From 'Mahad Satyagraha' to 'Bhagwa Dhwaja': The Bole Connection

One cardinal problem the advocates of Hindu Sangathan (organisation) face is the conflict between the so-called upper castes and affluent sections of the Hindu society on one hand, and the working classes and marginalised communities on the other.

This is not something peculiar to the Hindu Sangathan movement or Hindu society though.

One sees analogous conflicts in all national movements. Colonialists and those subscribing to colonised ideologies like Marxism and Dravidianism use such divisions effectively to further divide the society.

In the case of Hindu society, frozen caste dynamics, stagnated community relations and consequently magnified social evils like untouchability added to the fissures.

Hundred years ago, under a colonial government given to 'divide-and-rule', this was more acute.

Historian Vikram Sampath points this out in his work on Savarkar:

On one side aggressive forces of Pan-Islamism were growing more strident with their demand for Pakistan; on the other hand, there was the appeasement policy of Congress. On yet another front, the colonial government did its best to deepen the fissures in Hindu society.

To add it all was the obstinate and obnoxious traditionalist stand on the basic human rights of the Scheduled Communities.

Yet Hindu sangathanists, importantly the Savarkar brothers, Barrister Jayakar and Swami Shraddhananda, stood their ground and navigated the ship of Hindu organisation through these troubled times.

This was not an easy change. It was a battle within.

On 4 August 1923, Rao Bahadur Sitaram Keshav Bole (1868-1961), one of the fiercest social reformers of India, passed a resolution in the Bombay Legislative Council to the effect that:

In 1926, the Mahad City Council also endorsed this resolution.

Yet, the Scheduled Community members were not allowed to drink water from public water bodies by the upper-castes.

This would soon lead to the famous Mahad Satyagraha of Dr Ambedkar, on 20 March 1927.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar supported it. He was not allowed to come out of Ratnagiri. Yet he issued a statement:

Thus the Hindu Mahasabha, generally perceived as an orthodox body till then, came out in support of Scheduled Communities for opening the Mahad water body to all Hindus irrespective of caste.

Dr Ambedkar was happy and wrote:

One can note here that even Dr Ambedkar identified the then Hindu Mahasabha not just with upper caste Hindus but with Brahmin orthodoxy and was happy that such an orthodox body was changing its mindset.

The transition from being perceived as a Brahmin orthodox body to a pan-Hindu movement had thus begun.

The Satyagraha also ushered in a legal battle.

Nothing brought out the fault-lines within Hindu Sangathan movement as the varied responses of Hindu Sangathanists to the Mahad Satyagraha.

A learned Brahmin, Pandurang Bhaskar Shashtri Palaye, who had Sangathan connections, had filed an affidavit on 30 January 1928 in support of Dr. Ambedkar.

Dr. Ambedkar himself stayed in the house of Palaye Shastri in the heart of orthodoxy and none dared to protest this stay. To Dr Ambedkar, this showed the power a traditionalist wielded in effecting social revolution if he or she chooses to do it.

With regard to the case, Shastri advised Dr Ambedkar to contact two important Mahasabha leaders—N C Kelkar and Dr. Kurkoti Sankaracharya.

Kelkar staunchly supported Dr. Ambedkar and supplied him with strong material to back the claims of the Scheduled Community to enter the tank.

However, during the legal proceedings, he did not come as a witness. On the other hand, Dr Kurkoti was not even interested to come as witness.

Such was the condition of Sangathanists when it came to walking the talk.

One prominent Sangathanist to stand as a witness in the proceedings, supporting the case of Dr Ambedkar, was Dr. Narayan Damodara Savarkar.

As Vinayak Savarkar still was prohibited from moving out of Ratnagiri, his role was carried out with enthusiasm by Dr. Narayan Savarkar - the same Savarkar who would be hit severely by a stone-throwing mob in free India and would die because of that.

Finally the Mahad Satyagraha achieved legal victory. On 17 March 1937, Justice Wadia upheld the rights of the so-called 'untouchable' Hindus to use the water at the Mahad water tank.

All these developments were being watched by the grand old man who started it all—Rao Bahadur Seetaram Keshav Bole.

He was impressed by the way Sangathanists under Savarkar conducted themselves.

He joined the Hindu Mahasabha. In 1938, he became the chairman of the Pratnik Hindu Mahasabha.

In the end of May 1941, the British CID intercepted a draft resolution of the Calcutta Session of Hindu Mahasabha; a draft circulated by S.K.Bole and a letter of S.K.Bole to P.C. Joglekar, another Mahasabha leader.

The letter was with the office of the Central Intelligence office by 21^st of May, 1941.

Another letter dated 16 May 1941, again written by S.K.Bole to N.C.Chatterjee (Bengal Hindu Mahasabha), was also intercepted by the Intelligence.

All these letters were written by S.K.Bole, but sent from Savarkar Sadan of Vinayak Savarkar.

The draft was about how an all India 'Direct Action' against the British, that the Hindu Mahasabha was planning, should take shape.

Abhorring the Congress way of going to jails, the Sangathanists planned an all India anti-British Boycott.

S.K.Bole was the first signatory and others included Narayan Savarkar, Ganesh Savarkar, D.G. Abhyankar and B.N. Bhagwat. The letters revealed that as this was a draft which would be put to vote, Vinayak Savarkar himself being the President of Mahasabha had not signed it; although he had clearly supported the move of anti-British boycott.

R.M. Maxwell, then one of the most powerful officers of home department, was livid and recorded his shock and displeasure:

Meanwhile, despite the support of the Savarkar brothers, the draft resolution was rejected because of the uncertainty of war and also because many felt that being on a collision course with the Government would not help the cause of the Indianisation of the army.

On 18 July 1941, CIO from Bombay sent a reply regarding S.K.Bole.

CIO report also observed:

Finally, the CIO report concluded:

The communication between the colonial authorities shows how much they had invested in deepening the fault-lines among the various Indian communities and how shocked they were when the fissures started disappearing.

On 10 July 1947, Rao Bahadur Sitaram Keshav Bole, along with the delegation of Hindu Sangathan activists, met Dr Ambedkar at the Bombay airport.

Their demand was that the saffron flag be made the national flag of India.

Dr Ambedkar accepted their demand and asked them to organise and conduct a people’s movement for the same.

The Mahad Satyagraha is a defining moment in the history of Indian civilisation. The day Dr Ambedkar led Hindus, irrespective of castes, to the water tank, India entered a new era.

But for the Bole resolution of 1923, that moment would have been further delayed - a delay poisonously harmful to a healthy Hindu society.

2023 is the Centenary year of that historical resolution.