Sharma : People from lower castes also came.
Chavan : Lower castes, villagers, peasantry also came. But one thing I must say, the followers of Dr Ambedkar for whom I had a great admiration, even then, kept away from this movement. Our movement could not make any impact on them.
Sharma : On the Harijans?
Chavan : I am not talking about the Harijans only, Dr Ambedkar's Mahar caste. They are the largest in number in our State.
Sharma : He belogned to that caste.
Chavan : He beloged to that caste. They were not in the independence movement. Their social programmes and social urges were quite revolutionary with which we felt much sympathy, and felt like participating in that. But when it came to the British power, we were isolated. we reached the villages, but we could not reach emotonally, intellectually through our organisational work to those people.
Sharma : But I think the problem with Dr Ambedkar was that he was never anti-British in that sense, and secondly, though he was the leader of the Mahar community and the Harijans, he never shared or was prepared to share their struggles and privations.
Chavan : Well, it is not exactly true because Dr Ambedkar had some followers outside the Mahar community in Maharashtra. Some intellectuals from C.P. and Maharashtra, who were not Mahars, respected him highly. They considered him a great man in the tradition of Mahatma Phule and others. But when it came to Gandhiji's struggle, national struggle, he was not a part of it, it is ture, and, therefore, you can draw your own inferences and you can put it in whatever terms you like. he did not participate in it. He felt as if we were fighting to bring back high caste Hindu rule.
