A Dalit rally in Bhima Koregaon in January 2018, days after the violence.
New Delhi:
The 203rd anniversary of the historic Battle of Bhima Koregaon today saw a group of senior political leaders, including Maharashtra Senior Deputy Minister Ajit Pawar and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, paying tribute today at the memorial site near Pune, even as restrictions related to COVID-19 kept others from holding the annual pilgrimage.
Every year thousands of people visit “Jay Stambh” in the village of Perne in Maharashtra on January 1 to commemorate the 1818 battle in which the Mahar Regiment of the British East India Company defeated the Peshwa army. The tradition of commemorating victory was strengthened by the visit of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar in 1927, who saw the construction of “Jay Stambh”, the monument. Dr. Ambedkar considered the victory of the war as one of the Dalits (Mahar) over the Peshwa Brahmins, a sore point in recent years.
“The battle (Battle of Bhima Koregaon) was a fight against untouchability that was going on during the Peshwa rule and it was successful,” said Prakash Ambedkar, who was among other political personalities who visited the monument today, PTI reported. Grandson of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, he is president of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi group and has been a parliamentarian three times.
Visiting “Jay Stambh”, Minister Athawale said he would write to the Minister of Education to include the story of the battle of Bhima Koregaon in textbooks, according to a PTI report.
The monument burst into national consciousness in 2018, when, on the 200th anniversary of the battle, violence broke out during the annual event between pilgrims and Hindutva activists. One person died and several were injured in the confrontation.
An investigation into the violence led to the arrest of a group of left-wing activists such as Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha and Varavara Rao, who were accused of having instigated the violence.
.
