Forced Labour 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

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Forced Labour and Mahatma Gandhi 

 

We often hear it said that the evil of forced labour is more prevalent in the Panch Mahals than in any other district. The matter even went to the Court once. The thing came in for a good deal of discussion at the political conference in Godhra. Now the issue has been settled, so far as the Panch Mahals is concerned. Congratulations are due to Mr. Clayton, Collector of the Panch Mahals, for the circular he has issued, as also to the office-bearers of the Godhra Home Rule League. It was, indeed, very good of Mr. Clayton to have announced his decision soon after his discussion with the local Home Rule Committee. He has made it clear in his order that no one is bound to serve an official at anything less than the prevailing rate of payment and that, if any official brings pressure on the people or harasses them, he will render himself liable to disciplinary action. What has happened is an illustration of how the officials and the people can, by joint discussion, solve such a complicated problem as that of forced labour. We hope complaints of forced labour in the Panch Mahals will now disappear and that the officials will fully respect Mr. Clayton’s orders. We would also suggest, at the same time, that people should render proper services to the officials when paid for at the market rate. It is our duty to help Government officers and make things easy for them when they are out touring. The officers’ duty is not to commandeer services from the people but secure them by polite request and against full payment. Flattery, servility and fear should forever be shunned; but impudence and rudeness are to be shunned as much. 1

Patidars tyrannize over lower communities; beat them and exact forced labour from them. I know that this is true. Dread such conduct. If you persist in it, your courage would ebb away. One who is happy should try to make others happy. It is our duty to bear hardships and make the world happy. It is devilish to make others unhappy while we enjoy our pleasures. It is not your address I want. I want rather that you should make your Antyaja brothers happy and by so doing be happy yourselves. 2 One, we can teach potters to have a sense of fairness and to be independent minded. Since they do not render forced labour any longer, they should expect no favours. They should not have supplied the earth when asked by a private individual. I think he could ask, as a matter of right, to be supplied earth only for the purpose of making tiles. In this matter, therefore, the potters should fully preserve their self-respect. They should be educated to preserve their self-respect. I think it is necessary for them to take permission to dig for earth. If any person could dig anywhere, field after field would be ruined. 3 

We may not consider anybody low. I observed that you had provided for the night journey a heavy kerosene burner mounted on a stool which a poor labourer carried on his head. This was a humiliating sight. This man was being goaded to walk fast. I could not bear the sight. I therefore put on speed and outraced the whole company. But it was no use. The man was made to run after me. The humiliation was complete. If the weight had to be carried, I should have loved to see someone among ourselves carrying it. We would then soon dispense both with the stool and the burner. No labourer would carry such a load on his head. We rightly object to begar (forced labour). But what was this if it was not begar? Remember that in swaraj we would expect one drawn from the so-called lower class to preside over India’s destiny. If then we do not quickly mend our ways, there is no swaraj such as you and I have put before the people. 4 

If this reasoning appeals to you, I need not explain to you why I put down 20 counts as the minimum for a voluntary spinner to achieve. There is however nothing sacrosanct about this figure; it is not laid down as a rigid rule. It is only a test of the devotion of the voluntary spinner. An institution must lay down some such rule. Drawing out any sort of yarn should not pass for yajna. There ought to be some rule, some standard. If this is admitted, then 20 counts is not a high requirement. A voluntary spinner should not spin as if he was doing forced labour. He should enrich his yajna with devotion and art and beauty, identifying him with the work that which is offered as sacrifice should be of the purest quality, shouldn’t it? 5 But I write this more to awaken savarna conscience than to criticize the Mission methods brought to light. The system of forced labour exacted by petty land-owners from Harijans and other classes called backward is almost universal in India. The petty landlords are mostly Hindus. Harijans and others can legally resist forced labour. They are slowly but surely being awakened to a sense of their rights. They are numerous enough to enforce them. But all grace will be gone when savarna Hindus impotently resign themselves to their merited fate. Better surely by far if they will recognize their duty of regarding Harijans as blood-brothers, entitled to the respect that belongs to man and to receive due payment for services voluntarily performed. 6 

The spinning was not voluntary but forced labour of the helpless. The women used to sit in a row for spinning, but all that was forced on them. All these are recorded facts; I am not reporting hearsay accounts. If we seek to revive the charkha, as it used to be, then it must be destroyed and along with it should go Gandhism which pins its faith on the efficacy of such spinning. 7 Thus we shall have to give systematic thought to all these matters. We want to make of khadi an integrated way of life. We have to deal with artisans, spinners and weavers. In the sphere of production our aim is to pay equal wages to all. So far we have extorted forced labour from the spinners. This doctrine of paying the lowest wage and taking maximum work for it has been taken from the Artha shastra of Kautilya. We must change this doctrine for a new one. We shall give the same wage to spinners as we give to weavers. Those who produce cotton should also prosper. And yet we want that the burden on the buyer should be light. Thus we wish to create a socialist society. The socialism that India can digest will be of this kind. It will be the socialism of the poor, but of the well-to-do poor. The ideal of khadi is thus the promotion of a wholly socialistic way of life. 8 

The charkha was there during Muslim rule also. Dacca was famous for its muslin. The charkha then was a symbol of poverty and not of non-violence. The kings took forced labour from women and depressed classes. The same was later repeated by the East India Company. Kautilya mentions in his Artha shastra the existence of such forced labour. For ages the charkha was thus a symbol of violence and the use of force and compulsion. The spinner got but a handful of grain or two small coins, while ladies of the court went about luxuriously clad in the finest of muslins, the product of exploited labour. 9

 

References:

 

1. Kheda Satyagraha
2. Mahadevbhaini Diary, Vol. VII, pp. 158
3. Letter to Mohanlal Pandya, Friday, July 16, 1926
4. Young India, 3-4-1930
5. Mahadevbhaini Diary, Vol. II, pp. 174-5
6. Harijan, 1-5-1937
7. Gandhi Seva Sangh ke Chhathe Adhiveshan (Malikanda-Bengal) ka Vivaran, pp. 6
8. Khadi Jagat, October 1941
9. Charkha Sangh ka Navasamskaran, pp. 14