Question

Why were Jyoti Rao Phule and Ramaswamy Naicker critical of the national movement? Did their criticism help the national struggle in any way?

Answer 1

Jyoti Rao Phule

• Phule was an ardent critic of the nationalism preached by upper castes which fought against the colonization of India by the British.
• He was critical of Brahmans by claiming that they had hidden their agenda of religion which caused inequality in India and were now pretending to be nationalists.
• He thought that although upper caste people created divisions in society and hindered the progress of the nation, now they are claiming that progress cannot be attained without keeping aside the differences and was now preaching unity to youths of Parsis, Muslims, and Shudras.
• Phule said they are preaching unity now to serve their purposes, but once the objectives of freedom are attained, once again the discrimination of lower castes by upper-caste will continue.

E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker (Periyar)

• He was from a middle-class family. He had carefully studied Sanskrit Scriptures.
• Later on he became a member of Congress.
• He was offended because of the discriminatory caste-based seating arrangements made in the feast that was organized by the nationalists.
• Members of the Upper caste in the Congress sat separately from the members of the lower castes in the Congress.
• Subsequently he was disgusted with Congress and left the organization.
• Periyar founded the Self Respect Movement after getting convinced that untouchables had to fight for their dignity.

Yes, their criticism did help the national movement. Nationalist leaders did promise to bring equality to the society after attaining independence from British rule. People of all the castes fought unitedly against the British. One can notice that after independence, the Indian Constitution came down heavily on all kinds of discrimination, particularly against caste discrimination, and vouched to give equality to all citizens of India irrespective of caste, gender, religion, financial status, political status, etc.