"Namdeo Dhasal, a Dalit Maharashtrian poet, is one of the most celebrated Marathi poets of all time. He is known for his poetry on Dalit identity and oppression in Brahmical Maharashtra. He founded the Dalit Panthers, a radical political platform, in 1972. The Dalit Panthers contested Brahmanism in all spheres of experience and supported a Marxist political approach to addressing issues of caste in Maharashtra. Dhasal was celebrated as an inspiration by the Dalit community for years at end- for creating a radical, political consciousness amongst a broken, oppressed people.
However, in 1997 Dhasal's politics took a rightward turn. Dhasal formed a strong ideological and political alliance with the Shiv Sena and started contributing a column to its mouthpiece ‘Saamna’. In 2006, he appeared on a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) platform and came out in support of their policies. All of this came as a shock to many of his admirers who had known him to be a uncompromising critic of the Hindu Right. Dhasal claimed that his legacy would help the Dalit community, for years to come, in being inculcated into the mainstream of politics in Maharashtra at whatever cost and to generate strong political capital and meet their demands."