Revisiting the genesis of Ambedkars’ Untouchable Movement in India and the debates with Gandhi: A critical analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrjiks.2025.v2.n1.030Keywords:
Ambedkar, Gandhi, untouchability, Poona Pact, separate electorates, caste, Dalit movement, Harijan, temple entryAbstract
This article critically examines the origins and evolution of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s movement against untouchability in India, with particular focus on his ideological confrontations with Mahatma Gandhi. Drawing exclusively on pre-2022 scholarly sources, the article argues that the Ambedkar-Gandhi debate represented a fundamental clash between two irreconcilable visions of social emancipation. While Gandhi viewed untouchability as a moral and social aberration within an otherwise defensible Hindu civilization, Ambedkar identified caste itself as the structural foundation of oppression. The article analyzes six key dimensions of this historical encounter: the conceptual divergence on the nature of caste, the strategic disagreement over separate electorates culminating in the Poona Pact of 1932, the symbolic contestation over nomenclature represented by the term ‘Harijan’, the mass mobilizations including the Kalaram Temple Satyagraha of 1930, Ambedkar’s comprehensive critique of Gandhian politics as articulated in his 1945 treatise, and the contrasting frameworks of social change—moral persuasion versus political power. The article concludes that Ambedkar’s movement fundamentally reoriented the discourse on untouchability from a question of social reform to one of political rights and democratic citizenship, a legacy that continues to shape contemporary Dalit politics.
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