HARDAS, BABU LAXMARIRAO
NAGRARE (1904-1939)
(Rememering on his 115th
B Day falling today the 6th Jan.2019,the man who Gave Jai Bhim
Salutaion)
Shri Hardas Laxmarirao Nagrare, a Mahar by caste was a great believer in the philosophy of Dr.
Ambedkar.He was also a committed
follower of B.R. Ambedkar. Shri Hardas was born on 6th January, 1904 at
Kamathi, Nagpur in Maharashtra. His father Shri Laxmarirao Nagrare was a clerk in the Railway Department. Shri Babu Hardas had sharp intellect and passed
his matriculation in 1920 from
Patwardhan High School at Nagpur. Shri
Hardas gained nearness to Swami Brahmanand of Arya Samaj Nagpur
who taught him Sanskrit. Shri Hardas had also gained proficiency in the Marathi language. He was pained to see deplorable conditions of untouchables of his
locality. Accordingly he decided to
work for their all round development. He achieved a great success in his desired goals in 1921 when
he started a
weekly Maharatha from Nagpur for
spreading social awakenings among the Dalits.
Babu Hardas met Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in 1928 for the first time.
Though he had started his social activities long back, his political career got a push with this meeting. In
the same year, Dr. Ambedkar requested him to give his witness in front
of Simon Commission. Later in year 1930-31,
with regards to the Second Round Table Conference, when question arouse
about the real leadership of untouchables,
Babu Hardas sent a telegram to Ramsay
MacDonald, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, that Dr. Ambedkar is the real leader of
untouchables and not Mahatma Gandhi.
He also created an opinion about this in different parts of the country He managed to send a total
of 32 telegrams to Mr. McDonald by various untouchable leaders from different states. Both Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Babu Hardas
wanted greater participation of the
depressed classes in the legislative assemblies. A meeting of Depressed Classes of CPand Berar was organized on 29th March, 1929 at Jalgaon-Jamod.
Dr. Ambedkar presided over this
important meeting. Babu Hardas started the practice of exchanging the greeting Jai Bhim as a mark
of friendly gesture in the year 1937.This showed his love and commitment to the
ideals of his leader Dr. Bhimrao
Ambedkar.
Shri Hardas Laxmarirao Nagrare observed that
the Bidi (a thin, Indian cigarette filled with tobacco flake and wrapped
in a tendu or possibly even Bauhinia
racemosa leaf tied with a string at one
end.) workers were
the most exploited lot in the un-organized sector. Majority of Bidi workers
were Dalits including women and children. So he started
the bidi work on cooperative basis. His idea became a great successful.
Presently over 3 million Indians are employed in the
manufacture of beedies. He founded in 1930
Madhaya Pradesh Bidi Mazdoor Sangh for the
welfare of Bidi workers. He was elected its Secretary and Shri Ramachandra Phule (M.L.C) as President.
Shri Hardas was convinced that women are back
bone of the successful nation and to train them shall
benefit the whole society. So he opened a Mahila
Ashram (Women Home) at Nagpur to impart
training to Dalit women in household activities. He thought that emancipation of the Dalits from the man made
discriminately lies in their unity to challenge the
perpetrators of atrocities. Consistent with the social customs of
that time, he married at a very early age
of 16 with Shahubai. They got married in 1920.
Babu Shri Hardas founded the Mahar Samaj organization
in 1922 to rally Dalits communities under one
banner. He was Secretary of organization. He also knew that
to maintain discipline in the Dalits a disciplined youth
wing was needed. Therefore he formed Mahar Sevak Pathak to
organize the decentralized youth force to protect the
Dalits against atrocities and to maintain
discipline in the society. It was to act as volunteer corps. Shri Hardas was
convinced that sub Castes concept among Dalits
was working against their unity. In the caste concept every caste thinks it superior to the other castes. This was
causing a hindrance in Dalit unity, whereas all their
social, education, economic problems are in common. He was convinced that the solution to their miseries lies in Dalit unity.
Therefore he sincerely endeavored to
remove the sub-caste barrier from the Depressed Classes. He used to invite the
members of all sub-castes among the Depressed Classes to the community dinner
arranged on the occasion of death anniversary
of the great saint Shri Chokhamela. This was arranged in the temple of revered Dalit Saint Chokhamela at Nagpur. Saint Chokhamela was a great
14th century saint from Mahar
community. The Depressed people normally gave a very nice response to the same but it needed great
deal of persuasions. During all these
years, Babu Hardas kept himself informed with the movements elsewhere in the
country being organized for the betterment of Dalits and to get them all civil
rights as per global norms.
Since Babu Shri Hardas was of the opinion
that Depressed Classes people need to get political power to bring them in the main stream. So in 1923 he appealed to the
Governor of CP and Berar to nominate members from the Depressed Classes
to the Legislative Council, District Local
Boards and Municipalities. The Governor,
however, assured that he would consider the demands sympathetically.
He was convinced that all the irrational,
immoral and superstitious habits of the Hindu society
have ruined the depressed classes of their
vision and well being. Therefore to arouse the opinion of the people
against the evils of the society he wrote a book
named Maridai Mahatme in October 1924. He distributed the copies of the
book free of cost among the Dalits. It proved to be very effective. After reading the contents of the book, the Dalit women and men who used to go to witness obscene
Krishna Leela abandoned this
practice.
Shri Hardas Laxmarirao Nagrare's next
welfare step was to provide educational facilities to Dalit students. So he
started the Mahar Samaj night schools at Bail Bazaar, Kamsari Bazaar and
Naya Bazaar Kamathi. These schools marched
towards the desired goal and in 1924 as many as 86 boys and 22
girls were enrolled in these schools. At the same time he opened one Saint Chokhamela
library at Kamathi to provide reading
material to the students.
Since he had association with Arya Samaj, Mahatma Shri Swami Brahmanand of Nagpur. So he had clear vision
about fruitless worship of idols and
wanted to spread this message among his
depressed classes' people. Shri Hardas organized a meeting of Dalits at Ramtek near Nagpur In 1927 under the
presidentship of Kisan Faguji
Bansod. Shri Babu Hardas forcefully exhorted Dalits to stop worshipping
at the steps of the temple at Ramtek and to stop bathing in the dirty Ambada
tank. Since Depressed class people were
not allowed to enter the temple, so these people worshiped at the steps from a distance. These people were allowed
only to bathe in the out flow of the tank
water which used to be full of filth.
Meanwhile he wrote a play named Veer Balak
(Brave Boy) The Veer Balak Act performance helped
to bring a new awareness among the people. The play proved to be very
effective in giving the desired message. He wrote and published Songs
of the Market and Songs of the Hearth. His articles
were also published in Weekly Janta, edited by Dr. Ambedkar. Babu Hardas organized a meeting at Paturda in District Akola under the chainmanship
of Dr. Ambedkar. In this conference a resolution was
passed in support of religious conversion in support of the
public declaration of Dr. Ambedkar's (13th
October 1935 at Yeola Distt Nasik) to leave Hindu
religion as it was immune to reforms. The Depressed Class peoples
under Hindu fold continued suffering from man made agony of irrational Laws. The Hindus shall never agree to grant Human Rights to the Depressed Classes people. Babu
Hardas was a front runner in
organizing these meeting which had blessing and participation of Dr. Ambedkar to spread his message to Dalit masses.
Shri Hardas was deadly against idol worship
taking it as futile practice. However, he sent a group of Dalits
under the leadership of Shri Shankar Mukunda Bele to
participate in the Kalaram Temple Entry
Satyagraha at Nasik. This Satyagraha started on 3rd March, 1930 under the leadership of Dada Sahib B.K.
Gaikwad and was led by Dr.Ambedkar.
Shri Babu Hardas was one of the main
organizers of the Conference of the Depressed Classes at Nagpur on 8th August, 1930. It was presided over by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
The conference resolved to have
separate electorate for the Depressed Classes. The conference formed the All India Depressed Classes Federation under
the president ship of Rao Sahib Muniswamy Piliai (Madras). Babu Shri Hardas was elected as its Joint
Secretary.
The
second conference of the All India Depressed Classes was held at Kamathi on 7th May, 1932, under
the president ship of Shri Muniswamy Pillai. Babu Hardasji was
President of the reception committee. On 8th May, 1932 the national executive body of the All India Depressed Classes Federation
was elected, which included
Muniswamy Pillai (Madras) as President, M.B. Mullick (Bengal) as Vice-president, Shri L.N. Hardas as Secretary besides Shri Swami Achutanand (Ad-Dharma Hero of
Lucknow) as its Joint Secretary. The
Independent Labour Party (ILP) was launched by B.R. Ambedkar on 15th
August, 1936 under his President ship and
treasurer ship. Babu Hardas L.N was entrusted with the responsibilities of being the Secretary of the CP and Berar branch of ILP in 1936.
Babu Hardas L.N contested the assembly election in 1937 from Nagpur-Karnathi (R) constituency and got elected. He
was nominated President of the CP and Berar branch of ILP in 1938.
In
1939, he fell sick of tuberculosis and his political career came to an abrupt
end. Babu Shri Hardas Laxmarirao Nagrare shed
his mortal body frames on 12th January, 1939 at the early age of 35. His services were very urgently needed
when he shed his body frame .He shall
be long remembered as a faithful solider of the Dalit empowerment movement in India under the able leadership of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. The contributions
of Babu Hardas for the Dalit empowerment were much more to his age span.
No comments:
Post a Comment