206 years after the battle of Bhima Koregaon!

bhima koregaon

The battle of Bhima Koregaon between the British and the Peshwas of Poona ended on 1 January 1818, in which the British won and registered another victory in establishing their rule over India! In this battle, the Mahar Regiment, despite being in very small numbers, won for the British army and paved the way for the emancipation of Dalits!

Many of us may have objections to the Mahar Regiment supporting the British in this way! But after knowing the reasons behind it, perhaps our objections may reduce! Being the son of a freedom fighter myself, I too have been aware of the Mahar Regiment for a long time. I used to feel annoyed seeing the victory pillar of Bhima Koregaon. After joining the Rashtriya Seva Dal and being exposed to the Dalit discourse and the literature of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, my objection ended.

That is why we did fact finding through Rashtra Seva Dal on the occasion of Vijay Diwas (1 January 2018), a planned violence that took place six years before at Bhima Koregaon. And that report was submitted to Justice J.N. Patel Inquiry Commission. That entire report has been published in a very important English magazine like Mainstream in its 23 January 2018 issue. The Pune court, Mumbai High Court and Supreme Court Justice Chandrachud rejected that report in their separate judgments (Dissent Judgment)

According to Manusmriti, except Kshatriyas, any backward caste was forbidden from carrying weapons! That is why for thousands of years, the Dalits and backward castes of India were deprived of the right to fight wars! The British had formed Mahar Regiment and that is why despite such an uneven number, the Mahar Regiment fought and won the battle of Bhima-Koregaon by putting its life at stake!

I believe that for thousands of years, various invaders from Shakas, Huns, Kushans to Greeks, Romans, Mongols, Mughals, Persians, Afghans, Portuguese, Dutch, French, English have been continuously coming to India! And each one of them ruled for some time. This trend continued till 1947! One reason for this is that more than three fourths of our population are Shudras, they are prohibited from carrying weapons, education is prohibited and don’t even ask about untouchability, in this way you yourself have kept such a large population untouchable in the name of religion. Had they given the king a new empire, they would have always been indifferent towards him, no matter who the current king was. And the spirit of resistance that one has against every new invader would have been negligible. And perhaps this hope would have been in their mind that perhaps whoever is coming new, he will probably be better than this! And that is why India has been invaded for thousands of years! And the invaders have ruled for a few days or a few hundred years! The biggest reason for this, in my opinion, is social inequality!

2500 years ago Mahavira and Gautam Buddha had first revolted against these inequalities. And due to this Buddhist empire was established in almost the whole of India . But our caste system conspired again and defeated Buddhism in India. In the beginning of 17th century, the British came under the pretext of trade! But very soon with the help of modern science and technology, they succeeded in ruling over almost three-fourths of the world! And they took advantage of the caste and religious discrimination here. They ruled for 200 years! It was during that period that they started the Mahar Regiment. ! And the Mahar Regiment fought for the British in the battle of Bhima Koregaon 200 years ago and won! Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar had started celebrating Vijay Diwas. And in his tradition, lakhs of Dalits from across the country participated in the Vijay Diwas on 1 January 2018. And they were accused of instigation by Hindutva activists Manohar Kulkarni alias Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote. Thousands of vehicles were vandalized, some were burnt and some people were killed in it! It is completing six years today!

Hindutva against Hindu people is the most important thing in our politics! Gandhiji was on the side of Hindu people! And Golwalkar was on the side of Hindutva! See? Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar started a movement to open the Mahad Lake for Dalits, but instead of helping him, the Hindutvawadis attacked him. They pelted stones and sticks! This was 20 years before Baba Saheb Ambedkar accepted Buddhism! Can you give any example where Hindutva supporters supported Dalits in their fight for their rights?
Did the Hindutvaists support any of the efforts of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai for the Dalits, backward classes and women? Phule was a non-Brahmin! But why did the Brahmin reformers like Agarkar, Chiplunkar, Gokhale and Karve not support them? The main reason for this is that all these social reformers were Brahmins and they did the work of social reform only among Brahmins! Lokmanya Tilak, such a great leader of India’s freedom struggle, had said that “Kunbi, Mali, Teli, Tamboli, and other backward classes Will people of different castes stop ploughing and rule? Then who was Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj?


From the very beginning of our country’s freedom movement, the debate on what should come first – social reform or political reform? This debate has been going on since the time of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule! Which is visible till the time of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar! And the battle of Bhima Koregaon is its classical example. ! The main aim of Jyotiba Phule and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar were to free the Dalit women and backward castes who had been enslaved for thousands of years as per Manusmriti. In the battle of Bhima Koregaon, the soldiers of the Mahar Regiment fought without caring for their lives. And Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar started celebrating the victory day of this battle from 1st January 1927!

Dr. Suresh Khairnar, former President Rashtra Seva Dal

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