Uncommon Courage

Km Mayawati is having many qualities that makes her the Incomparable Lady. To my mind the greatest appears to be her Uncommon Courage. In one of the public meeting in the Ram Lila Ground of Delhi, she declared that she had decided to dedicate her entire life to the cause of the wretched people amongst whom she was born.

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Education and Health are basic necessities for enlightenment of mind and social emancipation. Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, the father of India’s Social Revolution searched for causes of degradation of Shudras and Ati Shudras. His considered conclusion was that the root cause of degradation was ignorance born out of lack of education.

As a matter of fact the Caste System denied education to the Shudras and Ati Shudras. When Phule was sent school by his father, people of his own community condemned it and boycotted him for violating the custom. But equality of status is impossible without imparting to the oppressed a level of education and health equal to others in the society.

Education not only widens the mind and liberates if from outdated thoughts and practices, it enables a man to claim and occupy positions in life. It is the main instrument of empowerment. Education liberates one from most of the social barriers like Untouchability. Equal acceptability of the downtrodden in the society can surely be established by education. An illiterate man is a permanent destitute in a competitive society. Literacy improves ability to compete. It is a factor securing social justice and freedom from dependence.

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Sahib Kanshi Ram

Dalits should become rulers instead of being ruled. We must not be always at the receiving end, instead become the givers, Dalit Leader Mr. Kanshi Ram told the world dalits. It's long we have been ruled. It is long we have been taking. Now it is time we change the destiny to rule and give, he said. Mr. Kanshi Ram who is the Founder Prisident of Bahujan Samaj Party delivered a key-note address at the opening of the 1st World Dalit Convention 'A new vision towards a casteless society' at the Kuala Lampur Mines Resort City.

The two day convention held on 10th and 11th October 1998 was well attended by more than 700 delegates throughout the world including famous politicians noted leaders from dalit movement, champions of down-trodden, social reformers, renowned economists, famous educationists and great scholars.

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Kanshi Ram was born in 1934 as a Raedasi Sikh, a community of Punjabi Chamars converted to Sikhism. The family had 4 or 5 acres of land, some of it inherited and the rest acquired through government allocation after Independence), a small landed background is characteristic of many Scheduled Caste legislators but remains a comparative rarity for Dalits in general. Kanshi Ram's father was himself 'slightly' literate, and he managed to educate all his four daughters and three sons. Kanshi Ram, the eldest, is the only graduate. He was given a reserved position in the Survey of India after completing his BSc degree, and in 1958 he transferred to the Department of Defence Production as a scientific assistant in a munitions factory in Poona.

Kanshi Ram's introduction to the political ideas of Ambedkar - he has never been attracted to Buddhism - was through his Mahar Buddhist colleague and friend at the munitions factory, D. K. Khaparde. Together the two of them began formulating ideas for an organisation to be built by educated employees from the Scheduled and Backward castes. Such an organisation would work against harassment and oppression by high-caste officers, and also enable the often inward-looking occupants of reserved postions to give something back to their own communities. So Kanshi Ram and Khaparde began to contact likely recruits in Poona. At about this time Kanshi Ram abandoned any thought of marriage, largely because it did not fit into a life he now wanted to dedicate to public con-cerns. He had also quite lost interest in his career, though he continued in the job until about 1971. He finally left after a severe conflict over the non-appointment of an apparently qualified Scheduled Caste young woman. During this conflict he had gone so far as to strike a senior official, and he did not even bother attending most of the ensuing disciplinary pro-ceedings. He had already made up his mind to become a full-time activist, and the movement was by then strong enough to meet his modest needs.

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"I will never get married, I will never acquire any property, I will never visit my home, I will devote and dedicate the rest of my life to achieve the goals of Phule -Ambedkar movement"

 These pledges remind the work of Manyawar Kanshi Ram Sahib who is remembered in the history of India as a True leader of Bahujan Samaj . The journey of Manyawar Kanshi Ram Saheb and his movement of socio-cultural revolution and economic emancipation of Bahujan Samaj started way back in 1964. Kanshi Ram, the eldest son of Mr. Hari Singh, resident of Khawas Pur village of Punjab 's Roper district, was born on 15 th March, 1934 , in a Sikh family belonging to the Ramdassia Community.

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