PATTABHI RAM TURLAPATI at 02:03, 18 March 2025

2025-03-18T02:03:57Z

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{{Short description|Indian social activist (1840–1904)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2017}}'''Gopal Baba Walangkar''', also known as '''Gopal Krishna walangkar''',(1840–1904) is an early example of an [[activist]] working to release the [[Untouchability|untouchable]] people of India from their [[Dalit|historic socio-economic oppression]] and is generally considered to be the pioneer of that movement. He developed a racial theory to explain the oppression and also published the monthly journal '''Vital-Vidhvansak''', targeted at the Brahmanical Orthodoxy.

== Life ==
Gopal Baba Walangkar was born into a family of [[Mahar]] [[Caste system in India|caste]]<ref name="zelliot">{{cite journal|last=Zelliot |first=Eleanor |authorlink=Eleanor Zelliot |title=India's Dalits: Racism and Contemporary Change |url=http://www.worlddialogue.org/content.php?id=490 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430015723/http://www.worlddialogue.org/content.php?id=490 |archivedate=2013-04-30 |df=dmy |journal=Global Dialogue |volume=12 |issue=2 |year=2010}}</ref> around 1840 at [[Ravdul]], near [[Mahad]] in what is now [[Raigad district]], [[Maharashtra]]. He was related to Ramabai, who in 1906 married the polymathic social reformer, [[B. R. Ambedkar]]. In 1886, after serving in the army, Walangkar settled at [[Dapoli]] and became influenced by another early social reformer, [[Jyotirao Phule]], thus being a link between two of the most significant reform families of the period.<ref name="jadhav">{{cite book |title=Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission |first=K. N. |last=Jadhav |publisher=Popular Prakashan |year=1991 |isbn=978-8-17154-329-8 |pages=9–10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9o3rZNud9oIC&pg=PA9}}</ref>

Walangkar was appointed to the local [[taluk]] board of Mahad in 1895,<ref name="valunjkar"/> which displeased the members from the upper castes and caused considerable debate in newspapers.<ref>{{cite book |title=Dalits: Past, present and future |first=Anand |last=Teltumbde |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-31552-643-0 |page=54 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fZXgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT54}}</ref> He died at Ravdul in 1904.<ref name="jadhav"/>

== Activism ==
The [[Indo-Aryan_migrations#"Aryan_invasion"|Aryan invasion theory]] was in vogue at this time. Gopal extended Phule's version of this racial theory, that the untouchable people of India were the indigenous inhabitants and that the [[Brahmin]] people were descended from [[Aryan]]s who had invaded the country.<ref name="zelliot"/>

In 1888, Gopal began publishing the monthly journal titled ''Vital-Vidhvansak'' (Destroyer of Brahmanical or Ceremonial Pollution), which was the first to have the untouchable people as its target audience.<ref name="jadhav"/> He also wrote articles for [[Marathi language|Marathi-language]] newspapers such as ''[[Sudharak]]'' and ''[[Deenbandhu]]'', as well as composed [[couplet]]s in Marathi that were intended to inspire the people.<ref name="teltumbde"/>

Having read [[Hinduism|Hindu religious texts]], Walangkar concluded that caste was contrived by the Aryan invaders to control the Anaryans (indigenous people).<ref name="teltumbde">{{cite book |title=Dalits: Past, present and future |first=Anand |last=Teltumbde |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-31552-643-0 |page=53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fZXgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT53}}</ref> In 1889, he published ''Vital Viduvansan'' (Annihilation of Ceremonial Pollution), which protested the position of untouchables in society and raised consciousness regarding what those people should expect.<ref name="jadhav"/> He addressed this pamphlet, which was crafted as a collection of 26 questions,<ref name="teltumbde"/> to the elites of Maharashtrian society. It was an awareness-raising style, in the hope that the paternalist elements of society would take heed<ref>{{cite book |first=T. N. |last=Valunjkar |chapter=Dalit Social Consciousness in Western Maharashtra in Colonial Period 1880-1910 |title=Continuity and Change in Indian Society: Essays in Memory of Late Prof. Narmadeshwar Prasad |editor-first=Bindeshwar |editor-last=Pathak |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |year=1998 |isbn=978-8-17022-726-7 |page=214 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2Qt9tv2nSkC&pg=PA214}}</ref> but it also warned that the untouchables might leave India unless their situation improved. A further significant work, titled ''Hindu Dharma Darpan'', appeared in 1894.<ref name="teltumbde"/>

Walangkar also at once empowered the Mahars and diminished the influence of Brahmin priests by forming a group of Mahar astrologers to set the times for religious ceremonies, which was effectively the only service that Brahmins had been willing to perform for the caste.<ref>{{cite book |title=South Asian Politics and Religion |first=Donald Eugene |last=Smith |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-40087-908-3 |page=194 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dknWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA194}}</ref>

Walangkar founded the Anarya Dosh-Parihar Mandali (Society for the Removal of Evils Among the Non-Aryans). Some sources say this took place in the same year that he left the army<ref name="jadhav"/> but Anand Teltumbde gives 1890 as the date and suggests it was connected with an issue relating to military recruitment.<ref name="teltumbde"/> The Mahar were initially heavily recruited into British military units, but this process slowed after the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]]. Their recruitment was halted under [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]] in the early 1890s. Before the rebellion, Mahar regiments made up one-sixth of the Bombay units of the British [[East India Company]] but thereafter they were pensioned off and gradually removed from military service.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jaffrelot|first=Christophe|authorlink=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=Dr. Ambedkar and untouchability: fighting the Indian caste system|year=2005|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=0231136021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Rao|first=Anupama|title=The Caste Question: Dalits and the Politics of Modern India|year=2009|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520257610|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tDRiJ3HZVPQC&pg=PA30|page=30}}</ref> Mahar recruitment reached its nadir in the early 1890s (sources differ as to the exact year) when Kitchener halted the recruitment of untouchables in Maharashtra in favor of "[[martial races]]," such as the [[Maratha]]s and other north-western communities.<ref name="zelliot1978">{{cite book |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Bardwell L. |title=Religion and the Legitimation of Power in South Asia |year=1978 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9004056742 |pages=88–90 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x2Jzn_LuLasC&pg=PA88 |first=Eleanor |last=Zelliott |authorlink=Eleanor Zelliot |chapter=Religion and Legitimation in the Mahar Movement}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Kamble|first=N. D.|title=Deprived castes and their struggle for equality|url=https://archive.org/details/deprivedcastesth0000kamb|url-access=registration|year=1983|publisher=Ashish Publisher House|pages=[https://archive.org/details/deprivedcastesth0000kamb/page/129 129–132]}}</ref> The Mahar community attempted to confront this block with a petition circulated among the Mahar, [[Chamar]], and [[Mang (caste)|Mang]] former soldiers{{mdash}}all Marathi-speaking untouchables{{mdash}}but the movement was unable to organize and submit their petition.<ref name="zelliot1978" /> It was Walangkar, through the Anarya Dosh-Parihar Mandali, who attempted this petition.<ref name="zelliot"/><ref name="valunjkar">{{cite book |first=T. N. |last=Valunjkar |chapter=Dalit Social Consciousness in Western Maharashtra in Colonial Period 1880-1910 |title=Continuity and Change in Indian Society: Essays in Memory of Late Prof. Narmadeshwar Prasad |editor-first=Bindeshwar |editor-last=Pathak |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |year=1998 |isbn=978-8-17022-726-7 |pages=207–208 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2Qt9tv2nSkC&pg=PA208}}</ref>

Walangkar is generally considered to be the pioneer of the Dalit movement, along with [[Harichand Thakur]] through his [[Matua Mahasangha|Matua]] involving the [[Namasudra]] ([[Chandala]]) community in the [[Bengal Presidency]]. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar himself believed Walangkar to be the progenitor.<ref>{{cite book |title=Dalits: Past, present and future |first=Anand |last=Teltumbde |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-31552-643-0 |page=52 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fZXgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT52}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1840s births]]
[[Category:1904 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Raigad district]]
[[Category:Indian social reformers]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian journalists]]
[[Category:British Indian Army soldiers]]
[[Category:Dalit activists]]
[[Category:Ambedkar family]]

Gopal Baba Walangkar - Revision history

PATTABHI RAM TURLAPATI at 02:03, 18 March 2025