Mahad Satyagraha – Human Rights, Gender, and Constitutional Ethics

Mahad tehsil in the Bombay Province was an important economic centre supplying labour to the industrial sector of the Bombay Presidency.

Caste norms were deeply entrenched; Dalits were denied access to public water sources, including the Chavadar Tank.

Untouchability represented a system of social exclusion, backed by Brahmanical hierarchy.

Passed in the Bombay Legislative Council (August 1923).

Recommended that untouchables be allowed access to all public water sources and public institutions maintained with public funds.

This challenged Brahmanical dominance and triggered early equality efforts in villages near Mahad (Goregaon, Dasgaon).

Figures like Ramchandra Chandorkar, R. B. More, and Ramji Potdar initiated acts of civil defiance by drinking from public reservoirs.

The region had a strong legacy of anti-caste reformers: Gopalbaba Walangkar, N. M. Joshi, Sambhaji Gaikwad, among others.

This made Mahad an ideal site for Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s movement for human rights and equality.

Ambedkar and his anuyayis asserted their right to drink from Chavadar Tank as per the Bole Resolution.

Locals denied access, forcing the purchase of ₹40 worth of water for the satyagraha.

After the act, “purification rituals” were performed by caste Hindus to symbolically erase Dalit presence—an attempt to reassert caste supremacy.

Planned due to continuing resistance and a court stay that labelled the Chavadar Tank as “private property”.

Ambedkar launched Bahishkrut Bharat, emphasising democratic truths and human rights.

After violent attacks on Dalits, the Ambedkar Seva Dal was formed for protection.

On December 25, Ambedkar burned the Manusmriti, signalling a decisive rejection of Brahmanical law.

Mahad 2.0 explicitly included women, initiating a gendered discourse on human rights.

He described Mahad 1.0 and 2.0 as embodying the zeitgeist of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, fraternity.

But unlike the French Revolution, which excluded women, Ambedkar insisted on gender equality, drawing from his earlier (1916) work analysing caste through a gendered lens.

Ambedkar argued that Manusmriti treated women as equivalent to Shudras, institutionalising subordination.

Burning the text symbolised a new human rights discourse relevant to caste and gender.

Ambedkar introduced an existential, non-essentialist nationalism rooted in:

• Natural rights

• Legal equality

• Human dignity

• Buddhist ethics of Maitri (compassion)

December 25 is celebrated as Indian Women’s Liberation Day, signifying the gendered dimension of Mahad 2.0.

Mahad Satyagraha shaped ideas that later entered constitutional morality:

• Equality

• Dignity

• Social justice

• Liberty and fraternity

It helped lay the foundations of a human rights tradition in India.