KALARAM TEMPLE................ENTRY MOVEMENT 185
were trying to reach a settlement. The great multi-millionaire Birla also saw Dr. Ambedkar in Bombay in the middle of April
- But so firm was the resolve of the Depressed Classes that orthodox Hindus had to keep the famous temple closed for a whole year and the agitation continued.” [1]
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar had written two letters to His Excellencey Governor of Bombay regarding the problems created by the bureaucracy during Kala Ram Temple entry Satyagrah at Nasik.
The letters are as follows : Editors.
“BHIMRAO R. AMBEDKAR, Damodar Hall Parel,
M.A., Ph. D., D. Sc, Bombay-12.
Bar-at-law, 24th March 1930.
Member, Legislative Council,
Bombay.
May it please your Excellency,
I am extremely obliged to Your Excellency for the letter of the 13th of March 1930 in reply to my telegram giving an assurance that Government proposed to act impartially in the dispute between the touchables and the Untouchables, which is centered in the Satyagraha at the Kala Ram Temple at Nasik. I have honour to bring to Your Excellency’s notice at recent development in the situation which seems to be fought with the greatest danger. On the day on which the Satyagraha was started, we purposely ommitted to blocade the entrance to the house of the Pujari of the temple assuming that it would not be used by the public for the purpose of going into the temple and obtain Dev Darashan. But of late this entrance has become a public passage and the public in Nasik is using it to go into the temple. If this is allowed, it will entirely frustrate the principal object of the Satyagraha. To prevent this, the District Superintendent of Police and the District Magistrate were approached by the Satyagraha Committee to discuss the question and to communicate to them the intention of the Satyagraha Committee to blocade that private entrance to the general public and permit only the members of family of the Pujari.
1 : Keer, Pp. 137, 138.