Removal of Untouchability and Mahatma Gandhi-III

[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

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Removal of Untouchability and Mahatma Gandhi-III 

 

 

 

The work of the Committee for the Removal of Untouchability had merged in the struggle for swaraj, as had happened with several other committees when the struggle was on. Untouchability had been quite forgotten at many places there. However, now that partial peace reigns the custom seems to be reviving. The Congress Working Committee has alerted the Committee for the Removal of Untouchability to deal with the situation. Shri Jamnalalji has been its President. We all know how, through his efforts and those of Swami Anand, the doors of several temples had been thrown open to the so-called untouchables. There is still much scope for effort in this direction and the effort should be made. A practice which has struck deep roots through the centuries is not likely to disappear all at once. It is difficult to open the eyes of a person who clings to irreligion taking it to be true religion. Such is the difficulty we experience regarding untouchability. All the same the progress achieved in this matter and the awakening noticed among Hindus raise our hopes. We do not now find many persons supporting untouchability or believing that the practice is so deeply rooted that it can never be eradicated. However, we should not allow ourselves to be deceived by that progress. The Untouchability Removal Committee will not let us rest in false hope. 1 

I am glad to tell you that Congress has made the removal of untouchability an integral part of its programme, and under the inspiration of Congress there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young Hindu reformers who have dedicated their lives to the removal of this blot upon Hinduism and upon India. These young men and women are reaching a hand to these untouchables in a variety of ways. we are digging wells for them, opening schools for them, building new temples for them and opening up old temples for them. We are giving to twenty-five thousand untouchable women, if not more, work in their own homes. We have introduced them to spinning-wheels. We have found for several thousand untouchables their old occupation of rough weaving, which had died out owing to the competition of modern manufactured cloth. This meant that they had taken either to scavenging or to some other occupation, because of their inability to earn their livelihood from this noble hereditary occupation of weaving. Thanks to God and to the efforts of these young reformers, several thousand untouchables have thus recovered their old occupation of rough weaving. There are several families who were heavily indebted and who now are not only free from debts but have laid by a decent sum. One family I can recollect has laid by what in India a very respectable sum for a poor family— two thousand rupees. This family is in demand all over India as teachers, because both husband and wife are accomplished weavers and conscientious and skilled workers. You can imagine how much self-respect they must have gained, owing to their being wanted as teachers and not as scavengers and treated almost as a plague. 2

It is necessary to bear in mind that the question of removal of untouchability, though it has a political significance of the greatest importance, is essentially and predominantly a religious question to be solved by the Hindus and as such for them it overshadows even the political aspect. That is to say, the duty of touchables in respect of removal of untouchability can never be subordinated to any political exigencies; hence the present political situation must not in any way be allowed to postpone the endeavour to end untouchability.  Those who contend that non-Hindus can vote on questions arising out of untouchability I would refer to the first resolution, since the new constitution passed at Nagpur in 1920. There it is clearly stated that the question of removal of untouchability is one specially and exclusively reserved for Hindus. Therefore, a convention has grown up that Non-Hindus should not interfere by their votes or otherwise with this religious question. 3

The Ashram was founded in order to serve and if necessary to die in the service of Truth if therefore while holding that untouchability is a sinful thing, it did not do something positive in order to end it, it could hardly deserve the name of Satyagraha (adherence to Truth) Ashram. Even in South Africa we recognized untouchability as a sin. When the Ashram therefore was founded in India, removal of untouchability easily became one of its major activities. Within a month of the foundation of the Ashram, Dudabhai applied for admission along with his family. I had no idea that the testing time of the Ashram would arrive so soon. Dudabhai’s application was supported by Shri Amritlal Thakkar. I felt bound to admit a family which was recommended by him. The arrival of Dudabhai was the signal for a storm breaking upon the placid atmosphere of the Ashram. Kasturba, Maganlal Gandhi and Mrs. Maganlal had each of them some scruples in living with so-called untouchables. Things came to such a pass that Kasturba should either observe Ashram rules or else leave the Ashram. But the argument that a woman in following in her husband’s footsteps incurs no sin appealed to her and she quieted down. I do not hold that a wife is bound to follow her husband in what she considers sinful. But I welcomed my wife’s attitude in the present case, because I looked upon the removal of untouchability as a meritorious thing. No one could uphold untouchability and still live in the Ashram.

It would have been extremely painful to me if my wife had had to leave the Ashram, seeing that she had been my companion all these days at the cost of great suffering. It was hard to be separated from her, but one must put up with every hardship that comes his way in the discharge of his duty. I had therefore no hesitation in accepting my wife’s renunciation of untouchability not as an independent person but only as a faithful wife. Maganlal Gandhi’s case was harder than mine. He packed up his things and came to me to bid good-bye. But who was I to bid him good-bye? I put him on his guard. I told him that the Ashram was his creation as much as mine, and would be destroyed if he left it. But he certainly did not want that it should perish. He did not need to seek my permission to leave an institution which he himself had brought into existence. But to leave the Ashram should be something unthinkable for him. This appeal did not fall on deaf ears. Perhaps Maganlal had thought of leaving in order to give me a free hand. I could endure to be separated from the entire world besides but not from Maganlal. I therefore suggested that he should go to Madras with family. He and his wife would learn more of weaving there and would have more time to ponder over the situation that had developed. So they went and lived in Madras for six months. They mastered the art of weaving and after mature consideration also washed their hearts clean of untouchability. The internal storm thus blew over. But there was a storm outside the Ashram too. The chief person who financed the Ashram discontinued his assistance. There was even a possibility that the Ashramites should not be allowed any more to draw water from the neighbour’s well. But all difficulties were surmounted by and by. As regards finance, something happened which was not unlike Narasinha Mehta’s hundi (bill of exchange) being honoured at Dvaravati. A sum of thirteen thousand rupees was received from an unexpected source. Thus the Ashram ordeal in keeping Dudabhai at any cost was not as severe as it might well has been.

The Ashram passed that test as regards its opposition to untouchability. ‘Untouchable’ families come to the Ashram freely and live in it. Dudabhai’s daughter Lakshmi has become a full member of the family. Three callings followed by the so-called untouchables are practised in the Ashram, and improved methods are devised in each. Everyone in the Ashram has in turn to do sanitary service, which is looked upon not as a special calling but a universal duty. No outside labour is engaged for this work, which is carried on on lines suggested by Dr. Poore. Night-soil is buried in shallow trenches and is thus converted into manure in only a few days. Dr. Poore says that the soil is living up to a depth of twelve inches. Millions of bacteria are there to clean up dirt. Sunlight and air penetrate the ground to that depth. Therefore night-soil buried in the upper layer readily combines with the earth. Closets are so constructed that they are free from smell and there is no difficulty in cleaning them. Everyone who visits them covers the night-soil with plenty of dry earth, so that the top is always dry.

Then again we have handloom weaving. Coarse khadi was manufactured in Gujarat by Harijan weavers only. The industry was almost on the verge of destruction, and many weavers were compelled to take up scavenging for a living. But now there has been a revival of this handicraft. Thirdly we have tanning. We shall deal with it in the chapter on the Ashram dairy. The Ashram does not believe in sub castes. There are no restrictions on interdining and all Ashramites sit to dinner in the same line. But no propaganda in favour of interdining is carried on outside the Ashram, as it is unnecessary for the removal of untouchability, which implies the lifting of bans imposed on Harijans in public institutions and discarding the superstition that a man is polluted by the touch of certain persons by reason of their birth in a particular caste. This disability can also be removed by legislation. Interdining and intermarriage are reforms of a different type which cannot be promoted by legislation or social pressure. The Ashramites therefore feel themselves free to take permitted food with everyone else but do not carry on any such propaganda. Schools are established and wells sunk for Harijans through the Ashram which chiefly finds the finance for such activities. The real anti-untouchability work carried on in the Ashram is the reformed conduct of th