Dipankar Kamble
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Bajirao 2 the Peshwa of Pune executed Manu Smiriti in the most extreme manner in his regime, The Untouchables (Mahars, Chambhars, Maṅgs) were made to wear a pot around their necks and were made to tie a broom to there waists so that their saliva and foot marks would not pollute the land.
When the British wanted to conquer India they recognised the potential of Maharnags as it was considered as a martial community. They approached the Maharnags and gave them the offer of admission in the British Army. Mukti Nayak Sidnak went to the Peshwa Bajirao II and made him aware of the scenario and offered him that the Maharnags will fight for the Peshwa Army provided , after the battle the Peshwa would admit Maharnags in his army. The Peshwa dismissed the offer and insulted Sidnag.
The Maharnags entered the British army and call it frustration, revenge, anger, fight for self-respect, they were so aggressive that an army of 500 Maharnags defeated the army of 28000 Peshwas.
On 1st January every year, thousands of people from Dalit communities go to Bhima Koregaon not to celebrate the British victory but to celebrate the symbolic victory of Maharnags over Peshwas, to celebrate victory over the Manusmiriti regime. To commemorate the symbolic victory of the Maharnags, the British army built the Vijay Stambh to honour the Maharnags. The current RSS/BJP upper caste regime is conspiring to bring bitterness between the Mahar-Maraṭha brotherhood. Mahars and Marathas were always for each other.
When Shivaji Maharaj went to meet Afzal Khan he took Jiva Mahar with him. Jiva belonged to the Mahar community; it is popularly said in Maraṭhi that “hota Jiva manhun vachla Shiva”. Because when Maharaj killed Afzal Khan, Sayyid Banda, a Dandpatta (gauntlet-sword) specialist and aide of Afzal Khan, attacked Maharaj, Jiva Mahar was the one who resisted that attack on Maharaj and killed Sayyid Banda.
When Sambhaji Raje was killed, it was a Mahar soilder in Vadhu who collected his mortal remains and gave it an honourable funeral.
When Marathas were ruling a significant part of India after the revolution of Shivaji Maharaj and Sambhaji Raje, the society was not so widely divided on the basis of caste, the Maharaja never discriminated on the basis of caste and religion.
Had it not been for the victory in the battle of Koregaon there would be no Mahatma Jotiba Phule the father of the social revolution. And if Jotiba had not emerged, Bhimba (Dr. Ambedkar) would not have emerged.
My suggestion to all the Bahujan leaders who are shamelessly following RSS/BJP for the greed of power and position, if you have a bit of shame, you should resign from this government.
As Dr Ambedkar used to say, political power is the absolute power. After the Bhima Koregaon incident, if the Bahujans want that this should not happen again, the first thing we should do is to introspect and get united.
Jai Shivray, Jai Sambhu Raje, Jai Sidnag, Jai Jotiba, Jai Savitri aai, Jai Shahu, Jai Bhim!
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Dipankar Devesh Kamble is a student at National Law university, Nagpur, and Management member of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Education Society, Bramhapuri. He can be contacted at kambledipankar10@gmail.com
