DALIT MOVEMENT IN INDIA: IN THE LIGHT OF DALIT LITERATURE

Abstract

The term dalits was in use as a translation for the British Raj census classification of Depressed Classes prior to 1935. It was popularised by the economist and reformer B. R. Ambedkar (18911956), who included all depressed people irrespective of their caste into the definition of dalits. Hence the first group he made was called the Labour Party and included as its members all people of the society who were kept depressed, including women, small scale farmers and people from backward castes. New leaders like Kanhaiya Kumar subscribe to this definition of dalits, thus a Brahmin marginal farmer trying to eke out a living, but unable to do so also falls in the dalit category. Ambedkar himself was a Mahar, and in the 1970s the use of the word dalit was invigorated when it was adopted by the Dalit Panthers activist group. Gradually, political parties used it to gain mileage.