MAHAD SATYAGRAHA

• The events that led to the Mahad Satyagraha began to unfold in August 1923.
• The Bombay Legislative Council passed a resolution moved by the social reformer Rao Bahadur S K Bole, which said “the Untouchable classes be allowed to use all public water sources, wells and dharmashalas which are built and maintained out of public funds or administered by bodies appointed by the Government or created by statute, as well as public schools, courts, offices and dispensaries.”
• Albeit with reluctance, the Bombay government adopted the resolution in the following month, and issued directions for its implementation
• The situation on the ground, however, remained unchanged  upper caste Hindus would not allow the lower castes to access public water sources
• At that point, Ramchandra Babaji More, a Mahad-based Dalit political leader, approached Ambedkar to preside “over a conference of the Untouchables in Konkan”
• Ambedkar at the time was helping Dalits fight against the social evil of untouchability through the Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha, the institution that he had founded in 1924
• Ambedkar agreed to More’s proposition, and involved himself in overseeing the preparations for the conference, which was to take place in Mahad town in the Konkan (now in Maharashtra’s Raigad district) on March 19 and 20, 1927
• He conducted meetings with local Dalit leaders, stressed on creating “a wave of awakening” among the lower caste people of Konkan, and directed other organisers to conduct meetings to propagate news of the conference
• The volunteers collected Rs 3 from each of the 40 villages and also collected rice and wheat to feed the participants at Mahad. It took nearly two months of preparations to hold the Conference
• Workers and leaders personally met depressed class people and explained to them the importance of the Conference
• Soon after the conference came to an end, a priest of a local temple went around the town claiming that Dalits were planning to enter the temple, and asked people to help thwart them.
• This resulted in a clash in which “20 people were seriously injured and 60-70 people, including 3 to 4 women were wounded”, Teltumbde wrote.
• Some upper caste Hindus filed a case in court against Ambedkar and his followers on December 12, claiming that the tank was private property
• Two days later, the court issued a temporary injunction, prohibiting Babasaheb and other Dalits from going to the tank or taking water from it until further orders.

• The Mahad Satyagraha is considered to be the “foundational event” of the Dalit movement. This was the first time that the community collectively displayed its resolve to reject the caste system and assert their human rights.
• Although anti-caste protests had taken place before the Mahad Satyagraha, they were mostly localised and sporadic
• The difference between (the) Mahad (Satyagraha) and them mainly lay in the organisation and leadership; they lacked in elements of organisation and the charismatic leadership of Dr Ambedkar
• The Mahad Satyagraha was to become the blueprint for organising future movements against the caste system and its practices.
• It marked an important point in Ambedkar’s political journey, catapulting him to the leadership of the downtrodden and oppressed classes in the country