write a note on the non-brahman movements in western and southern india.
Answers
Non Brahminism emerged as a result of the making of public space and emergence of a notion of rights which were the by products of colonial rule in India. Generally speaking it was the presence of British and all that it implied which enabled the non-Brahmin groups to attempt and succeed in their challenges to and defiance of social and religious creed and custom.
The emergence of non Brahminism in different parts of India has to be looked into differently. The advent of political non Brahminism in the southern part of India took place with the formation of the South Indian Liberal foundation or Justice Party, as it is popularly known, in 1916. While in the western India the real challenge to Hindu orthodoxy came from Jothirao Phule in the nineteenth century. But the protest against caste, casteism and the Brahminical order probably reached its peak in the modern era under the influence of B.R Ambedkar.
The approaches were different but the ideal was the same, to restore the self respect of the oppressed masses. Ambedkar aimed at bringing about social changes through the instrument of law and he clearly emphasized the centrality of the state and recognised the possibilities arising out of using it as leverage for ensuring social justice, whereas E.V Ramasamy Naicker (popularly known as Periyar), the advocate of Dravidian Movement, was far more critical about the power of state, this was clearly evident in his overall aversion to electoral politics and his efforts to keep the Dravidar Kazhagham as a radical social organisation focussing on radical social movement. Unlike both Ambedkar and EVR, Jotiba Phule resorted to more non- political measures. He believed educating the masses will lead to their empowerment.
But one premise was common to all that Britishers are saviours of sudras, earlier advocated by Jotiba later followed by both Ambedkar and EVR. This was the reason due to which the followers of non-Brahminism were termed as traitors and pro- British by the nationalists.
The colonial period saw important social movements in India. Among the strongest of these was non-Brahman movement in Maharashtra. Its founder was a remarkable intellectual and social activist from the gardener (Mali) caste, Jotirao Phule (1827-90). His writings laid the foundations of the movement, and the Satyashodhak Samaj (Truthseekers Society) which he founded in 1873, became its primary radical organisation, lasting until the 1930s. Shahu Maharaj, the Maratha maharaja of Kolhapur, who turned against Brahmans because they considered him a shudra, and became radicalised from this, was a major patron. The heyday of the movement took place between 1910 and 1930, when the Satyashodhak Samaj carried the message of anti-caste anti-Brahmanism throughout Maharashtra; one of its offshoots was a strong peasant movement. In the 1920s a political party emerged, as did Dr B R Ambedkar's Dalit movement, which drew sustenance also from support of the non-Brahmans and patrons such as Shahu Maharaj. Young radicals such as Keshavrao Jedhe and Dinkarrao Javalkar challenged Brahman cultural dominance in Pune and intervened in the Brahman-dominated Communist movement in Mumbai. By the 1930s, however, the movement died away as the majority of its activists joined Congress. It has left a strong heritage, but the failure to really link nationalism with a strong anti-caste movement has left a heritage of continued and often unadmitted dominance of caste in Indian society today. This classic study on the non-Brahman movement in western India is invaluable for scholars of sociology, caste movements, Dalit studies and colonialism.
Hope it is helpful..