Kanshi Ram was born to a Chamar family, on 15 March 1934 in Ropar district, Punjab, British India. Some sources say his birthplace was the village of Pirthipur Bunga and others that it was Khawaspur village. His family were born in the Chamar or Ravidassia community. After studies at various local schools, Ram graduated in 1956 with a BSc degree from Government College Ropar.
Career
Kanshi Ram joined the offices of the Explosive Research and Development Laboratory in Pune under the government's scheme of affirmative action. It was at this time that he first experienced caste discrimination and in 1964 he became an activist. Those who admire him claim that he was spurred to this after reading B. R. Ambedkar's book Annihilation of Caste and witnessing what he perceived to be discrimination against a Dalit employee who wished to observe a holiday celebrating Ambedkar's birth. Kanshi Ram strongly inspired by B. R. Ambedkar and his philosophy. Ram initially supported the Republican Party of India but became disillusioned with its co-operation with the Indian National Congress. In 1971, he founded the All India SC, ST, OBC and Minority Employees Association and in 1978 this became BAMCEF, an organisation that aimed to persuade educated members of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backwards Classes and Minorities to support Ambedkarite principles. BAMCEF was neither a political nor a religious body and it also had no aims to agitate for its purpose. Suryakant Waghmore says it appealed to "the class among the Dalits that was comparatively well-off, mostly based in urban areas and small towns working as government servants and partially alienated from their untouchable identities". Later, in 1981, Ram formed another social organisation known as Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti. He started his attempt of consolidating the Dalit vote and in 1984 he founded the Bahujan Samaj Party. He fought his first election in 1984 from Janjgir-Champa seat in Chhattisgarh. The BSP found success in Uttar Pradesh, initially struggled to bridge the divide between Dalits and Other Backward Classes but later under leadership of Mayawati bridged this gap. In 1982 he wrote his book The Chamcha Age, in which he used the term chamcha to describe Dalit leaders such as Jagjivan Ram and Ram Vilas Paswan. He argued that Dalits should work politically for their own ends rather than compromise by working with other parties. After forming BSP Ram said the party would fight first election to lose, next to get noticed and the third election to win. In 1988 he contested Allahabad seat up against a future Prime Minister V. P. Singh and performed impressively but lost polling close to 70,000 votes. He unsuccessfully contested from East Delhi in 1989 and came at fourth position. Then he represented the 11th Lok Sabha from Hoshiarpur, Kanshiram was also elected as member of Lok Sabha from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh. In 2001 he publicly announced Mayawati as his successor. In the late 1990s, Ram described the BJP as the most corrupt party in India and the INC, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal as equally corrupt.
In 2002, Ram announced his intention to convert to Buddhism on 14 October 2006, the 50th anniversary of Ambedkar's conversion. He intended for 50,000,000 of his supporters to convert at the same time. Part of the significance of this plan was that Ram's followers include not only untouchables, but persons from a variety of castes, who could significantly broaden Buddhism's support. However, he died on 9 October 2006. Mayawati his successor said "Saheb Kanshi Ram and I had decided that we will convert and adopt Buddhism when we will get "absolute majority" at the Centre. We wanted to do this because we can make a difference to the religion by taking along with us millions of people. If we convert without power then only we two will be converting. But when you have power you can really create a stir".
Death
Ram was a diabetic. He suffered a heart attack in 1994, an arterial clot in his brain in 1995, and a paralytic stroke in 2003. He died in New Delhi on 9 October 2006 of a severe heart attack at the age of 72. He had been virtually bed-ridden for more than two years. According to his wishes, his funeral rites were performed according to Buddhist tradition, with Mayawati lighting the pyre. His ashes were placed in an urn and kept at Prerna Sthal, where many people paid their respects. In his condolence message, Indian Prime MinisterManmohan Singh described Ram as "one of the greatest social reformers of our time .. his political ideas and movements had a significant impact on our political evolution ... He had a larger understanding of social change and was able to unite various underprivileged sections of our society and provide a political platform where their voices would be heard." Under Ram's leadership, the BSP won 14 parliamentary seats in the 1999 federal elections.
Books
In 1982, Ram wrote The Chamcha Age, a book in which he used the term chamcha for Dalit leaders whom he alleged had selfish reasons to work for parties such as the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party. His book Birth of BAMCEF was also published. His biography, Kanshiram: Leader Of The Dalits was written by Badri Narayan Tiwari. His speeches are compiled in a books like Bahujan Nayak Kanshiram Ke Avismarniya Bhashan by Anuj Kumar, Writings & Speeches of Kanshiram compiled by S. S. Gautam and The Editorials of Kanshi Ram by Bahujan Samaj Publications in 1997.
Legacy
There are many government programmes and schemes and public institutions named after Kanshi Ram in Uttar Pradesh. His birthplace Pirthipur Bunga Sahib has a memorial with his statue. Manyawar Shri Kanshiram Ji Green Eco Garden in Lucknow has been named in his memory.
