Kanshi Ram

Kanshi Ram (15 March 1934 – 9 October 2006), also known as Bahujan Nayak or Manyavar, was an Indian politician and social reformer who worked for the upliftment and political mobilisation of the Bahujans, the backward or lower caste people including untouchable groups at the bottom of the caste system in India.

Kanshi Ram was born to a Ramdasia family of Chamar caste on 15 March 1934 in Ropar district, Punjab, British India.

Some sources say his birthplace was the village of Pirthipur Bunga and others that it was Khawaspur village.

After studies at various local schools, Ram graduated in 1956 with a BSc degree from Government College Ropar.

Kanshi Ram joined the offices of the Explosive Research and Development Laboratory in Pune.

It was at this time that he first experienced caste discrimination and in 1964 he became an activist.

Those who admire him point out that he was spurred to this after reading B. R. Ambedkar's book Annihilation of Caste and witnessing the discrimination against a Dalit employee who wished to observe a holiday celebrating Ambedkar's birth.

Kanshi Ram strongly inspired by B. R. Ambedkar and his philosophy.

Ram initially supported the Republican Party of India (RPI) but became disillusioned with its co-operation with the Indian National Congress.

Towards this end, Kanshi Ram founded Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DS-4), the All India Backwards (SC/ST/OBC) and Minorities Communities Employees' Federation (BAMCEF) in 1971 and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984.

He ceded leadership of the BSP to his protégé Mayawati who has served four terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

In 1971, he founded the All India SC, ST, OBC and Minority Employees Association and in 1978 this became BAMCEF, an organisation that aimed to persuade educated members of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backwards Classes and Minorities to support Ambedkarite principles.

BAMCEF was neither a political nor a religious body and it also had no aims to agitate for its purpose.

Suryakant Waghmore says it appealed to "the class among the Dalits that was comparatively well-off, mostly based in urban areas and small towns working as government servants and partially alienated from their untouchable identities".

Later, in 1981, Ram formed another social organisation known as Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DSSSS, or DS4).

In 1982, he published his only book The Chamcha Age, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Poona Pact.

He dedicated the book to Jyotirao Phule, B. R. Ambedkar, Periyar, and ‘many other rebellious spirits’ who worked for Dalit emancipation.

In the Poona Pact, Ambedkar who had worked hard to earn separate electorates from the British, had to surrender the possibility due to Mahatma Gandhi's fast unto death.

Ambedkar feared the possible consequences to the nascent Dalit movement if he had not.

Ram believed that the separate electorates would have provided the Dalits autonomy and authority; it would have undermined the power of the upper castes who constituted a relatively smaller population.

Ram argued that Gandhi manipulated Ambedkar into signing the pact, and implied a defeat for the Dalits.

This directly led to The Chamcha (stooge) Age, where Dalit leaders were made stooges of the upper caste.

Dalit electorates had little say in getting their representatives elected even in sears reserved for them.

Ram used the term to describe Dalit leaders such as Jagjivan Ram and Ram Vilas Paswan.

He argued that Dalits should work politically for their own ends rather than compromise by working with other parties.

Opportunist mobilization of a section of Dalits in the chamcha age thus produces, what Kanshi Ram calls, an ‘alienation of the elite’.

The Dalit elite could overcome this alienation by ‘payback to the oppressed and exploited society’.

After forming BSP, Ram said the party would fight first election to lose, next to get noticed and the third election to win.

He started his attempt of consolidating the Dalit vote and in 1984 he founded the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

He fought his first election in 1984 from Janjgir-Champa seat in Chhattisgarh.

The BSP found success in Uttar Pradesh, initially struggled to bridge the divide between Dalits and Other Backward Classes but later under leadership of Mayawati bridged this gap.

In 1988, he contested in Allahabad against a future Prime Minister V. P. Singh and performed impressively but lost polling close to 70,000 votes.

He unsuccessfully contested from East Delhi (Lok Sabha constituency) (against HKL Bhagat) and Amethi (Lok Sabha constituency) (against Rajiv Gandhi) in 1989 and came in the third position on both the seats.

In the late 1990s, Ram described the BJP as the most corrupt (mahabrasht) party in India and the Indian National Congress, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal as equally corrupt.

After Demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kanshi Ram joined hands to keep communal forces out of power by creating unity among the backward and Dalit castes and giving the popular slogan "Mile Mulayam-Kanshi Ram, Hawa mein ud gaye Jai Shri Ram" (When Mulayam & Kanshiram come together, Jai Shri Ram vanishes).

After the election, a coalition government of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party was formed in UP under the leadership of Mulayam Singh Yadav, although due to some differences and Mayawati's ambition, this alliance broke up in June 1995, Mayawati became first time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in support of BJP.

Then he represented the 11th Lok Sabha (1996-1998) from Hoshiarpur, Kanshiram was also elected as member of Lok Sabha from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh.

In 2001, he declared Mayawati as his successor.

In 2002, Ram announced his intention to convert to Buddhism on 14 October 2006, the 50th anniversary of Ambedkar's conversion.

He intended for 50,000,000 of his supporters to convert at the same time.