Kanshi Ram was born on 15 March 1934 into a Ramdasia Sikh family of Chamar caste in Pirthipur Bunga village,near Khawaspur,Ropar district,[a]Punjab,British India.[5] Significantly,he was not subjected to much social discrimination during his childhood or youth. As reason for the comparative absence of social discrimination in Kanshi Ram's early years is because he belonged to a Sikh family. Kanshi Ram referred to this in a later interview to French political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot saying,'the teachings of the Sikh gurus were more egalitarian' and that 'converted Chamars at least had some upward mobility.'[6] As a young Sikh from a family of soldiers,he was largely unaware about his caste while in school or in a college in Punjab.[7]
After studies at various local schools,Ram graduated in 1956 with a BSc degree from Government College Ropar.[8]
Career
Kanshi Ram joined the offices of the Explosive Research and Development Laboratory in Pune.[9] It was at this time that he first experienced caste discrimination[8][how?] and in 1964 he became an activist. Those who admire him point out that he was spurred to this after reading B. R. Ambedkar's book Annihilation of Caste and witnessing the discrimination against a Dalit employee who wished to observe a holiday celebrating Ambedkar's birth. Kanshi Ram strongly inspired by B. R. Ambedkar and his philosophy.[10]
Ram initially supported the Republican Party of India (RPI) but became disillusioned with its co-operation with the Indian National Congress. In 1971,he founded the All India SC,ST,OBC and Minority Employees Association and in 1978 this became BAMCEF,an organisation that aimed to persuade educated members of the Scheduled Castes,Scheduled Tribes,Other Backwards Classes and Minorities to support Ambedkarite principles.[11] BAMCEF was neither a political nor a religious body and it also had no aims to agitate for its purpose. Suryakant Waghmore says it appealed to "the class among the Dalits that was comparatively well-off,mostly based in urban areas and small towns working as government servants and partially alienated from their untouchable identities".[12]
In 1982,he published his only book The Chamcha Age,on the fiftieth anniversary of the Poona Pact. He dedicated the book to Jyotirao Phule,B. R. Ambedkar,Periyar,and ‘many other rebellious spirits’who worked for Dalit emancipation. In the Poona Pact,Ambedkar who had worked hard to earn separate electorates from the British,had to surrender the possibility due to Mahatma Gandhi's fast unto death. Ambedkar feared the possible consequences to the nascent Dalit movement if he had not. Ram believed that the separate electorates would have provided the Dalits autonomy and authority;it would have undermined the power of the upper castes who constituted a relatively smaller population. Ram argued that Gandhi manipulated Ambedkar into signing the pact,and implied a defeat for the Dalits. This directly led to The Chamcha (stooge) Age, where Dalit leaders were made stooges of the upper caste. Dalit electorates had little say in getting their representatives elected even in seats reserved for them.[16] Ram used the term to describe Dalit leaders such as Jagjivan Ram and Ram Vilas Paswan.[9] He argued that Dalits should work politically for their own ends rather than compromise by working with other parties.[17] Opportunist mobilization of a section of Dalits in the chamcha age thus produces,what Kanshi Ram calls,an ‘alienation of the elite’. The Dalit elite could overcome this alienation by ‘payback to the oppressed and exploited society’.[16]
After forming BSP,Ram said the party would fight first election to lose,next to get noticed and the third election to win.[18] In 1988,he contested in Allahabad against a future Prime Minister V. P. Singh and performed impressively but lost polling close to 70,000 votes.[19]
After Demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992,Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kanshi Ram joined hands to keep communal forces out of power by creating unity among the backward and Dalit castes and giving the popular slogan "Mile Mulayam-Kanshi Ram,Hawa mein ud gaye Jai Shri Ram" (When Mulayam &Kanshiram come together,Jai Shri Ram vanishes).[21] After the election,a coalition government of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party was formed in UP under the leadership of Mulayam Singh Yadav,although due to some differences and Mayawati's ambition,this alliance broke up in June 1995,Mayawati became first time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in support of BJP. In the late 1990s,Ram described the BJP as the most corrupt (mahabrasht) party in India and the Indian National Congress,Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal as equally corrupt. In 2001,he declared Mayawati as his successor.[22][23]
Proposed conversion to Buddhism
In 2002,Ram announced his intention to convert to Buddhism on 14 October 2006,the 50th anniversary of Ambedkar's conversion. He intended for 50,000,000 of his supporters to convert at the same time.[24] Part of the significance of this plan was that Ram's followers include not only untouchables,but persons from a variety of castes,who could significantly broaden Buddhism's support. However,he and his successor Mayawati decided to convert to Buddhism when BSP will form the absolute government in some states and government at the centre.[25][26]
Mayawati his successor said "Saheb Kanshi Ram and I had decided that we will convert and adopt Buddhism when we will get 'absolute majority' at the centre. We wanted to do this because we can make a difference to the religion by taking along with us millions of people. If we convert without power then only we two will be converting. But when you have power you can really create a stir".[27]
Death
Kanshi Ram was a diabetic. He suffered a heart attack in 1994,an arterial clot in his brain in 1995,and a paralytic stroke in 2003.[28] He died in New Delhi on 9 October 2006 of a severe heart attack at the age of 72.[29] He had been virtually bed-ridden for more than two years.[30] According to his wishes,[31] his funeral rites were performed according to Buddhist tradition,with Mayawati lighting the pyre.[28] His ashes were placed in an urn and kept at Prerna Sthal,where many people paid their respects.[32]
In his condolence message,Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Ram as "one of the greatest social reformers of our time.. his political ideas and movements had a significant impact on our political evolution... He had a larger understanding of social change and was able to unite various underprivileged sections of our society and provide a political platform where their voices would be heard." Under Ram's leadership,the BSP won 14 parliamentary seats in the 1999 parliamentary elections.[33]
Books
In 1982,Kanshi Ram wrote The Chamcha Age (The Era of the Stooges),a book in which he used the term chamcha (stooge) for Dalit leaders who he alleged had selfish reasons to work for parties such as the Indian National Congress (INC)[9] and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).[17] His book Birth of BAMCEF was also published.[34] His biography,Kanshiram:Leader of the Dalits was written by Badri Narayan Tiwari.[35][36] His speeches are compiled in books like Bahujan Nayak Kanshiram Ke Avismarniya Bhashan by Anuj Kumar,Writings &Speeches of Kanshiram compiled by S. S. Gautam &A.R. Akela and The Editorials of Kanshi Ram by Bahujan Samaj Publications in 1997.
↑ Ropar district is now known as Roopnagar and lies midway between Chandigarh and Jalandhar. Kanshiram's ancestral home is Khawaspur village. The local dalits call his house 'Chann Sahib', 'chann' meaning house and 'sahib' being a mark of respect.
↑ Narayan, Badri (18 April 2014). Kanshiram Leader of the Dalits. Penguin UK. pp.25–26. ISBN978-93-5118-670-0. Kanshiram's family was Telasingh Ravidasia, gotra Chaukri, Ramdasiya Sikh Panth, and came from the once-untouchable Chamar caste. The fifth Sikh guru Ramdas had brought the Chamars into the fold of Sikhism. Despite being Chamars, the family was relatively well off. Unlike in UP, in Punjab the Chamars engaged in agriculture and earned better than they did in the rest of north India. The family owned a fair amount of land, so their main source of income was agriculture. Besides, they had a small tannery, and also took on lease a mango orchard and made money by selling the fruit. Kanshiram's paternal grandfather, Dheloram, was a retired jawan from Lahore who had set up a cottage industry in tanning leather. He had three sons, Hari, Bishan and Rachan, and one daughter, Haro. While Bishan Singh and Rachan Singh joined the army like their father, Hari Singh took up leather tanning. In addition, he farmed on leased land to supplement his income.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
↑ Pippal, K.C. (15 March 2023). "Kanshi Ram Saheb who gave edge to caste politics - RSVS India. All rights reserved. Managed by ProtoCom India". www.rsvsindia.com. Retrieved 13 January 2025. Under this vision, Manyavar Kanshi Ram Saheb expressed his desire in 2002 to be initiated into Buddhism along with 6 crore Bahujan people on October 20, 2006. He specifically chose this date because it marked the 50th anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar's Buddhist initiation. This was intended to be a significant cultural act by Manyavar Kanshi Ram, akin to that of Babasaheb Ambedkar, but it remained incomplete due to his untimely death.
The Bahujan Samaj Party is a political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans, referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), along with minorities. According to Kanshi Ram, when he founded the party in 1984, the Bahujans comprised 85 percent of India's population, but were divided into 6,000 different castes. The party claims to be inspired by the philosophy of B. R. Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule, Narayana Guru, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj, and Gautama Buddha.
Kumari Mayawati is an Indian politician who served as the 18th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1995 to 1995, 1997 to 1997, 2002 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2012. She is the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which focuses on a platform of social change for Bahujans, more commonly known as Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as well as religious minorities since 2003.
Chamar is a community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of affirmative action that originated from the group of trade persons who were involved in leather tanning and shoemaking. They are found throughout the Indian subcontinent, mainly in the northern states of India and in Pakistan and Nepal.
The 2007 Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly election was held during April–May 2007. It was held to elect a government for the state of Uttar Pradesh in India.
The All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation, abbreviated as BAMCEF, is an organisation for employees of oppressed communities that was established in 1971 by Kanshi Ram, D. K. Khaparde, and Dinabhana.
The 2009 Indian general election in Uttar Pradesh were held for 80 seats with the state going to polls across all the five phases of the general elections. The major contenders in the state were the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Indian National Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Fourth Front. NDA consisted of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal whereas the fourth front was constituted of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).
D. K. Khaparde was an Indian activist and a founder of the precursor to BAMCEF in 1971 and later the president of BAMCEF.
Babu Singh Kushwaha is an Indian politician from Uttar Pradesh, serving as chief of the Jan Adhikar Party and former Family Welfare Minister in the Uttar Pradesh government under Mayawati. He was also one of Behenji’s trusted backroom boys, who besides working at the grassroots looked after the party’s administrative affairs.In the 2024 Indian general election, he won from the Jaunpur Lok Sabha constituency on the symbol of Samajwadi Party, becoming a member of Lok Sabha for the first time.
Dinanath Bhaskar is an Indian politician active in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Once a close associate of Kanshi Ram, he was a founding member of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and was Minister for Health during the state's coalition government of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and BSP in 1993. He quit the BSP to join the SP in 1996, rejoined the BSP around 2009 and in 2015 joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti, abbreviated as DS4 or DSSSS was founded in 1981 by Kanshi Ram to organise Dalits and other marginalised groups of India.
The Manyawar Shri Kanshiram Ji Green Eco Garden, also known as Eco Gardens Lucknow, is an ecological garden in Lucknow, India named after Kanshi Ram, the founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party.
A Legislative Assembly election was held in the Indian state of Punjab on 4 February 2017 to elect the 117 members of the Fifteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly. The counting of votes was done on 11 March 2017. The ruling pre-election coalition was the alliance comprising the political parties Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party and led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The voter turnout for the Punjab Assembly election was 77.2% The Indian National Congress led by former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh defeated the ruling alliance and the newcomer Aam Aadmi Party.
The Bhim Army, alternatively Bheem Army or the Bheem Army Bharat Ekta Mission is an Ambedkarite and Dalit rights organisation in India. It was founded by Satish Kumar, Vinay Ratan Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad in 2015. The organisation runs more than 350 free schools for Dalits and Muslims in Uttar Pradesh. The organisation is named after B. R. Ambedkar.
Satnam Singh Kainth, was an Indian politician and founder of BSP (Kainth).
Chandrashekhar Azad, also known as Chandra Shekhar Azad Ravan, is an Indian politician, social activist, Ambedkarite and lawyer. He is serving as a Member of Parliament of the 18th Lok Sabha from Nagina since June 2024. He is the chief and co-founder of the Bhim Army, and the National President of the Azad Samaj Party. In February 2021, Time magazine featured him in its annual list of 100 Emerging Leaders who are Shaping the Future.
The Bahujan Mukti Party (BMP) is a political party in India launched on 6 December 2012. Pravendra Pratap Singh is the national president of Bahujan Mukti Party.
The Mahagathbandhan, or MGB, or simply the Gathbandhan (Alliance), was an anti-Congress, anti-BJP, Indian political alliance formed in the run-up to the 2019 general election under the leadership of two former Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party, along with Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Arun Kumar Sagar is an Indian politician.He currently serves as a second term Member of Lok Sabha for Shahjahanpur since 2019.
Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) (abbr.ASP(KR)), commonly known as Azad Samaj Partyabbr.ASP), is an Indian registered, unrecognised political party in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It was founded by Chandrashekhar Azad.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
