Thread by @deepak_malghan

Today is the ninety-fifth anniversary of the historic Mahad Satyagraha. A thread.

#MahadSatyagrahaAnniversary

Chavdar Tank, Mahad

Exclusionary control over public goods (especially water sources) has historically been a central strategy in maintaining the boundary between “touchables” and “untouchables.” 2/n

An early landmark in the 1920s political mobilization by Dalits (the then “depressed classes”) was the 1923 “S. K. Bole Resolution” passed by the Bombay Council that allowed Dalits access to public water tanks. 3/n

While local municipalities, including Mahad, in theory, had to enforce the Bole Resolution, the dominant caste groups seldom allowed its enforcement in practice. 4/n

In 1924, Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha was founded by Ambedkar with the now-famous clarion call, “educate, agitate, organize” as its central creed. The Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha helped catalyze the consolidation of the fledgling Dalit Movement. 5/n

An early highwater mark for this Dalit Movement, now rapidly gaining steam, was the Mahad Satyagraha. The Chavdar Tank (translates to the “tasty water” tank) near Mahad town was out of bounds for Dalits, the Municipality’s affirmation of the Bole resolution notwithstanding. 6/n

Mahad town hosted a large meeting of Depressed Classes between the 19th and 20th of March 1927. Among other resolutions, the meeting decided to march to the Chavdar Tank and assert their rights provided by the Bole Resolution. 7/n

The “tasty water” Chavdar Tank would soon become the crucible of liberation and justice. The Mahad Satyagraha is also remembered as the Chavdar Tank or the Chavdar Tale Satyagraha. 8/n

On the 20th of March 1927, Ambedkar led the meeting participants on a peaceful march to Chavdar Tank (records are unclear about the exact number of marchers, but several thousand reached Chavdar Tank). 9/n

Once at the Chavdar Tank, Ambedkar and his followers washed their hands and drank water from the tank. The caste Hindus of Mahad were not surprisingly incensed. Their first act was to “purify” the tank that had been “defiled” by this transgression. 10/n

Caste Hindus drew 108 pots of water from the tank and poured “Panchagavya” (a mixture of cow dung, cow urine, cow milk, curd, and ghee) into each. They then returned the contents of the pots to the Tank -- an act of ritual purification. 11/n

The Mahad Municipality now withdrew its formal concurrence with the Bole Resolution. Ambedkar vowed to come back to Mahad to launch another agitation. A large conference was planned for December that year. 12/n

By the time Ambedkar and his followers gathered in Mahad (25th December 1927), the caste Hindus of Mahad had filed a suit in the local Civil Court claiming that Chavdar Tank was private property not covered under the Bole Resolution. 13/n

The interim order from the court prohibited Ambedkar from marching to the tank or taking water from there. Ambedkar and his associates burnt a copy of the Manusmriti that evening (now been memorialized as the Manusmriti Dahan Divas). 14/n

Over the next decade, Ambedkar led the legal fight that eventually resulted in Dalits being allowed to draw water from the Chavdar Tank (1936-37). The Ambedkar Centenary postage stamp depicting the Mahad Satyagraha to conclude this thread. n/n

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