[The following article was written in 2007 and originally appeared in Insight Young Voices magazine’s Sept-Oct 2007 issue, vol 1, no.1. – editor]

As a prominent ideologue and leader of the Adi-Hindu movement of early 20th century, he proclaimed an autonomous identity for the then Untouchables. Swami Acchutanand (1879-1938).

Written by Insight Editorial Collective

The Adi-Hindu movement of Uttar Pradesh is one of the glorious chapters in the history of Dalit struggles.

Towards the early half of the twentieth century, it became a powerful voice for self-respect, assertion and freedom for the Untouchables from
brahminical slavery. The leaders of the movement attacked caste inequalities through an assertion of bhakti devotionalism, a rejection of Vedic Hinduism and the construction of the pre-Aryan identity of the Untouchables as the original inhabitants- Adi-Hindus- of India. Swami Acchutanand (1879-1933) was one of the foremost leaders of the Adi- Hindu movement, who gave it an ideological edge with a historical perspective.

From the late 19th century, the Untouchable caste-groups from rural areas had begun to migrate to Allahabad, Benares, Kanpur and Lucknow, where the demand for the menial services they performed, were expanding due to the consolidation of the British army and civil administrations in these towns. Untouchable groups, such as mehtars, bhangis, chamars, dhobis and doms, found jobs in cantonments and civil lines and with the municipalities.

Read also – बहुजन समाज के एक महान समाज-सुधारक और साहित्यकार स्वामी अछूतानंद जी

The job opportunities made these Untouchables a little better, economically, even though the notions of purity and pollution upon which untouchability was based, remained ingrained in the society. Education was still denied to them and monopolized by the caste Hindus. Their low social status and the prevalence of untouchability prevented them to access jobs, except those that were considered dirty and polluting. Any attempt at accessing education often met with violent resistance from the caste-Hindus and their segregation in untouchable ghettos was complete.

However, some Dalits (Untouchables) acquired elementary literacy from Christian missionaries in the cantonments and civil stations.

One among them was Swami Acchutanand (1879-1938), the most prominent Adi-Hindu leader of the 1920s and 30s. He was brought up in a military cantonment, where his father worked and later settled in Kanpur. He had been taught by missionaries and had gained extensive knowledge of religious texts.

From the early 1920s, Arya Samaj presented a hope of surmounting caste divisions and untouchability practices by allowing the Untouchables to enter the Hindu fold, in an attempt to expand and strengthen the Hindu community. Lured by such propaganda, many literate Dalits joined the Arya Samaj. One of them was Swami Acchutanand. However, the Untouchables associated with the Arya Samaj gradually became convinced that the Samaj was merely ‘an army of caste-Hindus’ whose only intention was to rally the Hindu community against the Muslims, and whose attempt to uplift the Untouchables was only a part of this strategy.

Brief exposure of Arya Samaj activities disillusioned Acchutanand so much so that he revolted against the Samaj’s shuddhi (purification) programme for the Untouchables and claimed it as a cunning ploy to perpetuate the hold of caste-Hindus over the Untouchables. He argued that Samaj’s glorification of Vedas would make the Untouchables perpetual slaves of brahmins and other caste-Hindus.

It was also from this period that the political reforms of 1919, introduced by the British government, brought into sharper focus the issue of the relative numerical strength of various religious groups. This further prompted Swami Acchutanand and his group of Untouchable colleagues to conclude that the caste-uplift programmes of the Samaj were motivated by ‘upper-caste groups in order to increase the number of Hindus to be able to appropriate more number of jobs as well as political representation from other religious groups. However, the same ‘upper-caste groups were not willing to share such benefits with the Untouchables and employed every tool to force them to remain as Untouchables in perpetuity.

In search of a new ideology to repudiate Hinduism and the caste system, Acchutanand and his group drew upon bhakti and formulated the ideology of Adi-Hindu, by developing their own interpretation of the history of Indian religions and of the history of Untouchables. At
that time, the Arya Samajists were propagating the glorious past of Aryans and Vedic religion to counter Muslims and to promote aggressive ‘upper’ caste chauvinism, disguising it as Hindu nationalism.

Swami Acchutanand turned their propaganda upside down and argued that the Untouchables were the original inhabitants of this country and were never part of the Hindu or Vedic religion. In fact, it was the Aryan invaders, who subjugated the indigenous people and created the caste system. They made them Untouchables by imposing Vedic Hinduism.

The anti-caste sentiments of the Acchutanand’s movement gradually evolved into a popular movement and spread across the state, especially in urban centers such as Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad and Benaras. The roots of this new movement were laid in pre-Aryan India, therefore Acchutanand termed it as the Adi-Hindu movement.

An important aspect of the Adi- Hindu ideology of emancipation was the importance shown to education. The Adi-Hindus stressed the role of education in social and cultural liberation and in the improvement of economic condition. They argued that illiteracy was the root cause of domination by the ‘upper’ castes. The Adi-Hindus followed the core of Buddha’s teaching “Atta Deepo Bhav”, as emphatically highlighted by Acchutanand. Spiritual introspection (atma-anubhava) was accorded supreme importance as the only way to arrive at true knowledge or sadgyan and to evolve one’s own world-view. Introspection, it was held, would lead to self-realization or self-knowledge (atma-gyan). This
would, in turn, facilitate the articulation of an autonomous value system that was not from or imposed by the ‘higher’ castes. By developing the concept of introspective spiritualism and self-realization, Acchutanand proclaimed an autonomous identity for the Untouchables.

This not only resulted in generating social and cultural awareness but also helped the followers to mature their political understandings. Political agitation peaked during periods of deliberation about constitutional change and political representation or during wider political debates, which involved the question of the rights of backward communities or religious minorities. During these periods, the Adi-Hindu leaders not only became particularly active in the institutional political arena to demand special rights but at the same time, they organized political demonstrations and meetings in support of their political demands at the local level in the towns.

One such period of intense political activity occurred in 1928, during the visit of Simon Commission. Contrary to the policy of non-cooperation of the Congress, the Adi-Hindu leaders refused to boycott the Commission. The leaders resolved to give evidence before the Commission and staged a campaign to attract the Commission’s attention towards the problems of the Untouchables. The political campaign was led by the ‘Adi-Hindu Depressed Classes Association’, which had been formed in 1925 as an apex organization in the province. The widespread participation of urban Untouchables in the political agitations is evident from police reports of frequent and well-attended meetings and demonstrations in this period, organized either by the ‘Adi-Hindu Depressed Classes Association’ in town or by local caste-groups.

This new Dalit Movement admired Dr. Ambedkar. During the Third Round Table Conference, the issue of separate electorates for the Untouchables provoked a renewed bout of political demonstrations. The Adi-Hindu organizations rallied their support to Dr. Ambedkar’s move. In Lucknow, in October 1931, a meeting addressed by the Adi-Hindu leaders Ram Charan and Chandrika Prasad Jigyasu was attended by around 2,500 Untouchables. Large public meetings were also held in Kanpur and Allahabad. At some of these meetings, Gandhi and the Congress were the targets of violent criticism for opposing separate electorates for the Untouchables and it was declared that the Adi-Hindus must fight their own struggle, for they could not rely on Gandhi.

Soon after, with the death of Swami Acchutanand in 1933, the movement started to wane but only after making a powerful impact among Dalit
communities in certain areas of the state. At its peak, the Adi-Hindu movement shared almost the same wavelength with Babasaheb Ambedkar’s movement and it facilitated the creation of pockets of areas in urban UP, where Dalit consciousness made inroads into the community, which made them receptive of Babasaheb’s teachings later. Among these groups, first influenced by Adi-Hindu movement, emerged young literate Dalits who became followers of Babasaheb and laid the foundation of the political assertion of Dalits in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

References:

• Nandini Gooptu, Swami Acchutanand & the Adi-Hindu Movement, Critical Quest Publication, 2006
• Braj Ranjan Mani, Debrahmanising History: Dominance and Resistance in Indian Society, Manohar Publications, 2005