Kanshi Ram

Kanshi Ram Biography

Kanshi Ram was an Indian politician and founder of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a political party with the stated goal of serving the traditionally lower castes of Indian society. Ram transferred the leadership of his party to Mayawati and now she is the powerful leader of this party. Through his powerful leadership, the party achieved power in Uttar Pradesh in the year 1995 and Mayawati became the first chief minister of BSP.

Kanshi Ram was born to Bishan Kaur and Hari Singh in Ramdassia community of the Scheduled Caste group at Khawaspur village in Ropar district of Punjab. He was born in the year 1934. He completed graduation from Government College at Ropar affiliated to The Punjab University. Ram joined the offices of the High Energy Materials Research Laboratory, Pune. During his tenure, in 1965 he joined the agitation started by SCEWASTAMB to prevent the abolition of a holiday commemorating B.R. Ambedkar's birthday. In 1978 he formed the, BAMCEF for backward and minor communities, a non-political, non-Religious & non-Agitional organisation. The organization DS4 was founded by him later.

He started his attempt of unifying the Dalit (scheduled castes and tribes) vote bank in 1981 and he founded the Bahujan Samaj Party in the year 1984. The party achieved success in UP, the highest populated state of India. But the party had to strive a lot to bridge the indifferences between Dalits and Other Backward classes.  He represented the 11th Lok Sabha from Hoshiarpur Constituency and was elected winner. He was also elected as member of Lok Sabha from Etawah. In 2001, he publically announced Mayawati as his successor. He has suffered a brain stroke in 2003 and the following year, he stopped appearing in public. He died of a severe heart attack on October 9, 2006 and as per his wish, last rituals were performed as per Buddhist tradition.

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Updated: January 21, 2014