Reconstructing Dalit History and Politics after the 1857 Revolt

 Why is it important for the Dalits to link themselves with the 1857 war of independence and why are the icons related with this incident more important than those of other incidents? Why is 1857 so important for them? The reason may be that the events around this period are not well documented, so the Dalits find plenty of space to invent their history and posit their leaders in them. To the common people especially the Dalits, the 1857 Revolt is highly romantic with a number of local heroic characters who fought valiantly against the British using indigenous weapons. This notion provides the opportunity to create heroes belonging to their community with whom they can identify. The authenticity of these heroes is debatable but they have the power to stir the imagination of people. The events that took place in the twentieth century on the other hand are very well documented since the leaders of that period tried to build up a unified homogeneous story of India’s independence. This gave little space to the Dalits since the story is dominated by upper-caste leaders whom they had to follow. It is true that many lower castes lost their lives in the Non-cooperation, Quit India and other such movements but the glory went to the upper-caste leaders who had organized them.

The 1857 movement was mainly confined to the northern part of India, which made it easier for the Dalits of this region in search of heroes, to invent and situate their heroes in places with heavy concentration of lower castes like Awadh, Bundelkhand and Bhojpur. The memory of these events are not just part of Dalit memory but also a part of the broader collective memory of the region that is reflected in the songs, plays and other mediums of popular culture. This fact enabled the Dalits to invent their heroes and histories who could become both local heroes and identity markers for the entire community in its everyday struggle for dignity and self-respect. The Dalit leaders had understood that it was of paramount importance to link themselves with the nationalist narrative and assert their role in the freedom struggle. However they found it difficult to find space in the main phase of the freedom movement since in the period when the struggle for Dalit uplift had picked up momentum, their leader Dr. Ambedkar had developed a rift with Mahatma Gandhi, the most important leader of this phase. Thus there was no option but to search for their heroes in the 1857 revolution so as not to antagonise the state, which legitimized the nationalist narrative. Since one of the catalysts for the emergence of a Dalit nationalist narrative was the dialogue with the state, they could not afford to ignore it. They could neither negate Ambedkar and his narrative of the nationalist movement nor the dominant nationalist narrative which is projected as the foundation of the present state. The need to strike a balance between the two led the Dalits to search for their own heroes within the nationalist narrative. And the event which provided them the space to do so was the 1857 struggle.

Another reason why the Dalits found it crucial to link themselves with the 1857 struggle was to counter the allegations made by some intellectuals associated with the BJP that the Dalits were anti-national. According to these intellectuals, Ambedkar was against the mainstream nationalist movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and often supported the British. These idealogues try to belittle the untouchables by stating that they conquered India for the British- the Dusadhs and Baheliyas fought for Lord Clive in the Battle of Plassey in 1757. In a bid to oppose the efforts of the Dalits to write their own history and rupture the mainstream nationalist narrative, the All India History Compilation Project, formed by the RSS for propagating history based on the RSS idealogy held a convention between 17 and 19 July 1999 in Allahabad. In this convention the custodian Moreshwar Neelkanth Pingale opined that writing the history of Shudras, Gwalas and Tribals created hatred among sections of society and caused problems for an Indianised social life. In reaction to statements like these the dalits were compelled to assert their role in the 1857 Revolt. They stated that their association with the first war gave them an exalted position in the history of India’s nation building of the country.