Kanshi Ram passed away early monday morning. After suffering a paralytic stroke two years ago, he had been bedridden and continued to face multiple health problems.
Kanshi Ram’s was perhaps the most powerful independent Dalit political voice in independent India. Unlike other Dalit polticians who owed their power to their association with political parties, Kanshi Ram relied on his superb organizational skills and capacity to articulate a common platform for the minorities and the backward classes. True, from Lohia to V P Singh and Mulayam/Laloo, there is a long list of leaders who tried to organized the oppressed but the uniqueness of Kanshi Ram’s effort was that it was a Dalit led movement.
Kanshi Ram began his career in the late 1970s by organizing Dalit government and public sector workers. In 1981, he established Dalit Shoshit Sangharsh Samiti (DS4) and in 1984, he founded Bahujan Samaj Party, which emerged as an infleuntial political force within ten years. It was no mean achievement to make an untouchable woman the chief minister of India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh.
Critics will point out his contribution to the increasing castiesm in Indian politics and to his unprincipled alliances with Bharatiya Janata Party. What’s undeniable is his impact on Indian politics in the last three decades, especially in making Dalits an influential voice in national politics. He shall be remembered for that.