14 June 1928: Depressed classes education society was established by Dr. Ambedkar.[1]
The society was established to spread education amongst untouchables. The Bombay government gave sanction for five hostels situation at Panvel, Thane, Nasik, Pune and Dharwad for the special benefit of high school students belonging to the Depressed Classes.[2]
14 June 1936: T A Raman Illustrated weekly journalist reported that he has heard more unkind things said to Dr. Ambedkar than any other men in India. He said that if he ever murdered anybody it would be Dr. Ambedkar.[3]
Those were the time Dr. Ambedkar was rising and shining in the world by overpowering the opposition sponsored by a commercialized press. Unaided by party caucuses, party funds, he was rising solely on the strength of his unbending will-power, phenomenal energy, heroic courage and great brains. With his conquering intellect he was strong enough to face Gandhi.
Describing this fight between Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar, Glonery Bolton observed: “Day after day Dr. Ambedkar came onto greater prominence. He spoke for Untouchables and every speech on the welfare of India – whether from a conservative or a socialist platform – would contain a reference to the tragic plight of the Untouchables. It was sentimental rather than a practical concern. Gandhi, by representing the Untouchables, would have drawn eulogies from almost every pulpit in England, but now Dr. Ambedkar hadn’t destroyed his platform. At first Mohammedans seemed to enjoy the discomfiture, bit in time every delegate was wishing that Dr. Ambedkar would show Gandhi the courtesy to which history personal eminence certainly entitled him” [4]
A campaign of unbridled ferocity was let loose immediately by the so called Indian national press against Dr. Ambedkar. His statement that he was not anxious about the transfer of power was condemned as one voiced without a blush. They said that Dr. Ambedkar has cast restraint and decency to the winds.
Dr. Ambedkar had become the most hated main in India. He was stigmatized as an uncivil, insolent, inordinately rude man, devoid of human consideration. He was represented as a devil, was cursed as a public nuisance number one and was damned as a reactionary, stooge of the British Government, a traitor to the country and a destroyer of Hinduism.
14 June 1980: ‘Ambedkar mela on wheels’ which was started by Manyawar Kanshi Ram came to an end.
Manyawar Kanshi Ram had observed that people in and around Delhi were ignorant about the life and mission of Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Those who were not ignorant and interested in the mission, were feeling demoralized because of all around failure of the Ambedkarite mission. To remove this ignorance and demoralization a social action in the form of ‘Ambedkar Mela on Wheels’ was conducted for two months from 14 April 1980 to 14 June 1980, all around Delhi and covering 34 destinations in nine states of the north. This was an oral and pictorial account of Ambedkar’s life and views, together with contemporary material on oppression, atrocities and poverty.
Jang Bahadur Patel, a Kurmi (Backward Caste) and President of the Uttar Pradesh Branch of the Bahujana Samaj Party until late 1995, recalls meeting Kanshi Ram for the first time when he brought his roadshow to Lucknow (Interview: 25 November 1995). Kanshi Ram talked persuasively about how Ambedkar had struggled for all the down-trodden classes, and how the Scheduled Castes, Tribes and also the Backwards and Minorities were all victims of Brahminism. Because of their weight of numbers, these people had the potential to convert them-selves from ‘beggars to rulers’. It was all a matter of organisation. Patel immediately joined BAMCEF, though he was in a distinct minority as a non-Untouchable: Untouchables constituted about 90 per cent of the membership, with the other io per cent being split between tribals and Backward Caste people.[5]
[1] Narayan Mishra, Scheduled caste education – issues and aspects book, p 11
[2] Sanjay Paswan, Pramanshi Jaideva, Encyclopaedia of Dalits in India: Leaders, Volume 4 book, p 29
[3] Dhananjay Keer, Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission book, p 183
[4] Bolton Glorney, The Tragedy of Gandhi book, pp 266 – 67
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Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's Caravan 