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The Removal of Untouchability THE REMOVAL OF UNTOUCHABILITY M. K. GANDHI NAVAJIVAN PUBLISHING HOUSE AHMED AB AD BOOKS BY GANDHIJI Rs.nP. An Autobiography (Cardboard-bound) 3.00 (Paper-bound) 2.00 (Abridged) 2.00 (School) 1.50 Ashram Observances in Action 1.00 Basic Education 1.00 Constructive Programme 0.37 Drink, Drugs & Gambling 2.00 Economic & Industrial Life & Relations, 3 Vols. 8.00 Evil Wrought by the English Medium 0.25 From Yeravda Mandir 0.37 Gandhiji’s Correspondence with the Govt. (1942-’44) 2.00 Gokhale — My Political Guru 1.00 Hind Swaraj 0.50 Homage to the Departed 2.50 India of My Dreams 2.50 Khadi — Why and How 3.00 Letters to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel 2.50 Mohan-Mala 1.00 “My Dear Child” 1.50 My Religion 2.00 Nature Cure 0.75 Rebuilding Our Villages 1.50 Sarvodaya (Its Principles & Programme) 0.40 Satyagrana in S. Africa (Cardboard-bound) 4.00 (Paper-bound) 3.00 Selections from Gandhi 2.00 Self-restraint V. Self-indulgence 2.00 Thoughts on National Language 2.00 To Students 2.00 Women 1.00 Unto This Last 0.37 Postage etc. extra Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Public.Resource.Org https://archive.org/details/removalofuntouchOOmkga I IH 8,1 * ■ I j j . THE REMOVAL OF UN TOUCH ABILITY By M. K. GANDHI Compiled and edited by BHARATAN KUMARAPPA ) NAVAJIVAN PUBLISHING HOUSE AHMEDABAD First Edition, 3,000 Copies, July, 1954 Reprint, 7,000 Copies, March, 1959 Rupees 2.50 © Navajivan Trust, 1954 Printed and Published by Jivanji Dahyabhai Desai Navajivan Press, Ahmedabad-14 EDITOR’S NOTE Even a reader well acquainted with Gandhiji’s writings may not realize that the topic on which he wrote and spoke most was the removal of untouchability. This fact reveals the supreme importance he attached to it. With his shrewd insight into what stood in the way of the nation’s advancement he saw that what was responsible for our general decline was that we had allowed religion to degenerate into unthinking observance of tradition and custom. We had thrown away the life-giving grain and were feeding on indigesti¬ ble chaff which was causing diseases and slow death in our body politic. The remedy, therefore, according to him, for our national ailments was not so much political or even economic as pri¬ marily spiritual. We must get back to the fundamentals of reli¬ gion which are Truth and self-forgetting Love. We must remove from our social life all man-made barriers, all ideas of supe¬ riority and inferiority and see even in the 4 lowest and the lost ’ amongst us the Divine nature which makes us all one. When we do so we shall not live in watertight compartments, each unmindful of the other and pulling apart, but will work with and for each other, thus becoming a united and strong nation. But this was not just an intellectual belief with Gandhiji. He hated untouchability with his entire soul. He who loved freedom passionately could not tolerate suppression; he who taught and practised non-violence could not remain blind to the inhuman violence perpetrated on a section of our population, who were condemned to live outside the pale of civilization, without social amenities, made to do the dirtiest work, humi¬ liated to the dust and treated with contempt. No ; no religion worth the name, Gandhiji was convinced, could be guilty of such atrocity. Certainly not Hinduism which taught gentleness towards the cow and harmlessness even to the insect world. Untouchability was contrary to this essentially non-violent spirit of Hinduism. So it must be cut out, root and branch, or Hinduism would perish. A religion which sanctioned in IV such gross injustice to fellow human beings was no religion ; it was the device of Satan. In such flaming words did Gandhiji indict untouchability. The more he loved Hinduism, the more he hated this sickly growth which appeared to him to be eating into its vitals. How was this untouchability to be removed ? Not, accord¬ ing to him, by violence, nor even by legislation or mere govern¬ mental action. It had to be rooted out of the heart of Caste men, and, therefore, required long and patient effort. In the mean¬ time, he urged, all the amenities available to others should be extended to ‘ untouchables ’ ; such amenities, for instance, as temple worship, sanitary dwellings, water, clean food, education and healthy occupations. Where possible, they were to be en¬ joyed by * untouchables ’ on equal terms with others, but where caste prejudice would not allow it, then these facilities were to be provided for them separately till such time as public opinion could be educated, for ‘ untouchables ’ could not be left in neglect till then. Of all the injustices perpetrated on them, the one about which Gandhiji felt most keenly was their non-admission to temples. How dare we, he thought, prevent God’s own people (Harijans or people of God as he called them) from access to Him in worship ? This appeared to him the height of insolence. He could not bear it and he personally led a country-wide campaign, more especially in the South where orthodoxy was most entrenched, to have temples thrown open to 4 untoucha¬ bles \ He spoke with the zeal of a prophet. He was up against age-old tradition, vested interest, priestcraft, religious fanati¬ cism, and hidebound conservatism, ignorance and superstition. It is amazing that in spite of it all, his efforts were crowned with phenomenal success. He wrote much and spoke much at that time. It was not possible to include all of it in this volume. Nor was that neces¬ sary, as some of it was naturally repetitious, being a statement of his views on the same topic in similar conditions. It seemed well, however, to devote some space to his instructions, in regard to the Vykom Satyagraha, as he laid down in that con¬ nection the lines along which non-violent resistance should be undertaken in the face of unyielding reaction. V Gandhiji’s writings on his pet theme of the removal of un- touchability are indeed voluminous. In compiling this book, we have sought to include only what is of permanent value or what is capable of guiding those engaged in work for the ‘ untoucha¬ bles ’. Consequently, for instance, we have not included much on the topic of separate electorates for ‘ untouchables ’, on which Gandhiji had a great deal to say, and against which he even fasted unto death. Our reason is that since the Constitution of independent India has in principle no place for communal elec¬ torates, separate electorates for ‘ untouchables ’ is no more a living issue for us or for future generations. Titles have been altered to suit the extracts, and if, in edi¬ ting, any slight changes have been made in the text also, it has been done with due care not to affect its meaning. The arrange¬ ment under sections is of course entirely ours. July, 1954 Bharatan Kumarappa \ CONTENTS Chapter Page EDITOR’S NOTE .... • iii SECTION ONE : THE SIN OF UNTOUCHABILITY 1 MY LIFE’S DESIRE .... • 3 2 THE SOURCE OF MY IDEALS . 3 3 THE CRIME OF UNTOUCHABILITY . 5 4 UNTOUCHABILITY .... • 6 5 THE EARTHQUAKE AND UNTOUCHABILITY. • 7 SECTION TWO : UNTOUCHABILITY AND SWARAJ 6 NO SWARAJ ALONG WITH UNTOUCHABILITY 9 7 THE IMPASSABLE BARRIER . 10 8 SWARAJ ..... 10 9 THE ROOT CAUSE .... 11 10 FREEDOM ..... 11 11 SERVICE OF THE ‘UNTOUCHABLES’ 12 12 UNDER SWARAJ .... 13 SECTION THREE : THE NAME HARIJAN 13 ‘HARIJAN’ FOR ‘UNTOUCHABLES’ 9 14 14 WHY ‘HARIJAN’ .... • 15 SECTION FOUR : NO SANCTION FOR UNTOUCHABILITY IN HINDUISM 15 HINDUISM AND UNTOUCHABILITY . 16 16 THE SHASTRAS AND UNTOUCHABILITY 16 17 THE SPIRIT OF HINDUISM . 17 18 NO SANCTION FOR UNTOUCHABILITY 18 19 KARMA ..... 18 20 UNTOUCHABILITY IS AN EXCRESCENCE 19 21 UNTOUCHABILITY IN HINDU SHASTRAS 20 22 UNTOUCHABILITY IN HINDUISM 22 23 DON’T OMIT ‘UNTOUCHABLES ’ 23 24 SANATANI HINDU .... 24 25 IN DEFENCE OF UNAPPROACHABILITY 26 26 PROGRESSIVE HINDUISM 9 27 27 I AM A SANATANIST a 29 28 PERIOD OF PROBATION 30 vi Vll 29 AN ADI-DRAVIDA’S DIFFICULTIES . .31 30 THE SHASTRAS ..... 33 31 EQUALITY OF LIFE ..... 34 32 DR. AMBEDKAR’S INDICTMENT . .34 33 FROM THE VYKOM SPEECH . .37 34 AM I A SANATANIST ? .... 38 SECTION FIVE : UNTOUCHABILITY, CASTE AND VARNASHRAMA 35 VARNASHRAMA ..... 39 36 VARNASHRAMA AND UNTOUCHABILITY . 40 37 THE CANKER OF SUPERIORITY . .42 38 THE FOUR CASTES . 43 39 MY VARNASHRAMA DHARMA . .44 40 VARNASHRAMA DHARMA . .44 41 VARNA AND CASTE ..... 45 42 THE LAW OF VARNA . .47 43 UNTOU CHABILITY, CASTE AND VARNA . 50 44 ATTACK ON ‘HIGH-AND-LOW’NESS . .51 45 NOT MERELY BY BIRTH . .51 46 CASTE AND VARNA ..... 52 47 UNTOU CHABILITY AND CASTE . .5? SECTION SIX : REMOVAL OF UNTOUCHABILITY 48 THE NON-VIOLENT WAY . .54 49 TO CASTE HINDUS . ..55 50 TO CASTE HINDUS ..... 56 51 GOVERNMENT AND UNTOUCHABILITY . 57 52 UNTOUCHABILITY AND LAW . .57 53 THE FAST ... 58 54 NO ROOM FOR COMPULSION . .60 55 HARIJAN MOVEMENT NOT POLITICAL . 61 56 FROM A TALK TO WOMEN . .62 SECTION SEVEN : INTERDINING AND INTERMARRIAGE 57 RELIGION DEGRADED . .63 58 LIMITATIONS OF THE MOVEMENT . .64 59 RESTRICTIONS ..... 64 60 INTERDINING . .66 61 A DIFFICULT PROBLEM .67 62 INTERDINING AGAIN .... 69 63 INCONSISTENCIES . .71 64 INTERDINING AND INTERMARRIAGE . 72 65 INTERDINING AND INTERMARRIAGE AGAIN . 73 66 CASTE HAS TO GO . 73 67 INTERDINING . 75 68 MARRIAGES BETWEEN HARIJANS AND NON- HARIJANS .... 75 SECTION EIGHT : TEMPLE-ENTRY 69 TO CORRESPONDENTS 78 70 THE CRIME OF CASTE 78 71 STILL SHIRKING THE ISSUE 80 72 TEMPLES FOR ‘UNTOUCHABLES’ 81 73 A COMPROMISE 82 74 TEMPLE-ENTRY 83 75 AN IMPATIENT WORKER 84 76 TEMPLE WORSHIP 86 77 TEMPLE REFORM 87 78 ANIMAL SACRIFICE .
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