Doubts about Untouchability and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- [e-mail];

[e-mail]

Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

 

Doubts about Untouchability and Mahatma Gandhi  

 

Untouchability is a subject which raises all manner of doubts in the minds of different people. Some try to defend it one way, some another. That is so with every custom which has taken deep roots. No custom had ever been abolished all at once without opposition. We find even use of alcoholic drinks and other addictions being defended. There are some who believe that drinking is a part of their dharma, not to speak of untouchability. A friend has suggested that I should answer the following three questions:

1. The very profession of Bhangis and Chamars is dirty. Whoever follows this profession gets so subtly affected by it that even if he should clean himself regularly by bathing, he becomes unclean to his very bones. Hence physical contact with him should be totally avoided.

2. Though doctors and others are engaged in unclean work, the Bhangi’s work is not unclean in the same sense. The former are not always engaged in such work and, when they do it, they clean themselves immediately afterwards.

3. So long as the Dheds and Bhangis have not given up their work altogether, they simply ought not to be touched.

These arguments are somewhat novel. One party argues that no objection will remain if the untouchables learn to bathe and wash. But the party advancing the arguments given above takes the position that the Bhangi is unclean to the marrow of his bones and so he cannot be touched, no matter how clean we wish him. I for one can clearly see the error of both the parties. We have grown used to not touching Bhangis and others like them. What is more, this has been given a religious garb. We cannot, therefore, bring ourselves now to touch them and hence we feel disposed to defend our habitual behaviour anyhow. In my humble opinion, the uncleanness which defiles the Bhangi is only physical and can soon be removed. But the uncleanness of untruth, hypocrisy and so on which defiles some is so subtle that it is extremely difficult to remove it. If any persons can ever be considered untouchable, it is those filled with the uncleanness of untruth, hypocrisy and the like. We dare not look upon such persons as untouchables because such uncleanliness is present in all of us in greater or lesser degree. If we start behaving thus, we shall have made ourselves judges of the world and shall end by ourselves coming to be treated as untouchables. For this real uncleanness, we have no other remedy except patience and our own internal cleanliness The Bhangi’s uncleanness, however, not only does not soak into his very bones but is actually something for which there is an easy remedy.

Let us treat him as our own and he will surely keep himself clean. The doctor’s profession is one which certainly always involves rummaging in unclean things all the time. If any doctor gets cases for operation which will keep him busy 24 hours, he will certainly not decline them. Moreover, he, too, does unclean work for a living. And yet we consider his work philanthropic and respect him. My argument is that the doctor’s profession helps only patients, but the Bhangi’s benefits the whole world and is, therefore, more useful and sacred than the former’s. If the doctors stop practising, the sick will perish but should the conservancy services stop, the world will be destroyed. It is, therefore, not at all unreasonable to hold that it is a great sin to consider anyone doing such essential work as unholy and to treat him with contempt. Any movement by Bhangis and Chamars to give up their work would, I think, do great harm to society. There is only one thing for us to do. We should look upon the Bhangis’ and Chamars’ professions as not less sacred than the doctors’. We should urge the Bhangis to be cleaner in their habits, draw them nearer to us, instead of pushing them away, and render them service. We should make a point of keeping our latrines clean, be ready to clean them ourselves, when necessary, and learn how to do so. Our latrines, which today are like the pit of hell, will be as clean as our kitchens or our drawing-rooms when we have realized the sacredness of the Bhangi’s profession.

It is my firm belief that, holding the Bhangi and his work in contempt, we have invited many diseases. I have seen Brahmins’ houses which were dirtier than those of Bhangis. A Bhangi’s house has no latrine near it and so it appears clean. It is the opinion of many well-informed doctors that the plague, cholera and other diseases, when they appear among us, spread rapidly because of the fifth in our latrines and our bad habits in these matters. I have myself noticed this. We can maintain our latrines in such a condition that one feels no revulsion while cleaning them and every time we enter them, we find them clean and odorless. Thanks to the sin of untouchability, not only have we ourselves become the Empire’s untouchable Bhangis but we have also become victims to many diseases and our bodies have grown lackluster and weak. We have absolutely no idea of how our habits with regard to latrines, etc., have the effect of polluting the air and how very harmful that polluted air is for our health. I shall discuss this subject when, I have time. I am not enamored of uncleanliness. Nor am I in love with the Bhangi. I am not given to exaggeration.

I believe in the holy books of the Hindus and am proud of Hinduism. My [love of] truth, however, keeps me unattached and saves me from a blind acceptance of all that goes on in the name of the shastras. The more I think, in all humility, the more I feel that in the name of religion the Hindus have inflicted upon the Bhangis and other castes the same Dyerism which the Empire let loose [upon us]. As I call the Empire’s Dyerism Satanism, so do I look upon untouchability as a form of Satanism? I have been working hard to free Hinduism of this evil and I pray to God to make me fit for still more rigorous tapascharya for the purpose.  

 

Reference:

Navajivan, 5-4-1921