Caste Movements in India

 The movements of caste unions arose out of various conflicts in Indian society. They basically preserve traditions and divide people. But some cases require changes. The anti-Brahmin Justice Party in Madras was loyal to the government in the opinion of the British rulers. Dual administration prevailed in that state. Harmony between officials and elected ministers   Another example of early collaboration was Punjab, where Fazal Hussain's Unionist Party was able to unite castes and Muslims to build a powerful agrarian (landlords, rich farmers) lobby against urban nationalism. Bhaskara Rao Jadhav's non-Brahmin party in Maharashtra tried to maintain a similar loyalist role. The Congress has accused the Brahmins of hiding their aspirations. Certain aspects of Tilak's theory lend strength to this charge. Non-Brahmin leaders like the Justice Party and Jadhav were interested in culturalizations that imitated the upper castes towards reservation in jobs in practice, but popular movements demanding radical changes also emerged during this period.


A Bihar Government report dated 'May' 1925 stated that the Yadavas of Patna, Monghir, Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur districts were anxious to raise the social status of their caste and were wearing flags and refusing to do the services they had done to their landlords in the past. In the following decade, Swami Sahajananda Saraswati, an all-India Kisan leader, began his activities in the 1920s by organizing the Bhumihar Brahmin Sabha at an ashram at Beehta in Patna district.


We have mentioned earlier about the truth seeking movement in Maharashtra. Satyashodhaka rural agitators revolted against landlords against usurers in Satara district during 1919-21. The rebellion affected 30 villages. There were some violent clashes. From the mid-1920s, Keshavrao Jethe and Dinakarao Javalkar gave leadership to a new type of non-Bahmanical movement from Poona. Like the Brahmin-dominated Tilak Congress, they were also anti-British. But later in the decade, the Maharashtra Congress was able to connect with them and win them over. As a result, by 1942, Satara was a stronghold of nationalism in Bombay.


While the Marathi feudal peasantry was engulfed in nationalism, the untouchable Mahars developed an independence movement under the leadership of Ambedkar from the 1920s. Their demands: special representation, right to use ponds, wells, temple entry, abolition of mahara watan (traditional services to village headmen). By 1927, when the first Mahar political conference was held, Ambedkar's followers began burning Manusmriti as a sign of breaking away from Hinduism.


The Tamil Nadu Congress leadership has shown a less accommodating attitude than that of Maharashtra. Periyar E.V., who was active in non-cooperation. Ramaswami  Naykar's Justice Party broke with the Congress in the mid-1920s to develop an alternative that demanded radical changes that would appeal to popular popular opposition to aristocratic tendencies. His 'Patrikakudi Arasu' (1924), published in poignant Tamil, and the 'Self-Respect Movement' founded in the following year gained popularity by conducting marriages without Brahmin priests, performing temple entrances, burning Manusmriti, and in some cases promoting atheism.


The mild satyagraha in Kerala could not satisfy the Yajava leader Sri Narayana Guru. Satyagrahas and barricades were asked to walk on forbidden roads and enter all temples. T.K. Madhavan's Sanskritization and Gandhian style of leadership by K. Ayyappan, C. Yazva leaders like Keshavan strongly resisted.


It is worth noting that active lower class movements in all these areas also contributed to the emergence of leftist tendencies. Sahajananda met with the socialists and later with the communists. In 1919-21, Nanapatil, who took part in Satya Sodhak movements in Satara, headed a parallel government in 1942. After that he became a prominent communist farmer leader in Maharashtra. Singaravelu, P. Early Tamil communists like Jeevanandan collaborated with Periyar for a brief period in the early 1930s. Although Ayyappan and Keshavan did not join the Communist Party, many Yazhavas in Kerala were guided to the path of the Communist Party.                                                                                                           www.sciencescop.blogspot.com

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