Get your copy of the book from here.

Pradnyawant Gautam and Praveen Gawali have written an excellent book titled above. The book is subtitled as “The Tale of Shahu Maharaj and Babasaheb Ambedkar”. This is a fascinating book as far as the historical Mangaon conference and the development of the movement of Babasaheb Ambedkar is concerned.

The book of this kind documents the history of the great struggle that our forefathers launched to emancipate us all. Most of the facts are lost to the history and therefore the careful construction of the histories as a tool for emancipation is an important social and political, and even emancipatory process. The construction of such a historic event based on the oral accounts of the people and the documents available adds to the development of the movement.

One can visually witness the conference of Mangaon through this book seen through the eyes of those present on that occasion. One gets to see it through the eyes of “others” who were opposed to this great conference. The authors have constructed the background of the conference in such a way that one gets a glimpse of an incipient social movement rising among the Mahars, Chambhars, Dhors, and Matang and the way they worked together that time. I find it fascinating and even thrilling the way it goes into how people organised the conference. Organising a conference by the people that time is itself a great feat. It needs money, labor, ability to organise the people, besides many other things.

The authors go into the speeches of both Maharaj and Babasaheb. They are interesting speeches and available for people to read. As the speech of Maharaj was already drafted and after the opening remarks, it was read by the Great hero of non-Brahmin movement, Bhashkar Jadhav. The books describe how Maharaj arrived in the conference (by the way he arrived in the horse driven chariot and he was wearing his hunting dress) and how and what he spoke. Similarly, it describes Babasaheb Ambedkar and his entire demeanour in the conference as the President of the conference.

The authors go into the resolutions passed in the Mangaon conference and suggest that they became the bedrock of the movement that evolved under the great leadership of Babasaheb Ambedkar. The resolutions in themselves are the shining gems if we now study them after nearly 100 years.

I recommend this book to the students of Babasaheb Ambedkar. It is easily available on Kindle and at no cost.

Get your copy of the book from here.

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist

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