Editors Note: The following article is from a series of questions answered by Mr. Shekhar Bodhakar
” All battles for freedom are not on equal moral plane for the simple reason that the motives and purposes behind these battles of freedom are not always the same”.-Dr. Ambedkar,”Plea to the foreigner”.
Could, Why Dr. Ambedkar not support the Quit India movement, be something to do with this man?
Who was Bal Gangadhar Tilak?
The first and strongest advocate of Swaraj (“self-rule”) was a Chitpavan Brahmin, Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920); also know as Lokmanya. He was known as “the father of Indian unrest ” by the British.The Age of Consent Act, 1891, also Act X of 1891, was a legislation enacted in British India on 19 March 1891 which raised the age of consent from 10 years for sexual intercourse for all girls, married or unmarried, to twelve years of age in all jurisdictions.The Chitpavan Brahmins, with Tilak as their leader, were against this 1891 Age of Consent bill, seeing it as INTERFERENCE with Hinduism and a dangerous precedent.REFERENCE: Jai Narain Sharma-Political Thought of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak-Concept Publishing Company-ISBN 13:9788180695841).
Draconian anti-humanity laws practiced in India for centuries, if not millenia, were being challenged by the British. Continual amendments to these laws must have become a great source of worry for the Brahmins.
Never before did the privileged castes rebel against any other foreign ruler so vehemently. In fact they enjoyed mutually beneficial relationships with all previous invaders and were even happy to give their daughters in wedlock to the foreigners as long as they maintained the social structure designed by their dominating ancestors.
Only the British seemed hard to convince. Here is a list (not by any means, a complete list) of other practices abolished by the British, giving the Brahmins like Tilak further reasons why they should get rid of the Brits ASAP.
1) On 16th May 1775, under the East India regulatory act 1773, Nand kumar Dev became the FIRST EVER BRAHMIN TO BE CONVICTED OF MURDER. Prior to this date the Brahmins had exclusive impunity from state prosecution regardless of the crime.
2) 1795: For the FIRST TIME since the decline of the Ashokan empire, Shudras were granted the right to own property.
3) 1804: Female infanticide banned.
4) 1813: Slavery abolished.
5) Also in 1813: Right to education for all granted.
6) 1817: Punishments according to Varna system made illegal.
7) 1819: A ban was put on the archaic custom of a Brahmin spending the first three nights with the newly wed Shudra bride.
8) 1830: Human sacrificial rituals made illegal.
9) 1835: Compulsory offering of the first born son of a Shudra to the river Ganga made illegal).
10) Also in 1835 on 7th of March, Lord Macaulay fought for and won the right to higher education for Shudras & untouchables and the right to learn English for all non Brahmins.
Under this newly found freedom to education, the iconoclast JYOTIRAO PHULE became the first person to successfully complete matriculation becoming the most educated person from the ‘OBC Catagory’ and PERUNTHALAIVAR M.C. Rajah being the first degree holder of the Scheduled Community in India. [B.A in Madras Christian College, Chennai in 1900].
11) Untouchable were granted the right to sit on chairs.
12) The British banned the custom of “sati” in which it was obligatory for the widow of the deceased to be burnt to death.
AND THE LIST CONTINUES .. .
The abolition of these draconian anti-humanity laws was seen as an attack on the Hindu way of life and an obvious source of worry for the likes of Tilak. Can you really blame them for starting a movement to kick the British out?AT THIS RATE THEY COULD EVEN END UP ANNIHILATING THE CASTE SYSTEM ALTOGETHER!
Who else, other than the dominant, privileged, so-called high castes, would have started such a movement?.Should Dr. Ambedkar, who was fighting for human rights on behalf of the opppressed women, Shudras and the untouchables have joined the Brahmin-Bania alliance in the “Quit India Movement ”, that was stepped up a few notches in the days of Gandhi-mania?.
