MAHAD SATYAGRAHA 9
Mahad Conference-Report By ‘ The Bombay Chronicle’
A Conference of the Depressed Classes of the Kolaba District was held at Mahad on the 19th and 20th instants [ i.e. of March 1927] under the Presidentship of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Bar-at-Law. The attendance of the Depressed Classes was over
2,500 and great enthusiasm prevailed. But the work of the Conference was severely marred by a riot, the responsibility for which rests entirely upon the upper class Hindu residents of the town of Mahad. On the first day of the Conference after the President had delivered his address, several Upper Class Hindus addressed the Conference assuring the Depressed Classes that, they were willing to help them in all ways and urging that the Depressed Classes should not cultivate hatred of the Upper Class Hindus. In pursuance of this the Subjects Committee drafted a resolution among others laying down what the Upper Class Hindus should do for the uplift of the Depressed Classes. In the Subjects Committee attention was drawn by some people to the fact that there was a great difficulty at Mahad for the Depressed Classes in obtaining water for drinking purposes and that this difficulty was felt not only by the resident Depressed Classes of Mahad but also by the Depressed Classes from villages who resorted to Mahad for private business or for the purposes of Government work. So great was the scarcity that water worth Rs. 15 had to be bought each day to satisfy the needs of the Conference. The Municipality of Mahad had sometime ago passed a resolution declaring the tanks in the city to be open to the public but as it had not placed a board there, people feared to resort to them. The Subjects Committee, therefore, decided after taking the sense of the upper classes who attended the Conference in this matter, that the Conference should go in body to the Chawdar Tank and help the Depressed Classes in establishing their right to take water.
A False Rumour
When, therefore, the Conference met on the morning of the
20th, and the first resolution which declared what the Upper Classes should do for the Depressed Classes was put before the Conference by members of Depressed Classes the President requested Messrs Purushottam Prabhakar Joshi and Govind