Mumbai, Mar 20 (PTI) The centenary year celebrations of the historic Chavdar Lake Satyagraha of Dr B R Ambedkar were inaugurated in Maharashtra’s Mahad on Friday, with leaders and activists stressing its message of equality, social justice and fraternity.
A group of people led by Dr Ambedkar drank from Chavdar ‘Tale’ or lake at Mahad in Raigad district on March 20, 1927, thereby asserting the right of all sections of society including those considered ‘untouchables’ to access public water sources.
Speaking at Friday’s event, Maharashtra Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal said the water of Chavdar Lake was “nectar of equality”, and urged people to carry it to villages across the state to spread the message of social equality.
Tushar Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson, said the Mahad movement was a crucial milestone in India’s democratic journey and its ideals remain relevant. He drew parallels between Dr Ambedkar’s Satyagraha in Mahad and Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha, noting that both underscored the power of non-violent resistance.
Divisive ideologies, which weaken social unity, must be rejected, he added.
Later, Sapkal and Congress workers and activists proceeded to Chavdar Lake, paid tributes to Ambedkar and collected water in ceremonial pots which will be distributed across Maharashtra.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Jati Ant Sangharsh Samiti (JASS) organised a procession from Ladavli village to the lake to commemorate the satyagraha of March 20, 1927, and Ambedkar’s symbolic burning of the Manusmriti on December 25, 1927, at Mahad.
Comrade R B More, who later became a prominent leader of the CPI(M), was among the chief organisers of the two landmark events that took place a hundred years ago. PTI MR KRK
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