Chandrika Prasad Jigyasu and the Making of Bahujan Print Culture in North India (1920–1974)
Introduction: The Politics of Knowledge and the Bahujan Movement
The history of India's anti-caste movement cannot be adequately understood through the lives of its most prominent political leaders alone. Alongside those who organised mass movements, challenged discriminatory institutions and mobilised oppressed communities, there existed a generation of intellectuals who undertook another equally significant task: creating an independent intellectual infrastructure for the marginalised.
They wrote, translated, researched, printed and circulated ideas that challenged the monopoly of dominant social groups over knowledge, literature and historical narratives. Their work created alternative spaces of intellectual engagement in which communities historically excluded from educational and cultural institutions could encounter new political ideas and reconstruct their collective identities.
Chandrika Prasad Jigyasu (d. 1974) was one of the most significant architects of this intellectual transformation in North India.
A writer, historian, publisher and social reformer, Jigyasu devoted his life to developing an independent intellectual consciousness among Dalits and backward communities. His contribution extended far beyond Hindi literature. Through publishing initiatives, historical writings, translations and his association with the Adi Hindu and Ambedkarite movements, he helped establish a vernacular intellectual space in which oppressed communities could access emancipatory ideas and interpret their own histories. [1,2,3]
His importance lies not merely in what he wrote but also in what he enabled others to read, publish and discuss.
Jigyasu recognised that caste domination was sustained not only through economic exploitation, political exclusion and religious authority but also through control over knowledge. The absence of marginalised communities from established histories and literary institutions was itself a form of intellectual exclusion.
His response was to create alternative publishing institutions.
The period between the 1920s and 1974 therefore represents an important phase in the making of Bahujan print culture in North India. It witnessed the emergence of an organised Dalit reading public, the development of independent printing initiatives, the publication of anti-caste literature, and the translation of major intellectual works into Hindi. Jigyasu played a crucial role in connecting these developments. [1,2]
Early Intellectual Formation and the Turn Towards Anti-Caste Thought
Chandrika Prasad Jigyasu was born in Lucknow into a family belonging to the Kalwar community, considered a backward caste. According to Kanwal Bharti, his father, Jiya Lal, was an educated individual who served as the headmaster of an American Mission School. Jigyasu received some early education in English and Sanskrit and also developed an interest in Persian. His formal education, however, was interrupted following his father's death during his childhood. [3]
The interruption of formal education did not interrupt his intellectual development. He continued his studies independently and entered the world of Hindi publishing, initially working as a proofreader, translator and literary worker.
His early intellectual influences included the Arya Samaj, and he initially participated in reformist activities. However, his encounters with caste discrimination gradually transformed his understanding of Indian society. The contradiction between the claims of religious reform and the everyday experiences of communities subjected to untouchability, exclusion and social humiliation became increasingly difficult for him to overlook.
His ideological development eventually moved beyond reform within existing religious structures towards a more fundamental critique of caste hierarchy and Brahmanical social authority. [3,4]
The 1920s: The Adi Hindu Movement and the Emergence of a Dalit Public Sphere
The 1920s were particularly significant for the development of organised anti-caste intellectual activity in North India.
The Adi Hindu movement, associated with Swami Achutanand 'Harihar', challenged untouchability, hereditary social hierarchy and the historical narratives through which oppressed communities were portrayed as inferior.
Its ideological intervention went beyond demanding inclusion within the existing social order. It encouraged subordinated communities to reconsider their historical identity and question the authority of dominant interpretations of Indian civilisation.
Jigyasu became closely associated with Swami Achutanand and the wider Adi Hindu movement. Their contributions were complementary. While Achutanand mobilised people through public meetings, poetry, theatrical performances and political organisation, Jigyasu increasingly concentrated on intellectual work, historical inquiry and the circulation of literature. [1,3]
This period also witnessed the emergence of an alternative Hindi-language public sphere.
An important contribution to understanding this development comes from historian Ramnarayan S. Rawat. In his 2024 article, Recovering the Dalit Public Sphere: Vernacular Liberalism in Late Colonial North India, Rawat examines how Adi Hindu activists used song booklets, pamphlets, speeches and vernacular publications to articulate ideas of equality, representation and civil rights. [2]
The Adi-Hindu Mahasabha, and the historical narratives that portrayed oppressed communities, was established in 1923, and its printing press followed in 1925. Its publications included song booklets, plays and newspapers that circulated through Dalit neighbourhoods and among emerging Hindi-reading publics. These activities created an intellectual and cultural space that challenged the dominance of established political and literary institutions. [2]
It is important to distinguish this press from Jigyasu's later publishing establishments. The Adi-Hindu Mahasabha Press belonged to the organisational world led by Achutanand and his associates. Jigyasu subsequently extended this tradition through his own independent publishing initiatives.
Jigyasu's political involvement was also significant. According to Kanwal Bharti, following the establishment of the Depressed Classes' Federation under Dr B. R. Ambedkar's leadership at Nagpur in 1928, Jigyasu served as its convener in Uttar Pradesh. Rai Saheb Ramcharan Nishad and Shivdayal Singh Chaurasia were also associated with its organisational activities. [3]
This involvement demonstrates that Jigyasu's intellectual work was closely connected with wider struggles over political representation, social recognition and the rights of oppressed communities.
Reconstructing History: The Search for an Alternative Historical Narrative
One of Jigyasu's most important intellectual concerns was the reconstruction of the history of communities marginalised in dominant accounts of Indian civilisation.
He understood that caste domination operated not only through social practices but also through historical narratives. When a community's history, cultural contributions and intellectual achievements are systematically excluded, its subordinate position can appear natural and historically inevitable.
Challenging caste therefore required challenging the historical explanations that sustained it.
His association with Bhikshu Bodhanand Mahasthavir was particularly important in this regard. Bodhanand introduced him more deeply to Buddhist thought and encouraged his engagement with alternative interpretations of Indian history.
According to Kanwal Bharti, Bodhanand dictated his work Mool Bharatvasi Aur Arya to Jigyasu because a physical difficulty prevented him from writing comfortably. This collaboration reveals Jigyasu's role as an intellectual associate, scribe and transmitter of ideas within the anti-caste movement. [3]
Inspired by these intellectual discussions, Jigyasu developed his own historical interpretations.
His writings included Bharat Ke Adi Nivasi and Bharat Ke Adi-Nivasiyon Ki Sabhyata. The latter was first published in 1937 and subsequently appeared in revised and expanded editions, including the fifth, published in 1965. [4]
These works attempted to recover the civilisation, cultural traditions and historical identity of India's original inhabitants. They were closely associated with the intellectual concerns of the Adi Hindu movement and the contemporary debates surrounding Aryan and non-Aryan identities.
Jigyasu sought to restore historical dignity to communities whose achievements had received inadequate attention in established narratives.
His intervention encouraged readers to ask:
Who wrote Indian history?
Whose experiences were excluded?
Which communities were denied recognition as producers of knowledge and civilisation?
Why were the contributions of some groups celebrated while those of others remained neglected?
His historical arguments must nevertheless be situated within their intellectual context. His interpretations of ancient populations and the Aryan question reflect particular debates of the early and mid-twentieth century. Contemporary archaeology, linguistics and historical research provide additional evidence and methodologies through which these claims must be critically examined.
Recognising the emancipatory importance of Jigyasu's historical project does not require accepting every historical proposition as conclusively established.
What remains particularly significant is his insistence that oppressed communities must possess the intellectual authority to investigate, interpret and narrate their own histories.
From Hindi Samaj Sudhar to Independent Publishing
Jigyasu gradually recognised that the production of emancipatory ideas required an institutional foundation.
Writing alone was insufficient if the resulting literature could not reach its intended readership. The established publishing industry offered limited space to writings that directly challenged caste hierarchy and Brahmanical authority.
He therefore began developing independent platforms for intellectual and social reform.
His activities were associated with an organisation named Hindi Samaj Sudhar, through which he promoted awareness against the varna system, untouchability and caste discrimination. This initiative also provided a platform for publishing works that questioned prevailing religious and social assumptions. [3]
His writings included Ishwar Aur Unke Gudde and Ravan Aur Uski Lanka, among other works.
An important institutional development followed in 1940, when Jigyasu established the Adi-Hindu Propaganda Press. This press represented a significant transition from individual intellectual activity towards organised production and circulation of anti-caste literature. [2]
It gave Jigyasu greater independence in determining what could be published, how it could be produced and which communities it would reach.
In 1960, he established Bahujan Kalyan Prakashan in Lucknow. He subsequently developed Samaj Sewa Press to support his publishing activities. [2,3]
These institutions were particularly important because they were not simply commercial publishing enterprises. They were designed to meet an intellectual need that established publishing houses had largely neglected.
They helped make anti-caste literature available to readers who had historically been excluded from dominant literary and educational networks.
Jigyasu's publishing programme included:
Historical writings and alternative interpretations of Indian civilisation.
Biographies of anti-caste thinkers and social reformers.
Hindi translations of Ambedkar's writings.
Literature on Buddhism and the Bhakti traditions.
Political pamphlets and critiques of caste hierarchy.
Works introducing Periyar, Phule, Kabir and Ravidas to Hindi-speaking readers.
Through these initiatives, publishing became an instrument of social and intellectual emancipation. [2,3]
Bahujan Kalyan Prakashan: Building an Independent Intellectual Infrastructure
The establishment of Bahujan Kalyan Prakashan in 1960 was perhaps the most consequential institutional achievement of Jigyasu's life.
It provided a dedicated publishing platform for Dalit and Bahujan literature at a time when access to such literature remained limited.
The importance of this institution must be understood within the broader history of Dalit print culture.
Books were not merely objects of consumption. They were instruments through which communities could encounter alternative histories, develop political consciousness and participate in intellectual debates.
A 2024 study by Ramnarayan S. Rawat in Comparative Studies in Society and History identifies Bahujan Kalyan Prakashan as the most prominent Dalit publishing house in North India during this period. The study records that the institution published nearly ninety titles by Dalit authors between 1960 and 2006. [2]
The period extending beyond 1974 is especially revealing. It demonstrates that the institution's publishing legacy continued after Jigyasu's death.
This was the distinction between creating a publishing enterprise and creating an intellectual institution: the latter could continue influencing readers and writers beyond the lifetime of its founder.
Bahujan Kalyan Prakashan therefore contributed not only to the publication of individual books but also to the formation of a sustained literary and intellectual community.
Jigyasu's achievement was particularly remarkable because he recognised that a movement required its own infrastructure. Without independent access to publishing, the intellectual agenda of oppressed communities would remain dependent on institutions that did not necessarily share their objectives.
Translating Ambedkar: Making an Intellectual Revolution Accessible in Hindi
One of Jigyasu's most consequential contributions was his role in introducing Dr B. R. Ambedkar's writings and ideas to Hindi-speaking readers.
During the mid-twentieth century, language remained a major barrier to the wider circulation of Ambedkar's intellectual work in North India.
Although Ambedkar's writings addressed questions of caste, political representation, social democracy, labour, religion and constitutional rights, much of this literature was not readily accessible to the Hindi-speaking population.
Jigyasu recognised the importance of overcoming this linguistic barrier.
Through Bahujan Kalyan Prakashan, he facilitated the translation and publication of several important works of Ambedkar, including:
Jatibhed Ka Ucched.
Shudron Ki Khoj.
Achhut: Kaun Aur Kaise?
Congress Aur Gandhi Ne Achhuton Ke Liye Kya Kiya?
Ranade, Gandhi aur Jinnah.
Bharat Mein Jativad.
His publishing activities also included other works addressing the social and political position of oppressed communities. [3]
Jigyasu additionally authored Babasaheb Ka Jeevan-Sangharsh, a biographical account of Ambedkar's life and intellectual struggle.
Kanwal Bharti, in his detailed examination of this book, identifies its first publication in 1961 and notes that it went through seven editions during Jigyasu's lifetime. The biography addressed not only Ambedkar's personal journey but also the social and political struggles of untouchable communities. [5]
Its significance is also reflected in Omprakash Valmiki's autobiography Joothan, where he recalls how encountering Jigyasu's book on Ambedkar opened a new intellectual world for him.
This is an important illustration of how publishing can influence generations far beyond the immediate period of publication.
Jigyasu's work helped introduce Ambedkar to Hindi-speaking readers who otherwise might have encountered his ideas much later.
It is not an exaggeration to suggest that his translation and publishing activities contributed substantially to the early dissemination of Ambedkarite thought in the Hindi belt. [3,5,6]
Connecting North and South: Introducing Periyar to Hindi Readers
Jigyasu's publishing interests were not restricted to North Indian anti-caste traditions.
He also recognised the significance of the social and political movements emerging in South India, particularly those associated with E. V. Ramasamy Periyar.
During the 1960s, Periyar's critique of caste hierarchy, religious orthodoxy, patriarchy and Brahmanical authority represented an important intellectual tradition that remained relatively inaccessible to many Hindi-speaking readers.
Jigyasu attempted to bridge this linguistic and regional divide.
According to Kanwal Bharti, following Periyar's visit to Lucknow in 1968, Jigyasu arranged for the translation and publication of three works concerning Periyar's life, philosophy and social revolution in a Hindi volume titled E. V. Ramaswamy Naikar, published in 1970. [3]
This publishing initiative connected the intellectual struggles of North and South India.
It also demonstrated that Jigyasu viewed anti-caste emancipation as a broader intellectual project rather than a movement confined to one linguistic region.
By making Periyar's ideas accessible to Hindi-speaking audiences, he helped expand the geographical and intellectual horizons of Bahujan literature.
Kabir, Ravidas and the Recovery of Alternative Intellectual Traditions
Jigyasu's intellectual engagement also extended to India's Bhakti and Buddhist traditions.
He wrote about Sant Ravidas and Kabir, seeking to recover their intellectual and social significance from interpretations that subordinated their independent contributions to established religious hierarchies.
In his work Sant Pravar Ravidas, he presented Ravidas as an important figure in the history of social equality and anti-caste thought.
For Jigyasu, Ravidas was not merely a religious saint. He was a thinker whose teachings questioned the relationship between birth, social position and human dignity.
Similarly, Jigyasu's engagement with Kabir reflected an attempt to bring the critical dimensions of Kabir's poetry into wider discussions of caste, religious authority and social hierarchy.
His interest in Buddhism was equally important.
The Buddhist emphasis on reason, ethical conduct, compassion and collective welfare provided an alternative intellectual and ethical framework for questioning hierarchical social arrangements.
The principle of Bahujan Sukhay, Bahujan Hitay—the welfare and happiness of the many—resonated with his vision of collective emancipation. His association with Bhikshu Bodhanand helped strengthen this philosophical dimension of his work. [3]
These engagements reveal that Jigyasu's intellectual project was not limited to translating modern political thinkers. He also sought to recover indigenous traditions of dissent and reinterpret them in light of the concerns of contemporary anti-caste movements.
The Making of a Bahujan Reading Public
The significance of Jigyasu's publishing activities becomes clearer when examined through the lens of the concept of a reading public.
A publishing house does not merely distribute books. It helps create relationships between authors, translators, readers, intellectuals and social movements.
Before literature can influence a movement, it must become available, accessible and meaningful to its intended audience.
Jigyasu understood this relationship.
His publishing institutions provided Hindi-speaking readers with access to works that challenged established social and religious narratives. Biographies introduced previously overlooked intellectual leaders. Translations made regional and international debates accessible. Historical writings encouraged readers to reconsider the position of their communities within Indian civilisation.
The resulting intellectual space was not confined to formally educated readers.
Printed pamphlets, inexpensive booklets and accessible Hindi publications could circulate through neighbourhood networks, social gatherings and community organisations.
This development is consistent with Ramnarayan S. Rawat's understanding of the Dalit public sphere. Rawat demonstrates that Dalit print culture in North India emerged through the interaction of printed literature, public performance, neighbourhood networks and an emerging Hindi-reading population. [2]
In this context, Jigyasu's work contributed to an important transformation:
Communities that had largely been treated as subjects of knowledge began to emerge as producers, interpreters and consumers of knowledge.
The development of such a reading public was essential to the later expansion of Ambedkarite and Bahujan literary and political movements.
The Legacy Beyond 1974
Chandrika Prasad Jigyasu's death in 1974 marked the end of his personal intellectual journey, but not the end of the publishing enterprise he had established. His publishing institution continued to contribute to Dalit and Bahujan print culture after his death. [2,7]
The four-volume Chandrika Prasad Jigyasu Granthavali, edited by Kanwal Bharti and published in 2017, represents an important effort to recover and organise his intellectual contributions. It provides scholars and readers with a valuable opportunity to revisit his writings and understand the breadth of his work. [7]
Tapan Basu's Hindi Dalit Literature in the United Provinces: Swami Acchutanand and Chandrika Prasad Jigyasu, 1900–1930, published by Bloomsbury in 2023, offers another important academic contribution. It examines the development of Hindi Dalit literary culture and the early Dalit public sphere, placing Jigyasu within the wider intellectual and publishing networks of North India. [1]
Ramnarayan S. Rawat's 2024 study further demonstrates the importance of independent Dalit publishing initiatives and the need to recover alternative archives, including privately preserved collections in Dalit neighbourhoods. [2]
Yet much remains to be done.
Original editions of Jigyasu's books, correspondence, publishing catalogues, organisational records and contemporary accounts require systematic collection and archival study.
His precise publishing networks, the circulation and readership of individual books, the financial arrangements of his institutions and the participation of women in these intellectual networks also deserve further investigation.
A comprehensive history of Bahujan print culture cannot be written solely by studying prominent authors. It must also examine printers, translators, editors, distributors, local patrons, booksellers and readers who made the circulation of ideas possible.
Conclusion: Publishing as an Act of Emancipation
Chandrika Prasad Jigyasu should not be remembered merely as a forgotten Hindi writer or a biographer of Ambedkar.
He was an intellectual institution-builder who understood that emancipation required control over knowledge, historical memory and the means of communication.
His contribution to North Indian Bahujan print culture extended across several interconnected domains: historical reconstruction, political writing, translation, biography, religious critique and independent publishing.
He helped introduce Ambedkar and Periyar to Hindi-speaking readers, brought the histories of oppressed communities into public discussion and created publishing institutions capable of sustaining the circulation of anti-caste literature.
His achievement was not simply that he wrote books. It was that he created the conditions through which others could write, publish, read and think independently.
In the broader history of India's anti-caste movement, this contribution deserves recognition alongside political mobilisation and legislative struggle.
The history of Bahujan emancipation is also a history of printing presses, translations, pamphlets, biographies, neighbourhood libraries and independent intellectual institutions.
Jigyasu understood that political freedom without intellectual independence would remain incomplete.
He did not wait for established institutions to recognise the intellectual capabilities of marginalised communities. He worked to create institutions through which those communities could assert their own intellectual presence.
His life therefore offers a powerful reminder:
A movement does not become intellectually independent merely by demanding representation within existing institutions. It also becomes independent by creating its own institutions of knowledge.
Between the 1920s and 1974, Chandrika Prasad Jigyasu helped build precisely such an intellectual foundation in North India.
His publishing legacy reminds us that a printing press can become more than a machine for reproducing words. Under the right historical conditions, it can become an instrument of social transformation.
And for communities historically denied the authority to write their own histories, publishing can itself become an act of emancipation.
References
Basu, Tapan. Hindi Dalit Literature in the United Provinces: Swami Acchutanand and Chandrika Prasad Jigyasu, 1900–1930. Bloomsbury Academic India, 2023.
Rawat, Ramnarayan S. “Recovering the Dalit Public Sphere: Vernacular Liberalism in Late Colonial North India.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 2024, pp. 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417524000021.
Bharti, Kanwal. “Hero of Bahujan Consciousness: Chandrika Prasad Jigyasu.” Forward Press, 1 January 2013.
Bharti, Kanwal. “भारतीय मौलिक समाजवाद का दस्तावेज (चंद्रिका प्रसाद जिज्ञासु का साहित्य—पहला भाग).” Forward Press, 3 January 2022.
Bharti, Kanwal. “बाबासाहेब का जीवन-संघर्ष (चंद्रिका प्रसाद जिज्ञासु का साहित्य—नौवाँ भाग).” Forward Press, 28 February 2022.
Jigyasu, Chandrika Prasad. Babasaheb Ka Jeevan-Sangharsh. Bahujan Kalyan Prakashan, Lucknow, first published 1961.
Bharti, Kanwal (ed.). Chandrika Prasad Jigyasu Granthavali. Four volumes. The Marginalised Publication, Delhi, 2017.
Jigyasu, Chandrika Prasad. Bharat Ke Adi-Nivasiyon Ki Sabhyata. First published 1937; revised and expanded editions, including the fifth edition, 1965. Bahujan Kalyan Prakashan, Lucknow.
Jigyasu, Chandrika Prasad. Shri 108 Swami Achutanandji “Harihar”. Bahujan Kalyan Prakashan, Lucknow, 1968.
Jigyasu, Chandrika Prasad. E. V. Ramaswamy Naikar. Bahujan Kalyan Prakashan, Lucknow, 1970.
Hindwi. “चंद्रिका प्रसाद जिज्ञासु: परिचय.” Hindwi, Rekhta Foundation, biographical profile.
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