{"id":32344,"date":"2018-10-29T13:40:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T08:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=32344"},"modified":"2018-10-29T13:40:46","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T08:10:46","slug":"how-a-british-war-memorial-became-a-symbol-of-dalit-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-a-british-war-memorial-became-a-symbol-of-dalit-pride\/","title":{"rendered":"How a British war memorial became a symbol of Dalit pride\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/other-states\/the-legend-of-the-1818-battle-of-bhima-koregaon\/article22352514.ece\"><strong>How a British war memorial became a symbol of Dalit pride<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ambedkar\u2019s visit to the battle site on January 1, 1927, revitalised the memory of the battle for the Dalit community, making it a rallying point and an assertion of pride.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The History<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Koregaon Ranstambh (victory pillar) is an obelisk in Bhima-Koregaon village commemorating the British East India Company soldiers who fell in a battle on January 1, 1818, where the British, with just 834 infantrymen \u2014 about 500 of them from the Mahar community \u2014 and 12 officers defeated the 28,000-strong army of Peshwa Bajirao II<\/li>\n<li>It was one of the last battles of the Third Anglo-Maratha War, which ended the Peshwa domination.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>BKRSS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2005, the Bhima-Koregaon Ranstambh Seva Sangh (BKRSS) was formed to keep alive the memory of this episode in Indian history and pay homage to those among the Dalit community who fought for their self-respect in that battle.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lakhs of people visit<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>From mere thousands in earlier years, today lakhs of visitors from across India come to pay homage at the site; there is a particularly massive representation of community members from Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat<\/li>\n<li>One part of the tradition is that several retired officers of the Mahar Regiment come to do homage to this exploit of valour.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What happened recently<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This year, the Elgaar (battle-cry) Parishad, an event celebrating the bicentenary of the battle irked some right-wing Hindutva and Brahmin organisations, who demanded that the city police prohibit its staging at the Shaniwarwada fort, the erstwhile seat of Peshwa power.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Dalit\u2013Maratha rift<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Relations between the Mahars and the Peshwas, who were Brahmins, grew strained after the death of Baji Rao I in 1740, and reached their nadir during the reign of Bajirao Rao II, who insulted the Mahar community and spurned their offer of service with his army<\/li>\n<li>This caused them to side with the English against the Peshwa\u2019s numerically superior army.<\/li>\n<li>Dalit scholars say Indian history is often recorded from a Brahminical perspective, which has resulted in Bhima-Koregaon and other battles in which Dalits fought, not getting their due<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>No Caste conflict<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BKRSS members, though, point out the dangers of the reductive view of the battle as caste conflict, and cite historical records documenting Mahars fighting in the Maratha army since the times of Shivaji, and even fighting alongside the Peshwa\u2019s forces, including in the third battle of Panipat and the battle of Kharda.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Side by side<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some accounts say that Govind Ganapat Gaikwad, a Mahar, performed the final rites of Sambhaji (Shivaji\u2019s son) after he was tortured to death and hacked to pieces on Aurangzeb\u2019s orders in 1689.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How a British war memorial became a symbol of Dalit pride\u00a0 Context Ambedkar\u2019s visit to the battle site on January 1, 1927, revitalised the memory of the battle for the Dalit community, making it a rallying point and an assertion of pride. The History The Koregaon Ranstambh (victory pillar) is an obelisk in Bhima-Koregaon village&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-a-british-war-memorial-became-a-symbol-of-dalit-pride\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How a British war memorial became a symbol of Dalit pride\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704878579},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}