Battle of Bhima Koregaon symbolizes a war
against caste oppression
published in Asia Times
IndiaOpinion
Battle of Bhima Koregaon symbolizes a war
against caste oppression
By Mangesh Dahiwale January 4, 2018 8:08 PM
(UTC+8)
I have been visiting Bhima Koregaon
regularly for the last 10 years on
January 1 to pay homage to my ancestors for their valor and bravery. The
200th anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle this year brought more than a
million people, not only from Maharashtra, but also from other parts of India.
After 200 years, the monument at Bhima
Koregaon has transformed into a symbol of social revolution throughout the
country.
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The Battle of Bhima Koregaon is a historic
event in many ways. On January 1, 1818, a disciplined and organized army of 500
defeated the 28,000-strong army of the Peshwas/Brahmins. The 500 disciplined
Mahars (now converted to Buddhism) and some other marginalized castes along
with the British officer(s) defeated what can be considered the inhuman,
draconian casteist rule of the Peshwas.
The Peshwa/Brahmins enacted the caste codes
of the Manu Smriti (an ancient text that lays down codes for a version of
Hinduism) and the Mahar-Nags were forced to wear earthen pots around their
necks and a broom on their back, so that if they spat, they spat in the pot
tied around their necks, and their footprints would be swept by the broom.
Their touch was labeled as “polluting” by the Brahmins. Even their shadow was
considered polluting.
In the history of the world, many battles
and revolutions have been fought against slavery. The Haitian Revolution
started in 1791 by African slaves resulted in the takeover of Haiti by 1804.
African-Americans waged a similar battle for equality, and the rebellion of
black slave Nat Turner is a landmark event.
The Bhima Koregaon battle is important
because the worst kind of oppressors were defeated. The origin of the Mahars is
discussed by Dr B R Ambedkar in a short paper on “Who Were the Mahars?” and
historically Mahars were a martial race. They were the brave classes who fought
with bravery to defeat the Brahmins. Not only the Mahars, but the major
untouchable castes were all martial races.
That was the time when India was divided
into small kingdoms ruled by different monarchs. Though there were many
kingdoms, the Manu Smriti reduced erstwhile martial classes of untouchables
(and former Buddhists) to the lowest rungs of society.
Ambedkar found the origin of the word
Mahars and that it came into usage around 1700. Gustav Oppert, a remarkable
German Indologist, in his book The Original Inhabitants of India reveals that
untouchable castes throughout the country have a common social origin. If we
trace their history, it goes back to the history of the conflict between
Buddhism and Brahminism. Untouchability is the outcome of the Brahminical
hatred toward the Buddhists, which continues even today.
The battle of Bhima Koregaon in 1818 was
fought at a time when Dalits were treated as less than humans by the
Brahminical Peshwas. After the battle,
the British became the masters of India. Even in the battles of Plassey and
Buxor in Bengal, the untouchables of the regions fought side by side with the
British East India Company’s army.
Though India was united politically under
the British and the untouchables fought with the hope of their rights and their
liberation, the British were ungrateful, and they recruited other castes into
the military after they won India. They delisted the untouchables. They only
started listing them when they realized that untouchables had risen politically
through social mobilization. Babasaheb Ambedkar played a role in starting the
Mahar regiment again in 1940s.
The present context: January 1, 2018
What was strange this time was the way
everything was arranged by the Maharashtra state government run by the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). If you were traveling to the memorial from Pune
by the Ahmednagar Road, the vehicle was halted 5 kilometers before reaching it.
This turned the visit into a laborious walk. Imagine so many mothers and
sisters walking with their children for 10km. The mass of people at the Bhima
Koregaon memorial probably numbered several hundred thousand.
The privileged “upper” caste Hindus,
probably instigated by suspected RSS/BJP members, threw stones at the people
coming from this approach. They set vehicles on fire in a bid to scare people
away. The crowd remained undeterred and non-violent. Only after this violence
was unleashed did the Dalits come out on the streets to protest and deny them
their right to celebrate a historic victory.
The context: past and present
The violence perpetrated during the
celebration of Bhima Koregaon by the Brahminical Hindutva forces must be placed
in the context of the larger contemporary political scene in India. The battle
of Bhima Koregaon was decisive for the future evolution of the Bahujan (Dalit)
movement for social justice. Otherwise, oppressed Indians would have languished
in perpetual social degradation.
When the Marathas (a dominant farming
caste) were ruling significant parts of India after the social, political and
cultural revolution of Shivaji Maharaj (King), society was not as divided on
the basis of caste. The great king never discriminated on the basis of caste
and religion. On the contrary, the arrogant Brahmins disrespected him, as is
evident from many historical sources
where he is described as the Shudra (lower caste) King.
The term “Marathas,” then, was not the name
of a caste, but a linguistic identity. Today, dominant farmers use it to assert
their caste pride. The word “Maratha” emerged after the language (Marathi) that
the majority of people in the kingdom of Shivaji spoke (present-day
Maharashtra, whose name is derived from the Mahars). The Marathas included
various castes. The history of the Marathas is connected with that of the
Vakatak/Satvahans, who were Buddhist rulers
However, through their political
machinations, Brahmins took over the Maratha kingdom and used Manu Smriti to
justify their rule. The great Sambhaji, the son of Shivaji, was killed
according to the dictates Manu Smriti as he dared to study Sanskrit. It
dictates that the Shudras cannot read, write, or hear Sanskrit. When Sambhaji
Maharaja was thus killed, it was a Mahar soldier Govind Gaikwad who collected
Sambhaji’s mortal remains and gave them an honorable funeral, defying a Mughal
diktat. That is the reason the Brahminical forces vandalized Gaikwad’s tomb on
December 28 last year.
Had it not been for the victory in the
battle of Bhima Koregaon, there would be no Mahatma Phule, the father of
India’s social revolution. Famously, his father told Jotiba that had it not
been for the victory of the British and the defeat of the Brahmin Peshwas in
Pune, he would have been reduced to a plaything of the Brahmins. If Jotiba had
not emerged, Bhimba (Dr Ambedkar) would not have emerged, and we Indians would
be still ruled by the inhuman Brahminical Peshwas.
The Battle of Bhima Koregaon was a
successful contest for the social and political emancipation of the Bahujans,
including the Marathas and the other castes. Therefore, the architects of the
Bhima Koregaon victory are the founders of the ongoing battle between the 85%
Bahujans and 15% Brahmins and Banias. This is a historical trajectory that must
be understood in this context.
以上是兩百年前印度種性壓迫的悲慘抗爭史。祈禱人類文明早日全面平等和平相處!
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