[Dalit History Month Special] Bahishkrit Bharat: The Periodical That Articulated the Grievances of the Boycotted Society

The year 1927 played a defining role in the Ambedkarite movement. Baba Saheb visited the Bhima Koregaon memorial for the first time on 1st January 1927 and later that year, he organised the Mahad Satyagraha, the movement for the right to drink water from the Chawdar Tank. During the course of the Mahad Satyagraha, he launched Bahishkrit Bharat on 3rd April. 

The title of the periodical, Bahishkrit, which means boycotted in English, was an apt word as it catered to the section that was excluded from all public places. As it was launched during the Mahad Satyagraha, the title assumed relevance. The title was proposed and ratified at a public meeting presided over by Ambedkar in Bombay. Ambedkar was already leading an organisation called Bahishkrit Hitkarni Sabha, founded in 1924, three years before the launch of the newspaper.

Minimal resources

Although Ambedkar was closely involved in the editorial management of Mooknayak also, he was more directly involved in the affairs of Bahishkrit Bharat as he was the editor of the newspaper. "Ambedkar had cited the financial crunch as a reason for single-handedly managing the affairs of Bahishkrit Bharat, i.e. writing, reporting and editing the paper. No extra staff was hired by him.”

The Congress and the right-wing Hindu nationalists were regularly criticised in Bahishkrit Bharat for glossing over the question of caste. Speaking to The Mooknayak, Prabodhan Pal of the Manipal Centre of Humanities points out that Ambedkar mentioned in an editorial “The Hindu society was incapable of realizing basic social norms of intermixture and camaraderie." The periodical also published incidents of violence against the Dalits. Pal, an authority in Ambedkarite journalism, notes that "Bahishkrit Bharat played a very crucial role in mobilising the opinion against caste violence in the late 1920s.” Pal attributes Ambedkar's skills as an editor and effective communicator for this mobilisation.

Advocacy for interfaith marriages

In 1927, when an interfaith marriage between a Hindu girl and a Muslim man was a hot-button issue and was staunchly opposed by most of the Marathi newspapers, in an editorial in Bahishkrut Bharat, Ambedkar espoused interfaith marriages, as they could help in restoring confidence between Hindus and Muslims and held that it was a personal matter.

The periodical eventually shut down in 1929. Prabhodhan Pal notes that "That particular crisis was, among other things, also due to his firm stance on advertisement. He criticised newspapers that encouraged irresponsible advertisements and promoted inequality and ritualism. In an editorial, he had criticised Bombay Chronicle and Kesari for publishing advertisements on literature, events and activities that promote Brahmanism. He also said that he would rather prefer not publishing any advertisement than publishing “vulgar and immoral” advertisements.