The year 1973 marked the highest number of atrocities against Dalits, most brutal, inhumane. In independent India after the constitution, all kind of inequalities was abolished, everyone irrespective of his background was given equal rights in part 3 of the constitution called fundamental rights. The social inequality like untouchability was abolished by Article 17. All citizens were placed equally. Theoretical constitutional rights and social equality were missing in practicality.

In the 1970s many atrocities were committed against Dalits. Many Dalits were killed, raped, apartheid. The daily newspaper used to contain headlines dealing with atrocities against Dalit. This period was high time. The untouchability was visible during this period. Dalits were made to sit separately in panchayat meetings, Dalit kids were segregated from other Caste Hindus.

I want to mention an incident which was published in Hindustan Times in 1973, Dalits were having separate wells for drinking water. It was reported that their wells were polluted by Caste Hindus by throwing excreta, dead animals in it. (Not that much has changed since then, we still hear similar cases.)

One more incident which I want to mention took place during the same period is that, when some Dalits dared to contest Zila Parishad election, whole village boycotted them. Dalits were not allowed to carry their marriage procession on common roads. Every Day some Dalit women were raped, some Dalit man was thrashed. Dalits were exploited physically, economically and mentally. The system was not that proactive towards this atrocities.

One such incident took place in Maharashtra’s Solapur district, a Dalit woman returning from the farm was raped by a man belonging to the Thakur community and many such incidents were finding their place in newspapers daily. Ambedkarite youth during that period was lamented with such incidents. They especially in Maharashtra wanted to have some organization to fight these atrocities in the same manner.

During the same period ‘Black Panther’ the radical black organization was fighting against the racial discrimination in west. Their heroic acts were fascinating for the native Ambedkarite youth who was facing similar discrimination in the form of caste. They used to read about Black Panther in the magazine and got inspired by them. Here in India 3 Ambedkarite youth Raja Dhale, Namdeo Dhasal, J V Pawar established the organization which changed the discourse of Dalit dissent, Dalit Panthers.

Dalit Panthers marked the glorious era of the Dalit movement.

Structured on the ideas of Dr Ambedkar, Mahatma Phule and Karl Marx, Dalit Panther was working on the philosophy of Dalit socialism, anti-casteism. Dalit Panther was said to be a radical militant organization.

The main aim of the Dalit Panther was to fight caste atrocities and create some social base for Dalit movement. They believed in replying in the same way. It was based on the idea of ‘Tit for Tat’.

The working of Dalit Panther was based on mass mobilization. Dalit Panther established their cadre in each village in the form of village groups. Wherever the case of atrocities against Dalits is registered Dalit Panthers used to mobilize masses for protest. During the period, Dalit Panther became the voice of depressed classes. The definition of Dalit was very broad for them, it was a casteless term. All the downtrodden, women, labours, poor peasant and victims of untouchability were included. Dalit Panther was fighting for the rights. They were sighting immediate solution to the atrocities and they found it in the form of replying in the same manner.

The major impact of the Dalit Panther movement was made by the Dalit revolutionary literature which Dalit Panther movement brought with them. Revolutionary writers like Panther Namdeo Dhasal with his revolutionary ‘GOLAPITHA’ smashed the Brahmin hegemony on Marathi literature. His writings and poems were the display of dirty reality of Dalit life. He provided a guide to Dalits with his literary work. Panther Raja Dhale too wrote many articles, prominent among them was ‘Kala Swatantra Din’. This movement created a base for the Dalit dissent in marathi literature. Everyone who could write did so before joining the movement. The literary hegemony of caste Hindus broke by Neo-Buddhist is called as ‘Little magazine movement’.

As Dr Ambedkar rightly said, ‘Hindi media was never just towards me’. Hindi media deliberately ignored Dr Ambedkar and issues of downtrodden. Dr Ambedkar said that media houses wrote to make leaders during the colonial era and helped parties to get consensus over particular ideology. Thus, to counter Brahmanical hegemony over press Dr Ambedkar started ‘Mooknayak’- The Voice of Dalits. Inspiring from this Dalit Panthers emphasized on creating a literary base to keep alive the spirit of the movement. Every revolutionary movement needs to have some literary backing to propagate the ideas, get consensus and mobilizing masses. We have an example of Kanshiram ji’s strategy which can be understood through the study of BAMCEF.

Having independent Dalit Literature is of grave importance because it represents ideas, hopes, lamentation and aspirations. It is a unique way of expressing. Mainstream media writes about Dalit as news but they never make an issue of it. We have to understand the difference between News and Issue. And that is why having an independent platform for expressing our self is important.

Though, Dalit Panthers, not clear about the political idea, future perspective and not having proper organizational setup, provided immediate response to the atrocities in the form of Tit for Tat. The aggressive approach of the Dalit Panthers was their anger towards caste atrocities. But later, knowing the unsustainability of the method, Dalit Panthers reverted towards constitutional method and worked within the state. Afterwards, some internal differences started polarization of Dalit Panther Party and to prevent it from political polarization leaders decided to dissolve it. Thus came to end the glorious era of Dalit Movement.

But what panthers taught us?

We can take Dalit Panther movement as a case study to analyze what should be the course of any movement of dissent. Dalit Panther Movement was started by a few young Ambedkarites who were sighting immediate solution to the caste atrocities and sometimes used violence as a means. But in democratic country violence serves no interest. We have to fight within the constitutional framework.

They lacked institutional setup and was having informal links to mobilize masses. For effective working of any organization, institutional set up is of prime importance. The bottom-up approach is what keeps the organization linked and mass mobilization becomes easy.

Protesting against governments will definitely drag us into legal suites and for that, we need to have a band of professional law practitioners. Many times when Panthers were charged, they were unrepresented at courts.

Though Panthers wrote tremendously they were not having their own Newspaper or Magazine. They used to write in Marathi daily ‘Sadhana’, or here and there. Thus, to keep in touch with the masses and propagate our future strategy, movement need to have its own publication.

Dalit Panther movement was basically located in the state of Maharashtra and had its cadre in some states like Gujarat, MP, UP etc but not with that zeal. We need to have Pan-India movement to create conscience among masses and establish our independent ideology. Some Ambedkarite scholars talk about Pan Black-Dalit movement. Globalization of Dalit movement is important because caste is becoming global issue. I sometimes wonder that the thing called CASTE, which ruined life of many was never discussed at the United Nations.

It is not the matter that the efforts of the Dalit Panthers were worthless. To the demands of Dalit Panthers, the government legislated SC ST (prevention of atrocities) Act, 1989 which provided special protection and mechanism to deal with the atrocities.

Why Panther in Dalit Needed?

Dalit Panthers left behind them the spirit of dissent. But what changed 45 years after the dissolution of Dalit Panther movement? The severity of atrocities increased rather than decreasing. The year 2017 marked 5,755 cases of atrocities against Dalits in Uttar Pradesh only. According to Amnesty international, in 2016, 87 cases of killing registered, 187 sectional riots took place. Daily, we find some news related to rapes, the lynching of Dalits. Untouchability, not active, but passive is still being practiced.

According to the survey done by Prof. Thorat, 75% household in Delhi accepted that they practice untouchability.

The new form of untouchability, mental untouchability can be seen after Dalits provided with reservation in education and jobs. Brahmins blames Dalit, Adiwasi students for reservation and accuse them that they don’t have merit. This causes a mental breakdown of the student who is in fact meritorious and made it through hardship. Under this pressure students tends to commit suicide. We have an example of Rohith Vemula and Dr Payal Tadavi.

Dalit students even today made to sit separately from other Caste Hindus in classroom. (India Untouched Documentary) Separation is still practised.

We can see no change in the Caste based discrimination but change in the dissent is visible. The effectively organized protest is missing that Kanshiram Ji at once provided it.

We need to build it again. We need to wake up the Panther within us. We need to react to this atrocities with immediate and organized manner within a constitutional framework. We need to have Pan-India organization particularly dealing with this.

What is Panther?

Panther represents relentless fighter who is fighting for equality, freedom and rights. Panther represents zeal to revolt. Panther represents selflessness. Panther represents the difference between social and political. Panther represents liberty, equality and fraternity. Panther represents an idea, and idea must be cultivated and channelized.

On concluding note, let the panther within you awake for your social, political and economic rights, for the future of our next generation. We all are Panthers in a cage. We all have zeal within.

As Dr Ambedkar rightly said, ‘For a successful revolution it is not enough that there is discontent. What is required is a profound and thorough conviction of the justice, necessity and importance of political and social rights’.

Jai Bhim!

Author – Akash Ghodeswar