Dhasal had started composing free verse and his first volume, Golpitha, carried his mother’s name as his middle name. The book scandalised the Marathi literary world, which had always been dominated by upper-caste writers. Golpitha was initially attacked for not being a literary work worth the name. Taking artistic liberty with free verse, Dhasal lashed out against the system, using words that had never been printed. He also attacked intellectuals: These great intellectuals are roaming with blazing torches in their hands/ through lanes and bylanes, chawls and chawls/ claiming that they understand the darkness in our huts, where even rats die of hunger/ they are great like horny whores/ those who don’t know that there is darkness under their arses/ can exhibit coquettish excellence with ease.

The big moment for the Panthers came in 1974 during a by-election for the Mumbai South-Central Lok Sabha seat. The Congress candidate was Ramrao Adik while his rival was Roza Deshpande, daughter of veteran communist leader S.A. Dange. The Panthers played a pivotal role in mobilising the dalit vote against Adik. Roza managed to defeat Adik, creating a sensation. The Panthers emerged as heroes, much to the annoyance of the Sena, which vowed to take on the dalit youth. The limelight changed Dhasal’s life. He now moved freely in the corridors of power. He enjoyed his new-found prosperity, never hesitating to splurge on himself. “I have tried all kinds of vices,” he would later confess to V. S. Naipaul, who profiled him in his India: A Million Mutinies Now. Dhasal’s communist leanings were objected to by his colleagues who preferred Ambedkar to Marx. Powerful Congress leaders, who were waiting for an opportunity to tame the Panthers, succeeded in driving a wedge between them. The Panthers split, with Dhasal heading the Left-oriented group and Raja Dhale heading an eclectic pro-Buddhist section.

... contd.