Jul 11, 2026
Jul 11, 2026
Intellectual and physical struggles have been going on from ancient times challenging the social and economic exploitation, oppression and domination. The Strong conspire continuously in every way, besides suppressing the weak, to erase the symbols of the defeated heroes from the society and to take them away from the human minds. Yet, the intrigues of the dominant classes to extinguish that strong ideological fire have been coming to light from the traces of their conspiracies and their actions.
As Babasaheb Ambedkar says, Dalit writers and poets who made literature as a tool to fight against the caste system, have unfolded new perspectives through their literary works. They claimed a significant place in the field of literature by extending poetry, novels, biographies, autobiographies, plays, and songs into various performative forms. As forms of literary movement are changing, new historical facts are emerging.
The biography of Dalit writer, poet, singer and leader Annabhau Sathe has proved that the dominant classes, whether they are in the groups of exploitation or in the groups purportedly fighting that exploitation, would have disapproval, disdain and insulting attitude towards the downtrodden classes and Dalits.
On his visit to our ally Soviet Russia, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was surprised when a Russian asked him ‘how was Annabhau Sathe, who was tirelessly fighting for the oppressed sections of your country?’ As he had never heard of Annabhau Sathe before, he enquired on his return and came to know about him: Annabhau lived in a small room in the slum of Bombay. Five-foot, fair, slim, shiny eyed, soul stirring voiced Annabhau was always in the midst of people playing the musical instruments like swarvel, bulbul, tarang and sarangi skillfully and people waited for hours to listen to his speeches. He also learned that Annabhau Sathe was a communist when spoke of bridging the gap between rich and poor, and Ambedkarite when he spoke against untouchability and the arrogance of caste. (Omprakash Kashyap, August1, 2021, Janatha) [1]
Beginning as a worker in the Communist Party in Bombay to the metamorphosis as an Ambedkarite, the evolution of Annabhau Sathe’s personality is very peculiar. Almost 50 years after death, the poet, writer, playwright, rights activist and leader, Tukarambhau Sathe, called as Annabhau Sathe and remained in people’s hearts by virtue of his actions, is gaining great recognition and fame in literary and cultural fields in today’s Maharashtra. Annabhau Sathe is respected by naming many villages, towns, roads, roads, parks and buildings in the state after him. Governments and political parties respect Annabhau Sathe transcending the identity, flag and ideology of their parties. They adore him by keeping him on an equal footing with the social revolutionaries Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar. By understanding his life and the journey of his movement, the Dalit and Bahujan movement can determine its future and responsibility.
Childhood of Anna Bhavu Sathe and experiences
Tukarambhau Sathe was born on August 1, 1920 in Wategaon village, Sangli district, Maharashtra to Bhavrao Sathe and Valubai Sathe of the Mang or Matangi caste. [2] These untouchable caste people played musical instruments in the “Tamasha” performance, a traditional folk-art form, at weddings and other festivals. They also used to exhibit their acrobatic skills like tight rope walking and vertical rope crawling apart from singing and dancing. In other times, they worked as daily wagers to eke out livelihood. [3]
They were Untouchables without a stable means of livelihood. The members of the caste used to beat drums and play the trumpet on festive occasions and in wedding ceremonies. They danced and sang to entertain people. They also wove ropes. They managed their households with whatever meagre amount they could earn. But you couldn’t bank on these jobs for a regular income. So, they did manual labour, too. Being Untouchables, their settlements were outside the village limits. But even that did not mean a peaceful life. Whenever any crime was committed in the village, the “Maangwada” was the first stop of the policemen. The colonial government had branded the Maang tribe as “criminal” under the Criminal Tribes Act 1871. [4]
Anna Bhau’s father wanted to educate his son. As he was from a “criminal” community, the school master, a Kulkarni, admitted the boy in the school with great reluctance. Even his classmates also boycotted him. It was just a day and a half of his Primary schooling. The heinous exclusion and brunt behaviour of the Upper caste Teacher made him to revolt, threw out his school bag and walk out of the class vowing never to return to school in his life time. Besides these factors, the traumatic effect of childhood made him taking the obstinate decision against schooling, and the bitter experiences he had to face while growing up turned into anger against society making him a rebel. [5]
He got used to compose poetry spontaneously and sing extempore in consonance with the context since childhood. By the age of ten, he had crafted Panipat War as an oral art form. With the worldwide recession of the 1930s affecting India adversely, his father Bhavrao Sathe returned to the village losing the small job at a British man in Bombay. However, his life appeared to have become more precarious as the drought conditions were plaguing the villages in Maharashtra severely as people were dying of hunger. [6]
Bhavurao Sathe decided to go back to the industrially fast-growing Bombay, along with his family, for coolie work like the other villagers. But he did not have any money even to meet the bare minimum expenses. Left with no option, he embarked on foot along with his family. Walking from village to village, doing whatever work they got along the way, and eating the little with the few coins they earned became their day-to-day activity. They worked as Stone Cutters at Pune and suffered many humiliations and pains en-route Bombay. At one point, unable to bear the hunger pangs, Annabhau Sathe tried to pluck few mangoes from an orchard but the owner of the garden caught Anna and bet him black and blue apart from insisting that the mangoes must be restored to the tree as they were before plucked. (Omprakash Kashyap, August 1, 2021, Janatha)
On the way, at Kalyan, they joined a British-run famine relief camp for food. Unfortunately, it was a reform camp for the Criminal Tribes and its aim was to convert them into Christianity. Escaping from there with lot of difficulty Sathe family reached Bombay covering 250 km from his village Wattigaon. It took grueling six months for them to reach Bombay. Since they were untouchables, they were unable to find work in the village but they found work easily in Bombay. Anna Bhau Sathe was 11 years old at that time but he did all kinds of things: porter, dish washer and waiter in hotels, housekeeper and watchman, dog keeper in wealthy houses, door to door seller of goods and as a shoe polisher. Wherever and whatever work he could find, doing that, he sailed all the regions in Bombay such as Chembur, Kurla, Matunga, Dadar, Ghatkopar, etc. While roaming like this, he learned to read and write, seeing cinema posters. He began to understand the ideas through expressions in the films and practiced story- telling as he watched movies. Blessed with a mellifluous voice, Annabhau Sathe’s life took a new turn as he joined his cousin Bapu Sathe’s folk art troupe “Tamasha”.
Cultural war
On one occasion in 1930s, the speech of Krantiveer Nana Patil, who addressed a gathering set up during the exhibition, captivated Annabhau. Discerning that the Abhangas (psalms) he had been singing praising gods since childhood were of no use and wealth and resources in the hands of a few is the reason for social and economic inequalities, he decided to make his poetry a tool to awaken people to eliminate those inequalities. On that day a seed was sprouted in him to transform himself into “Lok Shahir” or People’s Poet. It also brought him closer to the Communist party.
Working in the ‘Tamasha’ troupe brought the skill and ability of Anna Bhavu to light. He could play any instrument with ease. In a short time, besides growing as an important person in the band, he formed the “Lal Bhavatha Kalapani” (Aruna Revolutionary Art Group) band and gave performances all over Maharashtra seeking people’s support for the freedom struggle. Treating him as a hero because of those performances, people began calling Tukarambhau Sathe as “Sahir Annabhau Sathe” and “Lok Shahir”. That way, the name of the Tukarambhau Sathe became “Annabhau Sathe”. Later, the British government even banned the performances of “Tamasha” Art Troupe. Annabhau Sathe joined as a labourer in the Bombay mill and raised his voice on the problems of the workers. Along with the growing industrialisation, the proportional increase in the poverty and the problems of the slums, agonised Anna beyond measure. He wrote many poignant stories on these extreme differences between the rich and the poor. Having read the development in Russia, he wrote a lyrical poem about Stalin Grad in 1943; with its translation into Russian, his fame spread across the continents. [7]
Annabhau felt that social and economic development are interdependent. He understood that if we ignored the one, the other could’nt be achieved. In a society where people thought that the caste oppression was due to their past karma, in a society where few people are treated superior and others inferior, in a society where few people lived in luxury and the majority in penury, Annabhau felt that only a relentless struggle could bring some change. Drawing inspiration from both Marx and Ambedkar, he established Dalit Youth Society and formed Progressive Writers Association (Marathi) at national level in 1936.
Independence Movement
Annabhau worked actively in the three movements simultaneously: independence struggle, the movement for the united Maharashtra and the independence struggle of Goa. His songs, poems, “lavnis” or folk songs have inspired, excited, and mobilized the masses. In 1945, he started the weekly “Lok Yuddha” through which, the suffering, oppression, agonies and struggles of the common people were told to the world effectively. These works made Annabhau a social worker and a leader of the common people. In this process he wrote works like “Akelechi Ghost,” “Khayapachore”, etc. After the ban on “Tamasha”, he renamed it as Lal Bawta Kalapathak (meaning ‘Red Flat Cultural Squad’) in 1944 to propagate communist ideology. [8\
He converted the dramas that he wrote for “Lal Bawta” (Red Flag Cultural Squad) into poems and songs. Twelve films made based on his writings became box office hits and earned big money for the producers at the box office.
He wrote screenplays for six films, 35 novels, 14 plays, over 300 stories, more than 250 poems and songs while constantly struggling to make both ends meet in life. 14 of his stories and novels were made into movies. His writings have attracted praise both in and out of the country. Annabhau Sathe wrote a travelogue under the title “My Journey to Russia”. He was the first Dalit writer to write such a travelogue with actual tourist experience. The novel Fakira which he dedicated to Ambedkar became highly popular and was also translated into many other languages. He wrote Novels like “Varash ke Share”, “Vamalnadike,” “Kinare,” Allguz, and ‘Ranganga’; collection of short stories such as “Chirnagar Ke Bhoot,” “Krishna Kinareke Story,” “Jailme” “Pagal Manushuki Farari”, “Nikhara”, “Bhanamati” and “Adi”; Plays such as “Inandar,” “Pengyaki Shadi” and “Sultan”; Folk Metaphors like “Tamasha”, “Dimag ki Kahani”, “Khapachore”, “Patriotic Ke Ghotle”, “Netamilgaya”, “Billardarpisee Khanevale”, “Maryam Mumbai,” Maun Morcha, etc. He also wrote screenplays for films like ‘Fakira,’ ‘Sathrakikaramat,’ “Tilak Lagatihumraktse,” “Pahadonkimina,” “Murli Malhari “Raani”, “Warnekabag” and “Varagon”. [9]
During his stay in Bombay, he had good relations with many celebrities, big movie stars and producers. From the hearsay, it is said that famous Maratha actors like Balaji Pendhakar, Suryakant Mandera, Jayashree Gaddar, Sulochana etc. had great love and affection for him and famous Hindi actors like Rajkapur, Shankar, Shailendra, Balraj Sahani, Gurudat, Utpal Dutt, etc. used to look forward to his writings and stories. Russian actor Oreg was also close to Anna Bhavu, but poverty had never left Anna. Asked why would he live in basti or slum, he said, “We may be able to build a good house if we desire but we can write about the sufferings of the poor and the pain they suffer only by living here. That is why, I love to live here.”
From the works and lectures of Annabhau Saathe
The story of the novel Fakira is about the experiences, sufferings, insults of the life of a Matanga youth called ‘Fakira, and how he overcame them, how he turned into a warrior revolutionary and fought injustices and wickedness. The novel has been translated into 27 Indian and foreign languages. The novel won Maharashtra’s highest literary award in 1961. Many other works of Annabhau have also been translated into Russian, French, German and Czech languages. 10
All of Annabhau’s writings show the bravery of the depressed classes. In the song, “Mumbai Chilavni”, he depicted the misery of the lives of the people living in the slums and suburbs of Bombay while the rich and the influential lived day and night in luxury in those tall and deluxe buildings. Many laborers had to work hard in the hot sun and biting cold to build those castles and grand structures for the luxurious lives and for the entertainment of the rich. He went on to sing that there are many poor living in those rich localities like Teen Batti, Gol Batti, and Forrad roads, making prostitution as their profession just for survival and a square meal. In another ‘lavni’ poem, “Mazhimaina Gavaveer Rahli”, he portrayed the sufferings of the laborers who came to Bombay to earn their livelihood leaving their families in villages. He then went on to say that the industrial city betrayed those who came to Mumbai with many dreams and hopes, and such inequalities would not disappear as long as the ruling class were hand in hand with the capitalists. [11]
Annabhau Sathe, who experienced both economic and social inequality, was unequivocal that the ideology of Ambedkar was the only way to eliminate inequalities. He said, “I wrote what I have lived and experienced. I am not a legendary bird flying in an imaginary world but a frog on the earth living in reality.” Speaking on behalf of Dalit and oppressed workers in 1958 Dalit Literary Summit, he delineated his policy towards them: “One must realise that the Planet Earth is safe in the hands of Dalits and labourers, not on the head of the thousand hooded serpent Seshnag, as told in Hindu mythology.”
He preached that “An author or an artist, who lives among the people only can stand on behalf of the people; art is like the third eye and it has the power to burn all the diseases in a society; hence, by being ever vigilant, it must stand for people.”
All his stories depict the lives of Mangs, Mantangs, Mahar, Ramoshi, Belutdar and Chamars; their sufferings, hardships, insults, hunger, self-esteem, unnecessary misconceptions and the lives that abruptly ended without any thinking or ideals. “Teen Bakri” is one such a tragic story. In a small village, there lived a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law who dragged their lives in illiteracy and superstition. They could eat their square meal only if they went for labour work. Even in poverty, both women were constantly in a state of confrontation and were extremely jealous of each other. Since they were from an untouchable caste, no one would care for them. One day, one woman told the other that both of them would die. Because their rivalry prevented their understanding about who should make the ‘roti’ with the available flour at home, who should eat little more and who should not, and hence both of them didn’t bake the bread at all. Finally, they both starved to death in their sleep. That is how, the writings of Annabhau Sathe reflect the aspirations, struggles and torments of the lower classes. He tried to synthesise Ambedkarism and Marxism. [12]
As American rights author Gail Omvedt says in her book “Maharashtra Dalit Literature”, Annabhau Sathe continued his writings and exhibitions related to all the fields and processes of Dalit cultural literature. His contribution is invaluable towards the growth of Maharashtra Dalit literature to such a high state. In fact, he is the father of Dalit literature. The tragedy is that his effort to bring about coordination between Marxism and Ambedkarism seem to have been the reason for his oblivion. Ambedkarites disregarded Anna considering him as a Marxist as he began his life as Marxist and later stepped into Ambedkarism. Communists have sidelined Anna’s literature as he moved towards Ambedkarism.
All his writings were in Marathi. So, his literature could not come out of the confines of Maharashtra and not even translated into Hindi till recently. The novel Fakira is the only exception which has won the state government’s literary award apart from getting translated into 27 national and international languages. [13] One reason might be that, like Anna Bhavu’s life, his writings are confused and troubling. He did not seem to think that his work must be methodical and should be available to future generations. That is why, like the lack of clarity in his personal details, something strange is seen even in his writings also. Still, the most remarkable, and wonderful thing about him is that the man who did not have formal schooling created 35 novels, 13 story collections, 8 plays, one anthology of poetry, 14 street plays, a travelogue, et al. One more good thing is that many of his other works have been translated into many other Indian and foreign languages after the richness of his repertoire was recognised. [14]
Annabhau Sathe: from oblivion into limelight
Ajabrao Ambhore a Matangi caste teacher of the government school in Amaravati district, who was the first generation educated and employed through reservation, observed a story written by Annabhau Sathe while teaching a lesson. He remembered Hazare’s name seeing the name ‘Anna’ and thought that writers who could write such wonderful stories and literature must be Brahmins only! Moreover, the name Sathe is more commonly heard among Brahmins. In the process of studying Anbabhau Sathe’s literature, he came to know that the author was Matanga. He felt that it was the sacred duty of the educated persons of his caste to bring such a meritorious writer of his own caste into light.
Maharashtra Rajya Matanga Samaja Sangharsha Samithi, formed in 1978, with Mathanga caste employees in Vidarbha region, began to work for the welfare of the Matanga people. Annabhau Sathe was adopted as the ‘Icon’ for the unification of the Matanga caste. Collecting Annabhau’s photo from the Communist Party’s office, Ajabrao Ambhore printed it and tried to fill self-confidence in the masses by sharing it with them in conferences. The efforts of the Matang community succeeded in resurrecting Sathe quickly as the leader of the poor. By the 1980s, Annabhau came to be recognised as the leader who continued the legacy of Mahatma Phule and Dr. Ambedkar. Annabhau is receiving the recognition of the people today transcending parties, flags and agendas. 1254 pages of Annabhau Sathe’s Literature is available in Marathi language. His Travelogue was translated into Russian. [15] He was felicitated at the famous “Plush Hotel” in Soviet Russia and the hotel unveiled the oil painting of his image. Yet, Annabhau Sathe who was born poor, died also poor and pitiably in Bombay on 18 July 1969.
Conclusion
Annabhau Sathe enchanted Maharashtra’s Dalit and labour classes by exhorting, “Plunge ahead, why are you in slavery when you are as strong as an elephant? Leave your laziness and change the world with a big jolt. This is what Bhimrao said to me”. However, his life is beyond the imagination of the ordinary readers. It is pathetic that the internationally renowned Annabhavu, who became literate by learning to read the letters in the posters and cinema hoardings, was unknown in our country beyond the state of Maharashtra. This is just because he was an untouchable.
Ambedkar in his book “Gandhi, Jinnah, Renade” said, “..., with the Press in hand, it is easy to manufacture Great Men.” Ignoring real leaders and propping up those who do not have any history of political struggles for its political ends is the handiwork of the press. “It is unfortunate that the writings of many Dalit writers, such as Annabhau Sathe, have not been translated into other languages. (Pradeep Attri, Velivad) There could be not be a better reward and service than undertaking such a task”. Except symbolic gestures like releasing a stamp in August 2002 in his memory, Government of India has done nothing substantial either to propagate his ideology or to implement his ideas. Yet, thanks to the many self-respecting Dalits who brought Anna bhau Sathe, who lived with, fought for and died among people, into limelight, so that he remains as a constant inspirational light for the struggles of the future generations.
References
11-Jul-2026
More by : Dr. Alavala Gavar Raju
