How did Gandhi mobilize Dalit class?
Answers
Answer:
1)Not all social groups were moved by the abstract concept of swaraj.
One such group was the nation’s ‘untouchables’, who from around
the 1930s had begun to call themselves dalit or oppressed. For
long the Congress had ignored the dalits, for fear of offending the
sanatanis, the conservative high-caste Hindus. But Mahatma Gandhi
declared that swaraj would not come for a hundred years if
untouchability was not eliminated. He called the ‘untouchables’ harijan,or the children of God, organised satyagraha to secure them entry
into temples, and access to public wells, tanks, roads and schools.
He himself cleaned toilets to dignify the work of the bhangi (the
sweepers), and persuaded upper castes to change their heart and
give up ‘the sin of untouchability’. But many dalit leaders were keen
on a different political solution to the problems of the community.
They began organising themselves, demanding reserved seats in
educational institutions, and a separate electorate that would choose
dalit members for legislative councils. Political empowerment, they
believed, would resolve the problems of their social disabilities.
Dalit participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement was
therefore limited, particularly in the Maharashtra and Nagpur region
where their organisation was quite strong.
2)Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into the Depressed
Classes Association in 1930, clashed with Mahatma Gandhi at
the second Round Table Conference by demanding separate
electorates for dalits. When the British government conceded
Ambedkar’s demand, Gandhiji began a fast unto death. He believed
that separate electorates for dalits would slow down the process of
their integration into society. Ambedkar ultimately accepted Gandhiji’s
position and the result was the Poona Pact of September 1932.
It gave the Depressed Classes (later to be known as the Schedule
Castes) reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils,
but they were to be voted in by the general electorate. The dalit
movement, however, continued to be apprehensive of the Congressled national movement.
3)Some of the Muslim political organisations in India were also
lukewarm in their response to the Civil Disobedience Movement.
After the decline of the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat movement, a
large section of Muslims felt alienated from the Congress. From the
mid-1920s the Congress came to be more visibly associated with
openly Hindu religious nationalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha.
As relations between Hindus and Muslims worsened, each
community organised religious processions with militant fervour,
provoking Hindu-Muslim communal clashes and riots in various
cities. Every riot deepened the distance between the two communities.
The Congress and the Muslim League made efforts to renegotiate
an alliance, and in 1927 it appeared that such a unity could be forged.
The important differences were over the question of representation
in the future assemblies that were to be elected. Muhammad Ali
4)Jinnah, one of the leaders of the Muslim League, was willing to give
up the demand for separate electorates, if Muslims were assured
reserved seats in the Central Assembly and representation in
proportion to population in the Muslim-dominated provinces (Bengal
and Punjab). Negotiations over the question of representation
continued but all hope of resolving the issue at the All Parties
Conference in 1928 disappeared when M.R. Jayakar of the Hindu
Mahasabha strongly opposed efforts at compromise.
5)When the Civil Disobedience Movement started there was thus
an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust between communities.
Alienated from the Congress, large sections of Muslims could not
respond to the call for a united struggle. Many Muslim leaders and
intellectuals expressed their concern about the status of Muslims
as a minority within India. They feared that the culture and identity
of minorities would be submerged under the domination of a
Hindu majority
Explanation: