Author – Dr Jas Simran Kehal

India has been a land of social diversities. These diversities bred discrimination which was countered by social, political and religious personalities from time to time and amongst them was Dalit leader and founder of Bahujan Samaj Party, Kanshi Ram. He was born on 15th March 1934 at his maternal home Pirthipur Bunga, District Ropar. His ancestral house is in Khwaspura village, about 3km from Ropar.

Kanshiram’s family was Ramdasia Sikh Panth and came from once-untouchable Chamar caste. He joined government primary school, Malakpur and was subjected to discrimination. His father objected to caste-based prejudice and shifted him to Ismaliya school, Ropar in class Vth. He passed matriculation from DAV school, Ropar and Bsc from govt college, Ropar. In 1957, he cleared Survey of India examination but refused to sign bond as he did not want to be a bonded labourer. Next year he was selected as a research assistant with EDRL, Poona. He got an engagement offer from the daughter of a prominent Congress MLA but declared that he would never return home, never own a house and will be free from all family ties and would not rest in peace till Babasaheb Ambedkar’s dream has been fulfilled.

In 1965 he did agitation to protest against the cancellation of holidays of birthdays of Dr Ambedkar and Gautam Buddha which were restored after a long protest. Resigned in 1971 and gradually tried to bring together the Dalits, people from scheduled tribes (STs), other backward castes(OBCs) and other minorities under the umbrella of Bahujan Samaj or majority community and liberated them from the captive constituency of the Congress.

After putting in about five years of labour to organise employees under one roof he succeeded in establishing BAMCEF on 6 December 1978 and forming Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangarsh(DS4) in 1981. A political party, Bahujan Samaj Party was formed on 14th April 1984 to fulfil dreams of millions of Dalits to capture power at the centre which eventually became a national party.

In 1989, BSP secured 2.07% vote share from across the nation and elected 3 members to Lok Sabha and gradually increased to 6.17% vote share and 21 seats in 2009. In 1992, BSP with 9 MLAs became the principal opposition party in Punjab. By installing 37 year Mayawati, a former lady school teacher and that too from a Dalit caste, as chief minister in 1993, Kanshi Ram vetoed feudal and patriarchal mindset of the politicians. On the occasion of 50th anniversary of the Poona pact, Kanshi Ram released his lone theorized book “The Chamcha age; An era of the stooges” which ultimately formed ideological basis of the BSP.

Declared that he would not contest elections until BSP elect at least 100 members in Lok Sabha. Although BSP could not consolidate its performance in Punjab it was able to form the state government in country’s most populated state of Uttar Pradesh and ceded leadership to his protege, Mayawati, who became Chief Minister for four terms.

He was diabetic and suffered a heart attack in 1994 and a paralytic stroke in 2003 which led him to a bedridden state until his death on 9 October 2006. His funeral rites were performed according to Buddhist traditions as per his wish. Although he belonged to BSP he was revered across all political parties. Those in power considered him a tough negotiator with unpredictable political moves while the public hailed him as the messiah of the Dalits after B.R. Ambedkar. He tried to bring transformation in society through political empowerment of Dalits. As he said in an interview in 1987, that ‘Ambedkar collected books, I gathered people.”

Dr Jas Simran Kehal

MBBS, MS (Ortho),

MA  (Journalism & Mass Communication)