Editing Namdeo Dhasal (section)

== Ideas ==

Dhasal's own statements are known to this entry only through Hovell, and the account of his ideas below is correspondingly limited.

Hovell argues that Dalit literature, of which she calls Dhasal one of the best-known writers, functioned to identify, unite, and direct the Dalit political movement while helping to create a positive and identifiable Dalit culture. Dhasal's political stance, as she presents it, was deliberately open-ended. In a 1982 interview, he described "Ambedkarism" not as a single coherent system but as a label for whatever methods, whether parliamentary, cultural, or other, serve to end untouchability.<ref>Sonalkar, Sudhir (1982). Interview with Namdeo Dhasal. ''The Sunday Observer'', 8 August 1982, p. 20, as reported in Hovell (1991), "Namdeo Dhasal".</ref> Hovell suggests that this open-endedness may help to explain both the movement's tactical flexibility and its tendency to split into factions.<ref>Hovell (1991), "Namdeo Dhasal".</ref> It is consistent with the shifts of allegiance noted above, which cannot be reduced to a single ideological line: the Congress Party that Dhasal at one time praised is the same party that the Dalit Panthers Manifesto attacks as a continuation of "old Hindu feudalism."<ref name="Manifesto">Dalit Panthers (1973). ''Dalit Panthers Manifesto''. Bombay. 8 pp. Publisher not given in the sources. The title page reads Bombay, 1973. The text, however, counts Congress rule "from 1947 to 1974" (p. 2), and Guru (2021), p. 114, cites the document as ''Dalit Panther Movement'', Mumbai, 1974: Guru, Gopal (2021). "New-Buddhism, Marxism and the Caste Question in India". In: Gokhale, Pradeep P. (Ed.), ''Classical Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism and the Question of Caste'': 111–126. London: Routledge. The discrepancy is unresolved.</ref>

Hovell's own framework for the changing self-description of the wider community runs from "Untouchable," through "Ex-Untouchable and Scheduled Caste" and "Buddhist" (after the conversions that began in 1956), to "Dalit," which she presents as a contemporary and deliberately caste-transcending label.<ref>Hovell (1991), "Namdeo Dhasal," p. 78.</ref> This scheme is Hovell's analytical scaffolding and not Dhasal's own, but it places his preferred self-description in a later stage than the Buddhist one. Using the distinctions that this project applies, the evidence concerning Dhasal is of a personal Buddhist identity (together with, but separately from, left-wing and Ambedkarite activism). 

The Dalit Panthers Manifesto is a collectively authored document that names neither Dhasal nor Dhale, so it cannot be assumed to state Dhasal's own views, but it shows the political setting in which his Buddhist identity is reported. It defines a "dalit" broadly, to include members of scheduled castes and tribes, "Neo-Buddhists," the working people, the landless and poor peasants, women, and all others exploited politically, economically, and in the name of religion; Neo-Buddhists are thus one named constituency among several.<ref>Dalit Panthers (1973), ''Dalit Panthers Manifesto'', p. 6.</ref> It repudiates the Republican Party, Ambedkar's former political vehicle,<ref>Dalit Panthers (1973), ''Dalit Panthers Manifesto'', p. 5.</ref> criticizes the Communist Party of India for failing to combine class struggle with the struggle against untouchability,<ref>Dalit Panthers (1973), ''Dalit Panthers Manifesto'', p. 4.</ref> and names as friends "Left parties that are left in a true sense."<ref>Dalit Panthers (1973), ''Dalit Panthers Manifesto'', p. 6.</ref> It presents Ambedkar's later turn to "a completely atheistic approach" as the necessary basis of effective politics,<ref>Dalit Panthers (1973), ''Dalit Panthers Manifesto'', p. 5.</ref> and its eighteen-point programme, which calls for land redistribution, the end of caste bars on employment, wells, and village residence, the abolition of exploitation by private capital, and free education, medical care, and housing, is not framed in Buddhist terms. It also calls for an end to government grants to religious institutions and for a ban on religious and casteist literature.<ref>Dalit Panthers (1973), ''Dalit Panthers Manifesto'', pp. 7–8; the points on religious institutions and literature are at p. 8.</ref> A personal Buddhist identity on the part of one of the movement's founders is compatible with co-founding an organization that adopted such a manifesto, but the sources available do not show how Dhasal himself related the two. For the movement as a whole, see [[Dalit Panthers]].