The Poona Pact, 1932, was a watershed moment in the history of Dalit politics. Nearly a century later, it remains the subject of debate and discussion. A definite setback to the independent mobilization of the Depressed Classes, the Poona Pact deprived them of the historic right to a separate electorate with a double vote granted by the British government. This chapter seeks to describe and analyse the stance taken by Periyar and his Self-Respect Movement (SRM) towards what B. R. Ambedkar described as ‘a mean deal’ (Ambedkar, 2014 [1994], p. 40).1

The pact was signed at a time when the Indian National Congress was in the ascendant and had demonstrated its all-India character and strength through a series of mass agitations. In response to its rise, in south India, the non-Brahmin castes had mobilized under the Justice Party and Periyar's SRM. At the all-India level, the Depressed Classes had become a force to be reckoned with under the leadership of Ambedkar. Both Periyar and Ambedkar viewed the Congress primarily as a formation that represented the Brahmins and Hindu upper castes.

To understand the position taken by Periyar on the Depressed Classes’ question, we need to trace the emergence of Depressed Class consciousness and the formation of political organizations representing the interests of Depressed Classes in south India—a group that Eleanor Zelliot describes as ‘the other [apart from that of western India] politically vocal group of Untouchables’, the largest in terms of numbers in any region of India then (2013, p. 115). Even though the political demands of the Depressed Classes coalesced only at the time of the Simon Commission (1928), their roots can be traced back much further.