Published 2025-11-10
Keywords
- B.R. Ambedkar, bahujan Samaj Party, Dalits, Depressed Classes Gandhiji, Government of India Act, Poona Pact, Prime Minister’s Award, Ramsay Mac Donald, Rao Bahadur, R. Srinivasan Yerwada, Marginalized Women, Structural Humiliation, Intersectionality, Women’s Dignity, Educational Empowerment, Ambedkarian Perspective
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Abstract
In June 1936, the Hindu Mahasabha leader B. S. Moonje and the Dalit leader and trenchant critic of Hinduism Dr B. R. Ambedkar jointly proposed mass conversions of the ‘untouchables’ to Sikhism. According to Ambedkar, if the untouchables converted to Sikhism, they would leave the Hindu religion but not Hindu culture. The untouchable converts to Sikhism would escape caste oppression without getting ‘denationalized’. This initiative provoked a major controversy, and leaders as diverse as M. M. Malaviya, Mahatma Gandhi, M. C. Rajah and P. N. Rajabhoj expressed their views on the subject. This article explores what Ambedkar meant by expressions like ‘de-nationalization’ and ‘Hindu culture’. Malaviya’s anxieties about the weakening of the Hindu community because of this initiative, Rajah’s fear that mass conversions could lead to a Sikh–Hindu–Muslim problem at a national level, Gandhi’s emphasis on spiritual values and the voluntary removal of untouchability in a spirit of repentance, and Tagore’s universalist and humanist attitude towards religion are explored. The complex political and intellectual responses of Hindu and Dalit leaders to the proposed mass conversions to Sikhism in the mid-1930s reveal dimensions not often considered in mainstream narratives about Hindu nationalism or Dalit conversions. The main aim of the paper is to trace out the role and importance of Poona Pact and its impact on the Dalits/depressed classes. The Poona Pact (September 1932), signed between Mahatma Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar is concerned as a watermark development as far as the Dalit/Depressed Class reservation and their share in the Indian council is concerned. According to the various Acts passed by the British Government different sections of Indian society like Muslims, Sikhs and Anglo Indians etc. got the right of separate electorates and the demand for separate electorates for the depressed classes was highlighted by the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald who later passed Communal Award in (August 1932). Gandhi Ji thought this would divide the Hindu community. Later there were negotiations between Mahatma Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar and this resulted in the formulation of Poona Pact.