As a leading Indian scholar, Ambedkar had been invited to testify before the Southborough Committee, which was preparing the Government of India Act 1919. At this hearing, Ambedkar argued for creating separate electorates and reservations for Dalits and other religious communities. In 1920, he began the publication of the weekly Mooknayak (Leader of the Silent) in Mumbai. Attaining popularity, Ambedkar used this journal to criticize orthodox Hindu politicians and a perceived reluctance of the Indian political community to fight caste discrimination. His speech at a Depressed Classes Conference in Kolhapur impressed the local state ruler Shahu IV, who shocked orthodox society by dining with Ambekdar . Ambedkar established a successful legal practise, and also organised the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha to promote education and socio-economic uplifting of the depressed classes. In 1926, he became a nominated member of the Bombay Legislative Council. By 1927 Dr. Ambedkar decided to launch active movements against untouchability. He began with public movements and marches to open up and share public drinking water resources, also he began a struggle for the right to enter Hindu temples. He led a satyagraha in Mahad to fight for the right of the untouchable community to draw water from the main water tank of the town. He was appointed to the Bombay Presidency Committee to work with the all-European Simon Commission in 1928. This commission had sparked great protests across India, and while its report was ignored by most Indians, Ambedkar himself wrote a separate set of recommendations for future constitutional reforms.
In December 1935, Dr Ambedkar presided over the "Jaat-Paat Todak Mandal' (Caste-Creed Breaking Party). Shri Sant Ram was the organizer of this party. The speech that Ambedkar gave in this function was talked about in the whole of India. Afterwards, Ambedkar turned his speech into a booklet and published it with the caption 'Annihilation of Caste'.
In this booklet, Dr Ambedkar writes "During the Peshwas' rule, if a high-caste Hindu was walking on the road, the low-caste Hindus didn't have the permission to walk on the same road lest the former becomes impure by the shadow of latter. It was necessary that every low caste Hindu tie a black thread on his wrist or neck so that the high-caste Hindus recognized him and did not touch him by mistake. In the Peshwas' capital Poona, it was the royal edict that the untouchables tie a broom on their waists and walk so that their footprints, which were etched on the ground, would be removed by the broom because if the footprints of the high-caste Hindus had fallen on those footprints, they would have become impure".
