[Editor’s note – The following article originally appeared in ’The Times of India’ on Sunday, October 12, 1975. Pardeep Attri transcribed it from the picture (posted below) that we found online, and the text is not very clear, so if you find any mistake, please let us know in the comments section and we will update.]

Fifty years ago, the scheduled castes in the Punjab formed the Ad Dharm sect, which claimed a distinct religious faith of its own and gave a sense of dignity to those castes. Mark Juergensmeyer of the University of California, Berkeley, traces the growth and decline of the movement.  

Within this century, the protest movements of the scheduled castes in India have been as diverse and as aggressive as those of the Blacks in the United States; and perhaps even more so.  

There have been movements connected with Gandhi and the Congress Party, such as the Harijan Sevak Sangh and the All India Depressed Classes League. There have been many projects associated with Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.  And there have been, earlier in this century, the various “Adi” movements, each of them distinctively different – the Adi Hindu in Uttar Pradesh, the Adi Dravida in Madras, the Adivasis in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh and the Ad Dharm in the Punjab.  

One of the most interesting of these movements was the one in Punjab, which flourished from 1925 to 1935, claiming perhaps a million adherents. The name of the movement, “Ad Dharm”, signified its central concept that the scheduled castes were not members of Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, or any other “upper castes religion”. Rather, they were members of a distinctly separate religious community indeed, the oldest religion of India. They claimed that theirs was the “Ad Dharm”, the “original religion”, followed by the pre-Aryan ancestors of modern India. Taking a theme which was later elaborated by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, they claimed that the scheduled castes were the true aboriginals of India and that all upper castes were descendants of interlopers from outside.   

Mangoo Ram received his political apprenticeship in the Ghadar movement, the international network of militant Punjabi nationalists, which was based in San Francisco in the first decades of this century. He had emigrated to California from his home in Hoshiarpur District, Punjab, to work in the peach orchards of Fresno, Stockton, and elsewhere in the San Josquin valley of central California. It was there that he became devoted to India’s struggle for national freedom and joined the Ghadar Party. In 1915, Mangoo Ram was one of the five Ghadar Party members accompanying a shipload of guns and propaganda, headed for India, where they hoped that a revolution would occur. Unfortunately, the British intercepted the ship, and Mangoo Ram escaped to the Philippines, where he hid for some years.  

In 1925, Mangoo Ram returned to the Punjab, and immediately became involved in another kind of freedom struggle – the liberation of his own scheduled caste people from oppression. Mangoo Ram found a band of [text missing here] scheduled caste [from Jullundur] and Hoshiarpur, who were eager to organize themselves. Most of these other founders of the Ad Dharm movement had been involved in social reform organization associated with Arya Samaj, the modern Hindu reform movement which was especially active in the Punjab. 

Although the Arya Samaj had encouraged social equality and had educated members of the scheduled castes in their schools, some members of the scheduled castes felt that the Arya Samaj was paternalistic in its attitude and they bridled at the notion that the scheduled castes had to become “purified Hindus” before they could join Arya Samaj.  

Therefore, the young leaders of the Punjab scheduled castes wanted to form their own Samaj. In a village in Hoshiarpur District on June 11, 1926 a large gathering of scheduled caste persons led by Mangoo Ram, proclaimed that their people constituted a separate “quam”, a religious community, similar to that of the Muslims, Sikhs, or the upper caste Hindus. The report of the Ad Dharm Mandal written in 1931, recalls the founding day in this way:  

“It seemed as if an old tree had come alive or as if a spent flower had burst into bloom. From that day, a completely downtrodden people (quam) began calling itself Ad Dharm.” 

Mangoo Ram set up his headquarters in Jullundur City, and began organising teams of [text missing here] held rallies in the [text missing here] the scheduled caste people to join them, and to call themselves “Ad Dharmi”. Followers of Ad Dharm wore a distinctive costume – bright red turbans and red sashes. They used the sacred word, “soham”, as their own special mantra. And when they greeted one another, they used the phrase, “Jai Guru”, [I believe author misspelt it here or typo, it should be ‘Jai Gurudev’ (victory to the divine guru, Guru Ravidass) as ‘Jai Gurudev’ was the real phrase and still used in Punjab by Ad Dharmis] recalling the name of the spiritual leader of their movement, Guru Ravi Das.

Some of the Ad Dharm rallies moved directly into political actions. At the conclusion of the rallies, the people would swarm the village bathing tank, and use it in defiance of the upper caste prohibitions. Or they would enter a local temple, or drink water from the upper caste well. On these occasions, needless to say, some of the upper caste villagers got fed up with the brazen pretences of scheduled castes; and many of the Ad Dharmi activists were beaten and driven out of town.  

Most of the activists of the movement, however, aimed at improving their own community, rather than trying to change the society around them. Equality was important, decisions were made collectively. The Ad Dharm leaders exhorted their followers to abstain from immoral practices such as use of alcohol and drugs. They were encouraged to aspire to better employment and more dignified status in society. The scheduled caste people were told that they could best worship and serve their guru through education; “education leads us to suchkhand (the realm of truth)”. Women were also to be included as equals in the modern society envisioned by the Ad Dharm, the leaders at the rallies said that bride prices should be done away with and that girls should be educated as well as boys. 

A weekly newspaper, Adi-Danka, started by Ad Dharm founder, published from Jullundur City

In addition to the emphasis on modern virtues and human dignity, many of the speeches at the rallies were aimed at the elementary task of giving the scheduled castes a sense of pride and identity as members of the Ad Dharm. The parades, the banners, the slogans, the songs, all echoed the same refrain:  

“Ad Dharmi, lions, brothers, join the organization. 

Wherever you hear your brothers are harmed,  

Stand fast, dig in, and right the wrong.” 

The emphasis on the identity of the Ad Dharm movement helped give an oppresses people a sense of pride, but it also had another purpose. The “Ad-Dharm” label, in sufficient masses of members, gave power to the Ad Dharm organisation, and to its leaders, such as Mangoo Ram. 

The 1931 census returns were considered crucial to the Ad Dharm movement for that census would indicate the numerical base upon which the Ad Dharm would place its bargaining power and its political strength. A special song was composed just for the occasion: 

“Leave the bickering behind,  

And tie your turban red. 

We do not have to record 

Any qaum other than our own, 

So, Ad Dharmi, be strong.” 

For some revolutionaries, power may come from the barrel of a gun. But Mangoo Ram realised that the scheduled castes had neither guns nor money, nor status, nor any of other features usually associated with power. According to Mangoo Ram, the poor only have three kinds of power, “qaumiat (collective solidarity), mazhab (spiritual symbols), and majlis (organisation).” By utilising the scheduled castes under the name and symbol of Ad Dharm, Mangoo Ram was creating power in the powerless vacuum of the poor. 

The organisation of the scheduled castes under the name “Ad Dharm” for the 1931 census was a great success. Despite upper caste pressures and intimidation, almost half a million persons are permanently recorded as having preferred the religious affiliation of “Ad Dharm” to that of Hindu, Sikh or Muslim. To a large extent, the success of the movement was due to the support of the local scheduled caste leaders, the network of caste panchayats which existed before the Ad Dharm movement, and to the previous appeal of Ravi Dass, and other specifically scheduled caste religious figures. Nonetheless, the 1931 census was justifiably considered to be a measure of the organisational skill of Mangoo Ram and his colleagues.  

The massive support created political capital, and Mangoo Ram used that capital in political ways. Ad Dharmi candidates stood for public offices; and an alliance was created with Unionist Party. In both instances, scheduled caste leaders supported by Ad Dharm organization achieved public positions. Mangoo Ram became an M.L.A. And later, many of the former Ad Dharmis joined the Congress Party. 

Today, many scheduled caste leaders can trace their political education to the Ad Dharm movement, and the influence of Mangoo Ram. Sadhu Ram, M.P., a member of the Congress Party from Phagwara constituency, was formerly a leader in the Ad Dharm movement. So was Gurvanta Singh, M.L.A., for some years the Vice-President of the Congress Party in the Punjab. Other Ad Dharmis have achieved leadership in other political parties. 

The movement itself, however, died out after the mid-1930s. In a sense, the movement was overtaken by events, as the arena of politics shifted from rallies and marches to the electoral ballot. In another sense, however, the leaders left the movement as the appeal of electoral politics lured them into political parties and legislative elections.  

The spirit of the old Ad Dharm movement is still quite alive. The members of Mangoo Ram’s leather-working caste have taken over the name “Ad Dharm” as their caste name in many areas of Jullundur and Hoshiarpur districts. Perhaps more significant a new movement with the name “Ad Dharm” has been organized in Jullundur within recent years; but the new movement does not have yet the strength or diversity of membership that the old movement had. To give the new movement visibility, the leaders have brought out old Mangoo Ram himself, now in his nineties, from retirement at his farm near Garhshankar in Hoshiarpur district, to be the titular head. 

For the large number of scheduled castes in Punjab, the term “Ad Dharm” remains a symbol of defiance, progress and [text missing here], on the site of the former headquarters of the Ad Dharm organization, there is today a Ravi Dass High School, which provides education, ambition and dignity to children from scheduled caste backgrounds. It is an appropriate symbol for the progressive spirit that was, and is, Ad Dharm. 

A few more pictures related to Ad Dharm Movement and Leaders –

From left to right: Ganga Ram, Chanan Lal Manak (Missionary Writer of Ad-Dharm), Ch. Hazara Ram Piplanwala (General Secretary, Ad-Dharm Mandal), Ram Chand Khera (Editor, Adi-Danka)

Mangoo Ram

Images credit – Facebook