Career of Dalit Movement in Karnataka

The paper analyses the various stages of the Dalit movement in Karnataka to its present state. According to the author, though the Dalit movement in Karnataka is as old as the Veerashaiva movement the Dalit concern received very little attention in the context of the non-Brahmin movement in the princely state of Mysore. The real Dalit movement in Karnataka started with the Bhusa Uproar of B. Basavalingappa. In the process. the rise of the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti proved to be a non-parallel event in the history of the Dalit movement in Karnataka But this movement suffered from too many lacunas. The movement in Karnataka did not base its activities on a definite ideological stance The lack of ideological commitment in turn did not allow it to emerge as a 'self-help movement'. As the Dalits continued to fight for cursor?. benefits. they lacked themselves into the captivity of concessions like reservations. Besides, they took their 'dalit world' too much for granted. which ultimately kept them bound by chains of submission to exploitative Hinduism. Strangely, in the process. the dalits succumbed to the same evils against which they had been lighting. Also. the lack of social cohesion and unity left the various Dalit organisations politically distorted.