For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Harijan work and Mahatma Gandhi

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- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

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

Harijan work and Mahatma Gandhi

The amount standing in the name of Nirmalabehn should be sent to Vallabhbhai and placed in the account of Harijan work. The amount standing in the name of Bharucha should be held over. If it is possible to get some interest on it, it should be done. It represents the award money for a biography of Tilak. It may take another year before the payment is made. Devkarandas is not likely to be persuaded right now. If I have conquered the six enemies, then people may accept what I say as the word of experience. But I am myself not aware of any such conquest. Have I yet given up fear of snakes and the like? That I have not done so is because the Self in me is stupefied by ignorance. 2 The money is to be paid not for Harijan temples but for Harijan work. Harijan work may pertain to a temple, school, club or party. Money should be provided so long as the intentions are not dishonest. We are not providing from the special fund because something must be done by the Provincial Committee also. Amritlal Thakkar has taken the responsibility of forming the trust of the temple and looking after its management. If he was going to spend the money on his own or if there was no plan for the temple, then we would not pay. Besides, he is not in a position to take money for the temple from Birla. Hence we should forget the temple and remember that the money is to be paid only for helping the Harijan cause. 2

The Harijan work has become too heavy to allow of anything else being done. The mere reading of the voluminous correspondence takes over two hours. The (here comes Mahadev) (I resume after the prayer) interviews take from two to three hours. Therefore I must reduce the other work. Since the doctors here are firmly of opinion that the elbows have nothing wrong about them except that they require rest from the spinning motion, I have cut off the wheel altogether and just do the takli for about half an hour. The takli requires the use of other muscles. This compulsory saving of time has come when it was just wanted. (There was another interruption here for the drink and fruit, dressing and eating.) 3 This is an extract from his reply to my letter. Karamchand letter was received yesterday rather late, and I could not reply being engaged in a discussion with visitors about Harijan work. The range of your temperature seems to be gradually coming down. Provided that the patient takes proper rest and due care is taken about nourishment, an attack of typhoid proves beneficial in the end, for it removes all toxins from the body. 4

It was not necessary to send the names of Champa, Ratilal and Prabhashanker, since they had already been approved. You may consider now whether you will come first or after Chhaganlal and Maganlal have seen me. If you have not already started in reply to my wire, kindly spare me as much as you can, as you know how busy I am these days in Harijan work. 5 Even the Pratishthan work is a spiritual activity but can be arranged up to a point as a temporal activity; not so the Harijan work. Your great organizing ability may even be a hindrance than a help in doing Harijan work, for you might have to plough what may appear to be a lonely furrow without yielding any fruit which you can see with your physical eyes. You have simply to believe that fruit is there whether you see it or not. Thus having once taken up Harijan work in the style that you have, there is no reversion to the “old field of activity”. Reversion can only be consistently with the unimpaired continuance of Harijan service. I wonder if I have made my meaning perfectly clear. Of course your conception of personal service in the basti may be quite different from mine. You are not to fit in mine with your own. You must hold on to your own, unless mine appeals to you as the correct one. The two won’t run together.

But all this is only by way of illustration as to what I am trying to drive at. Please also bear in mind that whenever you feel like running down to Poona, you should do so. It won’t be money thrown away. Andrews has done it so often with me. He has not even heeded my chiding, for, he would say, “What you consider to be waste of money is for me a definite want which I must satisfy”, and from his own standpoint he has been right. He would have been torn to pieces if he had not run to me. No writing of letters would have satisfied him. Even as I am dictating this letter a cablegram has come to me from him. Just now he is sending a cablegram per day. This is a costly affair, but I cannot restrain him. I do not need his cablegrams, but he needs to send them for his peace. Look at this latest samples: “Thank God—Charlie, Esther”. This cablegram perhaps you cannot even understand but it has a world of meaning for me. The latest statement of mine has reached him and as he drafted his cable under Esther’s roof, he added her name, for Esther is like a daughter to me. But the cablegram has no place in the plan of Harijan service, and considered in terms of money it deprives Harijans of so much money. 6

In doing the Harijan work in the midst of calumny, misrepresentations and apparent disappointments, her lap comforts me and keeps me from falling into the Slough of Despond. So you find me laughing and free from care. My weight has become steady at 103 and the diet also the same in quantity and kind. For the time being unboiled fresh milk goes on without doing any harm. Writing for Harijan occupies most of my time and Mahadev’s. Chhaganlal too is kept fairly busy. 7 Devdas is in Delhi doing Harijan work. Ramdas is in the same prison, but not in the same yard. I am permitted to see him occasionally. Mahadev is of course with me and doing quite well. Ba and Mira are together in the Sabarmati prison, and so far as I am aware, they are keeping well. Pyarelal is in a jail at a place called 1 Sister of Albert West, Gandhiji’s co-worker in South Africa Nasik. I hear from Manilal and his wife almost every month. Medh and Pragji also write to me occasionally. 8

It is difficult to tell. But why shouldn’t such a person do Harijan work? Of course there will be one condition that he must declare that he is tired and that therefore instead of going to jail he wants to do Harijan work. He cannot do Harijan work by concealing this fact. Rather than doing Harijan work while concealing the truth he had better sit at home doing nothing. There is courage in humbly confessing the truth. Those who want to rest should declare it and say that they want to improve their health and till then they will do Harijan work. The point is that one should not practise deceit. Deceit will benefit neither Congress work, nor the work of civil disobedience nor untouchability work. 9 Two or three Parsi ladies who do Harijan work and a daughter of Lilavati Munshi take turns. Premlilabehn and Lilabehn, Lakshmidas sister, are with Anandi all the time. She gets a little temperature during day time, but the doctor says that is common. She drinks fruit juice and milk and is quite happy and cheerful. There is no cause for worry at all. But she was saying that she would be happy if Velabehn was with her. Premlilabehn, therefore, seems to have sent a wire. If Velabehn cannot resist her desire, she may certainly come. She may have even started yesterday. Or she will arrive tomorrow morning with Devdas. 10

There is no doubt that she loves you both and she wants to work with you. She is doing some Harijan work now. I have told her that it is impossible at present but if all goes well, there is no reason why she should not be able to work with you later and now about Mary. To me it seems quite necessary that you should separate for the time being and test yourselves. Mary or you may go to Almora or to Sabarmati or Wardha or any other place you may think fit and do there some Harijan work of a temporary character. If you have shed exclusive love altogether you should feel happy as well in association as in separation and just now there should be positive joy in separation. I have found this indispensable in all such cases and there have been several. You should think it over and give immediate effect to the proposal if you find substance in it. 11 Nevertheless, I refuse to believe that these pictures are without a silver-lining. God never created a cloud without a silver-lining. Darkness only means absence of life. In a vast, clear, diamond studded sky, the clouds are no bigger than an atom as it were. And yet these clouds almost spell death to creatures extremely smaller than themselves living below on the earth. This is the condition of Harijan work at present. It seems that the clouds of their bitter experiences fill Harijan workers with despair. 12

I was forgetting one thing. You have heard about N. She came and saw me some time ago. She has a son who lives with her. I had heard reports against her and so had invited her here. She was doing Harijan work in Bangalore. She is a capable lady, and is an American married to a Greek. Her father was a theatre designer. She herself can act and knows dancing, etc. You must have read about three years ago that she had become a Hindu in Kashmir and was thinking of coming to the Ashram. The report was true. But she was also living an ignorant life. She has freely led an immoral life and even accepted money from people. When she came to me, she confessed to me all her errors one after another and gave her solemn word that she would devote the rest of her life to Harijan work. She says she is 24 years old. She left the hotel where she was staying and went to live among Harijans. At present she is living in a Harijan hamlet at some distance from Bangalore. She writes to me from time to time. I think she has changed and is on the right path now. I have wired to her and asked her to come here. I intend to send her ultimately to the Ashram. I don’t see any risk in taking her in. She will stay if she can observe the rules. Let all of you think about this and then communicate your view to me. If you wish to ask me anything more, you may do so. You need not send Poore’s book to her just now. She has not yet arrived here. 13

Many people had expected that I would devote the whole of my time to the Harijan movement. These do not understand me and without any disparagement to any of them I would say that they do not understand all the implications of what they thought. In the first instance, my life is not divided into watertight compartments but is one indivisible whole and therefore I could not possibly give up the activities of a lifetime which are as dear to me as the Harijan movement itself. My activities react upon one another. Therefore if I excluded other activities my Harijan service would itself suffer. Then again I could not all the twenty-four hours of the day be doing Harijan work. That is an impossible thing; and if it was suggested that I could give up prison life which the civil disobedience movement implied, for the sake of Harijan work, it means that I should give up a life principle. Therefore I can only render this service to the best of my ability and consistently with the principles that govern my life. Lastly, as I have already stated, Harijan work requires tremendous individual efforts for self-purification. In that respect, perhaps, it may be distinguished from other movements—social, political or semi-political. The recent fast perhaps best illustrates my point. Therefore I am certain that my attention to other activities does not in any way affect my capacity for serving the Harijan cause. 14

Vinoba, however, must not do so. He should remain outside for Harijan work. I wish to make the fullest use of the Mahila Ashram. Can children also be sent there? Some of the women at any rate will go. I have to solve the problem of N. and Amalabehn. I see no alternative to sending them there. Both of them should be given Harijan work. For the present, they are to be trained for the work. N. should have as few contacts with men as possible. If the Government does not take possession of movable property, we will keep it somewhere here publicly. The problem of cows is a rather difficult one. I have been thinking what to do about it. 15 Within two days after the Poona Pact was made, facilities for doing Harijan work were suddenly stopped to my surprise and I immediately sent in a respectful protest; but that protest having evoked no satisfactory response, I had perforce to send a letter saying that unless Government gave me facilities for Harijan work without let or hindrance, life would not be worth living for me and in reply to that on November 3 last the following orders were conveyed to me: I say once more that when Government arrested me again after the 21 days’ fast, they had to face my request for doing Harijan work without let or hindrance, whether they took me in as a State prisoner or any other. In my opinion, classification is wholly irrelevant to the issue. The sole issue was in September, in November and today is this, namely, my life and the Harijan work in jail or no Harijan work in jail and my death; and so long as I live that will be the issue that will face me, face the Government and face the public. If I am wrong in thinking that, whether outside or inside the prison, I should have the fullest liberty to carry on the programme of anti-untouchability which I have undertaken as a solemn obligation, then my fast should be considered impertinent and should not count either with the Government or the public; but if I am right, then my fast should be treated as a sacrificial seal. It has been said on behalf of the Government that when, owing to the 21 days’ fast I was discharged, I gave more attention to political than Harijan work. I cannot imagine a grosser misrepresentation of facts, which are all capable of being proved today. But I will give a few outstanding instances. The whole of the 21 days and the subsequent days, during which I was unable to do anything at all, I could only pray and think and not do writing or talking; and I can say that during this period I thought of nothing else but God and God’s children, the Harijans. Then when I was at all able to carry on sustained conversation with a group of men, my first act was to address a meeting of Harijan workers in this very hall, whilst I was lying in bed. When I was able to do any public writing, my first writing was for the Harijan. 16

The thought of others is of course implied in the same way as India’s independence is for the good of the entire world. But I do not go on harping on that point; I talk only about swaraj for India. Similarly, I am absolutely confident that there are going to be widespread consequences of the solution of the Harijan problem. It would affect the whole world. Unless I had that hope, why should I get involved in Harijan work? It is already implied in my writings. I have asserted that I wish to serve the whole world through it. 17 We cannot insist on applying to Harijans what applies to you and me. We have excluded Harijans from our society. Moreover, we should also look to the situation as it obtains today. Barring a few individuals, where is the boycott of schools and colleges to be found? It would, therefore, be gross injustice if we told Harijans that they would get no help if they went to the common schools and colleges. I am already devoting a major portion of my energy to Harijan work. And whether I am in prison or outside, I shall of course continue to do Harijan work till the last moment of my life. 18

The Satyagraha Ashram has been permanently given away for Harijan work. I feel that this is the best use it can be put to. Since the Government did not take possession of it, there was no other equally good purpose for which it could have been used. This was also the best way of sacrificing the Ashram. Having regard to the ideals of the Ashram, everybody here feels that this is the best purpose for which it could be used. A special committee will be appointed to run it. It will not admit just any Harijan. Whoever is admitted will have to abide by the rules of the place. I see nothing wrong in the Ashram inmates being without a permanent abode and living anywhere contented with whatever comes their way. When everything is over, we may set up another Ashram; that is the only proper course for us. 19 There should be harmony between religion and wealth. I have come to realize from my Harijan work that one who tries for wealth in accordance with religion gets both. I believe it to be the duty of every savarna Hindu that he should try to take up the Harijan into his fold. If we do our duty towards the Harijans, all of us Hindus, Moslems, Parsis, Christians, will live peacefully. To my mind there is no better way to unity of these people than Harijan work. Now I must tell you what every one of you can do in this respect. The Harijan movement is a great yajna and each of you can put his little bit in it. Those who have money can give it for this cause. Those who have the leisure and intelligence to spare can teach the Harijan boys and give them lessons in personal hygiene and cleanliness. The Congressmen are doing this work at present. But I want that non-Congressmen also should undertake this work. It is the religious duty of every one of you to do this work. I do not value politics as much as I value this work. Politics is nothing to me. It is my belief that if we do this work with religious fervour everything will be obtained. I am not travelling with any other intention in this work. And when I see people assemble in such large numbers to hear me, I hope they will stand by me in this work. In July last the Harijan Sevak Sangh was started and some of you must have taken the vow to wipe out this curse of untouchability. It is the birthright of the Harijans to make use of public institutions and to enter into the temples. But as long as there is a single soul boycotted as being a Harijan, I shall not regard untouchability as being wiped out totally. It is up to you, therefore, to change your hearts and consider the Harijans as your brethren.

The Harijan Sevak Sangh is composed of people of different schools of thought but they can do this work together. The workers in this field should not aspire after any kind of honour or title. They should not have the slightest tinge of personal interest or selfish motive. This work should also be free from any sort of political meaning but I do not value political things as much as this. The Harijan work is for the purification of the Hindu religion. I have great hopes in this matter. I have always been an optimist and my optimism in this case is increasing every day. But even if I fail it remains my duty to continue this work. Very few sincere workers have so far come forward. I, therefore, pray to God that He should give you all the necessary strength and guidance to do your duty in this respect. I must remind you of the pledge given last year in your name. You will remember that a meeting of representatives of Hindus was held in Bombay in September last year, Pandit Malaviyaji being in the chair. Among other things they resolved that untouchability, being a blot on the Hindu religion, had to be removed and that Harijans were entitled to the same public utilities, and in the same manner, as caste Hindus. There was in that resolution a special reference to Hindu temples, and legislation was contemplated if it was found to be necessary for attaining the end. It is, therefore, the bounden duty of every caste Hindu to fulfil the pledge by throwing open to the Harijans temples, wells and other institutions precisely on the same terms as they are open to caste Hindus. We are the cause of the degradation to which the Harijans are reduced. We must spend money if the wrong is to be redressed. He who will give to the cause will gain. We may not be satisfied; therefore, with giving out of superfluous cash, we have to give even if we have to stint ourselves. Some of us will have to give our all for Harijan service.

It gladdens me to find both Congressmen and non- Congressmen working together in this movement. Since questions are being asked as to how far Congressmen can join this movement, I would like to reiterate what I have said before. The Congress adopted removal of untouchability as an integral part of its programme in 1920. It is, therefore, the duty of every Hindu Congressmen to fight untouchability and help Harijans in every way open to him. But, if the movement were confined to Congressmen alone, it could not make the headway we all desire. Every savarna Hindu has to do his bit in the movement. But whilst every Congress member is expected to fight the evil, he or she is not expected officially to join the Harijan Seva Sangh. If they are active civil resisters, they ought not to hold office in these organizations. And no Congressmen who believe in and wants to offer civil resistance need in any way feel constrained to suspend or give it up altogether. The case is wholly different with those who feel the call to give up civil resistance for the sake of Harijan service or who have lost faith in the former. In this movement of self-purification as in Satyagraha there is no room for camouflage. Harijans have complained that some self-seekers have crept into the movement. In a purely religious movement there is no room for such people. Only those can or should take office that have the spirit of service in them. Some of the ladies of this place have offered me ornaments and the little children have given me a little silver casket which I wish to put for auction. I shall accept money from you all, be it even a cowrie but it should be given with a pure heart. I assure you that it will make you happy and will be helpful to the Harijans. 20

If I did say anything like that it must have been in my sleep. Even this time I am going to ask for permission to continue Harijan work and the Government will have to grant the permission. Having brought the work to this point, it cannot be abandoned. Today untouchability has become weak and limp. So much material is now ready as a result of my tours that I must continue to work from prison in order to give a final burial to untouchability. So it is unthinkable that the work should come to a halt and the campaign should become slack by my disappearance from the Hindu world. 21 This friend has asked me what I had done about the Government action in the matter. I do not say anything on the activities of the Government. You would certainly not expect me to break my vow. For this year I have chalked out for myself the programme of Harijan work. That is why I talk about the Harijan work and that too, without criticizing Government policies. I must abide by the pledge I have taken. The pledge has not been taken keeping you or the Government as witness but with God as witness. I am like a person inside a prison. And so, I can pursue one activity alone. Except on this I must observe silence. I am now doing the work which I could have done from the prison. That is the reason why I do not wish to say anything about the Government policies. If I did that I would be violating my pledge.

I cannot spare enough time from Harijan work to read newspapers or study other activities. I have no quarrel with the communists. At the most I can have a difference of opinion. Nevertheless, I wish I can explain to them my view and win them over. Wherever there is a difference of opinion, they are welcome to have their own view. Similarly, they have to permit me to have mine. May be, they will win me over some day. I have been serving the working class for the past fifty years. Throughout I have had only one aim. Though I have associations and friendship with the capitalists, I work in the interest of the working class. I believe the workers would gain nothing by liquidating the capitalists. It is not my intention to persuade the workers to follow the path of the capitalists. In a sense, even the workers are capitalists. Why should they believe that money alone and not labour is an asset. Capital is formed only through the working class. Money has no value in the desert of Sahara. One cannot get water there without one’s own labour. There a labourer is a capitalist. The workers are as good as capitalists if they are organized and are intelligent. Capital consists in money for one and labour for the other. People do not know how to use and accumulate capital.

Crores of rupees lying scattered in several places will not make capital. It becomes capital only when it is pooled together and invested intelligently. The same applies to labour. A union of a lakh of workers who have intelligently come together can do much than accumulated wealth. Those who realize this will not be envious of capital in the form of money. They would ensure that the capital is properly utilized. At the moment there is rivalry between the two kinds of capital. Both the workers and the moneyed people are capitalists. Those people have organized themselves, whereas you have not been able to do so. Those people are clever and intelligent. When the workers are better organized and more self-sacrificing, their power would grow. You are not conscious of your strength and therefore you are oppressed. This causes harm to you and to the world at large. I wish well to the workers. I believe that the workers can gain nothing for themselves by liquidating the capitalists. If the capitalists are liquidated, we would be liquidated too. Both should unite in amity. We would need gold and silver bricks too. The important thing is that we should know how to put all these to good use. This is the conflict between the proper and the improper use of capital. Both the classes will benefit if we learn how to make good use of capital. I cannot change this view of mine, for it is based on my experience of fifty years. You may do whatever you think is right, and in your interest. 22

The Secretary, Harijan Sevak Sangh, Assam, has sent me a copy of the report of the Sangh’s work during the year. From the report I abstract the following interesting particulars: This encouraging record is marred by the knowledge that over one-fourth of the expenses were incurred for administrative and propaganda purposes. The total expenditure was Rs. 11,966. Of this, Rs. 3,664 represents administration and propaganda, and Rs. 8,302 welfare. Administrative staff absorbs Rs. 1,149 and propagandists Rs. 1,020. I have omitted annas and pies. Now this expense for welfare work of Rs. 8,302 is much too much in my estimation. As I have repeatedly said, constructive work is its own and the best propaganda. Administrative staff should also be reduced to a minimum. I know that Assam is a difficult province to work [in]. Nevertheless, the fact that Harijan Sevak Sanghs are an organization of penitents or debtors should ever be borne in mind. 23 Do whatever you can in the fields of Harijan work, prohibition, khadi, village industries, etc. The Government it is true has not left much scope for such work. But we also are a good deal to blame for that. As you see, we are able to do nothing about Hindu-Muslim unity. However, this fact is not a reason for yielding to despair but for intensifying our efforts. 24

I have not yet been able to go through the report of the Harijan work in Kathiawar. I do wish to read it. What you write about Chhaganlal has disturbed me. The Harijan work there must not suffer. And we can’t also afford Jivanlalji losing interest in it. Can you make any suggestion? After your letter, it is not possible for me to keep still and do nothing. Can I use the contents of your letter in writing to Chhaganlal? 25 There is no similarity between the two cases. In Harijan work the practical and the theoretical aspects were combined. Here I cannot combine the two. I have been talking theory all these days, talking and giving advice on village work, without having personally come to grips with the difficulties of village work. If I undertook the tour, say, after passing three seasons in a village and among the villagers, a year hence I should be able to talk with knowledge and experience which I have not got today. Yesterday I went to Sindi to see how Gajanan Naik was working. The condition of things there is scarcely better but he is carrying on his work, patiently and perseveringly. The moment I saw him last morning I said to myself: ‘If I had been working with Gajanan, I should certainly have had intimate experience of the difficulties he is meeting with.’ No. It is clearer to me than ever before that my place is in the village. 26

That is a delusion. You may be sure that he who gives up Harijan work on a pretext like that will be able to do less for the village industries work. You can’t settle down in a village and miss the Harijans who are the foundation of society. 27 Those who collected the fund had thought that this sum could be utilized for khadi and Harijan work. I have been given to understand that at the moment money is not needed for khadi work. The Spinners’ Association is doing its utmost to meet the needs of khadi work in Kathiawar. Moreover, I understand that there is a provision in the late Mohanlal Pandya Memorial Fund for developing khadi activities in Kathiawar. I know, however, that funds are badly needed for Harijan work in Kathiawar. Hence, I have decided to hand over the above mentioned purse for the welfare of the Harijans to Shri Nanalal Kalidas Jhaveri, the Sangh’s representative from Kathiawar. 28

If all Kathiawari, whether living in Kathiawar or outside, do their part, the amount of Rs. 15,000, which Shri Chhaganlal expects to raise, is a very small sum in my opinion. I would regard no amount big enough where khadi propaganda and Harijan work are concerned. Propagation of khadi means a clear increase in national wealth. With an insignificant capital, the Spinners’ Association has to date distributed three crore rupees amongst the poor, that is to say that khadi worth a minimum of rupees four crores was produced and, of these three crores found their way to the villages. Similarly, Harijan service should also be regarded as charity which earns immediate merit for the donor, as it is a form of atonement. And charity thus given yields immeasurable fruit. Those who are aware of this will contribute to the Daridranarayana fund not in a miserly fashion but in handfuls. 29 The third person who can do Harijan work is Pyarelal. He has been hors de combat for some time and just now he is convalescing after the recent attack of enteric fever. Harijan is not a newspaper, it is a ‘views’-paper, representing those of one man. Even Mahadev and Pyarelal may not write anything independently whilst I am alive. I am myself daily growing in the knowledge of Satyagraha. I have no text-book to consult in time of need, not even the Gita which I have called my dictionary. Satyagraha as conceived by me is a science in the making. It may be that what I claim to be a science may prove to be no science at all and may well prove to be the musings and doings of a fool, if not a madman. It may be that what is true in Satyagraha is as ancient as the hills. But it has not yet been acknowledged to be of any value in the solution of world problems or rather the one supreme problem of war. It may be that what is claimed to be new in it will be proved to be really of no value in terms of that supreme problem. It may be that what are claimed to be victories of Satyagraha, i.e., ahimsa, were in reality victories not of truth and non-violence but of fear of violence. These possibilities have always been in front of me. I am helpless.

All I present to the nation for adoption is an answer to prayer or, which is the same thing, constantly waiting on God. Such being the case, whilst I am alive Harijan can only is continued so long as I am able to write or Mahadev or Pyarelal can interpret me from week to week. The readers need not think that there are not others who can take the place of these two workers. There are. But they are all engaged in the respective tasks allotted to them and it would be wrong to remove them from their spheres of work. Satyagraha will not stop for want of Harijan, but it will for want of workers to carry on the mighty constructive programme. Therefore, whilst Mahadev’s illness lasts, the readers will overlook the gaps they will notice in the editing of Harijan. This illness induces a reflection. I have often expressed the opinion among friends that in the matter of capacity for detachment Englishmen are far in advance of us. No matter how important national affairs may be, they will keep their meal hours and hours of recreation. They are not unnerved in the face of dangers or impending calamity. This may be called working in the spirit of the Gita. Among the political workers in India there are very few who come up to the Englishmen’s standard. 30

This charge has been brought against me by several Muslim correspondents unknown to me. But latterly it has been repeated with considerable vehemence by one who knows me intimately. The com- plain ant challenges me to deal with the charge in Harijan. There can be no comparison between Harijans and Muslims. I owe a debt to Harijans in need of any assistance that can be given to them. Harijan work is humanitarian work. Muslims stand in no need of my humanitarianism. They are a powerful community standing in no such need. Any work done for Muslims after the Harijan style will be resented. To cite khadi and village industries against me is thought-less. These can be organized and are organized for all who will care to profit by them. As a matter of fact both Hindus and Muslims, and indeed others too, profit by these activities. Hindu-Muslims unity stands on its own footing. I have tried and am still trying to do my share of the work. I may have achieved no visible success, but I have no doubt that the direction in which I am working is the right one and is bound to lead us to the goal. 31 Good amount of money has been collected for Harijan work. A sum has also been earmarked for the tribal people. I welcome your refraining from going to Madras. I might use your presence for my own selfish ends but that would be wrong. You must take some rest somehow. You will then be able to do twice as much work as you now do. Even the man-made machine needs rest. Even a pair of shoes lasts longer if it has some rest, what then to say of man? 32

What Bapa says is true by favourable circumstances. Shri Thakkar Bapa probably means the establishment of a Congress Ministry. That does not mean that henceforth reforms will be imposed upon the people. There is the least room for the use of force in such things. An evil like untouchability which has found its way into the very marrow of the people’s bones, and that too in the name of religion, cannot be removed forcibly. But an alien government uses its influence to further suppress the suppressed by force. And when it tries to help them from a motive, pure or selfish, that too is done by the exercise of force. The Congress has not established its position through force. It is a purely democratic organization. Therefore, it is hoped that the Congress ministers will educate public opinion and win popular support for all its progressive measures. This should result in an impetus to reforms like Harijan work in their provinces and the forces standing in the way of such reforms would automatically disappear. Moreover, intensive work in the limited area of the Bhusaval Taluka is likely to prove very fruitful. We cannot reach the whole of India at one and the same time. Wherever the workers have the requisite ability and influence, the work will proceed at a quicker pace. Sound work in a small area is therefore likely to be copied by others and thus lead to an early success. Let us hope that will be the result of the work which has been started in Bhusaval. 33

We have taken up the problem of the use of public wells by Harijans. Section 126 A of the Madras Local Boards Act of 1920 provides for the use, by persons of whatever caste or creed, of wells, tanks, reservoirs, water-ways, etc., maintained by a Panchayat. It even imposes a fine of Rs. 100 on anyone who obstructs its operation. But the law is honoured in the breach where the Harijans are concerned. It is pathetic to see the latter often waiting in long queues for hours at a time in front of a public well for some generous non- Harijan to fill their pots with water. We chose Kankipadu village where a public well is maintained by the local Panchayat and explained to the leaders, not only the implications of the law but also their moral obligations. The response, after about three weeks of propaganda, being heartening, we called a public meeting where, owing to overwhelming support for the proposition, it was announced that in future Harijans would be allowed to use the well in question without molestation. The next morning, however, the Harijans themselves were found to be too timid to take advantage of the decision. It was a sad commentary on their mentality and we had to work hard to bring them to the well.

As soon as they began drawing water, a reaction set in among the caste Hindus, the vast majority of who, even at personal inconvenience, refrained from coming to the well. A few, however, remained staunch to their resolve and gradually the opposition was worn down. I had also to appeal to the Deputy Inspector of Local Board to explain to the people the implications of section 126 A. This experience has encouraged us to take up similar work in other villages too, where Harijans have no facilities for obtaining water. I am of opinion that for the removal of such disabilities, moral persuasion and legal provision should go hand in hand. Absence of one renders the other inefficient. The existing Government acts dealing with social disabilities are vague and weak. This defect must be remedied and the Government of Madras, who have set aside one crore of rupees for Harijan work, might well utilize a certain sum for publicity of the provisions of the relevant laws already on the statute-book. Execution of the law is as important as its passing. Professor Rao deserves hearty congratulations for his assiduous work on behalf of the oppressed Harijans. His effort ought to be supported by the public. 34

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