Question

'Congrees could not ignore dalits for a long time' Justify statement ????​

Answer 1

Answer:

An autonomous Dalit leadership in India has always been perceived as

synonymous to the leadership of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Though, it is a well-known fact

that Dr. Ambedkar was the first Dalit leader who had an all India following, the

autonomous Dalit Leadership of several varieties existed much before he came on the

horizon of the Dalit liberation. Such leadership had existed in different parts of the

country. For instance, Dalits had organised demonstration in Poona and Madras

against the functioning of the National Congress way back in 1895 and had even burnt

its effigy.1

But they had carried out more organized movements for achieving their

goals of equality, self-respect, self-right etc., in different parts of the country since the

1920’s onwards. The political mobilization of the Dalits on the national scene can also

be traced to the late 1920s when the British Government initiated a series of Round

Table Conference to provide political safeguards and representation to various

minority communities including the Depressed Classes (Dalit) as they were known by

that time2

. Therefore, the 1920’s can be taken as the culmination point for analyzing

the nature, social composition and crisis the of the Dalit leadership in different parts

of the country. This period is testing time for the Dalit leadership as there was no pan

India organisational basis for the Dalits.