On 1 January 1818, 834 troops of the East India Company's Bombay Presidency Army including around 500 soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry, which was manned predominantly by Mahar soldiers (Even going by the casualties, the majority of those died in the battle (27 out of 49) were not Mahars), defeated a numerically superior (1000) force of the Maratha Peshwa Baji Rao II.

Since then, on 1 January every year, Ambedkarites gather at Bhima Koregaon to celebrate their victory against the upper caste regime of the Maratha Empire, whom they see as their oppressors.

It is claimed that Govind Mahar, from Vadhu Budruk (a village near Bhima Koregaon) collected the body parts and organised the last rites.

[1][11] Prior to the commemoration, about 250 groups of Dalit organizations got together under the banner of "Elgar Parishad" and organised a conference at Shaniwar Wada in Pune, the erstwhile seat of the Peshwas.

The speakers included two retired judges, B.G Kolte-Patil and P. B. Sawant,[4] and Jignesh Mevani, a newly elected member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly.

In December 2022, Sub-Divisional Police Officer Ganesh More admitted that the Elgar Parishad event had no role in the violence in an oath before the judicial commission investigating the case.

[50] An Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh backed think tank called Forum for Integrated National Security (FINS), mainly consisting of retired army officers, released a report on the Bhima Koregaon riots.

[55] In contrast, the report by the multi-member "fact finding committee" led by deputy mayor Siddharth Dhende submitted that right-wing activists Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote had pre-planned the entire violence.

[56] The report by the Rashtra Seva Dal (RSD) questioned how the right wing activists who were initially named in the FIR were still able to give interviews while a divisive environment was being created.