The (Im)possibility of Winning the Untouchables

Ambedkar, Gandhi, E. Kannan, and the Depressed Classes Movement in Colonial Malabar

Abstract

The present paper discusses the fundamental dynamics of provincial-national politics and the struggle of the Depressed Classes for equality and political freedom through the correspondence between BR Ambedkar and E. Kannan of Malabar. This article examines the efforts made by the Depressed Classes to maintain their autonomy in the face of societal prejudices based on caste, exploring the contributions made by the Oppressed Classes to the process of reshaping political discourse in India. This paper also aims to situate the Ambedkar-initiated Depressed Class movement, the local Depressed Class movements, and Congress interventions within the political context of Madras and Malabar, shaped by British colonialism. The most perceptive and intellectual insights on caste oppression, ideas of autonomous anti-caste movement, dynamics of political space, and emancipatory potentialities from Ambedkar and Kannan confront Gandhi and the Congress, while providing concepts and viewpoints about how India's Depressed Classes could forge ahead and become recognized as a political force. This study investigates the power of resistance, mostly against caste oppression, and investigates the omitted histories of the Depressed Classes to demonstrate how they were key participants of the struggle, given the specificities of their social and political settings. The purpose of this article is to bring Dalits from the peripheries of South Asian history to the fore as intellectual leaders whose work rewrites and shifts the ideas and struggles of contemporary India, instead of merely being seen as regional political actors.