrades eventually went on to burn Manusmriti at the same spot later in the year (December 25, 1927) The symbolic exercise of their rights did not satisfy the Mahad Satyagrahis. It was a peaceful protest but quite revolutionary in its implications.