Kuldip Chand Dobhetta
Due to the social structure and the caste system, Indian society has been divided into different classes and some classes, especially the Shudras, the fourth class Shudras were suffering from slavery. To end this system and give equal status to all people many social reformers have launched movements from time to time, one of them is the freedom fighter and leader of Ghadar and Adi Dharm movements – Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia.
Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia worked for the welfare of the untouchables, he was born on 14 January 1886 in village Mugowal of Hoshiarpur district to Harnam Das and Atri. Babu Mangu Ram’s mother died when he was only three years old. His father Harnam Das was in the leather profession.
Babu Mangu Ram who was initially taught by a village sadhu was admitted to a school when he was seven years old. He faced a lot of discrimination in school because he was from an untouchable caste. He also attended school in a village near DehraDun where his older brother had settled. In most of the schools he was the only student from the untouchable caste. He dropped out of school in 1905 due to humiliations and worked with his father. He got married in 1905 and in 1909 he went to the USA. Here he worked in the fields with the village landlords for a few years but here too he had to face caste-based discrimination. During this time he came in contact with the leaders of the Ghadar movement Lala Hardial and Sohan Singh Bhakna fighting for India’s freedom and started working for the Ghadar movement.
A very dangerous mission was planned by the Ghadar movement in which a ship of weapons for the freedom struggle was to be taken to India by sea. The main responsibility of this mission was given to him but the British Government had already got news of it. This mission which took place in 1915 and which was being brought by five leaders of the Ghadar movement was blown up by the British government in the sea. Babu ji somehow escaped and after that he finally reached India in 1925 after sixteen years via the Philippines and Sri Lanka. During this time due to not receiving any news the family considered Babu ji dead and married his wife to another brother. He saw that a fight was being fought to free the Country from the British but no one was doing anything for the welfare and freedom of the untouchables who had been slaves for centuries.
At the end of the year 1925, Babu Ji opened the first Adi Dharm Primary School in the village to educate dalit children and started teaching. Under his leadership on June 11-12, 1926, thousands of people from 36 castes which were considered untouchables from different parts of the country like Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Calcutta etc. gathered in the village Mugowal and it was announced that people belonging to these castes would adopt Adi Dharm. Babu Mangu Ram was unanimously elected as its first president. He succeeded remarkably well in creating awareness and awakening among the people. His path was beset with difficulties and he had to work against the odds and trying circumstances.
The message brought by Babu Mangu Ram was new and inspiring. It was aimed at awakening the untouchables. In November 1926 the first office of Adi Dharm was opened in Jalandhar and Babu Ji started living in Jalandhar where he remained till 1940 and worked for the welfare of Adi Dharm and the untouchables. In 1927, a weekly newspaper called Adi Danka was started and in 1928, it was also launched in Urdu. The British Government appointed a commission headed by Sir John Simon which is called the Simon Commission to assess the condition of the untouchables in India. Many leaders led by Congress leader Lala Lajpat Rai opposed this commission but Babu Mangu Ram along with his colleagues presented his case before the Simon Commission and said that they are neither Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs nor Christians. He explained with evidence that they are Adi Dharmis who had once been the rulers of this country. Due to the struggle of Adi Dharmi leaders the untouchables were given the facilities of reading and writing, the right to vote, the begar system was abolished, recruitment in the army and police started, the rajtnama was abolished and people were made owners of houses.
The Punjab Land Alienation Act of 1900 was abolished and gave the right to non-marusi people to buy property. The Adi Dharam Mandal openly opposed the use of the word Harijan. In the year 1930 the Governor of Punjab issued orders that special classes should be started for Adi Dharam boys and girls who were tenth pass to be trained as teachers. Chaudhary Sadruddin Khan organized these classes in the Adi Dharam Mandal building and 80 persons were made teachers by doing the JBT course. On 26 February 1930 Adi Dharm was registered and in the 1931 census Adi Dharm was included for the first time and at that time, 418789 people in Punjab which was approximately 1.5 percent of the total population had registered their religion as Adi Dharm. During this census, there were clashes at many places in which Rala Ram Ravidasia and Jhagaru Ram Valmiki were killed and many others were injured due to which it is also called the ‘Bloody census’. In many places the untouchables were forcibly registered as Hindus and Sikhs. It is worth mentioning that the population of untouchables which was approximately 28 lakhs at the time of the 1911 census was reduced to approximately 13 lakhs in 1931.
In the Round Table Conference held in London in the years 1930, 31, 32, to prove that the real leader of untouchables was Dr. Ambedkar, leaders from Punjab and other states sent about 57 telegrams to London due to which Dr. Ambedkar got the right to represent the untouchables. The British Government sent the Lothian Committee to India in which Dr. Ambedkar came as a representative of the untouchables. When this committee came to Lahore the leaders of the Adi Dharam Mandal reached with about 10 thousand people and placed their demands before the committee. On this occasion some Arya Samaj leaders opposed the demands of the Adi Dharam Mandal but when thousands of people sitting outside the meeting hall raised slogans these Arya Samaj leaders had to face humiliation.
The Adi Dharam Mandal leaders demanded that separate reservations be made according to our population. After Lothian’s report the British Government approved a separate electoral system for the untouchables which was called the Communal Award. According to this decision the untouchables were considered separate and reservation was given to the untouchables, the right to double vote was given, 73 seats in the Council of India were given to the untouchables separately from the Hindus.
In protest against this communal award, Congress leader Gandhi went on a fast strike in Yerwada jail, Pune on 20th September, 1932. And in protest against Gandhi, the leaders of Adi Dharam also went on a fast. On 24th September 1932 a compromise was done between Dr. Ambedkar and Gandhi which is called the Poona Pact and the untouchables were considered a part of the Hindus. After the law was passed in this regard on 26th September Gandhi ended his fast but Babu Mangu Ram with his team continued their fast and on the 12th day he ended his fast by drinking juice from the hands of Sant Sarwan Das Dera Ballanwale and Seth Kishan Das.
According to the Poona Pact, 08 seats were reserved in Punjab. In the elections held in Punjab in the year 1937, the leaders of Adi Dharam Mandal led by Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia won 7 seats out of the 8 reserved seats and Moola Singh Balachauria who won the 8th seat which was lost by only 07 votes also joined the Adi Dharam Mandal later. In 1946, Babu Mangu Ram was also elected to the Punjab Assembly along with 4 other companions. He advocated increasing educational and employment opportunities for the untouchables. In June 1928, Shahid Bhagat Singh published an article titled “The Problem of the Untouchables” in the Kirti Newspaper in which he praised the efforts of the Adi Dharm Mandal to organize the untouchables independently.
In the year 1947 before the partition of India, Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s secretary along with Chaudhry Sundar Das, Master Gurbanta Singh and several officers reached the village of Mugowal and demanded that if they agreed to the Muslim League and joined Pakistan, they would give 50 Murabas of land and 50 thousand rupees, which they rejected. After independence the Adi Dharm section was eliminated in the census held in 1951. In independent India, Babu Mangu Ram continuously struggled to run the Adi Dharm movement. In 1972, he was honored by the Central Government and given a pension. The government gave him some land near Garhsankar. On 22 April 1980 the leader of the Ghadar movement and the Adi Dharm movement left us forever.
Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha member Shamsher Singh Dulon built a statue of Babu Ji in his village Mugowal. Babu Mangu Ram Mugowalia will always be remembered for his struggle for freedom and the steps taken for the welfare of the untouchables.
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Advocate Kuldip Chand Dobhetta is from Ropar, Punjab.
