Namantar Andolan

Namantar Andolan
Part of Dalit Buddhist movement
Gate of the renamed university and statue of Dr. Ambedkar in distance
Date	27 July 1978 (1978-07-27) - 14 January 1994 (1994-01-14)
Location	Marathwada, Maharashtra, India
Goals	Renaming of Marathwada University
Methods	Protest march, Street protest, riot, strike
Result	Renamed Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University

Namantar Andolan (English: Name Change Movement) was a Dalit movement to change the name of Marathwada University in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University. It achieved a measure of success in 1994 when the compromise name of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University was accepted. The movement was notable for the violence against Dalits.

Namantar means name change and andolan means social movement. The Namantar Andolan was a 16-year-long Dalit campaign to rename Marathwada University in recognition of B. R. Ambedkar, the jurist, politician and social reformer who had proposed that untouchability should be made illegal. He aimed to make Dalits aware of their social condition and to awaken them to their rights. To conceptualize this determination he coined the slogan Educate, Agitate, Organise. The caste system in India denied education to Dalits so he worked to establish new hostels, schools and colleges in Maharashtra and Karnataka. He intended that education institutions should transcend historic differences between various communities but he failed in this goal of integration and instead the various colleges each became characterised as being specific to one or other group, such as the Scheduled Castes, the Muslims and the Brahmins.

Ambedkar had been born into a family of Mahars, a community who were considered Untouchables in the caste system of India. Although historically an oppressed community in Hindu society, as with all untouchable groups, the Mahars had sought socio-economic advancement and were both better educated and more politically aware than many of their fellow Dalits, such as the Chamars and Mangs. They were restricted to the lowest status roles which were associated with ritual impurity; for example, leatherwork, butchering, cleaning streets, latrines, and sewers, removal of rubbish and animal carcasses. They were not allowed to enter Hindu temples and had to live outside of villages. When the British rulers started a mass education system for Indians in 1850 upper caste Hindus required Untouchables to sit outside of class groups or they were not allowed in schools at all. Some of their work such as message delivery for government officials and employment in the army of the British Raj heightened their aspirations.