CONTRIBUTION OF SWAMI ACHHUTA NAND FOR DALIT SOCIETY IN UTTAR PRADESH
Dr Om Prakash Singh
Swami Achhuta Nand borned at that time when miserable condition of county and Dalit society. The feeling of castism, high and low, was access and the socially dead people of society. Swami Achhula Nand provided way at that time by his revolutionary thoughts. Achhuta Nand awared them for social, Political, Economical fights Achhuta Nand 'Harihar' joined Arya Samaj there was lots of razes. He established two collages in Agra at Pathawari & sirsaganj for untouchables. At the time of inauguration of sirasaganj school's Swami Ji was late and saw, by the Arya Samaji teachers, Dalits students were in the ending lines without sack hessian. This affect the swamiji and he left Arya Samaj for the partiality. He promises to struggle for untouchable He came and started untouchable movement in 1905 at Delhi. Here he followed by Veer Ratan, Devidas Jatiya, Jagat Ram Jatiya. Here he established Federation of Indian untouchable Mahashbha. And published "Achhut patrika" Untouchables followed him fully in Delhi
The inspirer of "Adi Hindu movement" Swami Achhuta Nand Harihar came Agra in 1912 to oppose the fudal system in Northern India. He was engaged to Arya Samaj. When he saw feudal system in Arya Samaj also he distracted himself and started a movement for the rights of Shudra and untouchable persons. And he opened a school in Jatav area for lower caste children. In Agra "Jatav Sabha" was raising. In which swami Ji showed his interest and "Jatav Maha Sabha" got established. In 1917 he reached to Delhi and became successful to stablish "Akhil Bhartiya Achhut Maha Sabha" with the help of untouchable leader Veer Ratan Devi Das Jatiya and Shri Jagat Ram Jatiya. In 1918 Swami Ji stablish "Adi Hindu Maha Sabha" in Delhi, and fought for the Political and social rights of untouchables. And he speeded it (Adi Hindu movement) in every carner of country.
Adi Hinduism evolved against a background of new social and political developments that affected the untouchables form the 1920s. With population growth in the towns in the interwar period, there was an increasing scarcity of jobs, especially the second generation in the towns, forcing them to turn to work outside the confines of menial work and trades. Very few avenues were, however, open to them. Caste constraints on securing jobs became more perceptible to the generation of untouchables who reached adulthood in the second and third decades of the twentieth century. Chamars, Doms and Bhangis, for instance, who handled dead animals. hides and skins or engaged in pig rearing and came under the purview of municipal sanitary by laws and licensing regulations, encountered stricter enforcement of these rules. The educational policies of the local authorities also had a bearing on the access of the untouchables to municipal schools. The latter developed as a vehicle to assert the rights and demands of the untouchables, and to change the disabilities and exclusions they faced in the towns on account of their low ritual status.
Dalits questioned and rejected categories like untouchables, Depressed Classes and Scheduled Castes that were coined by colonial and Hindu/ nationalist discursive practices. This was not merely to contest dominant ascriptions of their identities but also, more importantly, to question the notions of impurity and pollution attached to their community, identity and history. Various Dalit castes in different parts of India raised this issue independently by claiming that they had discovered a pure past, and a pure identity, either within Hindu religion or outside of it. Familiar examples are the assertions of the Adi- Dharmis and Balmikis of Punjab, the Satnamis of Chattisgarh, the Namasudras of Bengal, the Chamars, Pasis and Bhangis of UP, the Shilpakars of Kumaon, and the Mahars and Chambhars of Maharashtra. I would characterize these initiatives as the first stage in the evolution pf a Dalit perspective. Through a range of associations and Caste Mahasabhas, Chamars were the first Dalit community to launch a struggle to redefine their identities in UP in the 1910s and 1920s. This struggle was launched initially to contest the dominant colonial and Hindu narratives of their untouchable identity by emphasizing the purity of their lives and by demanding a status equal to that claimed by Caste Hindus.
The Adi Hindu ideology was formulated in the 1920 by a new generation of literate untouchables. Some untouchables had acquired elementary literacy from Christian missionaries in the cantonments or civil stations. Others, born in the 1880s and 1890s to untouchable parents who had migrated to the towns, were sent to municipal schools, in so far as their parents could afford the expenses. Swami Acchutanand (1879-1933), one of the most prominent Adi Hindu leaders in the 1920s and 1930s, was brought up at a military cantonment, where his father worked, and later settled in Kanpur. He had been taught by missionaries and had gained an extensive knowledge of religious texts. Ram Charan (1888-1938), an Adi Hindu leader of Lucknow, was born in a slum at Gwaltoli in Kanpur. His parents were casual labourers, but sent him to school despite economic hardship. Later, he went to Lucknow, where he worked in the Railway Audit Office to earn money to attend nigh school for higher education, and eventually took a degree in law. By the 1920s, a group of literate, but usually not wealthy, men like Acchutanand and Ram Charan had begun to emerge among the second generation of urban untouchables, who became concerned with the issue of caste uplift. Some among them had joined the Arya Samaj, which promised to facilitate the social uplift of lower Castes, set up schools and hostels for them, offered scholarships to untouchable students, and presented the hope of surmounting caste divisions by allowing untouchables to enter the Hindu caste hierarchy through purification or Shuddhi.
From the early 1920s, in the aftermath of the Khilafat movement to oppose western intervention in the Ottoman empire and in response to the religious ferment it generated among Muslims, the Arya Samaj stepped up its Shuddhi or reclamation activities for the inclusion of lower castes and Hindu converts to Islam into the Hindu fold, in an attempt to expand and strengthen the Hindu community. Swami Acchutanand claimed in a speech that the Samaj aimed to make all Hindus slaves of the Vedas and the Brahmins. 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, as the principle of communal representation was fully recognised.Ram Charan argued that "in 1919 reforms came and representation was given according to population; those religious groups who are more enumerous get more places; and then what else but acchutoddhar [uplift of untouchables] conferences everywhere to uplift untouchables.The various intellectual infleunces on Acchutanand, one of the chief Adi Hindu preachers, described by his biographer, indicate how the Adi Hindu ideology was formulated. An important influence was naturally that of the Arya Samaj and the Samaj's vigorous propagation of shuddhi or reconversion in Hinduism. 1924, local Adi Hindu sabhas (associations) had been organised in Kanpur, Lucknow, Benares and Allahabad to spread the message of Adi Hinduism, the initiative being taken by literate untouchables and bhakti religious preachers. Each Sabha had its pracharaks and upadeshaks, modelled on Christian missionaries and Arya Samajist preachers, who regularly visited untouchable neighbourhoods. The Ravidas Chamar Mahasabha in Kanpur, for instance, acknowledged Acchutanand as the leader of their community in the 1920s, and Chamars in Kanpur in large numbers attended meetings convened by the Adi Hindu Sabha and addressed by Acchutanand. Sweepers in Kanpur, on a number of occasions in 1925, were also reported to have organised meetings for social uplift, at some of which Acchutanand was invited to preside in his capacity as an Adi Hindu leader. In Allahabad, the Chamars of the cantonment had declared themselves to be a self- contained community, having broken away from high caste Hindus, and celebrated their festivals separately in 1926. Similarly, in Lucknow, in April 1927, various Chamar Mahashabha held a joint meeting where they pledged their support to the Adi Hindu movement and resolved to form a volunteer corps.
In December 1927 the leaders of the Adi- Hindu Mahasabha in UP made a claim for a more inclusive acchut or untouched identity to unite disparate Dalit castes. The Mahasabha laid out its agenda in a conference held on 27 and 28December 1927 in Allahabad, an event that was widely reported and discussed in contemporary newspapers in UP.The conference was proclaimed as the first All- India. Adi- Hindu conference, and was attended by 25,000 Dalits from UP. Another 350 delegates participated from Punjab, Bihar, Delhi, the Central Provinces, Poona, Bengal, Madras and Hyderabad. Simultaneously, the Adi-Hindu Mahasabha raised these issues in a petition submitted to the Simon Commission during its tour of India in 1928. The Simon Commission received similar petitions from Dalit Associations in different parts of UP and India.They provide us with useful material to understand the various facets of the Dalit agenda that were being assembled around this time. What is striking is that most Dalit associations which submitted petitions to the Simon Commission were unanimousin claiming a separate achhut identity, making this a marked feature of Dalit politics of the time.
To reiterate, the achhut agenda laid by the Adi- Hindu Mahasabha in 1928, including a programme for defining a set of rights seemed to have reached fruition by the 1940s. It was no longer the idea of the Adi- Hindu Mahasabha alone, but one that was shared by various Dalit associations in UP and beyond. This vision of achhut politics and commitment to rights continues to shape the lives of Dalits today.
Why did Adi Hinduism, spearheaded by a literate group, gain popularity among the mass of the untouchable poor? One reason was the social character of the leadership and the role they played within the untouchable community by virtue of their literacy. Literacy was a highly valued qualification among untouchables, for a prevalent notion was that illiteracy was a cause of their social domination by the educated higher castes, who knew how to manipulate the administrative and judicial systems to their own advantage. Ram Charan initially gained popularity as an untouchable leader in 1919-20, when as a lawyer, he challenged in court and prevented the acquisition by the local authorities of a vast area of land in Lucknow on which untouchable groups lived. The intervention of literate leaders in local disputes between individuals or groups of untouchables and the urban authorities or employers on behalf of the former, also enabled the leaders to gain support for the Adi Hindu movement.
The spread of the Adi Hindu movement was not, however, due simply to the lure of practical benefits accrued from supporting its leaders or the role of 'patron' that the leaders played in the local community. It was primarily caused by the message that the Adi Hindu leaders put forward. The adi Hindu ideology was particularly attractive to the mass of the untouchables and was espoused by them because it provided them with a historical explanation for their own poverty and deprivation, and presented them not only with a vision of their past power and rights, but also with hopes of regaining their lost rights. The Adi Hindu preachers cultivated a sense of entitlement to rights and power at the same time as they heightened an awareness of historical deprivation. The stress on atmagyan (self knowledge) and introspection as the source of independent knowledge without higher caste impositions also enabled the exposition of a distinctive, autonomous, proud and even defiant self- identity of the untouchables. Adi Hindu movement spread beyond the ranks of the literate leadership because it provided a political vocabulary for the untouchables to claim rights and opportunities in urban society. The spread of the ideology of Adi Hinduism was reflected in social reforms among untouchable groups in the towns. The central focus was on denying the religious rituals and ceremonies prescribed by the higher castes for the untouchables, and in particular, on defying the low social duties and labour imposed on them. Many Mahasabha's denied that pilgrimages, the holding of expensive religious feasts, especially for Brahmin priests, and elaborate observance of religious ceremonies were meritorious acts, and these were actively discouraged. Some Mahasabha's also decided to streamline the ceremonies observed on the occasions of birth, marriage and death. Informal savings groups were organised under the auspices of the local Mahasabhas, whenever possible. The Kanpur Mehtar Mahasabha decided to overcome an established custom whereby the untouchables. This tendency was further encouraged by the sympathetic ear that the government talent to these leaders, often nominating them to local councils and the provincial legislature, or honoring them with titles. These political events were organized to put forward demands for separate political rights as well as government jobs, scholarships and entry to schools and colleges. When the Simon Commission arrived in Lucknow on 28 November 1928, the local Adi Hindu Sabha, led by the prominent leaders Ram Charan and Shiv Dayal Singh Chaurasia, staged a street play and a crowded demonstration at the Charbagh Railway Station to present the demand of untouchables. Twenty five small Hindu temples that had been opened for the use of untouchables in 1934 when Mahatma Gandhi visited Kanpur soon fell into disuse owing to the lack of interest of untouchables.
Most of the ideas of the Adi- Hindu movement were also widely shared by other Dalit -groups across UP, including the Adi Dharmis from Dehradun, the Kumaon Shilpakar Sabha of Almora, the Jatav Mahasabha of Agra, the Dom Sudhar Sabha of Garhwal, and the Chamar Sabha of Kanpur. Further, evidence from CID weekly reports of these years (1926-30) indicates a good deal of activism conducted by Adi- Hindu Association. Through their struggles in the 1920s and 1930s, Dalit activitists and Associations in UP gradually formulated an agenda that addressed the concerns of their community as well as issues that mainstream nationalist associations like the Congress had raised with regard to the vision of an Indian nation and democracy. A more passionate and elaborate discussion of these themes is evident in Chandrika prasad Jigyasu's book, "Bharat Ke Adi Niviasiyon Ki Sabhayata" (The Civilization of India Original Inhabitants) published in 1937 from Lucknow. In claiming that Acchuts were the original inhabitants of India and descendants of the Dasas, Asurs and Dasyus mentioned in Brahmanical Hindu texts , Dalits were challenging, both colonial and Hindu interpretations of their identity. Achhut was declared as the identity of all untouchables, separate from the Hindu community .Adequate safeguards for Achhuts in various elective bodies in the form of separate electorates was a demand which was to become the comers tone of their struggle in the coming years. Indeed, by the 1930s, their charter of demands included proportionate representation in legislative bodies, reservations in government jobs, adequate Dalit representation in the Congress ministry, permanent rights over land by changing the tenancy acts, fixed wages for agricultural labour and for the removal and skinning of dead animals, rights to use public wells, the abolition of begari, the right to convert to any religion, and rejection of the term ‘Harijan’. Ambedkar ki Awaz Arthath Achhuton ka Federation (The voice of Ambedkar or the Federation of Achhuts) was the title of Nandlal Viyogi's 1947 book published in Allahabad. The title proclaims the significance of Ambedkar and the Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) in reshaping Achhut identity and politics in the 1940s by giving it a new voice or awaz. A new feature of Achhut politics in the 1940s was the emergence of the SCF as a party offering a political platform for all achhuts.
Adi Hindu Mahasabha reformers, drinking, gambling and popular religious practices constituted evil or bad habits, which had to be overcome, not simply to prevent indebtedness, but also to qualify for higher status and as fit and proper members of Indian society. The relationship of the untouchable poor with the upper caste nationalists and religious reformers remained uneasy in the UP towns, and neither provided an adequate focus for the politics of the untouchable poor. Instead, Bhakti and Adi Hinduism formed the dominant and sustained form on their political expressed and identity, despite the sporadic and uneven nature of agitation politics under the Adi Hindu banner.
Reference-
1. . W. Crooke, The Tribes and Castes of the North- Western Provinces and Oudh, Calcutta, 1896, vol. II, pp. 184-8.
2. . G. W. Briggs, The Chamars, London, 1920, p. 210.
3. . Gooptu Nandini: The politics of Urban poor in the Early Twentieth Century. See Chapter 3
4. . Chamar Sabhas like Jatav Mahasabha, Jaiswar Mahasabha, Jatiya Chamar Sabha and many such Sabhas were formed at the village level.
5. . Officially known as Police Abstracts of Weekly Intelligence, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), UP. The weekly CID reports provide detailed accounts of Chamar protests in UP. See various CID reports between 1922-1926.
6. . Provincial literacy figures of untouchable castes cited in the various census reports from 1901 onwards suggest an increase in literacy rates, especially in the towns, although the increase was remarkably slow and small, indicating the spread of literacy to a handful of untouchables only. Census of India, 1901, vol. XVI (Northwestern Provinces and Oudh) Part I, Report, Allahabad, 1902, p. 170; Census of India, 1911, vol. XV (United Provinces of Agra and Oudh), Part I, Report, Allahabad, 1912, p. 255; Census of India, 1921, vol. XVI (UP), Part I, Report, p. 126; Census of India, 1931, vol. XVIII (UP), Part I, Report p. 480.
7. . Acchutanand biography, pp. 9-10.
8. . A.P. Chaudhury, Picchre tatha Dalit Barg Ke Mahan Neta Rai Ram Charan Ka Jivan Charit tatha Unke Sanshipta Karya (hereafter Ram Charan biography), Lucknow, 1973, pp. 1-2.
9. . Acchutanand biography, pp. 10-11, 98-9; Ram Charan biography, p-3.
10. . P. Hardy, The Muslims of British India, Cambridge, 1972, p. 208; G. Minault, The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India, New York, 1982, pp. 192-3.
11. . Extracts from speeches in Acchutanand biography, p.11
12. . Extracts from speeches in Ram Charan biography, pp. 8-9
13. . Acchutanand biography, pp. 9-10; Ram Charan biography, p. 4.
14. . An Adi Hindu Samaj was formed in Lucknow in 1919; the Adi Hindu Mahasabha in Kanpur in 1923 a similar organisation in Allahabad in the 1920s. Acchutanand biography, pp. 24-25.
15. . Interview with Hanuman Prasad Kureel,untouchable politician of Kanpur. Acchutanand lived for some time in the house of Hanuman Prasad's father.
16. . PAI (Police 11 September 1926; No. 45, 26 November 1927.
17. . PAI, No. 14, 9 April 1927.
18. . Report of All-India Adi-Hindu Mahasabha, 7 January 1928, submitted to the Simon Commission Appendix: List of Memoranda, Evidence- UP/427, Report on United Provinces (3 Vols) Indian statutory (Simon) Commission, OIOC, British Library (London, UK).
19. . Almost all the representations are also available in the private papers of John Simon. MSS. Eur, F. 77/ Simon Collection, Oriental and India Office Collection, British Library.
20. . See Rawat, Partition Politics and Acchut Identity : A Study of the Scheduled Castes Federation and Dalit Politics, in Suvir Kaul (ed). The Partitions of Memory: The Afterlife of the Division of India (Bloomington, 2002), pp. 111-139.
21. . N.P. Arora and N.C. Chaturvedi, Kanpur Ke Gata Pachas Varsh ki Rajnitik our Sabhityik Jhanki Abstracts of Intelligence), No. 16, 2 May 1925; No. 30, 8 August 1925.
22. . PAI, No. 35, (Police Abstract of Inteligence)
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