Mahars

Mahars

The Mehar are an Indian community historically identified as Dalit and found largely within Maharashtra (where they comprise 15% of the population) and neighboring states. The Mahars traditionally were made to live on the outskirts of villages and their duties included those of village watchman, messenger, wall mender, adjudicator of boundary disputes, street sweeper, and remover and processor of carcasses. They also worked as agricultural labourers and held some land, though they were not primarily farmers. In the twentieth century, as the collective consciousness of the Mahar grew, significant numbers of Mahars began to leave their traditional villages and move into the urban centers of India in search of better employment and educational opportunities.

In Nagpur in 1956, Mahar activist B.R. Ambedkar, seeking to remove Dalits from the strictures and discrimination of the caste system, conducted a mass conversion to Buddhism of some 500,000 of his followers, including many Mahar.