KALARAM TEMPLE................ENTRY MOVEMENT 181
CONCENTRATE ENERGY AND RESOURCES ON POLITICS AND EDUCATION
“In the history of India the year 1930 was a year of action and reaction. It brought forth a new line of thinking and a new angle of approach; new measures of represssion and new methods of rapprochement. Better still, it was the age of Satyagraha. It was in this year that Mahatma Gandhi as the generalissimo of the Congress inaugurated his great movement for the liberation of the country on March 12, 1930, and transformed the whole country into a theatre of passive resistance, vast crowds facing battalions of mounted police, rounds of firing and terms of jail life.
Ten days before the Dandi March of Gandhi, Ambedkar, the father of Indian social unrest, launched his temple entry movement at Nasik. Preparations for this movement had been going on for over three months. Dr. Ambedkar was guiding, inspiring and organising it from Bombay through his letters and lieutenants. The Depressed Classes at Nasik had formed a Satyagraha Committee and through its Secretary, Bhaurao Gaikwad, informed the Trustees of the famous Kalaram Temple that they would launch Satyagraha, if the Trustees did not throw the temple open to the Untouchable Hindus before a particular date. Simultaneoulsy, a clarion call was issued to the Depressed Classes to come to Nasik to assert their right of worshipping Shree Rama in the said temple. In response to this call of the Satyagraha Committee, about 15,000 volunteers and representatives assembled in a specially erected pandal in the Depressed Classes locality at Nasik. Notable among those present were Deorao Naik. Rajbhoj, Pradhan, Shivtarkar, Patitpavandas and B.G. Kher.
At last the day of action dawned. It was Sunday, March 2,
- In the morning at ten, a Conference was held under the Presidentship of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in the pandal to consider the situation and adopt ways and means for launching the Satyagraha. ” [1]
“Dr. Ambedkar put forward a thought-provoking speech about the entry of Kalaram Temple. He said, today, we are about to
1 : Keer P. 136.