R. B. More

Ramchandra Babaji More (1 March 1903 – 11 May 1972) was a political leader and campaigner with a particular focus around the struggle against the Caste system in India and Class exploitation in the Indian sub-continent.

Early life

He was born on 1 March 1903, in a Dalit/Scheduled Caste family of agricultural workers at the Ladavli village in Mahad Tehsil in the state of Maharashtra.^[1][2]

At the age of 11, he began his struggle against untouchability. With the aid of some social reformers, he began sending letters to the British government for being denied admission to Mahad High School despite being awarded a scholarship on completing his primary education.,^[3][4][5]

Political career

Civil rights campaign

He was the main organizer of Mahad Satyagraha of 19–20 March 1927, which was led by Dr B. R. Ambedkar.^{[6][7][8][9][10][11]} More originally wrote a detailed account of Mahad Satyagraha in Marathi.^[12][13] The struggle of Dalits at Mahad for asserting their rights to access the public tank, the Chavadar tank, was arguably the first civil rights struggles in history.^[10] R.B. More was also the organizer of another convention at Mahad, Manusmriti Dahan Din (Manusmriti Burning Day), which was also led by Babasaheb Ambedkar. This convention took place on 25–26 December 1927, in which thousands of Dalits gathered together to publicly burn a copy of the Manusmriti, the ancient symbol of Brahminical caste and gender oppression. Dr. Ambedkar also addressed a separate meeting of Dalit women, as part of the convention at Mahad, asking them to shun social practices that perpetuate inequality.^[5]

Communist party

In spite of the fact that More joined the then undivided Communist Party of India ^[3] in 1930, under the influence of Marxism-Leninism, he and Dr. Ambedkar continued to maintain mutual admiration for each other's work. More consistently raised the issue of caste discrimination prevalent in Indian society at different forums of Communist Party. He had sent a specific note on the "Problem of Untouchability and the Caste System".^[14][15] to the leadership of the party before third party congress in 1953,.^[5][16] Comrade More submitted the note to the Politburo on 23 December 1953 with a request to place it before the forthcoming Party Congress. This note was later revised and sent again in 1957 and 1964, with an emphasis on the necessity of taking up issues of caste and social discrimination as an essential ingredient of class struggle with a proper appraisal of contribution of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s in the struggle for social justice.,.^[14][15] He also participated in freedom struggle against British and working class movement with great vigour and remained "one of the most respected leaders of the CPI(M) till his death on 11 May 1972".^[16] He was elected to State Committee of CPI(M) in 1964. The weekly organ, Jeevanmarg, of the CPI(M) Maharashtra state committee was started by him on 14 April 1965, at the anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar's birth.^[5]

References