20th March is the day of dignity for entire Dalits of India. This is the day, we broke the religious boundaries and touched the water. Water was the mere reason, it was the fight for self-respect, the passion of proving ourselves, the war for water, the struggle for existence, the fire of revolution, and finally we step forward towards our rights on 20th March 1927. Let’s celebrate the 90th anniversary of the war of water at Mahad Satyagraha.

Read also – Mahad Satyagraha – Times when Untouchables revolted

Hindus:

Hindus & Hinduism have a cruel history on the pages of India, they have been practising the Hindu culture, where kindness was far away from this religion. All Hindus not only Brahmins but also Maratha, Vaani, Teli, Kunabhi everybody from higher caste used to exploit Dalits (Untouchables).

Ban On Water:

Can you imagine how horrible is that a community was banned from having a drinking water from public lake or dam? My God! It was a bloody behaviour of all Hindus (Not only Brahmins) to banned the Dalits from drinking water. These Hindus used to go for bathing, laundry, washing in the lake water, but Dalits were not allowed to take a drinking water from any lake, well, or any public water source. This is not the story of a couple of days or centuries, this is the story of millions of years. Still, you can see the same situation in a rural area of India, the Komati Samaaj staying in Sironcha, they still follow this kind of belief.

Read also – 20th March in Dalit History – Mahad Satyagraha

Statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar at Chavdar Tale Mahad

Chavdar Tale (Tasty Lake):

March 20, 1927, the day Dalits finally touched the water of Chavdar Tale with the association of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar at Mahad in the Raigad district of the Konkan region of Maharashtra. The main organiser of this movement was R B More, introduced Dr Ambedkar and his other colleagues like Anantrao Chitre, Bapu Sahasrabuddhe and Sitaram Shivtarkar. On 19th March 1927, Dr. Ambedkar gave an erupting kind of speech. People just went with electrifying energy and flame out with the intention to throw out the slavery of thousands of year. On the next day 20th March 1927 In this satyagraha, thousands of Dalits for the first time drank water from the lake that for centuries had been set aside only for caste Hindus.

Purification of Chavdar Tale (Tasty Lake):

After the water of the lake was drank by Dalits, all Hindus from entire India raised the voice against Dr Ambedkar and even many Hindus threatened him to kill. The Hindus came to a foolish conclusion that the water of Chavdar lake had been polluted by the touch of Dalits. They threw the water purification program, and you will be shocked by hearing that ‘Urine of Cow had been drizzled in the entire water to purify the water of lake’

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