oppn parties Dalits Have The Right To Celebrate Watershed Moment in Their History

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court will appoint an observer for the mayoral poll in Chandigarh
  • Government makes it compulsory for plastic carry bag makers to put a QR or barcode with their details on such bags
  • GBS outbreak in Pune leaves 73 ill with 14 on ventilator. GBS is a rare but treatable autoimmune disease
  • Madhya Pradesh government banned sale and consumption of liquor at 19 religious sites including Ujjain and Chitrakoot
  • Odisha emerges at the top in the fiscal health report of states while Haryana is at the bottom
  • JSW Steel net profit takes a massive hit of 70% in Q3
  • Tatas buy 60% stake in Pegatron, the contractor making iPhone's in India
  • Stocks return to negative zone - Sensex sheds 329 points to 76190 and Nifty loses 113 points to 23092
  • Bumrah, Jadeja and Yashasvi Jaiswal make the ICC Test team of the year even as no Indian found a place in the ODI squad
  • India take on England in the second T20 today at Chennai. They lead the 5-match series 1-0
  • Ravindra Jadeja excels in Ranji Trophy, takes 12 wickets in the match as Saurashtra beat Delhi by 10 wickets. All other Team India stars disappoint in the national tournament
  • Madhya Pradesh HC says collectors must not apply NSA "under political pressure and without application of mind"
  • Oxfam charged by CBI over violation of FCRA
  • Indian students in the US have started quitting part-time jobs (which are not legally allowed as per visa rules) over fears of deportation
  • Enforcement Directorate is reported to have frozen nearly Rs 500cr in the accounts of 8 payment gateways including Paytm, Razorpay and PayU
Nation celebrates Republic Day with pomp and vigour //////// Dazzling parade showcasing India's military might and culture in Delhi with Indonesian President as chief guest
oppn parties
Dalits Have The Right To Celebrate Watershed Moment in Their History

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2018-01-02 18:25:57

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
The battle of Bhima Koregaon finds little or no mention in mainstream history books but is folklore for the Dalits in Maharashtra. In the battle, less than 1000 soldiers of the Mahar Battalion in the British Army took on and beat a much larger army of the Peshwas. Mahar’s were a community that was treated as untouchables under the Peshwas. For them, it was not about foreign rulers beating an Indian ruler. For them, it was them beating the army of those who had oppressed their community for ages. It was celebration then and as Dalits continue to be oppressed today, it is celebration now on the occasion of 200 years of the battle.

But the upper castes will have none of it. To them, the Mahar’s sided with foreign rulers and were hence anti-national. So where is the cause of celebration? Peshwas were Brahmins. They severely oppressed and even brutalized the untouchables – as Dalits were known then. Hence, if the Mahars managed to put it across them in the battle, they were bound to celebrate. This is something the upper castes can never understand. For the oppressed, each victory, however small, is like a mountain climbed. The importance of that win and the celebrations can be gauged by the fact that despite it, the Dalits are still being oppressed, exploited, raped and killed, now both by the upper castes and the privileged among their own community.

Hence, the objections by the upper castes in Pune against the Dalits for celebrating the 200 years of Bhima Koregaon battle are out of place and mischievous. Each community has the right to celebrate what it considers watershed moments in its history. Even B R Ambedkar acknowledged the Bhima Koregaon battle as one. If the upper caste Rajput community can agitate against Padmavati (without even seeing the movie) for denigrating a Rajput queen, why are other upper castes so piqued when Dalits celebrate the defeat of those who oppressed them?