The Canker of Superiority-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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The Canker of Superiority-Mahatma Gandhi

 

The following remarkable paper handed to me at my mensing by the District Vaisya Sabha Association cannot fail to be of general interest. It is likely that there is some exaggeration in the foregoing statement. But the reason why I have reproduced the paper is to show how deep the canker of superiority has eaten into the very vitals of Hinduism. The writers, themselves a despised group in the estimation of their so-called superiors, have not hesitated to claim for themselves a status superior to and distinct from those more despised. The same notion of superiority and inferiority runs through the despised untouchables. I notice throughout my tour in Cutch that, as in other parts of India, the untouchables have among themselves also superior and inferior castes, and the higher caste Antyajas will not touch the lower caste, will positively refuse to send their children to schools belonging to the lower caste. Inter-marriage and inter-dining between them is unthinkable. This is caste reduced to the grossest absurdity. And it is by way of protest against this arrogation of superiority by one class over another that I delight in calling myself a Bhangi, that is, a sweeper, beyond which so far as I am aware inferiority does not travel. He is the social leper shunned by all and yet he belongs to the one group more indispensable than any other for the sanitary wellbeing of society, and, therefore, its very physical existence.

My sympathies are all with gentlemen on whose behalf the foregoing statement was given to me. But I warn them against claiming superiority over men more unfortunately placed than them. Let it be their privilege to take even these with them and refuse to take privileges which may be denied to others. It is necessary, if we will rid Hinduism of the curse of unnatural inequalities, for some of us to rise with our whole soul in revolt against it. In my opinion, he who claims superiority by the very nature of the claim forfeits it. Real, natural superiority comes without the claiming. It is recognized ungrudgingly, and ever refused, not pompously, not out of a false sense of modesty, but because the superiority is not even felt, and because the superior man knows that there is no distinction whatsoever between the soul within himself and the soul within one who regards himself as his inferior. Recognition of the essential identity and oneness of all that lives excludes the very idea of superiority and inferiority. Life is duty, not a bundle of rights and privileges. That religion is doomed to destruction which bases itself upon a system of gradations high and low. Such is not the meaning for me of Varnashrama.

I believe in it because I imagine that it defines the duties of men belonging to the different vocations. And Brahmin is he who is the servant of all, even the Sudras and the untouchables. He dedicates his all to such service and lives upon the charity and sufferance of his fellow-beings. He is no Kshatriya who puts forth pretensions to rank, power and privileges. He alone is a Kshatriya who uses the whole of himself for the defence and honour of society. And a Vaisya who earns for himself only, and believes in merely amassing wealth is a thief. A Sudra because he labours for hire on behalf of society is in no way inferior to the three classes. According to my conception of Hinduism there is no such thing as a fifth or untouchable class. The so-called untouchables are as much privileged labourers of society as Sudras. Varnashrama seems to me to be an ideal system conceived for the highest good of society. What we see today is a travesty and a mockery of the original. And if Varnashrama is to abide, Hindus must sweep away the mockery and restore Varnashrama to its pristine dignity.

Reference:

Young India, 5-11-1925