The Black Panther–Dalit Panther connection

There is a lot in common between the racism faced by African Americans in the US and the caste discrimination faced by the Dalits in India. This was recognised by Dr Ambedkar when he spent time in the US studying at Columbia University in New York establishing contacts with Black rights activists there.

But this 'sibling solidarity' was never as much in prominence as during the radical Dalit upsurge of the 1970s, when the most radical post-Ambedkar organisation of the Dalits— the Dalit Panthers— named themselves after the Black Panther Party of the US. 

In this article, Dr Shridhar Pawar traces the organic connection across continents of these two powerful subaltern movements.

—

IN 1913, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar initially went to Columbia University in New York to do his master's. Harlem, a district of New York City famous for being the cultural centre of the city's Black population, happened to be in the neighbourhood.

During his stay in the US, two incidents had a strong impact on Babasaheb's mind. The first was that although the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the US (through which slavery was abolished) and the 14th Amendment (which gave citizenship rights to all people born in the US regardless of colour) had been passed many years earlier, not a single black student was able to get admission to Columbia University.

The second incident was the death of Booker T. Washington, who passed away in November 1915. Washington was the leading spokesman of his time for the freedom of the Black people.

In his famous book Up from Slavery, which has become a classic autobiography in the US, he underlined the importance of education for the Blacks in their fight for freedom.

Likewise, Dr Ambedkar too emphasised the importance of education in his potent three-point formula for Dalits: "Shikha! Sanghathit Vha! Sangharsh Karaa! (Educate! Organise! Agitate!)."

Ambedkar was also inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois, the leading Black campaigner for civil rights of his time.

Also read: How to cultivate democracy in a soil that is essentially undemocratic: The Ambedkar way

Du Bois, an avowed supporter of Communist ideology, was a severe critic of racism, capitalism and theocratic rule and wrote critical accounts of the effect of all these on the people of the US.

After the United Nations (UN) was established in 1945, Du Bois submitted a 96-page petition to the UN, which was the first constitutional and organised intervention against racism.

It was published for the first time in 1947 and a year later the Manifesto of Universal Human Rights was released. (Being a Communist, he was forced to leave the US and he eventually died in Ghana.)

In 1946, Dr Ambedkar wrote a letter to Du Bois, in which he mentioned, "I was a student of the problems of Negro people and here there is such a striking similarity between the condition of the Untouchables in India and the condition of the Negroes that I find it is not only natural for me to study their condition but it is imperative… like the human rights petition of the Negroes of America, the question of the Indian Untouchables should also be put forth in the UN and a copy of the petition submitted for this purpose should be sent to me on my address."

This was the request made by him through this letter. There is no note of a date in this letter but it does carry the address: 'Rajgruha, Hindu Colony, Dadar, Bombay – 14'.

Du Bois replied through his letter dated July 31, 1946 stating, "After submitting the said petition in the UN in the form of a comprehensive document I shall be happy to send you a copy of the same."

Du Bois further wrote, "I am acquainted with your name and the work you are doing… I shall be only too happy to provide whatever service you may require of me in the future."

Professor Nico Slate, in his book Black Power Beyond Borders, The global dimensions of the black power movement, emphasises that there is a consistent similarity in the racial discrimination found in the US and the caste system in India. Even Martin Luther King acknowledged the likeness between caste and race.

Also read: Ambedkar: The Romantics

Just as the similarity between Blacks and Dalits is consistent so also is their organic connection. Way back in 1873, Mahatma Jotirao Phule dedicated his famous treatise Gulamgiri (Slavery) "to the good people of the United States as a token of admiration for their sublime, disinterested and self-sacrificing devotion in the cause of Negro slavery; and with an earnest desire that my countrymen may take their noble example as their guide in the emancipation of their Sudra brethren from the trammels of Brahmin thralldom."

Once again, a hundred years later that very same organic connect was revived by the establishment of the 'Dalit Panthers' in 1972.

The decade of the 1960s proved to be singularly remarkable in more ways than one. Many events that shook the world and transformed it took place in this decade.

Various aspects of society, different branches of knowledge and practical aspects of life were affected and new philosophies, literature and mass movements took shape during this decade.

Amongst these, the movement of the 'Black Panther' was one of the most remarkable because it managed to defang the mighty US State and bring about various novel changes. The race riots that took place in Harlem (1964) and Watts (1965) not only brought the sorry plight of the Blacks to the fore but also gave them new weapons and methods of protest.

Many of the Black youth were up in arms against the ill-treatment and abuse faced by Black people everywhere. Two such youths were Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale Meritte. They studied at Oakland University but faced a life of discrimination just like all other Black people had to face.

However, they decided to take a different path as they were influenced by the thoughts of Malcolm X, Franz Fanon, Fidel Castro and Mao Zedong. The dire situation in the shanties where the Blacks lived included daily terror by the police, unemployment, lack of education and lack of means of survival but the most important issue facing the youth here was defending themselves against police terror.

Ultimately the angry youth got together and, under the leadership of Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, they formed the 'Black Panther Party for Self Defense' in1966, later changed to Black Panther Party.

Birthplace of the Black Panther

The Black Panther Party was founded in the industrial city of Oakland near San Francisco, California. In the 1920s, this city lived in fear of the reign of terror of the Ku Klux Klan— the white supremacist, far-right, terrorist organisation which primarily targeted Black Americans.

Also read: Names and numbers: 'The Untouchables are classified as Hindus but properly speaking are not Hindus at all'

After World War II, Oakland became a major industrial centre with defence-related manufacturing, shipbuilding and technology and attracted thousands of workers from all over the continent.

Consequently, the population of Oakland tripled and 10 percent of the population now consisted of Black people. During this period, numerous workers' struggles took place and strong workers' organisations, such as the American Federation of Labour (AFL), came into being.

Basic infrastructural construction projects undertaken in the city like the building of roads and highways led to numerous people being displaced, especially the Black population.

As a result of this, the incidence of racial discrimination began to increase and became quite acute. In order to curb this social unrest, a new law known as the Adolescent Crime Control Act was enacted.

Needless to say, the main targets of this new law were Black youth. Police atrocities against the Black population began to increase incrementally. The period between 1940–45 saw the rise of many organisations to fight racism and other exploitation on one hand and to work for the welfare and progress of Black people on the other.

The prominent organisations of this time were the left-oriented National Negro Congress (NNC), the Civil Rights Congress (CRC), and the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), which was the first broad organisation with a mass base.

The Black Panther campaigned against police repression, armed self-defence against police brutality, the release of all Black prisoners, full employment and decent housing, exemption from military service, the right for a Black accused to be tried by a Black jury and for compensation by the State to Blacks who had been exploited over the centuries. They also ran a free breakfast programme for Black children, provided free legal aid, and ran some free medical clinics.

Also read: B.R. Ambedkar's timeless relevance

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) described the Black Panther as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country" and undertook an illegal and covert counterintelligence program of surveillance, infiltration and police harassment in order to undermine and criminalise the party.

These actions of the State, coupled with internal infighting among the leaders, led to the decline of the Black Panther Party in the 1970s.

It was the 'Black Panthers' that served as the inspiration for the formation of the 'Dalit Panthers'. Two angry young men of Bombay (as it then was), Namdeo Dhasal and J.V. Pawar— just like Newton and Bobby Seale— were instrumental in setting up the Dalit Panthers.

In India, too, many socially transformative events were taking place in the decade of the 1960s. Caste discrimination, exploitation and violence were on the rise. Even before 1971, caste-based injustice existed and left-leaning reporters wrote about it in the newspapers.

These articles were published and propagated and this began to affect the Dalit youth. At about the same time, the Fourth Schedule Tribes and Scheduled Castes Report— also known as the Elaya Perumal Committee Report— were published.

Among its members, the Republican Party was represented by Dadasaheb Gaikwad, whose imprint was prominently seen in this report. Just as the intensity of the injustices perpetrated against the Blacks in the US was felt by people after the release of the collection of articles about these injustices was made public, so also in India the Perumal Committee Report served a similar purpose.

In a village called Bawada in the Indapur Taluka of Pune district, the upper castes had declared a boycott of all Untouchables. On May 14, 1972, two women from the Dalit settlement on the outskirts of the village (termed 'Maharwada' or 'Rajwada') were stripped and paraded naked through the village.

Also read: Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar's utopia

This incident coupled with another horrific incident where the eyes of two Dalit men were gouged out by upper caste people in Dhakali village in Akola district, added fuel to the fire as the Dalit youth were already enraged due to the ongoing atrocities against them.

In response, on May 29, 1972, Pawar and Dhasal declared the founding of an organisation with the name 'Dalit Panthers' along the lines of the 'Black Panther' of the US. They adopted the name 'Dalit' (downtrodden) in place of phrases such as 'Harijans' and 'Untouchables' because it was devoid of religious connotations.

The two founders were joined by other educated Dalits such as Raja Dhale, Bhai Sangare and Arun Kamble, and they quickly managed to make this organisation popular and effective in the whole of Maharashtra and even in some other parts of India.

They boycotted elections, publicly burnt Hindu religious texts, attacked Hindu deities to protest Dalit caste oppression, and led several agitations demanding land, justice and rights for Dalits.

In 1973, the Dalit Panthers published their manifesto, integrating Marxist capitalist exploitation with Buddhism, identifying Dalit enemies as landlords, capitalists, money-lenders and the government controlled by ruling castes.

They also expanded the term Dalits to include other oppressed peoples such as low (Scheduled) castes, neo-Buddhists, landless and poor peasants and exploited women.

The raging popularity of the Dalit Panther's poems, short stories and street protests led to the rapid growth of over 30 loosely organised groups of the organisation in Mumbai.

The Black Panther Party, in their official newspaper, offered their support and appreciation to the Dalit Panthers in Vol. 11, no. 20-22 of the May 11, 1974 edition.

They reported the launch of a manifesto that explained who the Dalits were and the atrocities committed against them by the 'non-Untouchables'. The newspaper reproduced an article in the LA Times written by A.S. Abraham, a journalist with the Times of India, that chronicled the history of the Dalit Panthers, explaining to the US audience this new phenomenon that was partly inspired by the Black Panthers of the US.

Also read: Reading as an antidote to 'Frustration': Ambedkar's thoughts

In 1974, the leaders Dhasal and Dhale disagreed about having a Marxism–Buddhism ideology versus a strictly Buddhist identity. Outside pressures on them included intense police surveillance and Indira Gandhi's State of Emergency from 1975–77.

On March 7, 1977, Dhasal and Pawar announced the dissolution of the Dalit Panthers as a result of this infighting and political repression.

Although it was short-lived, the movement had a significant influence on Dalits in India. It ushered in a new period of Dalit literature, poetry and storytelling, allowing them to display their ability and bring their issues to the forefront.

Though the origins of the 'Black Panther' and the 'Dalit Panther' took place in different environments, similarities between them were not restricted to their names.

They were both committed to building a militant movement that would protest against the injustices being meted out to the deprived and downtrodden, and their style of functioning was also similar.

Even in their personal lives they accepted and tried to emulate the iconic leadership of the 'Black Panthers'. The scholar-activist Angela Davis was charged with having provided the gun that a Black Panther activist had used in an abortive attempt to free some Black prisoners while they were in court.

She was hunted down, imprisoned and charged with the serious crime of murder. While Angela Davis was still in prison J.V. Pawar named his first daughter Angela after her.

Also read: The elephant in the room

Some years ago, Angela Davis had come to Mumbai to deliver a lecture on the subject 'Black lives: Dalit lives' where she shared the stage with J.V. Pawar.

During the course of her talk, she mentioned the correspondence between DuBois and Dr Ambedkar. She spoke at length about the contact between these two great personalities and the form of the current issues.

J.V. Pawar introduced his daughter, Angela to Angela Davis and recounted the story of her christening. On hearing this, Angela Davis was extremely touched, and she said: "When I was in the 'solitary prison cell' I would always wonder whether anybody was listening to my lone voice outside the prison walls."

She said that despite her misgivings she consistently got support from unexpected countries and societies. Such is the power of the solidarity between those who actively resist injustice anywhere in the world.

(Translated from the original Marathi by Ujjwala Mhatre)