Yeola 1935 marked Ambedkar’s decisive break with temple-entry strategy

Evidence

This must be seen in the light of the statement Ambedkar had made on 13 October 1935 at the Yeola Depressed Classes conference: “I had the misfortune of being born with the stigma of an Untouchable. However, it is not my fault; but I will not die a Hindu, for this is in my power” (Zelliot 2013, 147). The conference was attended by ten thousand people, a conglomeration of Mahar panchayats and delegates from Hyderabad and the Central Provinces. “The conference included an instruction to stop temple entry movements and an exhortation to cease fruitless attempts to gain status on Hindu terms” (Zelliot 2013, 148). — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 807

Categorization

• XREF: The Yeola declaration — ‘I will not die a Hindu’ — is the pivot that makes Annihilation of Caste’s full-scale indictment of Hindu scripture possible; Ambedkar says as much in his final letter to the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal (203).