JV Pawar is the co-founder of the Dalit Panthers movement. The Dalit Panthers were committed to the mission of fighting cruelty and oppression. Here's Outlook's Chinki Sinha, in a conversation with JV Pawar on the foundation of the movement, what led to it, and more.
#Dalits #DalitPanthers #Opression #Equality #HumanRights #India #DalitJustice
#Dalits #DalitPanthers #Opression #Equality #HumanRights #India #DalitJustice
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00:00 I am J.V Pawar. I am known as the Kavi Javi Pawar. People used to say Jai is Kavi and
00:17 Kavi is Jai. This was my identification and my first collection of poetry was Nakkebandi
00:26 that is translated into English by name Blockhead. Which year it came out? It was 1976. How did
00:40 you come to the movement? That's what I have to learn. I was surrounding the area in which
00:46 I was staying. There was a scavenger area. They were having, drinking was regular for
00:53 them. Then the coral, Barabari, it was not new for me. What I am telling you, about the
01:05 Babasaheb Ambedkar, my other relatives, my uncles and others, they used to bring two
01:16 papers. One paper was Acharya's Maratha paper, Shant Maratha. That is the evening paper.
01:23 That time the evening paper was Shant Maratha and evening paper Sanyakal. Those were the
01:31 evening papers, not regular papers. So they used to bring that paper and they were asking
01:38 me to read because only I am the man who was able to read the read because all others they
01:44 are the labour, they were not educated. I was the only educated. Educated means up to
01:49 4th standard. Yeah, you could read. I could read. So when I started reading, when I started
01:56 reading the news, Sanyakal is Shant Maratha, Maratha, Acharya says Maratha. When I used
02:04 to read, all of a sudden they used to cry. They used to cry. I do not know, I was rather
02:11 shocked. Why these people are crying? What was the news that you were reading? About
02:16 the death of Babasaheb Ambedkar. That news, they were bringing the news paper and they
02:25 were asking me to read out. I was reading it and I was without any sense. But when I
02:34 used to read, they suddenly started crying and that is crying in a sense of crying as
02:41 if somebody from their family member had died. So from that day only, Dr. Ambedkar's name
02:51 was born in all my heart. What do you say? Who is an Ambedkar? Then I started reading
02:58 Ambedkar and the area in which I was, that was the 1956. I was in 5th standard. I was
03:10 in 5th standard 1956. 6th December 1956, death accord, Dr. Ambedkar death accord, 6th December
03:18 1956 and after 12 o'clock, I started reading that newspaper and the people. So from that
03:27 day, I was rather surprised. What he has done? Why people are crying for him? Then the area
03:35 in which I was, that was the entire area was the Ambedkar area. Entire area was the Ambedkar
03:41 area. There were people who were only staying there. So they have all programs, there were
03:51 name ceremony program or JNT program and all other whatever small program, I used to attend
04:00 the program and from there, the speaker there, they were speaking about the work done by
04:06 Dr. Ambedkar. So naturally, first I heard, then I started reading. I used to get Time
04:15 magazine. In that Time magazine, it was in English only. You know the Time? Even today
04:22 it is being published. I know. So in that time, the atrocity on black people, it was
04:29 coming and the entire history, I came, I read from the Time magazine. It was one Mr. Bobby
04:38 Seale and H.P. Newton. They have to safeguard their black people, to fight, to curtail the
04:52 atrocity on black people. They have started that Black Panther. It was militant also.
05:01 What did you mean by militant? Two types of militancy there. So when we read it, what
05:11 happened in one village in Maharashtra, two ladies, they were naked. And because there
05:20 was a time, when Naik was the Chief Minister, he told us that you go there to collect the
05:31 data. I asked him, you are the Chief Minister, all facilities are with you, you are having
05:40 all machinery, you should get what, who is responsible for that part of the atrocity.
05:48 And our people, today they are the leader, I will give them, Musaib Darbhai, Balchandra
05:55 Munekar, during those times, they say we will go there, we will offer them sarees, we will
06:02 offer them sarees to those ladies and we will have a meeting condemning the village people.
06:10 Namdev Dasar was there staying with me, staying in my area. I was his first fan to read his
06:19 poetry. He was not educated, he has not seen the college, he was not educated. But whatever
06:26 he was writing, that was not as per the literature. Whatever he was writing, that was touching
06:35 to me.