This booklet, published by the Kisan Trust in 1982,  brings to light Chaudhary Charan Singh’s extraordinarily vigorous and public opposition to caste in Indian society throughout his long public life. His attitude to destroying the bonds of caste and gender discrimination was based on his Arya Samaj worldview of bringing a social revolution in Hindu society, complemented by Gandhi’s mass movements to reform caste.

This booklet takes us through Singh’s attempts to break the stranglehold of caste on society, the laws he passed (and attempted to pass) in this regard and their impact on the landless and backward castes, his many letters to politicians in his state and in Delhi on caste, and of course his personal practices which were one with his public stance.

The booklet also traces a crucial, and little known, change in his earlier attitude to affirmative action in government jobs from one based on occupation or class to caste, how ‘hard facts of public life and administration of our country gradually helped evaporate his hesitation in going whole-hog in favour of reservation for backward classes.’

“The backward castes, Harijans and Girijans are no longer prepared to be treated as second class citizens in the present-day Indian society. They are restive. They can come into their own only if they are prepared to make necessary sacrifices for achievement of their rightful place in the society. No lover of this Motherland of ours can entertain a nobler ambition in this life than to see that the backward castes, Harijans, Girijans and others who are down-trodden wrest social, political and economic power from those who constitute the parasites of our society. I make a special appeal to the young generation of backward and deprived sections of our society to wake up and organise themselves. The monopolists and the exploiters have nowhere in history shed themselves willingly of their power: it has always had to be snatched”.

Chaudhary Charan Singh
18 February 1982
Backward Classes Rally, Boat Club, New Delhi