Meet Prakash Ambedkar, who is following in his grandfather's footsteps

The Mumbai bandh's success shows that people from all oppressed sections participated in the stir

The streets of Mumbai bore a deserted look on January 3 following the bandh called by B R Ambedkar’s grandson, Prakash Ambedkar. Protesting the attack on Dalits in Pune during the 200th anniversary celebration of the Bhima Koregaon battle, anger and violence had spilled into the third day across the state. 

The 63-year-old, who leads the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, eventually called off the strike, but not before starting a conversation about social oppression. Given that around 250 Dalit organisations supported the bandh, reports credit Ambedkar with rallying different Dalit factions across Maharashtra together. “It wasn’t a protest of the Dalit groups alone. The bandh’s success shows that people from all oppressed sections participated in the stir. I would say 50 per cent of Maharashtra took part in the bandh,” Ambedkar told journalists.

Celebrations surrounding the Bhima Koregaon battle are not new. Dalits have been marking the occasion for decades now. They consider the 1818 battle, fought between the British forces, with Mahar troops (Dalits) on their side, and the Peshwa army, as a victory over oppression — an instance when they were able to overcome their untouchable status and defeat the Brahmin Peshwas.

This year, though, right-wing groups allegedly flared tensions by desecrating the samadhi of Govind Gaikwad, a Mahar who is believed to have performed the last rites of Shivaji’s son, Sambhaji. Ambedkar asked for a court inquiry, naming Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote as the perpetrators. While two FIRs have been filed against them, no arrests have been made yet. “The judicial inquiry ordered by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is not acceptable to us. The government should request the chief justice of Bombay High Court to appoint a sitting judge to probe this incident,” he told journalists before the bandh.

Meanwhile, these events have helped him stage a resurgence in state politics by projecting himself as a pan-Maharashtra leader. While Ambedkar has always been a prominent lead of the Republican Party of India, his politics has been confined to the Amravati and Akola districts in Vidarbha. He acknowledges that the challenge ahead lies in keeping the Dalits united.

Ambedkar has been working to unite the community since the 1990s, when he had taken the initiative to bringing together all nine Dalit factions under one umbrella. The United Dalit Democratic Front then had fielded four candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. Apart from Ambedkar, Ramdas Athavale, Yogendra Kawade and R S Gavai represented the Dalits in the lower house. But the front broke within a year and Ambedkar was pushed into the fray.

A lawyer by profession, Ambedkar was a Rajya Sabha MP between 1990 and 1996. He has been a supporter of the Vidharba movement, and advocates ending political reservations for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. “People should vote for Dalit candidates in elections without any bias,” he believes.

Last year, he was one of the candidates being considered for the presidential election. While that didn’t materialise considering Meira Kumar’s strong political presence, the momentum is on his side now. Activists in Maharashtra say there is a vacuum in Dalit politics given that Athavale, the most popular Republican leader in Maharashtra, has aligned himself with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Whether Ambedkar’s new drive succeeds in sidelining Athavale remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt that Dalit politics is no longer on the fringe.