Page 62 - SST Class 08

depressed classes and brought them into the
Gulamgiri meaning slavery. The work was
dedicated to all those Americans who had fought
to free slaves in their country, linking the
condition of black slaves to the lower caste in
India. Along with his wife, Savitri Phule, Jyotirao
Phule began a school for girls in 1848. Later he
began schools for the lower castes followed by an
orphanage for children and widows. He struggled
relentlessly to get justice for the lower castes.
In 1873, he founded a social organisation called
Satyashodhak Samaj, whose membership was
open to people of all religions. The main aim of
this association was to librate the Shudras. He
wanted to eliminate the stigma of untouchability
from Indian society. He wanted to establish a
society based on equality, liberty and fraternity.
B.R. Ambedkar
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was
born on 14 April 1891 at
Mhow. He belonged to the
Mahar caste and as a child, had
to tolerate a lot of injustice. As
a student, he was made to sit
outside the class and was not B.R. Ambedkar
allowed to drink water from the same taps as the
upper caste children. He wanted to end
untouchability, caste discrimination and the
exploitation of the untouchables.
Dr. Ambedkar established Bahishkrit Hitkarini
Sabha or Depressed Classes Welfare Association
in 1924 in Bombay for the moral and material
progress of the untouchables. He published
several journals to spread his messages of social
reforms. He refused to perform the traditional
caste duties. To achieve his aims, he organised the
All India Depressed Classes Federation. He led a
number of campaigns to ensure the rights of the
untouchables as to enter in the temples and draw
water from the common wells. The Temple Entry
Movement launched by Dr. Ambedkar in 1930 at
Kalaram Temple, Nasik is another landmark in the
struggle for human rights and social justice.
He also established the Samaj Samata Sangh to
propagate equality between upper castes and
Dalits. He injected a degree of self-respect to the
Contemporary Social Science-8
62
national movement. He believed that only
education would help them to improve their
economic and social conditions. He also
established the Depressed Class Education Society
and opened many schools and colleges to
promote education among the untouchables.
In 1930, he entered in the politics and brought the
depressed classes into the national movement
against the British with other leaders like Baku
Jagjivan Ram. They encouraged these people to
fight against any injustice to them. He attended
the Round Table Conference and demanded
strongly the policies for the upliftment of the
downtrodden.
Periyar E. V. Ramaswamy
Periyar was born in Madras in 1879 in a high
caste Naicker. He was a theist but he became an
atheist and non-believer when he turned 28. He
was staunchly against the caste system in the
Hindu society. He shared the grief of the low
caste people as they had been treated as
untouchables since many centuries. He undertook
the task of reforming the society for their good. He
said that there was no reason that the members of
low caste be denied education or good
occupations. He also tried for their entry in
temples, for which he was arrested once.
Periyar wanted social reforms to occur first, even
before political independence. He set-up an
organisation, Dravidar Kazhagam . He also fought
for the reservation of posts in government jobs for
the low caste people. He undertook agitation for
this, and the first amendment to the Constitution
of India was undertaken as a result of this
agitation. He even advocated marriage
ceremonies without any priests. He once said,
“The caste system that teaches notions of
superiority, inferiority, high and low, should be
struck at the very foundation.”
The goals of Periyar were exalted, but he enjoyed
limited support because he often spat out
blasphemous speeches against Hinduism and
Brahmins. Periyar breathed his last at a ripe age of
95 in 1973.