“Dalit participation was limited in the Civil Disobedience Movement”. Examine the statement.
- THE abstract concept of Swaraj did not move the nation’s untouchables. They had begun to call themselves dalit or oppressed from around 1930s.
- For the long time, the Congress had ignored the dalits for fear of offending the Sanatanis, the conservative high caste Hindus.
- Gandhiji persuaded upper castes to change their heart and gave up the sin of untouchability.
- Mahatma Gandhi declared that Swaraj would not come for a hundred years, if untouchability was not eliminated.
- He called the untouchables ‘Harijan’.
- He organised satyagraha to secure their entry into temples and access to public wells, tanks, roads and schools.
- He himself cleaned toilets to dignify the work of the bhangi.
- Many dalit leaders were keen to solve the community’s problems in different ways.
- 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.