ANNIHILATION OF CASTE
WITH
"Know
Truth as Truth and Untruth as Untruth "
"He that WILL NOT reason is a bigot He that CANNOT reason
is a fool He that DARE NOT reason is a slave " H. drummond
Printed
from the third edition of 1944
_____________________________________________________________________
1. Preface to the Second
Edition
2. Preface to the
Third Edition
3. Prologue
4. Speech Prepared
By Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
5. Appendix I : A
Vindication Of Caste By Mahatma Gandhi
6. Appendix II :
A Reply To The Mahatma By Dr. B. R.
Ambedkar
ANNIHILATION OF
CASTE
The speech prepared by me for the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal of Lahore
has had an astonishingly warm reception from the Hindu public for whom it was primarily
intended. The English edition of one thousand five hundred
was exhausted within two months of its publication. It is translated into Gujarati and Tamil. It is being translated in Marathi, Hindi, Punjabi and Malayalam. The demand for the English text still continues
unabated. To satisfy this demand it has become necessary to issue a Second Edition.
Considerations of history and effectiveness of appeal have led me to retain the original
form of the essay—namely the speech form—-although I was asked to recast it in
the form of a direct narrative. To this edition I have added two appendices. I have
collected in Appendix I the two articles written by Mr. Gandhi
by way of review of my speech in the Harijan, and his letter to Mr. Sant Ram, a member of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal. In Appendix II,
I have printed my views in reply to the articles of Mr. Gandhi collected in Appendix 1.
Besides Mr. Gandhi many others have adversely criticised my views as expressed in my
speech. But I have felt that in taking notice of such adverse comments
I should limit myself to Mr. Gandhi. This I have done not because what he has said is so
weighty as to deserve a reply but because to many a Hindu he is an oracle, so great that
when he opens his lips it is expected that the argument must close and no dog must bark.
But the world owes much to rebels who would dare to argue in the face of the pontiff and
insist that he is not infallible. I do not care for the credit which every progressive
society must give to its rebels. I shall be satisfied if I make the Hindus realize that
they are the sick men of India and that their sickness is causing danger to the health and
happiness of other Indians.
The Second edition
of this Essay appeared in 1937, and was exhausted within a very short period. A new
edition has been in demand for a long time. It was my
intention to recast the essay so as to incorporate into it another essay of mine called " Castes in India,
their Origin and their Mechanism ", which appeared
in the issue of the Indian Antiquary Journal for May 1917. But as I could not find time,
and as there is very little prospect of my being able to do so and as the demand for it
from the public is very insistent, I am content to let this be a mere reprint of the
Second edition.
I am glad to find that this essay has become so
popular, and I hope that it will serve the purpose for which it was intended.
22, Prithwiraj Road
New Delhi 1st December 1944
B. R. AMBEDKAR
PROLOGUE
On December 12, 1935, I received the following
letter from Mr. Sant Ram, the Secretary of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal :
My dear Doctor Saheb,
Many thanks for your kind letter of the 5th
December. I have released it for press without your
permission for which I beg your pardon, as I saw no harm in
giving it publicity. You are a great thinker, and it is my well-considered opinion that
none else has studied the problem of Caste so deeply as you have. I have always benefited
myself and our Mandal from your ideas. I have explained and preached it in the Kranti many times and
I have even lectured on it in many Conferences. I am now very anxious to read the
exposition of your new formula—" It is not
possible to break Caste without annihilating the religious notions on which it, the Caste
system, is founded." Please do explain it at length at
your earliest convenience, so that we may take up the idea and emphasise it from press and
platform. At present, it is not fully clear to me.
*
*
* * *
Our Executive Committee persists in having you
as our President for our Annual Conference. We can change our dates to accommodate
your convenience. Independent Harijans of Punjab are very
much desirous to meet you and discuss with you their plans. So if you kindly accept our
request and come to Lahore to preside over the Conference it
will serve double purpose. We will invite Harijan leaders of
all shades of opinion and you will get an opportunity of giving your ideas to them.
The Mandal has deputed our Assistant Secretary,
Mr. Indra Singh, to meet you
at Bombay in Xmas and discuss with you the whole situation
with a view to persuade you to please accept our request.
*
*
*
*
*
The Jat-Pat-Todak
Mandal, I was given to understand, to be an organization of
Caste Hindu Social Reformers, with the one and only aim, namely to eradicate the Caste
System from amongst the Hindus. As a rule, I do not like to take any part in a movement
which is carried on by the Caste Hindus. Their attitude towards social reform is so
different from mine that I have found it difficult to pull on with them. Indeed, I find
their company quite uncongenial to me on account of our differences of opinion. Therefore
when the Mandal first approached me I declined their
invitation to preside. The Mandal, however, would not take a refusal from me and sent down
one of its members to Bombay to press me to accept the invitation. In the end I agreed to
preside. The Annual Conference was to be held at Lahore, the headquarters of the Mandal.
The Conference was to meet in Easter but was subsequently postponed to the middle of May
1936. The Reception Committee of the Mandal has now cancelled the Conference. The notice
of cancellation came long after my Presidential address had been printed. The copies of
this address are now lying with me. As I did not get an opportunity to deliver the address
from the presidential chair the public has not had an opportunity to know my views on the
problems created by the Caste System. To let the public know them and also to dispose of
the printed copies which are lying on my hand, I have decided to put the printed copies of
the address in the market. The accompanying pages contain
the text of that address.
The public will be curious to know what led to the cancellation of my appointment as the President of the Conference. At the start, a dispute arose over the printing of the address. I desired that the address should be printed in Bombay. The Mandal wished that it should be printed in Lahore on the ground of economy. I did not agree and insisted upon having it printed in Bombay. Instead of agreeing to my proposition I received a letter signed by several members of the Mandal from which I give the following extract :
27-3-36
Revered Dr. Ji,
Your letter of the 24th instant addressee to Sjt. Sant Ram has been shown to us. We were a little disappointed to read it. Perhaps you are not fully aware of the situation that has arisen here. Almost all the Hindus in the Punjab are against your being invited to this province. The Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal has been subjected to the bitterest criticism and has received censorious rebuke from all quarters. All the Hindu leaders among whom being Bhai Parmanand, M-L.A. (Ex-President, Hindu Maha Sabha), Mahatma Hans Raj, Dr. Gokal Chand Narang, Minister for Local Self-Government, Raja Narendra Nath, M.L.C. etc., have dissociated themselves from this step of the Mandal.
Despite all this
the runners of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal (the leading figure being Sjt. Sant Ram) are
determined to wade through thick and thin but would not give up the idea of your
presidentship. The Mandal has earned a bad name.
*
* * * *
Under the circumstances it becomes your duty to
co-operate with the Mandal. On the one hand, they are being put to so much trouble and
hardship by the Hindus and if on the other hand you too augment their difficulties it will
be a most sad coincidence of bad luck for them.
We hope you will think over the matter and do
what is good for us all.
*
* * * *
This letter puzzled me greatly. I could not
understand why the Mandal should displease me for the sake of a few rupees in the matter
of printing the address. Secondly, I could not believe that
men like Sir Gokal Chand Narang had really resigned as a protest
against my selection as President because I had
received the following letter from Sir Gokal Chand himself :
5 Montgomery Road
Lahore,
7-2-36
Dear Doctor Ambedkar,
I am glad to learn from the workers of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal that you have agreed to preside at their
next anniversary to be held at Lahore during the Easter holidays,
it will give me much pleasure if you stay with me while you are at Lahore. More when we
meet.
G. C. narang
Whatever be the truth I did not yield to this
pressure. But even when the Mandal found that I was insisting upon having my address
printed in Bombay instead of agreeing to my proposal the Mandal sent me a wire that they
were sending Mr. Har Bhagwan
to Bombay to " talk over matters personally " Mr. Har Bhagwan came to Bombay on the 9th of April. When
I met Mr. Har Bhagwan I found that he had nothing to say regarding the issue. Indeed he
was so unconcerned regarding the printing of the address, whether it should be printed in
Bombay or in Lahore, that he did not even mention it in the course of our conversation.
All that he was anxious for was to know the contents of the address. I was then convinced
that in getting the address printed in Lahore the main object of the Mandal was not to
save money but to get at the contents of the address. I gave him a copy. He did not feel
very happy with some parts of it. He returned to Lahore. From Lahore, he wrote to me
the following letter :
Lahore,
dated April 14, 1936
My dear Doctor Sahib,
Since my arrival from Bombay, on the 12th, I
have been indisposed owing to my having not slept
continuously for 5 or 6 nights, which were spent in the
train. Reaching here I came to know that you had come to Amritsar. I would have seen you there if I were well enough to go
about. I have made over your address to Mr. Sant Ram for
translation and he has liked it very much, but he is not sure whether it could be
translated by him for printing before the 25th. In any case, it woud
have a wide publicity and we are sure it would wake the Hindus up from their slumber.
The passage I pointed out to you at Bombay has
been read by some of our friends with a little misgiving, and those of us who would like
to see the Conference terminate without any untoward incident would prefer that at least
the word " Veda " be
left out for the time being. I leave this to your good sense. I hope, however, in your
concluding paragraphs you will make it clear that the views expressed in the address are
your own and that the responsibility does not lie on the Mandal.
I hope, you will not mind this statement of mine and would let us have 1,000 copies of the
address, for which we shall, of course, pay. To this effect I have sent you a telegram
today. A cheque of Rs. 100 is enclosed herewith which kindly
acknowledge, and send us your bills in due time.
I have called a meeting of the Reception
Committee and shall communicate their decision to you immediately. In the meantime kindly
accept my heartfelt thanks for the kindness shown to me and the great pains taken by you
in the preparation of your address. You have really put us under a heavy debt of
gratitude.
har bhagwan
P.S.—Kindly
send the copies of the address by passenger train as soon as it is printed, so that copies
may be sent to the Press for publication.
Accordingly I handed over my manuscript to the
printer with an order to print 1,000 copies. Eight days later, I received another letter
from Mr. Har Bhagwan which I
reproduce below :
Lahore,
22-4-36
Dear Dr. Ambedkar,
We are in receipt of your telegram and letter,
for which kindly accept our thanks. In accordance with your
desire, we have again postponed our Conference, but feel that it would have been much
better to have it on the 25th and 26th, as the weather is growing warmer and warmer every
day in the Punjab. In the middle of May it would be fairly hot, and the sittings in the
day time would not be very pleasant and comfortable. However, we shall try our best to do all we can to make things as comfortable as possible,
if it is held in the middle of May.
There is, however, one thing that we have been
compelled to bring to your kind attention. You will remember
that when I pointed out to you the misgivings entertained by
some of our people regarding your declaration on the subject of change of religion, you
told me that it was undoubtedly outside the scope of the Mandal
and that you had no intention to say anything from our platform in that connection. At the
same time when the manuscript of your address was handed to me you assured me that that
was the main portion of your address and that there were only two or three concluding
paragraphs that you wanted to add. On receipt of the second instalment of your address we have been taken by surprise, as that
would make it so lengthy, that we are afraid, very few people would read the whole of it.
Besides that you have more than once stated in your address that you had decided to walk
out of the fold of the Hindus and that that was your last
address as a Hindu. You have also unnecessarily attacked the morality and reasonableness
of the Vedas and
other religious books of the Hindus, and have at length dwelt upon the technical side of
Hindu religion, which has absolutely no connection with the problem at issue, so much so
that some of the passages have become irrelevant and off the
point. We would have been very pleased if you had confined your address to that portion
given to me, or if an addition was necessary, it would have been limited to what you had
written on Brahminism etc. The last portion which deals with
the complete annihilation of Hindu religion and doubts the morality of the sacred books of
the Hindus as well as a hint about your intention to leave
the Hindu fold does not seem to me to be relevant.
I would therefore most
humbly request you on behalf of the people responsible for
the Conference to leave out the passages referred to above,
and close the address with what was given to me or add a few paragraphs on Brahminism. We
doubt the wisdom of making the address unnecessarily provocative and pinching. There are
several of us who subscribe to your feelings and would very much want to be under your
banner for remodelling of the Hindu religion. If you had decided to get together persons
of your cult I can assure you a large number would have joined your army of reformers from
the Punjab.
In fact, we thought you would give us a lead in
the destruction of the evil of caste system, especially when you have studied the subject
so thoroughly, and strengthen our hands by bringing about a revolution and making yourself
as a nucleus in the gigantic effort, but declaration of the
nature made by you when repeated loses its power, and
becomes a hackneyed term. Under the circumstances, I would request you to consider the
whole matter and make your address more effective by saying that you would be glad to take
a leading part in the destruction of the caste system if the Hindus are willing to work in
right earnest toward that end, even if they had to forsake
their kith and kin and the religious notions. In case you do so, I am sanguine that you would find a ready response from the Punjab in such an
endeavour.
I shall be grateful if you will help us at this
juncture as we have already undergone much expenditure and have been put to suspense, and let us know by the return
of post that you have condescended to limit your address as above. In case, you still
insist upon the printing of the address in toto, we very much regret it would not be possible—rather advisable for us to hold the Conference, and
would prefer to postpone it sine die, although
by doing so we shall be losing the goodwill of the people because of the repeated
postponements. We should, however, like to point out that you have carved a niche in our
hearts by writing such a wonderful treatise on the caste system, which excels all other
treatises so far written and will prove to be a valuable heritage, so to say. We shall be
ever indebted to you for the pains taken by you in its preparation.
Thanking you very much for your kindness and
with best wishes.
I am,
har bhagwan
To this letter I sent the following reply :
27th April 1936
I am in receipt of your letter of the 22nd April. I note with regret that the Reception Commitiee of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal " would prefer to
postpone the Conference sine die " if I
insisted upon printing the address in toto. In
reply I have to inform you that I also would prefer to have the Conference
cancelled—1 do not like to use vague terms—if the Mandal insisted upon having my
address pruned to suit its circumstances. You may not like my decision. But I cannot give
up, for the sake of the honour of presiding over the
Conference, the liberty which every President must have in the preparation of the address.
I cannot give up for the sake of pleasing the Mandal the
duty which every President owes to the Conference over which
he presides to give it a lead which he thinks right and proper. The issue is one of
principle and I feel I must do nothing to compromise it in any way.
I would not have entered into any controversy
as regards the propriety of the decision taken by the Reception Committee. But as you have
given certain reasons which appear to throw the blame on me. I am bound to answer them. In the first place, I must dispel the notion that the
views contained in that part of the address to which objection has been taken by the
Committee have come to the Mandal as a surprise. Mr. Sant
Ram, I am sure, will bear me out when I say that in reply to one of his letters I had said
that the real method of breaking up the Caste System was not to bring about inter-caste dinners and inter-caste
marriages but to destroy the religious notions on which Caste was founded and that Mr.
Sant Ram in return asked me to explain what he said was a
novel point of view. It was in response to this invitation from Mr. Sant Ram that I thought I ought to elaborate in my address what
I had stated in a sentence in my letter to him. You cannot, therefore, say that the views
expressed are new. At any rate, they are not new to Mr. Sant Ram who is the moving spirit
and the leading light of your Mandal.
But I go further and say that I wrote this part of my address
not merely because I felt it desirable to do so. I wrote it
because I thought that it was absolutely necessary to
complete the argument. I am amazed to read that you characterize the portion of the speech to which your Committee objects as " irrelevant and off the
point ". You will allow me to say that I am a lawyer
and I know the rules of relevancy as well as any member of
your Committee. I most emphatically maintain that the portion objected to is not only most
relevant but is also important. It is in that part of the
address that I have discussed the ways and means of breaking up the Caste System. It may
be that the conclusion I have arrived at as to the best method of destroying Caste is
startling and painful. You are entitled to say that my analysis is wrong. But you cannot
say that in an address which deals with the problem of Caste
it is not open to me to discuss how Caste can be destroyed.
Your other complaint relates to the length of
the address. I have pleaded guilty to the charge in the address itself. But, who is really
responsible for this ? I fear you have come rather late on
the scene. Otherwise you would have known that originally I had planned to write a short
address for my own convenience as I had neither the time nor the energy to engage myself
in the preparation of an elaborate thesis. It was the Mandal who asked me to deal with the
subject exhaustively and it was the Mandal which sent down to me a list of questions
relating to the Caste System and asked me to answer them in
the body of my address as they were questions which were
often raised in the controversy between the Mandal and its opponents and which the Mandal
found difficult to answer satisfactorily. It was in trying to meet the wishes of the
Mandal in this respect that the address has grown to the length to which it has. In view
of what I have said I am sure you will agree that the fault respecting length of the
address is not mine.
I did not expect that your Mandal would be so
upset because I have spoken of the destruction of Hindu Religion. I thought it was only
fools who were afraid of words. But lest there should be any misapprehension in the minds
of the people I have taken great pains to explain what I mean by religion and destruction
of religion. I am sure that nobody on reading my address could possibly misunderstand me.
That your Mandal should have taken a fright at mere words as "destruction
of religion etc." notwithstanding
the explanation that accompanies .them does not raise the Mandal in my estimation. One cannot have any respect or regard for men who take
the position of the Reformer and then refuse even to see the logical consequences of that
position, let alone following them out in action.
You will agree that I have never accepted to be
limited in any way in the preparation of my address and the
question as to what the address should or should not contain was never even discussed
between myself and the Mandal. I had always taken for
granted that I was free to express in the address such views
as I held on the subject Indeed until, you came to Bombay on the 9th April the Mandal did
not know what sort of an address I was preparing. It was when you came to Bombay that I
voluntarily told you that I had no desire to use your platform from which to advocate my
views regarding change of religion by the Depressed Classes. I think I have scrupulously
kept that promise in the preparation of the address. Beyond a passing reference of an indirect character
where I say that " I am sorry I will not be here. . . etc."
I have said nothing about the subject in my address. When I see you object even to such a
passing and so indirect a reference, I feel bound to ask ;
did you think that in agreeing to preside over your Conference I would be agreeing to
suspend or to give up my views regarding change of faith by the Depressed Classes ? If you did think so I must tell you that I am in no way
responsible for such a mistake on your part. If any of you had even hinted to me that in
exchange for the honour you were doing me by electing as President, I was to abjure my
faith in my programme of conversion, I would have told you
in quite plain terms that I cared more for my faith than for any honour from you.
After your letter of the 14th, this letter of
yours comes as a surprize to me. I am sure that any one who
reads them will feel the same. I cannot account for this sudden volte face on the part of the Reception Committee.
There is no difference in substance between the rough draft which was before the Committee
when you wrote your letter of the 14th and the final draft
on which the decision of the Committee communicated to me in your letter under reply was
taken. You cannot point out a single new idea in the final draft which is not contained in
the earlier draft. The ideas are the same. The only difference is that they have been
worked out in greater detail in the final draft. If there was anything to object to in the
address you could have said so on the 14th. But you did not. On the contrary you asked me
to print off 1,000 copies leaving me the liberty to accept
or not the verbal changes which you suggested. Accordingly I got 1,000 copies printed
which are now lying with me. Eight days later you write to say that you object to the
address and that if it is not amended the Conference will be cancelled. You ought to have
known that there was no hope of any alteration being made in the address. I told you when
you were in Bombay that I would not alter a comma, that I would not allow any censorship
over my address and that you would have to accept the address as it came from me. I also
told you that the responsibility. for the views expressed in the address was entirely mine
and if they were not liked by the Conference I would not mind at all if the Conference
passed a resolution condemning them. So anxious was I to relieve your Mandal from having
to assume responsibility for my views and also with the object of not getting myself entangled by too intimate an
association with your Conference, I suggested to you that I
desired to have my address treated as a sort of an inaugural address and not as a
Presidential address and that the Mandal should find some
one else to preside over the Conference, and deal with the resolutions. Nobody could have
been better placed to take a decision on the 14th than your Committee. The Committee
failed to do that and in the meantime cost of printing has been incurred which, I am sure,
with a little more firmness on the part of your Committee could have been saved.
I feel sure that the views expressed in my
address have little to do with the decision of your Committee. I have reasons to believe
that my presence at the Sikh Prachar Conference held at Amritsar has had a good deal to do with the decision of the
Committee. Nothing else can satisfactorily explain the sudden volte face shown by the Committee between the 14th
and the 22nd April. I must not however prolong this controversy and must request you to
announce immediately that the Session of the Conference which was to meet under my
Presidentship is cancelled. All the grace has by now run out and I shall not consent to
preside even if your Committee agreed to accept my address
as it is- in toto. I thank you for your appreciation of the pains I have taken in the preparation of the address. I certainly have profited by the
labour if no one else docs. My only regret is that I was put to such hard labour at a time when my health was not equal to the strain it has caused.
Yours sincerely,
This correspondence will disclose the reasons which have led to the cancellation by the Mandal of my appointment as President and the reader will be in a position to lay the blame where it ought properly to belong. This is I believe the first time when the appointment of a President is cancelled by the Reception Committee because it does not approve of the views of the President. But whether that is so or not, this is certainly the first time in my life to have been invited to preside over a Conference of Caste Hindus. I am sorry that it has ended in a tragedy. But what can any one expect from a relationship so tragic as the relationship between the reforming sect of Caste Hindus and the self-respecting sect of Untouchables where the former have no desire to alienate their orthodox fellows and the latter have no alternative but to insist upon reform being carried out ?
Dadar,
Bombay 14 15th May 1936
B. R. AMBEDKAR
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
FOR
The 1936 Annual Conference of the Jat-Pat-Todak
Mandal of Lahore
BUT NOT DELIVERED
Owing
to the cancellation of the Conference by the Reception Committee on the ground that the
views expressed in the Speech would be unbearable to the Conference
Friends,
I am really sorry for the members of the
Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal who have so very kindly invited me to preside over this Conference. I
am sure they will be asked many questions for having selected me as the President. The
Mandal will be asked to explain as to why it has imported a man from Bombay to preside
over a function which is held in Lahore. I believe the Mandal could easily have found some
one better qualified than myself to preside on the occasion. I have criticised the Hindus.
I have questioned the authority of the Mahatma whom they revere. They hate me. To them I
am a snake in their garden. The Mandal will no doubt be asked by the politically-minded
Hindus to explain why it has called me to fill this place of honour. It is an act of great
daring. I shall not be surprised if some political Hindus regard it as an insult. This
selection of mine cannot certainly please the ordinary religiously-minded Hindus. The
Mandal may be asked to explain why it has disobeyed the Shastric injunction in selecting the President.
Accoding to the Shastras the Brahmin is
appointed to be the Guru for the three Varnas,
varnanam bramhano garu, is a direction of the Shastras.
The Mandal therefore knows from whom a Hindu should take his lessons and from whom he
should not. The Shastras do not permit a Hindu
to accept any one as his Guru merely because he is well versed. This is made very clear by
Ramdas, a Brahmin saint from Maharashtra, who is alleged to have inspired Shivaji to
establish a Hindu Raj. In his Dasbodh, a
socio-politico-religious treatise in Marathi verse Ramdas
asks, addressing the Hindus, can we accept an Antyaja to be our Guru because he is a
Pandit (i.e. learned) and gives an answer in the
negative. What replies to give to these questions is a matter which I must leave to the
Mandal. The Mandal knows best the reasons which led it to travel to Bombay to select a
president, to fix upon a man so repugnant to the Hindus and to descend so low in the scale
as to select an Antyaja— an untouchable—to address an audience of the Savarnas. As for myself you will allow me to say
that I have accepted the invitation much against my will and also against the will of many
of my fellow untouchables. I know that the Hindus are sick of me. I know that I am not a persona grata with them. Knowing all this I have
deliberately kept myself away from them. I have no desire to inflict myself upon them. I
have been giving expression to my views from my own platform. This has already caused a
great deal of heartburning and irritation. I have no desire to ascend the platform of the
Hindus to do within their sight what I have been doing within their hearing. If I am here
it is because of your choice and not because of my wish. Yours is a cause of social
reform. That cause has always made an appeal to me and it is because of this that I felt I
ought not to refuse an opportunity of helping the cause especially when you think that I
can help it. Whether what I am going to say today will help you in any way to solve the
problem you are grappling with is for you to judge. All I hope to do is to place before
you my views on the problem.
II
The path of social reform like the path to
heaven at any rate in India, is strewn with many difficulties. Social reform in India has
few friends and many critics. The critics fall into two distinct classes. One class
consists of political reformers and the other of the socialists.
It was at one time recognized that without
social efficiency no permanent progress in the other fields of activity was possible, that
owing to mischief wrought by the evil customs, Hindu Society was not in a state of
efficiency and that ceaseless efforts must be made to eradicate these evils. It was due to
the recognition of this fact that the birth of the National Congress was accompanied by
the foundation of the Social Conference. While the Congress was concerned with defining
the weak points in the political organisation of the country, the Social Conference was
engaged in removing the weak points in the social organisation of the Hindu Society. For
some time the Congress and the Conference worked as two wings of one common activity and
they held their annual sessions in the same pandal. But soon the two wings developed into
two parties, a Political Reform Party and a Social Reform Party, between whom there raged
a fierce controversy. The Political Reform Party supported the National Congress and
Social Reform Party supported the Social Conference. The two bodies thus became two
hostile camps. The point at issue was whether social reform should precede political
reform. For a decade the forces were evenly balanced and the battle was fought without
victory to either side. It was however evident that the fortunes of the; Social Conference
were ebbing fast. The gentlemen who presided over the sessions of the Social Conference
lamented that the majority of the educated Hindus were for political advancement and
indifferent to social reform and that while the number of those who attended the Congress
was very large and the number who did not attend but who sympathized with it even larger,
the number of those who attended the Social Conference was very much smaller. This
indifference, this thinning of its ranks was soon followed by active hostility from the
politicians. Under the leadership of the late Mr. Tilak, the courtesy with which the
Congress allowed the Social Conference the use of its pandal was withdrawn and the spirit
of enmity went to such a pitch that when the Social Conference desired to erect its own
pandal a threat to burn the pandal was held out by its opponents. Thus in course of time
the party in favour of political reform won and the Social Conference vanished and was
forgotten. The speech, delivered by Mr. W. C. Bonnerji in 1892 at Allahabad as President
of the eighth session of the Congress, sounds like a funeral oration at the death of the
Social Conference and is so typical of the Congress attitude that I venture to quote from
it the following extract. Mr. Bonnerji said :
" I for one have no patience with those
who saw we shall not be fit for political reform until we reform our social system. I fail
to see any connection between the two. . .Are we not fit (for political reform) because
our widows remain unmarried and our girls are given in marriage earlier than in other
countries ? because our wives and daughters do not drive about with us visiting our
friends? because we do not send our daughters to Oxford and Cambridge ? " (Cheers)'
I have stated the case for political reform as
put by Mr. Bonnerji. There were many who are happy that the victory went to the Congress.
But those who believe in the importance of social reform may ask, is the argument such as
that of Mr. Bonnerji final ? Does it prove that the victory went to those who were in the
right ? Does it prove conclusively that social reform has no bearing on political reform ?
It will help us to understand the matter if I state the other side of the case. I will
draw upon the treatment of the untouchables for my facts.
Under the rule of the Peshwas in the Maratha
country the untouchable was not allowed to use the public streets if a Hindu was coming
along lest he should pollute the Hindu by his shadow. The untouchable was required to have
a black thread either on his wrist or in his neck as a sign or a mark to prevent the
Hindus from getting themselves polluted by his touch through mistake. In Poona, the
capital of the Peshwa, the untouchable was required to carry, strung from his waist, a
broom to sweep away from behind the dust he treaded on lest a Hindu walking on the same
should be polluted. In Poona, the untouchable was required to carry an earthen pot, hung
in his neck wherever he went, for holding his spit lest his spit falling on earth should
pollute a Hindu who might unknowingly happen to tread on it. Let me take more recent
facts. The tyranny practised by the Hindus upon the Balais, an untouchable community in
Central India, will serve my purpose. You will find a report of this in the Times of India of 4th January 1928. "The
correspondent of the Times of India reported
that high caste Hindus, viz. Kalotas, Rajputs and Brahmins including the Patels and
Patwaris of villages of Kanaria, Bicholi-Hafsi, Bicholi-Mardana and of about 15 other
villages in the Indore djistrict (of the Indore State) informed the Balais of their
respective villages that if they wished to live among them they must conform to the
following rules :
(1) Balais must not wear gold-lace-bordered
pugrees.
(2) They must not wear dhotis with coloured or
fancy borders.
(3) They must convey intimation of the death of
any Hindu to relatives of the deceased—no matter how far away these relatives may be
living.
(4) In all Hindu marriages, Balais must play
music before the processions and during the marriage.
(5) Balai women must not wear gold or silver
ornaments; they must not wear fancy gowns or jackets.
(6) Balai women must attend all cases of
confinement of Hindu women.
(7) Balais must render services without
demanding remuneration and must accept whatever a Hindu is pleased to give.
(8) If the Balais do not agree to abide by
these terms they must clear out of the villages. The Balais refused to comply; and the
Hindu element proceeded against them. Balais were not allowed to get water from the
village wells; they were not allowed to let go their cattle to graze. Balais were
prohibited from passing through land owned by a Hindu, so that if the field of a Balai was
surrounded by fields owned by Hindus, the Balai could have no access to his own field. The
Hindus also let their cattle graze down the fields of Balais. The Balais submitted
petitions to the Darbar against these persecutions ; but as they could get no timely
relief, and the oppression continued, hundreds of Balais with their wives and children
were obliged to abandon their homes in which their ancestors lived for generations and to
migrate to adjoining States, viz. to villages in Dhar, Dewas, Bagli, Bhopal, Gwalior and
other States. What happened to them in their new homes may for the present be left out of
our consideration. The incident at Kavitha in Gujarat happened only last year. The Hindus
of Kavitha ordered the untouchables not to insist upon sending their children to the
common village school maintained by Government. What sufferings the untouchables of
Kavitha had to undergo for daring to exercise a civic right against the wishes of the
Hindus is too well known to need detailed description. Another instance occurred in the
village of Zanu in the Ahmedabad district of Gujarat. In November 1935 some untouchable
women of well-to-do families started fetching water in metal pots. The Hindus looked upon
the use of metal pots by untouchables as an affront to their dignity and assaulted the
untouchable women for their impudence. A most recent event is reported from the village
Chakwara in Jaipur State. It seems from the reports that have appeared in the newspapers
that an untouchable of Chakwara who had returned from a pilgrimage had arranged to give a
dinner to his fellow untouchables of the village as an act of religious piety. The host
desired to treat the guests to a sumptuous meal and the items served included ghee (butter) also. But while the assembly of
untouchables was engaged in partaking of the food, the Hindus in their hundred, armed with
lathis, rushed to the scene, despoiled the food and belaboured the untouchables who left
the food they were served with and ran away for their lives. And why was this murderous
assault committed on defenceless untouchables ? The reason given is that the untouchable
host was impudent enough to serve ghee and his untouchable guests were foolish enough to
taste it. Ghee is undoubtedly a luxury for the rich. But no one would think that
consumption of ghee was a mark of high social status. The Hindus of Chakwara thought
otherwise and in righteous indignation avenged themselves for the wrong done to them by
the untouchables, who insulted them by treating ghee as an item of their food which they
ought to have known could not be theirs, consistently with the dignity of the Hindus. This
means that an untouchable must not use ghee even if he can afford to buy it, since it is
an act of arrogance towards the Hindus. This happened on or about the 1st of April 1936 !
Having stated the facts, let me now state the
case for social reform. In doing this, I will follow Mr. Bonnerji, as nearly as I can and
ask the political-minded Hindus " Are you fit for political power even though you do
not allow a large class of your own countrymen like the untouchables to use public school
? Are you fit for political power even though you do not allow them the use of public
wells ? Are you fit for political power even though you do not allow them the use of
public streets ? Are you fit for political power even though you do not allow them to wear
what apparel or ornaments they like ? Are you fit for political power even though you do
not allow them to eat any food they like ? " I can ask a string of such questions.
But these will suffice, I wonder what would have been the reply of Mr. Bonnerji. I am sure
no sensible man will have the courage to give an affirmative answer. Every Congressman who
repeats the dogma of Mill that one country is not fit to rule another country must admit
that one class is not fit to rule another class.
How is it then that the Social Reform Party
last the battle ? To understand this correctly it is necessary, to take note of the kind
of social reform which the reformers were agitating for. In this connection it is
necessary to make a distinction between social reform in the sense of the reform of the
Hindu Family and social reform in the sense of the reorganization and reconstruction of
the Hindu Society. The former has relation to widow remarriage, child marriage etc., while
the latter relates to the abolition of the Caste System. The Social Conference was a body
which mainly concerned itself with the reform of the high caste Hindu Family. It consisted
mostly of enlightened high caste Hindus who did
not feel the necessity for agitating for the abolition of caste or had not the courage to
agitate for it. They felt quite naturally a greater urge to remove such evils as enforced
widowhood, child marriages etc., evils which prevailed among them and which were
personally felt by them. They did not stand up for the reform of the Hindu society. The
battle that was fought centered round the question of the reform of the family. It did not
relate to the social reform in the sense of the break-up of the caste system. It was never
put in issue by the reformers. That is the reason why the Social Reform Party lost.
I am aware that this argument cannot alter the fact that political reform did in fact gain precedence over social reform. But the argument has this much value if not more. It explains why social reformers lost the battle. It also helps us to understand how limited was the victory which the Political Reform Party obtained over the Social Reform Party and that the view that social reform need not precede political reform is a view which may stand only when by social reform is meant the reform of the family. That political reform cannot with impunity take precedence over social reform in the sense of reconstruction of society is a thesis which, I am sure, cannot be controverted. That the makers of political constitutions must take account of social forces is a fact which is recognized by no less a person than Ferdinand Lassalle, the friend and co-worker of Karl Marx. In addressing a Prussian audience in 1862 Lassalle said :
" The
constitutional questions are in the first instance not questions of right but questions of
might. The actual constitution of a country has its existence only in the actual condition
of force which exists in the country : hence political constitutions have value and
permanence only when they accurately express those conditions of forces which exist in
practice within a society"
But it is not necessary to go to Prussia. There
is evidence at home. What is the significance of the Communal Award with its allocation of
political power in defined proportions to diverse classes and communities ? In my view,
its significance lies in this that political constitution must take note of social
organisation. It shows that the politicians who denied that the social problem in India
had any bearing on the political problem were forced to reckon with the social problem in
devising the constitution. The Communal Award is so to say the nemesis following upon the
indifference and neglect of social reform. It is a victory for the Social Reform Party
which shows that though defeated they were in the right in insisting upon the importance
of social reform. Many, I know, will not accept this finding. The view is current, and it
is pleasant to believe in it, that the Communal Award is unnatural and that it is the
result of an unholy alliance between the minorities and the bureaucracy. I do not wish to
rely on the Communal Award as a piece of evidence to support my contention if it is said
that it is not good evidence. Let us turn to Ireland. What does the history of Irish Home
Rule show ? It is well-known that in the course of the negotiations between the
representatives of Ulster and Southern Ireland, Mr. Redmond, the representative of
Southern Ireland, in order to bring Ulster in a Home Rule Constitution common to the whole
of Ireland said to the representatives of Ulster : " Ask any political safeguards you
like and you shall have them." What was the reply that Ulstermen gave ? Their reply
was " Damn your safeguards, we don't want to be ruled by you on any terms."
People who blame the minorities in India ought to consider what would have happened to the
political aspirations of the majority if the minorities had taken the attitude which
Ulster took. Judged by the attitude of Ulster to Irish Home Rule, is it noting that the
minorities agreed to be ruled by the majority which has not shown much sense of
statesmanship, provided some safeguards were devised for them ? But this is only
incidental. The main question is why did Ulster take this attitude ? The only answer I can
give is that there was a social problem between Ulster and Southern Ireland the problem
between Catholics and Protestants, essentially a problem of Caste. That Home Rule in
Ireland would be Rome Rule was the way in which the Ulstermen had framed their answer. But
that is only another way of stating that it was the social problem of Caste between the
Catholics and Protestants, which prevented the solution of the political problem. This
evidence again is sure to be challenged. It will be urged that here too the hand of the
Imperialist was at work. But my resources are not exhausted. I will give evidence from the
History of Rome. Here no one can say that any evil genius was at work. Any one who has
studied the History of Rome will know that the Republican Constitution of Rome bore marks
having strong resemblance to the Communal Award. When the kingship in Rome was abolished,
the Kingly power or the Imperium was divided
between the Consuls and the Pontifex Maximus. In the Consuls was vested the secular
authority of the King, while the latter took over the religious authority of King. This
Republican Constitution had provided that, of the two Consuls one was to be Patrician and
the other Plebian. The same constitution had also provided that, of the Priests under the
Pontifex Maximus, half were to be Plebians and the other half Patricians. Why is it that
the Republican Constitution of Rome had these provisions which, as I said, resemble so
strongly the provisions of the Communal Award ? The only answer one can get is that the
Constitution of Republican Rome had to take account of the social division between the
Patricians and the Plebians, who formed two distinct castes. To sum up, let political
reformers turn to any direction they like, they will find that in the making of a
constitution, they cannot ignore the problem arising out of the prevailing social order.
The illustrations which I have taken in support
of the proposition that social and religious problems have a bearing on political
constitutions seem to be too particular. Perhaps they are. But it should not be supposed
that the bearing of the one on the other is limited. On the other hand one can say that
generally speaking History bears out the proposition that political revolutions have
always been preceded by social and religious revolutions.
The religious Reformation started by Luther was
the precursor of the political emancipation of the European people. In England Puritanism
led to the establishment of political liberty. Puritanism founded the new world. It was
Puritanism which won the war of American Independence and Puritanism was a religious
movement. The same is true of the Muslim Empire. Before the Arabs became a political power
they had undergone a thorough religious revolution started by the Prophet Mohammad. Even
Indian History supports the same conclusion. The political revolution led by Chandragupta
was preceded by the religious and social revolution of Buddha. The political revolution
led by Shivaji was preceded by the religious and social reform brought about by the saints
of Maharashtra. The political revolution of the Sikhs was preceded by the religious and
social revolution led by Guru Nanak. It is unnecessary to add more illustrations. These
will suffice to show that the emancipation of the mind and the soul is a necessary
preliminary for the political expansion of the people.
Ill
Let me now turn to the Socialists. Can the
Socialists ignore the problem arising out of the social order ? The Socialists of India
following their fellows in Europe are seeking to apply the economic interpretation of
history to the facts of India. They propound that man is an economic creature, that his
activities and aspirations are bound by economic facts, that property is the only source
of power. They, therefore, preach that political and social reforms are but gigantic
illusions and that economic reform by equalization of property must have precedence over
every other kind of reform. One may join issue on every one of these premises on which
rests the Socialists' case for economic reform having priority over every other kind of
reform. One may contend that economic motive is not the only motive by which man is
actuated. That economic power is the only kind of power no student of human society can
accept. That the social status of an individual by itself often becomes a source of power
and authority is made clear by the sway which the Mahatmos have held over the common man.
Why do millionaires in India obey penniless Sadhus and Fakirs ? Why do millions of paupers
in India sell their trifling trinkets which constitute their only wealth and go to Benares
and Mecca ? That, religion is the source of power is illustrated by the history of India
where the priest holds a sway over the common man often greater than the magistrate and
where everything, even such things as strikes and elections, so easily take a religious
turn and can so easily be given a religious twist. Take the case of the Plebians of Rome
as a further illustration of the power of religion over man. It throws great light on this
point. The Plebs had fought for a share in the supreme executive under the Roman Republic
and had secured the appointment of a Plebian Consul elected by a separate electorate
constituted by the Commitia Centuriata, which
was an assembly of Piebians. They wanted a Consul of their own because they felt that the
Patrician Consuls used to discriminate against the Plebians in carrying on the
administration. They had apparently obtained a great gain because under the Republican
Constitution of Rome one Consul had the power of vetoing an act of the other Consul. But
did they in fact gain anything ? The answer to this question must be in the negative. The
Plebians never could get a Plebian Consul who could be said to be a strong man and who
could act independently of the Patrician Consul. In the ordinary course of things the
Plebians should have got a strong Plebian Consul in view of the fact that his election was
to be by a separate electorate of Plebians. The question is why did they fail in getting a
strong Plebian to officiate as their Consul? The answer to this question reveals the
dominion which religion exercises over the minds of men. It was an accepted creed of the
whole Roman populus that no official could
enter upon the duties of his office unless the Oracle of Delphi declared that he was
acceptable to the Goddess. The priests who were in charge of the temple of the Goddess of
Delphi were all Patricians. Whenever therefore the Plebians elected a Consul who was known
to be a strong party man opposed to the Patricians or " communal " to use the
term that is current in India, the Oracle invariably declared that he was not acceptable
to the Goddess. This is how the Plebians were cheated out of their rights. But what is
worthy of note is that the Plebians permitted themselves to be thus cheated because they
too like the Patricians, held firmly the belief that the approval of the Goddess was a
condition precedent to the taking charge by an official of his duties and that election by
the people was not enough. If the Plebians had contended that election was enough and that
the approval by the Goddess was not necessary they would have derived the fullest benefit
from the political right which they had obtained. But they did not. They agreed to elect
another, less suitable to themselves but more suitable to the Goddess which in fact meant
more amenable to the Patricians. Rather than give up religion, the Plebians give up
material gain for which they had fought so hard. Does this not show that religion can be a
source of power as great as money if not greater ? The fallacy of the Socialists lies in
supposing that because in the present stage of European Society property as a source of
power is predominant, that the same is true of India or that the same was true of Europe
in the past. Religion, social status and property are all sources of power and authority,
which one man has, to control the liberty of another. One is predominant at one stage; the
other is predominant at another stage. That is the only difference. If liberty is the
ideal, if liberty means the destruction of the dominion which one man holds over another
then obviously it cannot be insisted upon that economic reform must be the one kind of
reform worthy of pursuit. If the source of power and dominion is at any given time or in
any given society social and religious then social reform and religious reform must be
accepted as the necessary sort of reform.
One can thus attack the doctrine of Economic
Interpretation of History adopted by the Socialists of India. But I recognize that
economic interpretation of history is not necessary for the validity of the Socialist
contention that equalization of property is the only real reform and that it must precede
everything else. However, what I like to ask the Socialists is this : Can you have
economic reform without first bringing about a reform of the social order ? The Socialists
of India do not seem to have considered this question. I do not wish to do them an
injustice. I give below a quotation from a letter which a prominent Socialist wrote a few
days ago to a friend of mine in which he said, " I do not believe that we can build
up a free society in India so long as there is a trace of this ill-treatment and
suppression of one class by another. Believing as I do in a socialist ideal, inevitably I
believe in perfect equality in the treatment of various classes and groups. I think that
Socialism offers the only true remedy for this as well as other problems." Now the
question that I like to ask is : Is it enough for a Socialist to say, " I believe in
perfect equality in the treatment of the various classes ? " To say that such a
belief is enough is to disclose a complete lack of understanding of what is involved in
Socialism. If Socialism is a practical programme and is not merely an ideal, distant and
far off, the question for a Socialist is not whether he believes in equality. The question
for him is whether he minds one class
ill-treating and suppressing another class as a matter of system, as a matter of principle
and thus allow tyranny and oppression to continue to divide one class from another. Let me
analyse the factors that are involved in the realization of Socialism in order to explain
fully my point. Now it is obvious that the economic reform contemplated by the Socialists
cannot come about unless there is a revolution resulting in the seizure of power. That
seizure of power must be by a proletariat. The first question I ask is : Will the
proletariat of India combine to bring about this revolution ? What will move men to such
an action ? It seems to me that other things being equal the only thing that will move one
man to take such an action is the feeling that other man with whom he is acting are
actuated by feeling of equality and fraternity and above all of justice. Men will not join
in a revolution for the equalization of property unless they know that after the
revolution is achieved they will be treated equally and that there will be no
discrimination of caste and creed. The assurance of a socialist leading the revolution
that he does not believe in caste, I am sure, will not suffice. The assurance must be the
assurance proceeding from much deeper foundation, namely, the mental attitude of the
compatriots towards one another in their spirit of personal equality and fraternity. Can
it be said that the proletariat of India, poor as it is, recognise no distinctions except
that of the rich and the poor ? Can it be said that the poor in India recognize no such
distinctions of caste or creed, high or low ? If the fact is that they do, what unity of
front can be expected from such a proletariat in its action against the rich ? How can
there be a revolution if the proletariat cannot present a united front? Suppose for the
sake of argument that by some freak of fortune a revolution does take place and the
Socialists come in power, will they not have to deal with the problems created by the
particular social order prevalent in India ? I can't see how a Socialist State in India
can function for a second without having to grapple with the problems created by the
prejudices which make Indian people observe the distinctions of high and low, clean and
unclean. If Socialists are not to be content with the mouthing of fine phrases, if the
Socialists wish to make Socialism a definite reality then they must recognize that the
problem of social reform is fundamental and that for them there is no escape from it.
That, the social order prevalent in India is a matter which a Socialist must deal with,
that unless he does so he cannot achieve his revolution and that if he does achieve it as
a result of good fortune he will have to grapple with it if he wishes to realize his
ideal, is a proposition which in my opinion is incontrovertible. He will be compelled to
take account of caste after revolution if he does not take account of it before
revolution. This is only another way of saying that, turn in any direction you like, caste
is the monster that crosses your path. You cannot have political reform, you cannot have
economic reform, unless you kill this monster.
IV
It is a pity that Caste even today has its
defenders. The defences are many. It is defended on the ground that the Caste System is
but another name for division of labour and if division of labour is a necessary feature
of every civilized society then it is argued that there is nothing wrong in the Caste
System. Now the first thing is to be urged against this view is that Caste System is not
merely division of labour. It is also a division of
labourers. Civilized society undoubtedly needs division of labour. But in no civilized
society is division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into
watertight compartments. Caste System is not merely a division of labourers which is quite
different from division of labour—it is an hierarchy in which the divisions of
labourers are graded one above the other. In no other country is the division of labour
accompanied by this gradation of labourers. There is also a third point of criticism
against this view of the Caste System. This division of labour is not spontaneous; it is
not based on natural aptitudes. Social and individual efficiency requires us to develop
the capacity of an individual to the point of competency to choose and to make his own
career. This principle is violated in the Caste System in so far as it involves an attempt
to appoint tasks to individuals in advance, selected not on the basis of trained original
capacities, but on that of the social status of the parents. Looked at from another point
of view this stratification of occupations which is the result of the Caste System is
positively pernicious. Industry is never static. It undergoes rapid and abrupt changes.
With such changes an individual must be free to change his occupation. Without such
freedom to adjust himself to changing circumstances it would be impossible for him to gain
his livelihood. Now the Caste System will not allow Hindus to take to occupations where
they are wanted if they do not belong to them by heredity. If a Hindu is seen to starve
rather than take to new occupations not assigned to his Caste, the reason is to be found
in the Caste System. By not permitting readjustment of occupations, caste becomes a direct
cause of much of the unemployment we see in the country. As a form of division of labour
the Caste system suffers from another serious defect. The division of labour brought about
by the Caste System is not a division based on choice. Individual sentiment, individual
preference has no place in it. It is based on the dogma of predestination. Considerations
of social efficiency would compel us to recognize that the greatest evil in the industrial
system is not: so much poverty and the suffering that it involves as the fact that so many
persons have callings which make no appeal to those who are engaged in them. Such callings
constantly provoke one to aversion, ill will and the desire to evade. There are many
occupations in India which on account of the fact that they are regarded as degraded by
the Hindus provoke those who are engaged in them to aversion. There is a constant desire
to evade and escape from such occupations which arises solely because of the blighting
effect which they produce upon those who follow them owing to the slight and stigma cast
upon them by the Hindu religion. What efficiency can there be in a system under which
neither men's hearts nor their minds are in their work? As an economic organization Caste
is therefore a harmful institution, inasmuch as, it involves the subordination of man's
natural powers and inclinations to the exigencies of social rules
V
Some have dug a biological trench in defence of
the Caste System. It is said that the object of Caste was to preserve purity of race and
purity of blood. Now ethnologists are of opinion that men of pure race exist nowhere and
that there has been a mixture of all races in all parts of the world. Especially is this
the case with the people of India. Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar in his paper on Foreign Elements in the Hindu Population has stated
that " There is hardly a class, or Caste in India which has not a foreign strain in
it. There is an admixture of alien blood not only among the warrior classes—the
Rajputs and the Marathas—but also among the Brahmins who are under the happy delusion
that they are free from all foreign elements." The Caste system cannot be said to
have grown as a means of preventing the admixture of races or as a means of maintaining
purity of blood. As a matter of fact Caste system came into being long after the different
races of India had commingled in blood and culture. To hold that distinctions of Castes or
really distinctions of race and to treat different Castes as though they were so many
different races is a gross perversion of facts. What racial affinity is there between the
Brahmin of the Punjab and the Brahmin of Madras ? What racial affinity is there between
the untouchable of Bengal and the untouchable of Madras ? What racial difference is there
between the Brahmin of the Punjab and the Chamar of the Punjab ? What racial difference is
there between the Brahmin of Madras and the Pariah of Madras ? The Brahmin of the Punjab
is racially of the same stock as the Chamar of the Punjab and the Brahmin of Madras is of
the same race as the Pariah of Madras. Caste system does not demarcate racial division.
Caste system is a social division of people of the same race. Assuming it, however, to be
a case of racial divisions one may ask : What harm could there be if a mixture of races
and of blood was permitted to take place in India by intermarriages between different
Castes ? Men are no doubt divided from animals by so deep a distinction that science
recognizes men and animals as two distinct species. But even scientists who believe in
purity of races do not assert that the different races constitute different species of
men. They are only varieties of one and the same species. As such they can interbreed and
produce an offspring which is capable of breeding and which is not sterile. An immense lot
of nonsense is talked about heredity and eugenics in defence of the Caste System. Few
would object to the Caste System if it was in accord with the basic principle of eugenics
because few can object to the improvement of the race by judicious noting. But one fails
to understand how the Caste System secures judicious mating. Caste System is a negative
thing. It merely prohibits persons belonging to different Castes from intermarrying. It is
not a positive method of selecting which two among a given Caste should marry. If Caste is
eugenic in origin then the origin of sub-Castes must also be eugenic. But can any one
seriously maintain that the origin of sub-Castes is eugenic ? I think it would be absurd
to contend for such a proposition and for a very obvious reason. If Caste means race then
differences of sub-Castes cannot mean differences of race because sub-Castes become ex hypothesia sub-divisions of one and the same
race. Consequently the bar against intermarrying and interdining between sub-Castes cannot
be for the purpose of maintaining purity of race or of blood. If sub-Castes cannot be
eugenic in origin there cannot be any substance in the contention that Caste is eugenic in
origin. Again if Caste is eugenic in origin one can understand the bar against
intermarriage. But what is the purpose of the interdict placed on interdining between
Castes and sub-Castes alike ? Interdining cannot infect blood and therefore cannot be the
cause either of the improvement or of deterioration of the race. This shows that Caste has
no scientific origin and that those who are attempting to give it an eugenic basis are
trying to support by science what is grossly unscientific. Even today eugenics cannot
become a practical possibility unless we have definite knowledge regarding the laws of
heredity. Prof. Bateson in his Mendel's Principles
of Heredity says, " There is nothing in the descent of the higher mental
qualities to suggest that they follow any single system of transmission. It is likely that
both they and the more marked developments of physical powers result rather from the
coincidence of numerous factors than from the possession of any one genetic element."
To argue that the Caste System was eugenic in its conception is to attribute to the
forefathers of present-day Hindus a knowledge of heredity which even the modern scientists
do not possess. A tree should be judged by the fruits it yields. If caste is eugenic what
sort of a race of men it should have produced ? Physically speaking the Hindus are a C3
people. They are a race of Pygmies and dwarfs stunted in stature and wanting in stamina.
It is a nation 9/1Oths of which is declared to be unfit for military service. This shows
that the Caste System does not embody the eugenics of modem scientists. It is a social
system which embodies the arrogance and selfishness of a perverse section of the Hindus
who were superior enough in social status to set it in fashion and who had authority to
force it on their inferiors.
VI
Caste does not result in economic efficiency.
Caste cannot and has not improved the race. Caste has however done one thing. It has
completely disorganized and demoralized the Hindus.
The first and foremost thing that must be
recognized is that Hindu Society is a myth. The name Hindu is itself a foreign name. It
was given by the Mohammedans to the natives for the purpose of distinguishing themselves.
It does not occur in any Sanskrit work prior to the Mohammedan invasion. They did not feel
the necessity of a common name because they had no conception of their having constituted
a community. Hindu society as such does not exist. It is only a collection of castes. Each
caste is conscious of its existence. Its survival is the be all and end all of its
existence. Castes do not even form a federation. A caste has no feeling that it is
affiliated to other castes except when there is a Hindu-Muslim riot. On all other
occasions each caste endeavours to segregate itself and to distinguish itself from other
castes. Each caste not only dines among itself and marries among itself but each caste
prescribes its own distinctive dress. What other explanation can there be of the
innumerable styles of dress worn by the men and women of India which so amuse the tourists
? Indeed the ideal Hindu must be like a rat living in his own hole refusing to have any
contact with others. There is an utter lack among the Hindus of what the sociologists call
" consciousness of kind ". There is no Hindu consciousness of kind. In every
Hindu the consciousness that exists is the consciousness of his caste. That is the reason
why the Hindus cannot be said to form a society or a nation. There are however many
Indians whose patriotism does not permit them to admit that Indians are not a nation, that
they are only an amorphous mass of people. They have insisted that underlying the apparent
diversity there is a fundamental unity which marks the life of the Hindus in as much as
there is a similarity of habits and customs, beliefs and thoughts which obtain all over
the continent of India. Similarity in habits and customs, beliefs and thoughts there is.
But one cannot accept the conclusion that therefore, the Hindus constitute a society. To
do so is to misunderstand the essentials which go to make up a society. Men do not become
a society by living in physical proximity any more than a man ceases to be a member of his
society by living so many miles away from other men. Secondly similarity in habits and
customs, beliefs and thoughts is not enough to constitute men into society. Things may be
passed physically from one to another like bricks. In the same way habits and customs,
beliefs and thoughts of one group may be taken over by another group and there may thus
appear a similarity between the two. Culture spreads by diffusion and that is why one
finds similarity between various primitive tribes in the matter of their habits and
customs, beliefs and thoughts, although they do not live in proximity. But no one could
say that because there was this similarity the primitive tribes constituted one society.
This is because similarly in certain things is not enough to constitute a society. Men constitute a society because they have things
which they possess in common. To have similar thing is totally different from possessing
things in common. And the only way by which men can come to possess things in common with
one another is by being in communication with one another. This is merely another way of
saying that Society continues to exist by communication indeed in communication. To make
it concrete, it is not enough if men act in a way which agrees with the acts of others.
Parallel activity, even if similar, is not sufficient to bind men into a society. This is
proved by the fact that the festivals observed by the different Castes amongst the Hindus
are the same. Yet these parallel performances of similar festivals by the different castes
have not bound them into one integral whole. For that purpose what is necessary is for a
man to share and participate in a common activity so that the same emotions are aroused in
him that animate the others. Making the individual a sharer or partner in the associated
activity so that he feels its success as his success, its failure as his failure is the
real thing that binds men and makes a society of them. The Caste System prevents common
activity and by preventing common activity it has prevented the Hindus from becoming a
society with a unified life and a consciousness of its own being.
VII
The Hindus often complain of the isolation and
exclusiveness of a gang or a clique and blame them for anti-social spirit. But they
conveniently forget that this anti-social spirit is the worst feature of their own Caste
System. One caste enjoys singing a hymn of hate against another caste as much as the
Germans did in singing their hymn of hate against the English during the last war. The
literature of the Hindus is full of caste genealogies in which an attempt is made to give
a noble origin to one caste and an ignoble origin to other castes. The Sahyadrikhand is a notorious instance of this class
of literature. This anti-social spirit is not confined to caste alone. It has gone deeper
and has poisoned the mutual relations of the sub-castes as well. In my province the Golak
Brahmins, Deorukha Brahmins, Karada Brahmins, Palshe Brahmins and Chitpavan Brahmins, all
claim to be sub-divisions of the Brahmin Caste. But the anti-social spirit that prevails
between them is quite as marked and quite as virulent as the anti-social spirit that
prevails between them and other non-Brahmin castes. There is nothing strange in this. An
anti-social spirit is found wherever one group has " interests of its own "
which shut it out from full interaction with other groups, so that its prevailing purpose
is protection of what it has got. This anti-social spirit, this spirit of protecting its
own interests is as much a marked feature of the different castes in their isolation from
one another as it is of nations in their isolation. The Brahmin's primary concern is to
protect " his interest " against those of the non-Brahmins and the non-Brahmin's
primary concern is to protect their interests against those of the Brahmins. The Hindus,
therefore, are not merely an assortment of castes but they are so many warring groups each
living for itself and for its selfish ideal. There is another feature of caste which is
deplorable. The ancestors of the present-day English fought on one side or the other in
the wars of the Roses and the Cromwellian War. But the decendents of those who fought on
the one side do not bear any animosity— any grudge against the descendents of those
who fought on the other side. The feud is forgotten. But the present-day non-Brahmins
cannot forgive the present-day Brahmins for the insult their ancestors gave to Shivaji.
The present-day Kayasthas will not forgive the present-day Brahmins for the infamy cast
upon their forefathers by the forefathers of the latter. To what is this difference due ?
Obviously to the Caste System. The existence of Caste and Caste Consciousness has served
to keep the memory of past feuds between castes green and has prevented solidarity.
VIII
The recent discussion about the excluded and
partially included areas has served to draw attention to the position of what are called
the aboriginal tribes in India. They number about 13 millions if not more. Apart from the
questions whether their exclusion from the new Constitution is proper or improper, the
fact still remains that these aborigines have remained in their primitive uncivilized
State in a land which boasts of a civilization thousands of years old. Not only are they
not civilized but some of them follow pursuits which have led to their being classified as
criminals. Thirteen millions of people living in the midst of civilization are still in a
savage state and are leading the life of hereditary criminals! ! But the Hindus have never
felt ashamed of it. This is a phenomenon which in my view is quite unparalleled. What is
the cause of this shameful state of affairs ? Why has no attempt been made to civilize
these aborigines and to lead them to take to a more honourable way of making a living ?
The Hindus will probably seek to account for this savage state of the aborigines by
attributing to them congenital stupidity. They will probably not admit that the aborigines
have remained savages because they had made no effort to civilize them, to give them
medical aid, to reform them, to make them good citizens. But supposing a Hindu wished to
do what the Christian missionary is doing for these aborigines, could he have done it ? I
submit not. Civilizing the aborigines means adopting them as your own, living in their
midst, and cultivating fellow-feeling, in short loving them. How is it possible for a
Hindu to do this ? His whole life is one anxious effort to preserve his caste. Caste is
his precious possession which he must save at any cost. He cannot consent to lose it by
establishing contact with the aborigines the remnants of the hateful Anary as of the Vedic days. Not that a Hindu could not be taught the sense of duty to fallen humanity, but
the trouble is that no amount of sense of duty can enable him to overcome his duty to
preserve his caste. Caste is, therefore, the real explanation as to why the Hindu has let
the savage remain a savage in the midst of his civilization without blushing or without
feeling any sense of remorse or repentance. The Hindu has not realized that these
aborigines are a source of potential danger. If these savages remain savages they may not
do any harm to the Hindus. But if they are reclaimed by non-Hindus and converted to their
faiths they will swell the ranks of the enemies of the Hindus. If this happens the Hindu
will have to thank himself and his Caste System.
IX
Not only has the Hindu made no effort for the
humanitarian cause of civilizing the savages but the higher-caste Hindus have deliberately
prevented the lower castes who are within the pale of Hinduism from rising to the cultural
level of the higher castes. 1. will give two instances, one of the Sonars and the other of
the Pathare Prabhus. Both are communities quite well-known in Maharashtra. Like the rest
of the communities desiring to raise their status these two communities were at one time
endeavouring to adopt some of the ways and habits of the Brahmins. The Sonars were styling
themselves Daivadnya Brahmins and were wearing their " dhotis " with folds on
and using the word namaskar for salutation.
Both, the folded way of wearing the " dhoti " and the namaskar were special to the Brahmins. The Brahmins
did not like this imitation and this attempt by Sonars to pass off as Brahmins. Under the
authority of the Peshwas the Brahmins successfully put down this attempt on the part. of
the Sonars to adopt the ways of the Brahmins. They even got the President of the Councils
of the East India Company's settlement in Bombay to issue a. prohibitory order against the
Sonars residing in Bombay. At one time the Pathare Prabhus had widow-remarriage as a
custom of their caste. This custom of widow-remarriage was later on looked upon as amark
of social inferiority by some members of the caste especially because it was contrary to
the custom prevalent among the Brahmins. With the object of raising the status of their
community some Pathare Prabhus sought to stop this practice of widow-remarriage that was
prevalent in their caste. The community was divided into two camps, one for and the other
against the innovation. The Peshwas took the side of those in favour of widow-remarriage
and thus virtually prohibited the Pathare Prabhus from following the ways of the Brahmins.
The Hindus criticise the Mohammedans for having spread their religion by the use of the
sword. They also ridicule Christianity on the score of the inquisition. But really
speaking who is better and more worthy of our respect—the Mohammedans and Christians
who attempted to thrust down the throats of unwilling persons what they regarded as
necessary for their salvation or the Hindu who would not spread the light, who would
endeavour to keep others in darkness, who would not consent to share his intellectual and
social inheritance with those who are ready and willing to make it a part of their own
make-up ? I have no hesitation in saying that if the Mohammedan has been cruel the Hindu
has been mean and meanness is worse than cruelty.
X
Whether the Hindu religion was or was not a
missionary religion has been a controversial issue. Some hold the view that it was never a
missionary religion. Others hold that it was. That the Hindu religion was once a
missionary religion must be admitted. It could not have spread over the face of India, if
it was not a missionary religion. That today it is not a missionary religion is also a
fact which must be accepted. The question therefore is not whether or not the Hindu
religion was a missionary religion. The real question is why did the Hindu religion cease
to be a missionary religion ? My answer is this. Hindu religion ceased to be a missionary
religion when the Caste System grew up among the Hindus. Caste is inconsistent with
conversion. Inculcation of beliefs and dogmas is not the only problem that is involved in
conversion. To find a place for the convert in the social life of the community is another
and a much more important problem that arises in connection with conversion. That problem
is where to place the convert, in what caste ? It is a problem which must baffle every
Hindu wishing to make aliens converts to his religion. Unlike the club the membership of a
caste is not open to all and sundry. The law of caste confines its membership to person
born in the caste. Castes are autonomous and there is no authority anywhere to compel a
caste to admit a new-comer to its social life. Hindu Society being a collection of castes
and each caste being a close corporation there is no place for a convert. Thus it is the
caste which has prevented the Hindus from expanding and from absorbing other religious
communities. So long as caste remain, Hindu religion cannot be made a missionary religion
and Shudhi will be both a folly and a futility.
XI
The reasons which have made Shudhi impossible for Hindus are also responsible
for making Sanghatan impossible. The idea
underlying Sanghalan is to remove from the mind
of the Hindu that timidity and cowardice which so painfully make him off from the
Mohammedan and the Sikh and which have led him to adopt the low ways of treachery and
cunning for protecting himself. The question naturally arises : From where does the Sikh
or the Mohammedan derive his strength which makes him brave and fearless ? I am sure it is
not due to relative superiority of physical strength, diet or drill. It is due to the
strength arising out of the feeling that all Sikhs will come to the rescue of a Sikh when
he is in danger and that all Mohammedans will rush to save a Muslim if he is attacked. The
Hindu can derive no such strength. He cannot feel assured that his fellows will come to
his help. Being one and fated to be alone he remains powerless, develops timidity and
cowardice and in a fight surrenders or runs away. The Sikh as well as the Muslim stands
fearless and gives battle because he knows that though one he will not be alone. The
presence of this belief in the one helps him to hold out and the absence of it in the
other makes him to give way. If you pursue this matter further and ask what is it that
enables the Sikh and the Mohammedan to feel so assured and why is the Hindu filled with
such despair in the matter of help and assistance you will find that the reasons for this
difference lie in the difference in their associated mode of living. The associated mode
of life practised by the Sikhs and the Mohammedans produces fellow-feeling. The associated
mode of life of the Hindus does not. Among Sikhs and Muslims there is a social cement
which makes them Bhais. Among Hindus there is no
such cement and one Hindu does not regard another Hindu as his Bhai. This explains why a Sikh says and feels that
one Sikh, or one Khalsa is equal to Sava Lakh
men. This explains why one Mohammedan is equal to a crowd of Hindus. This difference is
undoubtedly a difference due to caste. So long as caste remains, there will be no Sanghalan and so long as there is no Sanghatan the Hindu will remain weak and meek. The
Hindus claim to be a very tolerant people. In my opinion this is a mistake. On many
occasions they can be intolerant and if on some occasions they are tolerant that is
because they are too weak to oppose or too indifferent to oppose. This indifference of the
Hindus has become so much a part of their nature that a Hindu will quite meekly tolerate
an insult as well as a wrong. You see amongst them, to use the words of Morris, " The great reading down the little, the strong beating
down the weak, cruel men fearing not, kind men daring not and wise men caring not."
With the Hindu Gods all forbearing, it is not difficult to imagine the pitiable condition
of the wronged and the oppressed among the Hindus. Indifferentism is the worst kind of
disease that can infect a people. Why is the Hindu so indifferent? In my opinion this
indifferentism is the result of Caste System which has made Sanghatan and co-operation even for a good cause
impossible.
XII
The assertion by the individual of his own
opinions and beliefs, his own independence and interest as over against group standards,
group authority and group interests is the beginning of all reform. But whether the reform
will continue depends upon what scope the group affords for such individual assertion. If
the group is tolerant and fair-minded in dealing with such individuals they will continue
to assert and in the end succeed in converting their fellows. On the other hand if the
group is intolerant and does not bother about the means it adopts to stifle such
individuals they will perish and the reform will die out. Now a caste has an unquestioned
right to excommunicate any man who is guilty of breaking the rules of the caste and when
it is realized that excommunication involves a complete cesser of social intercourse it
will be agreed that as a form of punishment there is really little to choose between
excommunication and death. No wonder individual Hindus have not had the courage to assert
their independence by breaking the barriers of caste. It is true that man cannot get on
with his fellows. But it is also true that he cannot do without them. He would like to
have the society of his fellows on his terms. If be cannot get it on his terms then he
will be ready to have it on any terms even amounting to complete surrender. This is
because he cannot do without society. A caste is ever ready to take advantage of the
helplessness of a man and insist upon complete conformity to its code in letter and in
spirit. A caste can easily organize itself into a conspiracy to make the life of a
reformer a hell and if a conspiracy is a crime I do not understand why such a nefarious
act as an attempt to excommunicate a person for daring to act contrary to the rules of
caste should not be made an offence punishable in law. But as it is, even law gives each
caste an autonomy to regulate its membership and punish dissenters with excommunication.
Caste in the hands of the orthodox has been a powerful weapon for persecuting the reforms
and for killing all reform.
XIII
The effect of caste on the ethics of the Hindus
is simply deplorable. Caste has killed public spirit. Caste has destroyed the sense of
public charity. Caste has made public opinion impossible. A Hindu's public is his caste.
His responsibility is only to his caste. His loyalty is restricted only to his caste.
Virtue has become caste-ridden and morality has become, caste-bound. There is no sympathy
to the deserving. There is no appreciation of the meritorious. There is no charity to the
needy. Suffering as such calls for no response. There is charity but it begins with the
caste and ends with the caste. There is sympathy
but not for men of other caste. Would a Hindu acknowledge and follow the leadership of a
great and good man? The case of a Mahatma apart, the answer must be that he will follow a
leader if he is a man of his caste. A Brahmin will follow a leader only if he is a
Brahmin, a Kayastha if he is a Kayastha and so on. The capacity to appreciate merits in a
man apart from his caste does not exist in a Hindu. There is appreciation of virtue but
only when the man is a fellow caste-man. The whole morality is as bad as tribal morality.
My caste-man, right or wrong; my caste-man, good or bad. It is not a case of standing by
virtue and not standing by vice. It is a case of standing or not standing by the caste.
Have not Hindus committed treason against their country in the interests of their caste?
XIV
I would not be surprised if some of you have
grown weary listening to this tiresome tale of the sad effects which caste has produced.
There is nothing new in it. I will therefore turn to the constructive side of the problem.
What is your ideal society if you do not want caste is a question that is bound to be
asked of you. If you ask me, my ideal would be a society based on Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. And why not ? What objection can there
be to Fraternity ? I cannot imagine any. An ideal society should be mobile, should be full
of channels for conveying a change taking place in one part to other parts. In an ideal
society there should be many interests consciously communicated and shared. There should
be varied and free points of contact with other modes of association. In other words there
must be social endosmosis. This is fraternity, which is only another name for democracy.
Democracy is not merely a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living,
of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and
reverence towards fellowmen. Any objection to Liberty ? Few object to liberty in the sense
of a right to free movement, in the sense of a right to life and limb. There is no
objection to liberty in the sense of a right to property, tools and materials as being
necessary for earning a living to keep the body in due state of health. Why not allow
liberty to benefit by an effective and competent use of a person's powers ? The supporters
of caste who would allow liberty in the sense of a right to life, limb and property, would
not readily consent to liberty in this sense, inasmuch as it involves liberty to choose
one's profession. But to object to this kind of liberty is to perpetuate slavery. For
slavery does not merely mean a legalized form of subjection. It means a state of society
in which some men are forced to accept from other the purposes which control their
conduct. This condition obtains even where there is no slavery in the legal sense. It is
found where, as in the Caste System, some persons are compelled to carry on certain
prescribed callings which are not of their choice. Any objection to equality ? This has
obviously been the most contentious part of the slogan of the French Revolution. The
objections to equality may be sound and one may have to admit that all men are not equal.
But what of that ? Equality may be a fiction but nonetheless one must accept it as the
governing principle. A. man's power is dependent upon (1) physical heredity, (2) social
inheritance or endowment in the form of parental care, education, accumulation of
scientific knowledge, everything which enables him to be more efficient than the savage,
and finally, (3) on his own efforts. In all these three respects men are undoubtedly
unequal. But the question is, shall we treat them as unequal because they are unequal ?
This is a question which the opponents of equality must answer. From the standpoint of the
individualist it may be just to treat men unequally so far as their efforts are unequal.
It may be desirable to give as much incentive as possible to the full development of every
one's powers. But what would happen if men were treated unequally as they are, in the
first two respects ? It is obvious that those individuals also in whose favour there is
birth, education, family name, business connections and inherited wealth would be selected
in the race. But selection under such circumstances would not be a selection of the able.
It would be the selection of the privileged. The reason therefore, which forces that in
the third respect we should treat men unequally demands that in the first two respects we
should treat men as equally as possible. On the other hand it can be urged that if it is
good for the social body to get the most out of its members, it can get most out of them
only by making them equal as far as possible at the very start of the race. That is one
reason why we cannot escape equality. But there is another reason why we must accept
equality. A Statesman is concerned with vast numbers of people. He has neither the time
nor the knowledge to draw fine distinctions and to treat each equitably i.e. according to need or according to capacity.
However desirable or reasonable an equitable treatment of men may be, humanity is not
capable of assortment and classification. The statesman, therefore, must follow some rough
and ready rule and that rough and ready rule is to treat all men alike not because they
are alike but because classification and assortment is impossible. The doctrine of
equality is glaringly fallacious but taking all in all it is the only way a statesman can
proceed in politics which is a severely practical affair and which demands a severely
practical test.
XV
But there is a set of reformers who hold out a
different ideal. They go by the name of the Arya Samajists and their ideal of social
organization is what is called Chaturvarnya or the division of society into four classes
instead of the four thousand castes that we have in India. To make it more attractive and
to disarm opposition the protagonists of Chaturvarnya take great care to point out that
their Chaturvarnya is based not on birth but on guna
(worth). At the outset, I must confess that notwithstanding the worth-basis of this
Chaturvarnya, it is an ideal to which I cannot reconcile myself. In the first place, if
under the Chaturvarnya of the Arya Samajists an individual is to take his place in the
Hindu Society according to his worth. I do not understand why the Arya Samajists insist
upon labelling men as Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. A learned man would be
honoured without his being labelled a Brahmin. A soldier would be respected without his
being designated a Kshatriya. If European society honours its soldiers and its servants
without giving them permanent labels, why should Hindu Society find it difficult to do so
is a question, which Arya Samajists have not cared to consider. There is another objection
to the continuance of these labels. All reform consists in a change in the notions,
sentiment and mental attitudes of the people towards men and things. It is common
experience that certain names become associated with certain notions and sentiments, which
determine a person's attitude towards men and things. The names, Brahmin, Kshatriya,
Vaishya and Shudra, are names which are associated with a definite and fixed notion in the
mind of every Hindu. That notion is that of a hierarchy based on birth. So long as these
names continue, Hindus will continue to think of the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and
Shudra as hierarchical divisions of high and low, based on birth, and act accordingly. The
Hindu must be made to unlearn all this. But how can this happen if the old labels remain
and continue to recall to his mind old notions. If new notions are to be inculcated in the
minds of people it is necessary to give them new names. To continue the old name is to
make the reform futile. To allow this Chaturvarnya, based on worth to be designated by
such stinking labels of Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, indicative of social
divisions based on birth, is a snare.
XVI
To me this Chaturvarnya with its old labels is
utterly repellent and my whole being rebels against it. But I do not wish to rest my
objection to Chaturvarnya on mere grounds of sentiments. There are more solid grounds on
which I rely for my opposition to it. A close examination of this ideal has convinced me
that as a system of social organization, Chaturvarnya is impracticable, harmful and has
turned out to be a miserable failure. From a practical point of view, the system of
Chaturvarnya raises several difficulties which its protagonists do not seem to have taken
into account. The principle underlying caste is fundamentally different from the principle
underlying Varna. Not only are they
fundamentally different but they are also fundamentally opposed. The former is based on
worth . How are you going to compel people who have acquired a higher status based on
birth without reference to their worth to vacate that status ? How are you going to compel
people to recognize the status due to a man in accordance with his worth, who is occupying
a lower status based on his birth ? For this you must first break up the caste System, in
order to be able to establish the Varna system.
How are you going to reduce the four thousand castes, based oil birth, to the four Varnas, based on worth ? This is the first
difficulty which the protagonists of the Chaturvarnya must grapple with. There is a second
difficulty which the protagonists of Chaturvarnya must grapple with, if they wish to make
the establishment of Chaturvarnya a success.
Chaturvarnya pre-supposes that you can classify
people into four definite classes. Is this possible ? In this respect, the ideal of
Chaturvarnya has, as you will see, a close affinity to the Platonic ideal. To Plato, men
fell by nature into three classes. In some individuals, he believed mere appetites
dominated. He assigned them to the labouring and trading classes. Others revealed to him
that over and above appetites, they have a courageous disposition. He classed them as
defenders in war and guardians of internal peace. Others showed a capacity to grasp the
universal reason underlying things. He made them the law-givers of the people. The
criticism to which Plato's Republic is subject, is also the criticism which must apply to
the system of Chaturvarnya, in so far as it proceeds upon the possibility of an accurate
classification of men into four distinct classes. The chief criticism against Plato is
that his idea of lumping of individuals into a few sharply marked-off classes is a very
superficial view of man and his powers. Plato had no perception of the uniqueness of every
individual, of his incommensurability with others, of each individual forming a class of
his own. He had no recognition of the infinite diversity of active tendencies and
combination of tendencies of which an individual is capable. To him, there were types of
faculties or powers in the individual constitution. All this is demonstrably wrong. Modem
science has shown that lumping together of individuals into a few sharply marked-off
classes is a superficial view of man not worthy of serious consideration. Consequently,
the utilization of the qualities of individuals is incompatible with their stratification
by classes, since the qualities of individuals are so variable. Chaturvarnya must fail for
the very reason for which Plato's Republic must fail, namely that it is not possible to
pigeon men into holes, according as he belongs to one class or the other. That it is
impossible to accurately classify people into four definite classes is proved by the fact
that the original four classes have now become four thousand castes.
There is a third difficulty in the way of the
establishment of the system of Chaturvarnya. How are you going to maintain the system of
Chaturvarnya, supposing it was established ? One important requirement for the successful
working of Chaturvarnya is the maintenance of the penal system which could maintain it by
its sanction. The system of Chaturvarnya must perpetually face the problem of the
transgressor. Unless there is a penalty attached to the act of transgression, men will not
keep to their respective classes. The whole system will break down, being contrary to
human nature. Chaturvarnya cannot subsist by its own inherent goodness. It must be
enforced by law.
That, without penal sanction the ideal of
Chaturvarnya cannot be realized, is proved by the story in the Ramayana of Rama killing
Shambuka. Some people seem to blame Rama because he wantonly and without reason killed
Shambuka. But to blame Rama for killing Shambuka is to misunderstand the whole situation.
Ram Raj was a Raj based on Chaturvarnya. As a king, Rama was bound to maintain
Chaturvarnya. It was his duty therefore to kill Shambuka, the Shudra, who had transgressed
his class and wanted to be a Brahmin. This is the reason why Rama killed Shambuka. But
this also shows that penal sanction is necessary for the maintenance of Chaturvarnya. Not
only penal sanction is necessary, but penalty of death is necessary. That is why Rama did
not inflict on Shambuka a lesser punishment. That is why Manu-Smriti prescribes such heavy
sentences as cutting off the tongue or pouring of molten lead in the ears of the Shudra,
who recites or hears the Veda. The supporters
of Chaturvarnya must give an assurance that they could successfully classify men and they
could induce modern society in the twentieth century to reforge the penal sanctions of
Manu-Smriti.
The protagonists of Chaturvarnya do not seem to
have considered what is to happen to women in their system. Are they also to be divided
into four classes, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra? Or are they to be allowed to
take the status of their husbands. If the status of the woman is to be the consequence of
marriage what becomes of the underlying principle of Chaturvarnya, namely, that the status
of a person should be based upon the worth of that person ? If they are to be classified
according to their worth is their classification to be nominal or real ? If it is to be
nominal then it is useless and then the protagonists of Chaturvarnya must admit that their
system does not apply to women. If it is real, are the protagonists of Chaturvarnya
prepared to follow the logical consequences of applying it to women ? They must be
prepared to have women priests and women soldiers. Hindu society has grown accustomed to
women teachers and women barristers. It may grow accustomed to women brewers and women
butchers. But he would be a bold person, who would say that it will allow women priests
and women soldiers. But that will be the logical outcome of applying Chaturvarnya to
women. Given these difficulties, I think no one except a congenital idiot could hope and
believe in a successful regeneration of the Chaturvarnya.
XVII
Assuming that Chaturvarnya is practicable, I
contend that it is the most vicious system. That the Brahmins should cultivate knowledge,
that the Kshatriya should bear arms, that the Vaishya. should trade and that the Shudra
should serve sounds as though it was a system of division of labour. Whether the theory
was intended to state that the Shudra need not
or that whether it was intended to lay down that he must
not, is an interesting question. The defenders of Chaturvarnya give it the first
meaning. They say, why should the Shudra need trouble to acquire wealth, when the three Vamas are there to support him ? Why need the
Shudra bother to take to education, when there is the Brahmin to whom he can go when the
occasion for reading or writing arises ? Why need the Shudra worry to arm himself because
there is the Kshatriya to protect him ? The theory of Chaturvarnya, understood in this
sense, may be said to look upon the Shudra as the ward and the three Vamas as his guardians. Thus interpreted, it is a
simple, elevating and alluring theory. Assuming this to be the correct view of the
underlying conception of Chaturvarnya, it seems to me that the system is neither
fool-proof nor knave-proof. What is to happen, if the Brahmins, Vaishyas and Kshatriyas
fail to pursue knowledge, to engage in economic enterprise and to be efficient soldiers
which are their respective functions ? Contrary-wise, suppose that they discharge their
functions but flout their duty to the Shudra or to one another, what is to happen to the
Shudra if the three classes refuse to support him on fair terms or combine to keep him
down ? Who is to safeguard the interests of the Shudra or for the matter of that of the
Vaishya and Kshatriya when the person, who is trying to take advantage of his ignorance is
the Brahmin? Who is to defend the liberty of the Shudra and for the matter of that, of the
Brahmin and the Vaishya when the person who is robbing him of it is the Kshatriya ?
Inter-dependence of one class on another class is inevitable. Even dependence of one class
upon another may sometimes become allowable. But why make one person depend upon another
in the matter of his vital needs ? Education everyone must have. Means of defence everyone
must have. These are the paramount requirements of every man for his self-preservation.
How can the fact that his neighbour is educated and armed help a man who is uneducated and
disarmed. The whole theory is absurd. These are the questions, which the defenders of
Chaturvarnya do not seem to be troubled about. But they are very pertinent questions.
Assuming their conception of Chaturvarnya that the relationship between the different
classes is that of ward and guardian is the real conception underlying Chaturvarnya, it
must be admitted that it makes no provision to safeguard the interests of the ward from
the misdeeds of the guardian. Whether the relationship of guardian and ward was the real
underlying conception, on which Chaturvarnya was based, there is no doubt that in practice
the relation was that of master and servants. The three classes, Brahmins, Kshatriyas and
Vaishyas although not very happy in their mutual relationship managed to work by
compromise. The Brahmin flattered the Kshatriya and both let the Vaishya live in order to
be able to live upon him. But the three agreed to beat down the Shudra. He was not allowed
to acquire wealth lest he should be independent of the three Varncus. He was prohibited from acquiring knowledge
lest he should keep a steady vigil regarding his interests. He was prohibited from bearing
arms lest he should have the means to rebel against their authority. That this is how the Shudras were treated by the Tryavarnikas
is evidenced by the Laws of Manu. There is no code of laws more infamous regarding social
rights than the Laws of Manu. Any instance from anywhere of social injustice must pale
before it. Why have the mass of people tolerated the social evils to which they have been
subjected? There have been social revolutions in other countries of the world. Why have
there not been social revolutions in India is a question which has incessantly troubled
me. There is only one answer, which I can give and it is that the lower classes of Hindus
have been completely disabled for direct action on account of this wretched system of
Chaturvarnya. They could not bear arms and without arms they could not rebel. They were
all ploughmen or rather condemned to be ploughmen and they never were allowed to convert
their ploughshare into swords. They had no bayonets and therefore everyone who chose could
and did sit upon them. On account of the Chaturvarnya, they could receive no education.
They could not think out or know the way to their salvation. They were condemned to be
lowly and not knowing the way of escape and not having the means of escape, they became
reconciled to eternal servitude, which they accepted as their inescapable fate. It is true
that even in Europe the strong has not shrunk from the exploitation, nay the spoliation of
the weak. But in Europe, the strong have never contrived to make the weak helpless against
exploitation so shamelessly as was the case in India among the Hindus. Social war has been
raging between the strong and the weak far more violently in Europe than it has ever been
in India. Yet, the weak in Europe has had in his freedom of military service his physical weapon, in suffering his political weapon and in education his moral weapon. These three weapons for emancipation
were never withheld by the strong from the weak in Europe. All these weapons were,
however, denied to the masses in India by Chaturvarnya. There cannot be a more degrading
system of social organization than the Chaturvarnya. It is the system which deadens,
paralyses and cripples the people from helpful activity. This is no exaggeration. History
bears ample evidence. There is only one period in Indian history which is a period of
freedom, greatness and glory. That is the period of the Mourya Empire. At all other times
the country suffered from defeat and darkness. But the Mourya period was a period when
Chaturvarnya was completely annihilated, when the Shudras, who constituted the mass of the
people, came into their own and became the rulers of the country. The period of defeat and
darkness is the period when Chaturvarnya flourished to the damnation of the greater part
of the people of the country.
XVIII
Chaturvarnya is not new. It is as old as the Vedas. That is one of the reasons why we are asked
by the Arya Samajists to consider its claims. Judging from the past as a system of social
organization, it has been tried and it has failed. How many times have the Brahmins
annihilated the seed of the Kshatriyas! How many times have the Kshatriyas annihilated the
Brahmins! The Mahabharata and the Puranas are full of incidents of the strife between the
Brahmins and the Kshatriyas. They even quarreled over such petty questions as to who
should salute first, as to who should give way first, the Brahmins or the Kshatriyas, when
the two met in the street. Not only was the Brahmin an eyesore to die Kshatriya and the
Kshatriya an eyesore to the Brahmin, it seems that the Kshatriyas had become tyrannical
and the masses, disarmed as they were under the system of Chaturvarnya, were praying
Almighty God for relief from their tyranny. The Bhagwat tells us very definitely that
Krishna had taken Avtar for one sacred purpose and that was to annihilate the Kshatriyas.
With these instances of rivalry and enmity between the different Vurnas before us, I do not understand how any one
can hold out Chaturvarnya as an ideal to be aimed at or as a pattern, on which the Hindu
Society should be remodelled.
XIX
I have dealt with those, who are without you
and whose hostility to your ideal is quite open. There appear to be others, who are
neither without you nor with you. I was hesitating whether I should deal with their point
of view. But on further consideration I have come to the conclusion that I must and that
for two reasons. Firstly, their attitude to the problem of caste is not merely an attitude
of neutrality, but is an attitude of aimed neutrality. Secondly, they probably represent a
considerable body of people. Of these, there is one set which finds nothing peculiar nor
odious in the Caste System of the Hindus. Such Hindus cite the case of Muslims, Sikhs and
Christians and find comfort in the fact that they too have castes amongst them. In
considering this question you must a.t the outset bear in mind that nowhere is human
society one single whole. It is always plural.
In the world of action, the individual is one limit and society the other. Between them
lie all sorts of associative arrangements of lesser and larger scope, families,
friendship, co-operative associations, business combines, political parties, bands of
thieves and robbers. These small groups are usually firmly welded together and are often
as exclusive as castes. They have a narrow and intensive code, which is often anti-social.
This is true of every society, in Europe as well as in Asia, The question to be asked in
determining whether a given society is an ideal society ; is not whether there are groups
in it, because groups exist in all societies. The. questions to be asked in determining
what is an ideal society are : How numerous and varied are the interests which are
consciously shared by the groups ? How full and free is the interplay with other forms of
associations ? Are the forces that separate groups and classes more numerous than the
forces that unite ? What social significance is attached to this group life ? Is its
exclusiveness a matter of custom and convenience or is it a matter of religion ? It is in
the light of these questions that one must decide whether caste among Non-Hindus is the
same as caste among Hindus. If we apply these considerations to castes among Mohammedans,
Sikhs and Christians on the one hand and to castes among Hindus on the other, you will
find that caste among Non-Hindus is fundamentally different from caste among Hindus.
First, the ties, which consciously make the Hindus hold together, are non-existent, while
among Non-Hindus there are many that hold them together. The strength of a society depends
upon the presence of points of contact, possibilities of interaction between different
groups which exist in it. These are what Carlyle calls " organic filaments " i.e. the elastic threads which help to bring the
disintegrating elements together and to reunite them. There is no integrating farce among
the Hindus to counteract the disintegration caused by caste. While among the Non-Hindus
there are plenty of these organic filaments which bind them together. Again it must be
borne in mind that although there are castes among Non-Hindus, as there are among Hindus,
caste has not the same social significance for Non-Hindus as it has for Hindus. Ask
Mohammedan or a Sikh, who he is? He tells you that he is a Mohammedan or a Sikh as the
case may be. He does not tell you his caste although he has one and you are satisfied with
his answer. When he tells you that he is a Muslim, you do not proceed to ask him whether
he is a Shiya or a Suni; Sheikh or Saiyad ; Khatik or Pinjari. When he tells you he is a
Sikh, you do not ask him whether he is Jat or Roda ; Mazbi or Ramdasi. But you are not
satisfied, if a person tells you that he is a Hindu. You feel bound to inquire into his
caste. Why ? Because so essential is caste in the case of a Hindu that without knowing it
you do not feel sure what sort of a being he is. That caste has not the same social
significance among Non-Hindus as it has among Hindus is clear if you take into
consideration the consequences which follow breach of caste. There may be castes among
Sikhs and Mohammedans but the Sikhs and the Mohammedans will not outcast a Sikh or a
Mohammedan if he broke his caste. Indeed, the very idea of excommunication is foreign to
the Sikhs and the Mohammedans. But with the Hindus the case is entirely different. He is
sure to be outcasted if he broke caste. This shows the difference in the social
significance of caste to Hindus and Non-Hindus. This is the second point of difference.
But there is also a third and a more important one. Caste among the non-Hindus has no
religious consecration; but among the Hindus most decidedly it has. Among the Non-Hindus,
caste is only a practice, not a sacred institution. They did not originate it. With them
it is only a survival. They do not regard caste as a religious dogma. Religion compels the
Hindus to treat isolation and segregation of castes as a virtue. Religion does not compel
the Non-Hindus to take the same attitude towards caste. If Hindus wish to break caste,
their religion will come in their way. But it will not be so in the case of Non-Hindus. It
is, therefore, a dangerous delusion to take comfort in the mere existence of caste among
Non-Hindus, without caring to know what place caste occupies in their life and whether
there are other " organic filaments ", which subordinate the feeling of caste to
the feeling of community. The sooner the Hindus are cured of this delusion the butter.
The other set denies that caste presents any
problem at all for the .Hindus
to consider. Such Hindus seek comfort in the
view that the Hindus have survived and take this as a proof of their fitness to survive.
This point of view is well expressed by Prof. S. Radhakrishnan in his Hindu view of life. Referring to Hinduism he
says, " The civilization itself has not, been a short-lived one. its historic records
date back for over four thousand years and even then it had reached a stage of
civilization which has continued its unbroken, though at times slow and static, course
until the present day. It has stood the stress and strain of more than four or five
millenniums of spiritual thought and experience. Though peoples of different races and
cultures have been pouring into India from the
dawn of History, Hinduism has been able to maintain its supremacy and even the
proselytising creeds backed by political power have not been able to coerce the large
majority of Hindus to their views. The Hindu culture possesses some vitality which seems
to be denied to some other more forceful current . It is no more necessary to dissect
Hinduism than to open a tree to see whether the sap still runs." The name of Prof.
Radhakrishnan is big enough to invest with profundity whatever he says and impress the
minds of his readers. But I must not hesitate to speak out my mind. For, I fear that his
statement may become the basis of a vicious argument that the fact of survival is proof of
fitness to survive. It seems to me that the question is. not whether a community lives or
dies ; the question is on what plane does it live. There are different modes of survival. But all are not equally
honourable. For an individual as well as for a society, there is a gulf between merely
living and living worthily. To fight in a battle and to live in glory is one mode. To beat
a retreat, to surrender and to live the life of a captive is. also a mode of survival. It
is useless for a Hindu to take comfort in the fact that he and his people have survived.
What he must consider is what is the quality of their survival. If he does that, I am sure
he will cease to take pride in the mere fact of survival. A Hindu's life has been a life
of continuous defeat and what appears to him to be life everlasting is not living
everlastingly but is really a life which is perishing everlastingly. It is a mode of
survival of which every right-minded Hindu, who is not afraid to own up the truth, will
feel ashamed.
XX
There is no doubt; in my opinion, that unless
you change your social order you can achieve little by way of progress. You cannot
mobilize the community
either for defence or for offence. You cannot build anything on the foundations of
caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you
will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole.
The only question that remains to be considered
is—How to bring about the reform of the Hindu
social order ? How to abolish caste ? This is a question of supreme importance. There
is a view that in the refarm of caste, the first step to take, is to abolish sub-castes.
This view is based upon the supposition that there is a greater similarity in manners and
status between sub-caste than there is between castes. I think, this is an erroneous
supposition. The Brahmins of Northem and Central India are socially of lower grade, as
compared with the Brahmins of the Deccan and Southern India. The former are only cooks and
water-carriers while the latter occupy a high social position. On the other hand, in
Northern India, the Vaishyas and Kayasthas are intellectually and socially on a par with
the Brahmins of the Deccan and Southern India. Again, in the matter of food there is no
similarity between the Brahmins of the Deccan and Southern India, who are vegetarians and
the Brahmins of Kashmir and Bengal who are non-vegetarians. On the other hand, the
Brahmins of the- Deccan and Southern India have more in common so far as food is concerned
with such non-Brahmins as the Gujaratis, Marwaris, Banias and Jains. There is no doubt
that from the standpoint of making the transit from one caste to another easy, the fusion
of the Kayasthas of Northern India and the other Non-Brahmins of Southern India with the
Non-Brahmins of the Deccan and the Dravid country is more practicable than the fusion of
the Brahmins of the South with the Brahmins of the North. But assuming that the fusion of
sub-Castes is possible, what guarantee is there that the abolition of sub-Castes will
necessarily lead to the abolition of Castes ? On the contrary, it may happen that the
process may stop with the abolition of sub-Castes. In that case, the abolition of
sub-Castes will only help to strengthen the Castes and make them more powerful and
therefore more mischievous. This remedy is therefore neither practicable nor effective and
may easily prove to be a wrong remedy. Another plan of action for the abolition of Caste
is to begin with inter-caste dinners. This also, in my opinion, is an inadequate remedy.
There are many Castes which allow inter-dining. But it is a common experience that
inter-dining has not succeeded in killing the spirit of Caste and the consciousness of
Caste. I am convinced that the real remedy is inter-marriage. Fusion of blood can alone
create the feeling of being kith and kin and unless this feeling of kinship, of being
kindred, becomes paramount the separatist feeling—the feeling of being
aliens—created by Caste will not vanish. Among the Hindus inter-marriage must
necessarily be a factor of greater force in social life than it need be in the life of the
non-Hindus. Where society is already well-knit by other ties, marriage is an ordinary
incident of life. But where society cut asunder, marriage as a binding force becomes a
matter of urgent necessity. The real remedy for
breaking Caste is inter-marriage. Nothing else will serve as the solvent of Caste.
Your Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal has adopted this line of attack.
It is a direct and frontal attack, and I
congratulate you upon a collect diagnosis and more upon your having shown the courage to
tell the Hindus what is really wrong with them. Political tyranny is nothing compared to
social tyranny and a reformer, who defies society, is a much more courageous man than a
politician, who defies Government. You are right in holding that Caste will cease to be an
operative farce only when inter-dining and inter-marriage have become matters of common
course. You have located the source of the disease. But is your prescription the right
prescription for the disease ? Ask yourselves this question ; Why is it that a large
majority of Hindus do not inter-dine and do not inter-marry ? Why is it that your cause is
not popular ? There can be only one answer to this question and it is that inter-dining
and inter-marriage are repugnant to the beliefs and dogmas which the Hindus regard as
sacred. Caste is not a physical object like a wall of bricks or a line of barbed wire
which prevents the Hindus from co-mingling and which has, therefore, to be pulled down.
Caste is a notion, it is a state of the mind. The destruction of Caste does not therefore
mean the destruction of a physical barrier. It means a notional change. Caste may be bad. Caste may lead
to conduct so gross as to be called man's inhumanity to man. All the same, it must be
recognized that the Hindus observe Caste not because they are inhuman or wrong headed.
They observe Caste because they are deeply religious. People are not wrong in observing
Caste. In my view, what is wrong is their religion, which has inculcated this notion of
Caste. If this is correct, then obviously the enemy, you must grapple with, is not the
people who observe Caste, but the Shastras which
teach them this religion of Caste. Criticising and ridiculing people for not inter-dining
or inter-marrying or occasionally holding inter-caste dinners and celebrating inter-caste
marriages, is a futile method of achieving the desired end. The real remedy is to destroy
the belief in the sanctity of the Shastras. How
do you expect to succeed, if you allow the Shastras
to continue to mould the beliefs and opinions of the people ? Not to question the
authority of the Shastras , to permit the people
to believe in their sanctity and their sanctions and to blame them and to criticise them
for their acts as being irrational and inhuman is a incongruous way of carrying on social
reform. Reformers working for the removal of untouchability including Mahatma Gandhi, do
not seem to realize that the acts of the people are merely the results of their beliefs
inculcated upon their minds by the Shastras and
that people will not change their conduct until they cease to believe in the sanctity of
the Shastras on which their conduct is founded.
No wonder that such efforts have not produced any results. You also seem to be erring in
the same way as the reformers working in the cause of removing untouchability. To agitate
for and to organise inter-caste dinners and inter-caste marriages is like forced feeding
brought about by artificial means. Make every man and woman free from the thraldom of the Shastras , cleanse their minds of the pernicious
notions founded on the Shastras, and he or she
will inter-dine and inter-marry, without your telling him or her to do so.
It is no use seeking refuge in quibbles. It is
no use telling people that the Shastras do not
say what they are believed to say, grammatically read or logically interpreted. What
matters is how the Shastras have been understood
by the people. You must take the stand that Buddha took. You must take the stand which
Guru Nanak took. You must not only discard the Shastras,
you must deny their authority, as did Buddha and Nanak. You must have courage to tell
the Hindus, that what is wrong with them is their religion— the religion which has
produced in them this notion of the sacredness of Caste. Will you show that courage ?
XXI
What are your chances of success ? Social
reforms fall into different species. There is a species of reform, which does not relate
to the religious notion of people but is purely secular in character. There is also a
species of reform, which relates to the religious notions of people. Of such a species of
reform, there are two varieties. In one, the reform accords with the principles of the
religion and merely invites people, who have departed from it, to revert to them and to
follow them. The second is a reform which not only touches the religious principles but is
diametrically opposed to those principles and invites people to depart from and to discard
their authority and to act contrary to those principles. Caste is the natural outcome of
certain religious beliefs which have the sanction of the Shastras, which are believed to contain the command
of divinely inspired sages who were endowed with a supernatural wisdom and whose commands,
therefore, cannot be disobeyed without committing sin. The destruction of Caste is a
reform which falls under the third category. To ask people to give up Caste is to ask them
to go contrary to their fundamental religious notions. It is obvious that the first and
second species of reform are easy. But the third is a stupendous task, well nigh
impossible. The Hindus hold to the sacredness of the social order. Caste has a divine
basis. You must therefore destroy the sacredness and divinity with which Caste has become
invested. In the last analysis, this means you must destroy the authority of the Shastras and the Vedas.
I have emphasized this question of the ways and
means of destroying Caste, because I think that knowing the proper ways and means is more
important than knowing the ideal. If you do not know the real ways and means, all your
shots are sure to be misfires. If my analysis is correct then your task is herculean. You
alone can say whether you are capable of achieving it.
Speaking for myself, I see the task to be well
nigh impossible. Perhaps you would like to know why I think so. Out of the many reasons,
which have led me to take this view, I will mention some, which I regard much important.
One of these reasons is the attitude of hostility, which the Brahmins have shown towards
this question. The Brahmins form the vanguard of the movement for political reform and in
some cases also of economic reform. But they are not to be found even as camp followers in
the army raised to break down the barricades of Caste. Is there any hope of the Brahmins
ever taking up a lead in the future in this matter? I say no. You may ask why ? You may
argue that there is no reason why Brahmins should continue to shun social reform. You may
argue that the Brahmins know that the bane of Hindu Society is Caste and as an enlightened
class could not be expected to be indifferent to its consequences. You may argue that
there are secular Brahmins and priestly Brahmins and if the latter do not take up the
cudgels on behalf of those who want to break Caste, the former will. All this of course
sounds very plausible. But in all this it is forgotten that the break up of the Caste
system is bound to affect adversely the Brahmin Caste. Having regard to this, is it
reasonable to expect that the Brahmins will ever consent to lead a movement the ultimate
result of which is to destroy the power and prestige of the Brahmin Caste ? Is it
reasonable to expect the secular Brahmins to take part in a movement directed against the
priestly Brahmins ? In my judgment, it is useless to make a distinction between the
secular Brahmins and priestly Brahmins. Both are kith and kin. They are two arms of the
same body and one bound to fight for the existence of the other. In this connection, I am
reminded of some very pregnant remarks made by Prof. Dicey in his English Constitution. Speaking of the actual
limitation on the legislative supremacy of Parliament, Dicey says : " The actual
exercise of authority by any sovereign whatever, and notably by Parliament, is bounded or
controlled by two limitations. Of these the one is an external, and the other is an
internal limitation. The external limit to the real power of a sovereign consists in the
possibility or certainty that his subjects or a large number of them will disobey or
resist his laws. . . The internal limit to the exercise of sovereignty arises from the
nature of the sovereign power itself. Even a despot exercises his powers in accordance
with his character, which is itself moulded by the circumstance under which he lives,
including under that head the moral feelings of the time and the society to which he
belongs. The Sultan could not, if he would, change the religion of the Mohammedan world,
but even if he could do so, it is in the very highest degree improbable that the head of
Mohammedanism should wish to overthrow the religion of Mohammed ; the internal check on
the exercise of the Sultan's power is at least as strong as the external limitation.
People sometimes ask the idle question, why the Pope does not introduce this or that
reform? The true answer is that a revolutionist is not the kind of man who becomes a Pope
and that a man who becomes a Pope has no wish to be a revolutionist." I think, these
remarks apply equally to the Brahmins of India and one can say with equal truth that if a
man who becomes a Pope has no wish to become a revolutionary, a man who is born a Brahmin
has much less desire to become a revolutionary. Indeed, to expect a Brahmin to be a
revolutionary in matters of social reform is as idle as to expect the British Parliament,
as was said by Leslie Stephen, to pass an Act requiring all blue-eyed babies to be
murdered.
Some of you will say that it is a matter of
small concern whether the Brahmins come forward to lead the movement against Caste or
whether they do not. To take this view is in my judgment to ignore the part played by the
intellectual class in the community. Whether you accept the theory of the great man as the
maker of history or whether you do not, this much you will have to concede that in every
country the intellectual class is the most influential class, if not the governing class.
The intellectual class is the class which can foresee, it is the class which can advise
and give lead. In no country does the mass of the people live the life of intelligent
thought and action. It is largely imitative and follows the intellectual class. There is
no exaggeration in saying that the entire destiny of a country depends upon its
intellectual class. If the intellectual class is honest, independent and disinterested it
can be trusted to take the initiative and give a proper lead when a crisis arises. It is
true that intellect by itself is no virtue. It is only a means and the use of means
depends upon the ends which an intellectual person pursues. An intellectual man can be a
good man but he can easily be a rogue. Similarly an intellectual class may be a band of
high-souled persons, ready to help, ready to emancipate erring humanity or it may easily
be a gang of crooks or a body of advocates of a narrow clique from which it draws its
support. You may think it a pity that the intellectual class in India is simply another
name for the Brahmin caste. You may regret that the two are one.; that the existence of
the intellectual class should be bound with one single caste, that this intellectual class
should share the interest and the aspirations of that Brahmin caste, which has regarded
itself the custodian of the interest of that caste, rather than of the interests of the
country. All this may be very regrettable. But the fact remains, that the Brahmins form
the intellectual class of the Hindus. It is not only an intellectual class but it is a
class which is held in great reverence by the rest of the Hindus. The Hindus are taught
that the Brahmins are Bhudevas (Gods on earth) vernanam brahmnam guruh ! : The Hindus are taught that Brahmins alone
can be their teachers. Manu says, "If it be asked how it should be with respect to
points of the Dharma which have not been specially mentioned, the answer is that which
Brahmins who are Shishthas propound shall doubtless have legal force." :
anamnateshu dharmehu katham syaditi
chedbhveta !
yam shishta brahnam bruyuh sa dharmah syadashnkitah !!
When such an intellectual class, which holds
the rest of the community in its grip, is opposed to the reform of Caste, the chances of
success in a movement for the break-up of the Caste system appear to me very, very remote.
The second reason, why I say the task is
impossible, will be clear if you will bear in mind that the Caste system has two aspects.
In one of its aspects, it divides men into separate communities. In its second aspect, it
places these communities in a graded order one above the other in social status. Each
caste takes its pride and its consolation in the fact that in the scale of castes it is
above some other caste. As an outward mark of this gradation, there is also a gradation of
social and religious rights technically spoken of an Ashta-dhikaras and Sanskaras. The higher the grade of a caste, the
greater the number of these rights and the lower the grade, the lesser their number. Now
this gradation, this scaling of castes, makes it impossible to organise a common front
against the Caste System. If a caste claims the right to inter-dine
and inter-marry with another caste placed above it, it is
frozen, instantly it is told by mischief-mongers, and there are many Brahmins amongst such
mischief-mongers, that it will have to concede inter-dining
and inter-marriage with castes below it ! All are slaves of the Caste System. But all the slaves are
not equal in status. To excite the proletariat to bring about an economic revolution, Karl Marx told them
: " You have nothing to
lose except your chains."
But the artful way in which the social and religious rights are distributed among the different castes whereby some have more and some
have less, makes the slogan of Karl Marx quite useless to excite the Hindus against the
Caste System. Castes form a graded system of sovereignties, high and low, which are jealous of
their status and which know that if a general dissolution came, some of them stand to lose more of their prestige and power than others do. You
cannot, therefore, have a general mobilization of the Hindus, to use a military
expression, for an attack on the Caste System.
XXII
Can you appeal to reason and ask the Hindus to
discard Caste as being contrary to reason ? That raises the
question : Is a Hindu free to follow his reason? Manu has laid down three sanctions to which every Hindu must
conform in the matter of his behaviour vedah smritih sadacharah uvasy cha priyamatmanah Here
there is no place for reason to play its part. A Hindu must follow either Veda, Smriti or Sadachar. He cannot
follow anything else. In the first place how are the texts of the Vedas and Smritis to be
interpreted whenever any doubt arises regarding their meaning ?
On this important question the view of Manu is quite definite. He says :
yovamanyet
te moole hetushrashraya dwizah
sa
sadhubhirbahishkaryo nashtiko vedandikah
According to this rule, rationalism as a canon
of interpreting the Vedas and Smritis, is absolutely condemned. It is regarded to be as wicked as atheism and the punishment provided for
it is ex-communication. Thus, where a matter is covered by the Veda or the Smriti,
a Hindu cannot resort to rational thinking. Even when there is a conflict between Vedas and Smritis
on matters on which they have given a positive injunction,
the solution is not left to reason. When there is a
conflict between two Shrutis, both are to be regarded as of equal
authority. Either of them may be followed. No attempt is to be made to find out which of
the two accords with reason. This is made clear by Manu:
shrutidwadham tu
yatra syaptatra dharvarvudhau smritau
"When there is a conflict between Shruti and Sinriti , the Shruti must prevail." But here too, no attempt must be made to find out which of the two accords with reason. This is laid down by Manu in the following Shloka :
ya
vedabahyah snrityo yashch kashch kridrishtah i
sarvasta nishphalah prety tamonishtha hi tah smritah ii
Again, when there is a conflict between two Smritis, the Manu-Smriti must prevail, but no attempt is to be made to find
out which of the two accords with reason. This is the ruling given by Brihaspati:
vedayatvopanibandhritavat
pramanyam hi manoah smritah
manvrthaviparita
tu ya smritih sa na shashyate
It is, therefore, clear that in any matter on
which the Shrutis and Smritis have given a positive direction, a Hindu is
not free to use his reasoning faculty. The same rule is laid down in the Mahabharat :
puranam
manvo dharmah sango vedashchikitsitam
agasidhani
chatvari na hantavyani hetubhih
He must abide by their directions. The Caste
and Varna are matters, which are dealt with by
the Vedas and the
Smritis and consequently, appeal to reason can
have no effect on a Hindu. So far as Caste and Varna
are concerned, not only the Shastras do not permit the Hindu to use his
reason in the decision of the question, but they have taken care to see that no occasion
is left to examine in a rational way the foundations of his belief in Caste and Varna. It must be a source of silent amusement to
many a Non-Hindu to find hundreds and thousands of Hindus breaking Caste on certain
occasions, such as railway journey and foreign travel and yet endeavouring to maintain
Caste for the rest of their lives ! The explanation of this
phenomenon discloses another fetter on the reasoning faculties of the Hindus. Man's life
is generally habitual and unreflective. Reflective thought, in the sense of active,
persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form or knowledge in the
light of the grounds that support it and further conclusions to which it tends, is quite
rare and arises only in a situation which presents a dilemma—a Crisis-Railway journeys and foreign travels are really occasions of
crisis in the life of a Hindu and it is natural to expect a Hindu to ask himself why he
should maintain Caste at all, if he cannot maintain it at all times. But he does not. He
breaks Caste at one step and proceeds to observe it at the
next without raising any question. The reason for this
astonishing conduct is to be found in the rule of the Shastras, which
directs him to maintain Caste as far as possible and to undergo praynschitia when he cannot. By this theory of prayaschitta , the Shastras by following a
spirit of compromise have given caste a perpetual lease of
life and have smothered reflective thought which would have
otherwise led to the destruction of the notion of Caste.
There have been many who have worked in the
cause of the abolition of Caste and Untouchability. Of those, who can be mentioned, Ramanuja,
Kabir and others stand out prominently. Can you appeal to
the acts of these reformers and exhort the Hindus to follow them ? It is true that Manu has
included Sadachar (sadachar) as one of the sanctions along with Shruti and Smriti. Indeed, Sadachar has been given a higher place than Shastras :
yaddwacharyate
yen dharmya vadharmamev va
deshasyacharanam
nityam charitram tadwikirtatam
according to this, sadachar, whether, it is dharmya or adharmya
in accordance with Shastras
or contrary to Shastras,
must be followed. But what is the meaning of Sadachar ? If any one were to
suppose that Sadachar means right or good acts i.e. acts of good and righteous men he would find
himself greatly mistaken. Sadachar does not
means good acts or acts of good men. It means ancient custom good or bad.
The following verse makes this clear :
yasmin deshe ya acharah parmpayakramagatah
varnani kil sarvesham sa sadachar uchyate
As though to warn people against the view that Sadachar means good acts or acts of good men and fearing that people
might understand it that way and follow the acts of good men, the Smrities
have commanded the Hindus in unmistakable terms not to follow even Gods in their good deeds, if they are contrary to Shruti, Smrili and Sadachar. This may
sound to be most extraordinary, most perverse, but the. fact remains that na devacharitam charet is
an injunction, issued to the Hindus by their Shastras. Reason and morality are
the two most powerful weapons in the armoury of a Reformer. To deprive him of the use of these weapons is to disable him for action .How are you going to break up
Caste, if people are not free to consider whether it accords with
reason ? How are you going to
break up Caste if people are
not free to consider whether it accords with morality ? The
wall built around Caste is impregnable and the material, of
which it is built, contains none of the combustible stuff of reason and morality.
Add to this the fact that inside this wall stands the army
of Brahmins, who form the intellectual class, Brahmins who are the natural leaders of the Hindus, Brahmins who are there not as mere mercenary soldiers but as an army fighting
for its homeland and you will get an idea why I think that breaking-up
of Caste amongst the Hindus is
well-nigh impossible. At any rate, it would take ages before a breach is
made. But whether the doing of the deed takes time
or whether it can be done quickly, you must not forget that if you wish to bring about &
breach in the system then you have got to apply the
dynamite to the Vedas
and the Shastras,
which deny any part to reason, to Vedas and Shastras, which deny
any part to morality. You must destroy the Religion of the Shrutis and the Smritis. Nothing else will avail. This is my
considered view of the matter.
XXIII
Some may not understand what I mean by
destruction of Religion;
some may find the idea revolting to them and some may find it revolutionary. Let me therefore explain my position. I do not know
whether you draw a distinction between principles and rules. But I do. Not only I make a distinction but I say that this distinction is real and important. Rules are
practical ; they are habitual ways of doing things according to prescription. But principles are
intellectual; they are useful methods of judging things.
Rules seek to tell an agent just what course of action to
pursue. Principles do not prescribe a specific course of action. Rules, like cooking
recipes, do tell just what to do and how to do it. A prinsiple,
such as that of justice, supplies a main head by reference to which he is to consider the bearings of his desires and purposes, it guides him in his
thinking by suggesting to him the important consideration
which he should bear in mind. This difference between rules
and principles makes the acts done in pursuit of them different in quality and in content.
Doing what is said to be,
good by virtue of a rule and doing good in the light of a principle are two different
things. The principle may be wrong but the act is conscious and responsible. The rule may be right but the act is mechanical. A
religious act may not be a correct act but must at least be a responsible act. To permit
of this responsibility, Religion must mainly be a
matter of principles only. It cannot be a matter of rules.
The moment it degenerates into rules it ceases to be Religion, as it kills responsibility
which is the essence of a truly religious act. What is this
Hindu Religion ? Is it a set of principles or is it a code of rules ?
Now the Hindu Religion, as contained in the Vedas
and the Smritis, is nothing but a mass of
sacrificial, social, political and sanitary rules and regulations, all mixed up. What is
called Religion by the Hindus is nothing but a multitude of commands and prohibitions. Religion, in the
sense of spiritual principles, truly universal, applicable to all races, to all countries,
to all times, is not to be found in them, and if it is, it does not form the governing
part of a Hindu's life. That for a Hindu, Dharma means commands and prohibitions is clear from the way the word Dharma is used in Vedas and the Sinritis and understood by the commentators.
The word Dharma as used in the Vedas in most
cases means religious ordinances or rites. Even Jaimini in his Purva-Mimansa
defines Dharma as "a desirable goal or result that is
indicated by injunctive (Vedic) passages ".
To put it in plain language, what the Hindus call Religion is really Law or at best
legalized class-ethics. Frankly, I refuse to cull this code of ordinances, as Religion.
The first evil of such a code of ordinances, misrepresented to the people as Religion, is
that it tends to deprive moral life of freedom and spontaneity
and to reduce it (for the conscientious at any rate) to a more or less
anxious and servile conformity to externally imposed rules.
Under it, there is no loyalty to ideals, there is only conformity
to commands. But the worst evil of this code of ordinances
is that the laws it contains must be the same yesterday, today and forever. They are
iniquitous in that they are not the same for one class as
for another. But this iniquity is made perpetual in that they are prescribed to be the same for all generations. The objectionable
part of such a scheme is not that they are made by certain persons
called Prophets or Law-givers. The objectionable part is that this code has been invested
with the character of finality and fixity. Happiness notoriously varies with the
conditions and circumstances of a person, as well as with
the conditions of different people and epochs. That being the case, how can humanity
endure this code of eternal laws, without being cramped and without being crippled ? I have, therefore, no hesitation in saying that such a
religion must be destroyed and I say, there is nothing irreligious in working for the destruction of such a religion.
Indeed I hold that it is your bounden duty to tear the
mask, to remove the misrepresentation that as caused by misnaming this Law as Religion.
This is an essential step for you. Once you clear the minds of the people of this
misconception and enable them to realize that what they are told as Religion is not
Religion but that it is really Law, you will be in a position to urge for its amendment or
abolition. So long as people look upon it as Religion they will not be ready for a change,
because the idea of Religion is generally speaking not associated with the idea of change.
But the idea of law is associated with the idea of change
and when people come to know that what is called Religion
is really Law, old and archaic, they will be ready for a change, for people know and
accept that law can be changed.
XXIV
While I condemn a Religion of Rules, I must not be understood to hold the opinion that there is
no necessity for a religion. On the contrary, I agree with Burke when he says that, "
True religion is the foundation of society, the basis on which all true Civil Government
rests, and both their sanction." Consequently, when I urge that these ancient rules
of life be annulled, I am anxious that its place shall be taken by a Religion of
Principles, which alone can lay claim to being a true Religion. Indeed, I am so convinced
of the necessity of Religion that I feel I ought to tell you in outline what I regard as
necessary items in this religious reform. The following in my opinion should be the
cardinal items in this reform : (
1 ) There should be one and
only one standard book of Hindu Religion, acceptable to all Hindus and recognized by all
Hindus. This of course means that all other books of Hindu
religion such as Vedas, Shastras and Puranas, which are treated as sacred and
authoritative, must by law cease to be so and the preaching of any doctrine, religious or
social contained in these books should be penalized. (2) It should be better if priesthood
among Hindus was abolished. But as this seems to be impossible, the priesthood must at
least cease to be hereditary. Every person who professes to be a Hindu must be eligible
for being a priest. It should be provided by law that no Hindu shall be entitled to be a
priest unless he has passed an examination prescribed by the State and holds a sanad from the State
permitting him to practise. (3) No ceremony performed by a priest
who does not hold a sanad shall be deemed to be
valid in law and it should be made penal for a person who
has no sanad to officiate as a priest. (4) A
priest should be the servant of the State and should be subject to the disciplinary action by the State in the matter of his morals,
beliefs and worship, in addition to his being subject along with other citizens to the
ordinary law of the land. (5) The number of priests should be limited by law according to
the requirements of the State as is done in the case of the I.C.S.
To some, this may sound radical. But to my mind there is nothing revolutionary in this.
Every profession in India is regulated. Engineers must show proficiency, Doctor must show
proficiency, Lawyers must show proficiency, before they are allowed to practise their
professions. During the whole of their career, they must not only obey the law of the
land, civil as well as criminal, but they must
also obey the special code of morals prescribed by their respective professions. The
priest's is the only profession where proficiency is not required. The profession of a
Hindu priest is the only profession which is not subject to any code. Mentally a priest
may be an idiot, physically a priest may be suffering from a foul disease, such as
syphilis or gonorrheae, morally he may be a wreck. But he
is fit to officiate at solemn ceremonies, to enter the sanctum sanctorum
of a Hindu temple and worship the Hindu God. All this
becomes possible among the Hindus because for a priest it is enough to be born in a priestly caste. The whole thing is abominable and is
due to the fact that the priestly class among Hindus is
subject neither to law nor to morality. It recognizes no duties. It knows only of rights
and privileges. It is a pest which divinity seems to have let loose on the masses for their mental and moral degradation. The priestly class
must be brought under control by some such legislation as I have outlined above. It will
prevent it from doing mischief and from misguiding people. It will democratise it by
throwing it open to every one. It will certainly help to kill the Brahminism and will also
help to kill Caste, which is nothing but Brahminism incarnate. Brahminism
is the poison which has spoiled Hinduism. You will succeed in saving Hinduism if you will
kill Brahminism. There should be no opposition to this reform from any quarter. It should
be welcomed even by the Arya Samajists,
because this is merely an application of their own doctrine of guna-karma.
Whether you do that or you do not, you must give a new doctrinal
basis to your Religion—a basis that will be in
consonance with Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, in short, with Democracy. I am no authority on the subject. But I am told that for such religious principles as will be in consonance with Liberty, Equality and Fraternity it may not be necessary for you
to borrow from foreign sources and that you could draw for such principles on the Upanishads. Whether
you could do so without a complete remoulding, a considerable scraping
and chipping off the ore they contain , is more than I can say. This means a complete change in the fundamental notions of life-it means a complete change in the
values of life. It means a complete change in outlook and in attitude towards
men and things. It means conversion but if you do not. like
the word, I will say, it means new life. But a
new life cannot enter a body that is dead. New life can center only in a new body. The
old body must die before a new body can come into existence and a new life can enter into it. To put it simply: the old
must cease to be operative before the new can begin to enliven and to pulsate. This is what I meant when I said you
must discard the authority of the Shastras and destroy the religion of the Shastras.
XXV
I have kept you too long. It is time I brought this address to a close. This would have been a convenient point for me to have stopped. But this would probably be my last address to a Hindu audience on a subject vitally concerning the Hindus. I would therefore like, before I close, to place before the
Hindus, if they will allow me, some questions which I regard as vital and invite them seriously to consider the same.
In the first place, the Hindus must consider whether it
is sufficient to take the placid view of
the anthropologist that there is nothing to be said about
the beliefs, habits, morals and outlooks on life, which obtain among the different
peoples of the world except that they often differ ; or whether it is not necessary to make
an attempt to find out what kind of morality, beliefs,
habits and outlook have worked best and have enabled those
who possessed them to flourish, to go strong, to people the earth and to have dominion over
it. As is observed by Prof. Carver,
" Morality and religion, as the organised expression of moral approval and
disapproval, must be regarded as factors in the struggle
for existence as truly as are weapons for offence and
defence, teeth and claws, horns and hoofs, furs and
feathers. The social group, community, tribe or nation,
which develops an unworkable scheme of morality or within
which those social acts which weaken it and unfit it for survival, habitually create the sentiment of approval, while those which would strengthen and
enable it to be expanded habitually create the sentiment of
disapproval, will eventually be eliminated. It is its
habits of approval or disapproval (these are the results of religion
and morality) that handicap it, as really as the possession
of two wings on one side with none on. the other will handicap the colony of flies. It would be as futile in the one case as
in the other to argue, that one system is just as good as
another." Morality and religion, therefore, are not mere matters
of likes and dislikes. You
may dislike exceedingly a scheme of morality, which, if universally practised
within a nation, would make that nation the strongest
nation on the face of the earth. Yet in spite of your dislike such a nation will become strong. You may like exceedingly a scheme of morality and an ideal of justice, which if universally practised within a nation, would make it enable to hold its own in the struggle
with other nations. Yet in spite of your admiration this nation will eventually disappear. The Hindus
must, therefore, examine their religion
and then morality in terms
of their survival value.
Secondly, the Hindus must consider
whether they should conserve the whole of their social
heritage or select what is helpful and transmit to future
generations only that much and no more. Prof, John Dewey., who was my teacher and to
whom I owe so much, has said :
" Every society gets
encumbered with what is trivial, with dead wood from the
past, and with what is positively perverse... As a society becomes more enlightened, it realizes that it is responsible not to conserve and transmit, the whole of its existing
achievements, but only such as make for a better future
society." Even Burke in spite of the vehemence with which he opposed the principle
of change embodied in the French Revolution, was compelled to admit that " a State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
Without such means it might even
risk the loss of that part
of the constitution which it wished the most religiously to preserve, '' What Burke said of a State applies equally to a society.
Thirdly, the Hindus must consider whether they must not
cease to worship the past as supplying its ideals. The beautiful effect of this worship of the past are best summed up by Prof. Dewey
when he says : " An individual can live
only in the present. The present is not just something which comes after the past ; much less something produced
by it. It is what life is in leaving
the past behind it. The study
of past products will not
help us to understand the present. A knowledge of the past
and its heritage is of great significance when it enters into the present, but not otherwise. And the mistake of making
the-records and remains of the
past the main material of
education is that it tends
to make the past a rival of the present and the present a
more or less futile imitation of the past." The principle,
which makes little of the present
act of living and growing, naturally looks upon the present
as empty and upon the future
as remote. Such a principle is inimical to progress and is
an hindrance to a strong and a steady current of life.
Fourthly, the Hindus must consider whether the time has
not come for them to recognize that there is nothing fixed,
nothing eternal, nothing sanatan; that everything is changing, that change is the law of life for individuals as well as for society.
In a changing society, there must be a constant revolution of old values and the Hindus must
realize that if there must
be standards to measure the acts of men there must also be
a readiness to revise those standards.
XXVI
I have to confess that this address has become
too lengthy. Whether this fault is compensated to any extent by breadth or depth is a matter for you to judge. All I claim is to have told you candidly my views. I have little
to recommend them but some study and a deep concern in your
destiny. If you will allow me to say, these views are the views of a man, who has been no tool of
power, no flatterer of greatness. They come from one,
almost the whole of whose public exertion has been one continuous struggle for liberty for
the poor and for the oppressed and whose only reward has been a continuous shower of calumny and abuse from national journals and
national leaders, for no other reason except that I refuse to join with them in performing
the miracle—I will not say trick—of liberating
the oppressed with the gold of the tyrant and raising the poor with the cash of the rich.
All this may not be enough to commend my views. I think they are not likely to alter
yours. But whether they do or do not, the responsibility is entirely yours. You must make
your efforts to uproot Caste, if not in my way, then in
your way. I am sorry, I will not be with you. I have decided to change. This is not the
place for giving reasons. But even when I am gone out of
your fold, I will watch your movement with active sympathy
and you will have my assistance for what it may be worth.
Yours is a national cause. Caste is no doubt primarily the breath of the Hindus. But the
Hindus have fouled the air all over and everybody is infected, Sikh, Muslim and Christian.
You, therefore, deserve the support of all those who are suffering from this infection,
Sikh, Muslim and Christian. Yours is more difficult than the other national cause, namely
Swaraj. In the fight for Swaraj you fight with the whole nation on your side. In this, you
have to fight against the whole nation and that too, your
own. But it is more important than Swaraj. There is no use having Swaraj, if you cannot
defend it. More important than the question of defending Swaraj is the question of defending the Hindus under the
Swaraj. In my opinion only when the Hindu Society becomes a casteless society that it can
hope to have strength enough to defend itself. Without such
internal strength, Swaraj for Hindus may turn out to be only a step towards slavery.
Good-bye and good wishes for your success.
A
VINDICATION OF CASTE BY MAHATMA GANDHI
(A Reprint of his Articles in the " Harijan ")
Dr.
Ambedkar's Indictment I
The readers will
recall the fact that Dr. Ambedkar was to have presided last
May at the annual conference of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal of Lahore. But the conference itself was cancelled
because Dr. Ambedkar's address was found by the Reception
Committee to be unacceptable. How far a Reception Committee is justified in rejecting a
President of its choice because of his address that may be
objectionable to it is open to question. The Committee knew Dr. Ambedkar's
views on caste and the Hindu scriptures. They knew also that he had in unequivocal terms
decided to give up Hinduism. Nothing less than the address
that Dr. Ambedkar had prepared was to be expected from him.
The committee appears to have deprived the public of an opportunity of listening to the original views of a man, who has carved
out for himself a unique position in society. Whatever label he wears in future, Dr.
Ambedkar is not the man to allow himself to be forgotten.
Dr. Ambedkar was not going to be beaten by the
Reception Committee. He has answered their rejection of him by publishing the address at
his own expense. He has priced it at 8 annas, I would suggest a reduction to 2 annas or at
least 4 annas.
No reformer can ignore the address. The
orthodox will gain by reading it. This is not to say that the address is not open to objection. It has to be read only because it
is open to serious objection. Dr. Ambedkar is a challenge to Hinduism. Brought up as a
Hindu, educated by a Hindu potentate, he has become so disgusted with the so-called Savarna Hindus for the treatment that he and his people have
received at their hands that he proposes to leave not only them but the very religion that
is his and their common heritage. He has transferred to that religion, his disgust against
a part of its professors.
But this is not to be wondered at. After all, one can only judge a system or an institution by the conduct of its representatives. What is more. Dr. Ambedkar found that the vast majority of Savarna Hindus had not only conducted themselves inhumanly against those of their fellow religionists, whom they classed as untouchables, but they had based their conduct on the authority of their scriptures, and when he began to search them he had found ample warrant for their beliefs in untouchability and all its implications. The author of the address has quoted chapter and verse in proof of his three-fold indictment—inhuman conduct itself, the unabashed justification for it on the part of the perpetrators, and the subsequent discovery that the justification was warranted by their scriptures.
No Hindu who prizes his faith above life itself can afford to underrate the
importance of this indictment. Dr Ambedkar is not alone in his disgust
He is its most uncompromising exponent and one of the ablest among them. He is certainly the most irreconcilable among them. Thank God, in the front rank of the
leaders, he is singularly alone and
as yet but a representative of a very small minority. But
what he says is voiced with more or less vehemence by many leaders belonging to the depressed classes. Only
the latter, for instance Rao Bahadur M. C. Rajah and Dewan Bahadur Srinivasan, not only do not threaten to give up Hinduism but find
enough warmth in it to compensate for the shameful
persecution to which the vast mass of Harijans are exposed.
But the fact of many leaders remaining in the Hindu fold
is no warrant for disregarding what Dr. Ambedkar has to
say. The Savaraas have to
correct their belief and their
conduct. Above all those who are by their learning and influence among the Savarnas
have to give an authoritative interpretation of the scriptures. The
questions that Dr. Ambedkar's indictment suggest are :
(2) Are all the printed texts to be regarded as an integral part of them or is any part of them to be rejected as unauthorised
interpolation ?
(3) What is the
answer of such accepted and expurgated scriptures on the
question of untouchability, caste,
equality of status, inter-dining and intermarriages ? (These
have been all examined by Dr. Ambedkar in his address.)
I must reserve for the
next issue my own answer to these questions and a statement
of the (at least some) manifest flaws in Dr. Ambedkar's
thesis
II
The Vedas, Upanishads,
Smritis and Puranas including Ramayana and Mahabharata are the Hindu Scriptures.
Nor is this a finite list.
Every age or even. generation has added to the list. It follows, therefore, that everything printed or even found
handwritten is not scripture. The Smrities for instance-contain much that can never be
accepted as the word of God. Thus. many of the texts that Dr. Ambedkar quotes from the Smritis cannot be accepted as authentic. The scriptures, properly so-called,
can only be concerned with eternal varieties and must
appeal to any conscience i.e. any heart whose eyes of understanding are
opened. Nothing can be accepted as the word of God which cannot be tested by reason or be capable of being spiritually experienced. And even when you
have an expurgated edition of the scriptures, you will need their interpretation. Who is
the best interpreter? Not learned men surely. Learning
there must be. But religion does not live it. It lives in the experiences of its saints
and seers, in their lives and sayings. When all the most
learned commentators of the scriptures are utterly forgotten, the accumulated experience of the sages and saints will abide and be an inspiration
for ages to come.
Caste has nothing to do with religion. It is a custom whose origin
I do not know and do not need to know for the satisfaction of my spiritual hunger. But I
do know that it is harmful both to spiritual and national growth. Varna and Ashrama are
institutions which have nothing to do with castes .The law of Varna teaches us that we have each one of us to
earn our bread by following the ancestral calling. it defines not our rights but our duties. It necessarily has
reference to callings that are conducive to the welfare of
humanity and to no other. It also follows that there is no
calling too low and none too high. Ail are good, lawful and
absolutely equal in status. The callings of a Brahmin— spiritual teacher—-and a scavenger are equal, and their due performance
carries equal merit before
God and at one time seems to have carried identical reward
before man. Both were entitled to their livelihood and no more. Indeed
one traces even now in the villages the faint lines of this
healthy operation of the law. Living in Segaon with its
population of 600, I do not find a great disparity between
the earnings of different tradesmen including
Brahmins. I find too that real Brahmins are to be found even in these degenerate days who
are living on alms freely
given to them and are giving freely of what they have of spiritual treasures. It would be wrong
and improper to judge the law of Varna by its
caricature in the lives of men who profess to belong to a Varna, whilst they openly commit a breach of its
only operative rule. Arrogation
of a superior status by and of the Varna over another is a denial
of the law. And there is nothing in the law of Varna to warrant a belief in untouchability. (The essence of
Hinduism is contained in its enunciation of one and only
God as Truth and its bold acceptance of Ahimsa as the law of the human family.)
I am aware that my interpretation of Hinduism
will be disputed by many besides Dr. Ambedkar. That does not affect
my position. It is an interpretation by which I have lived
for nearly half a century
and according to which I have endeavoured to the best of my
ability to regulate my life.
In my opinion
the profound mistake that Dr. Ambedkar
has made in his address is to pick out the texts of
doubtful authenticity and value and the state of degraded Hindus who are no fit specimens of the faith they so woefully
misrepresent. Judged by the standard applied by Dr. Ambedkar, every
known living faith will probably fail.
In his able address, the learned Doctor has
over proved his case. Can a religion that was professed by Chaitanya,
Jnyandeo, Tukaram, Tiruvailuvar, Rarnkrishna Paramahansa,
Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Maharshi
Devendranath Tagore, Vivekanand
and host of others who might be easily mentioned, so utterly devoid of merit as is made
out in Dr. Ambedkar's address ?
A religion has to be judged not by it's worst specimens but
by the best it might have produced. For that and that alone
can be used as the standard to aspire to, if not to improve
upon. (Harijan,
July 18, 1936)
III
VARNA VERSUS CASTE
Shri Sant Ramji of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal of Lahore
wants me to publish the following: " I have read your
remarks about Dr. Ambedkar and the Jat-Pat-Todak
Mandal, Lahore. In that connection I beg to
submit as follows :
" We did
not invite Dr. Ambedkar
to preside over our conference because he belonged to the Depressed Classes, for we do not
distinguish between a touchable and an untouchable Hindu.
On the contrary our choice fell on him simply because his diagnosis of the fatal disease
of the Hindu community was the same as ours, i.e.
he too was of the opinion that caste system was the root cause of the disruption and
downfall of the Hindus. The subject of the Doctor's thesis for Doctorate being caste
system, he has studied the subject thoroughly. Now the object of our conference was to
persuade the Hindus to annihilate castes but the advice of a non-Hindu in social and
religious matters can have no effect on them. The Doctor in the supplementary portion of
his address insisted on saying that that was his last speech as a Hindu, which was
irrelevant as well as pernicious to the interests of the conference. So we requested him
to expunge that sentence for he could easily say the same thing on any other occasion. But
he refused and we saw no utility in making merely a show of our function. In spite of all
this, I cannot help praising his address which is, as far as I know, the most learned
thesis on the subject and worth translating into every vernacular of India.
Moreover, I want to bring to your notice that
your philosophical difference between Caste and Varna is too subtle
to be grasped by people in general, because for all
practical purposes in the Hindu society Caste and Varna
are one and the same thing, for the function of both of them is one and the same i.e. to restrict inter-caste
marriages and inter-dining. Your theory of Varnavyavastha is
impracticable in this age and there is no hope of its revival in the near future. But
Hindus are slaves of caste and do not want to destroy it. So when you advocate your ideal
of imaginary Varnavyavastha they find
justification for clinging to caste. Thus you are doing a great disservice to social
reform by advocating your imaginary utility of division of Varnas, for it creates hindrance in our way. To
try to remove untouchability without striking at the root
of Varnavyavastha is simply to treat the outward
symptoms of a disease or to draw a line on the surface of
water. As in the heart of their hearts dvijas do not want to give social equality to
the so-called touchable and untouchable Shudras, so they refuse to break caste, and give liberal
donations for the removal of untouchability, simply to
evade the issue. To seek the help of the Shastras for the removal of untouchability and
caste is simply to wash mud with mud."
The last paragraph of the letter surely cancels
the first. If the Mandal rejects the help of the Shastras, they do exactly what Dr. Ambedkar does, i.e.
cease to be Hindus. How then can they object to Dr. Ambedkar's
address merely because he said that that was his last
speech as a Hindu ? The position appears to be wholly
untenable especially when the Mandal, for which Shri Sant Ram claims to speak, applauds the whole argument of Dr.
Ambedkar's address.
But it is pertinent to ask what the Mandal
believes if it rejects the Shastras. How can a
Muslim remain one if he rejects the Quran ,or a Christian remain Christian if he rejects the Bible ? If Caste and Varna
are convertible terms and if Varna is an integral part of the Shastras which define Hinduism, I do not know how a
person who rejects Caste i.e. Varna can call
himself a Hindu.
Shri Sant Ram likens the Shastras to mud. Dr. Ambedkar has not, so far as
I remember, given any such picturesque name to the Shastras. I have certainly meant when I have said
that if Shastras support the existing
untouchability I should cease to call myself a Hindu. Similarly, if the Shastras support caste as we know it today in all
its hideousness, I may not call myself or remain a Hindu since I have no scruples about
interdining or intermarriage. I need not repeat my position
regarding Shastras
and their interpretation. I venture to suggest to Shri Sant Ram that it is the only
rational and correct and morally defensible position and it has ample warrant in Hindu
tradition.
(Harijan, August 15,1936)
A REPLY TO THE MAHATMA BY DR.
B. R. AMBEDKAR
I appreciate greatly the honour done me by the Mahatma in taking notice in his Harijan of the speech on Caste which I had prepared for the Jat Pat Todak Mandal. From a perusal of his review of my speech it is clear that the Mahatma completely dissents from the views I have expressed on the subject of Caste. I am not in the habit of entering into controversy with my opponents unless there are special reasons which compel me to act otherwise. Had my opponent been some mean and obscure person I would not have pursued him. But my opponent being the Mahatma himself I feel I must attempt to meet the case to the contrary which he has sought to put forth. While I appreciate the honour he has done me, I must confess to a sense of surprize on finding that of all the persons the Mahatma should accuse me of a desire to seek publicity as he seems to do when he suggests that in publishing the undelivered speech my object was to see that I was not " forgotten ". Whatever the Mahatma may choose to say my object in publishing the speech was to provoke the Hindus to think and take stock of their position. I have never hankered for publicity and if I may say so, I have more of it than I wish or need. But supposing it was out of the motive of gaining publicity that I printed the speech who could cast a stone at me ? Surely not those, who like the Mahatma live in glass houses.
II
Motive apart, what has the Mahatma to say on the question raised by me in the speech ? First of all any one who reads my speech will realize that
the Mahatma has entirely missed the issues raised by me and that the issues he has raised
are not the issues that arise out of what he is pleased to call my indictment of the Hindus. The principal points which I have tried to make
out in my speech may be catalogued as follows : (1) That caste has ruined the
Hindus ; (2) That the reorganization of the Hindu society
on the basis of Chaturvarnya is impossible because the Varnavym'astha is
like a leaky pot or like a man running at the nose. It is incapable of sustaining itself
by its own virtue and has an inherent tendency to degenerate into a caste system unless
there is a legal sanction behind it which can be enforced against every one transgressing his Varna ; (3) That the
reorganization of the Hindu Society on the basis of Chaturvarnya is harmful, because the
effect of the Varnavyavastha is to degrade the masses by denying them
opportunity to acquire knowledge and to emasculate them by denying them the right to be
armed ; (4) That the Hindu society must be reorganized on a religious basis which would recognise the
principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity ; (5) That
in order to achieve this object the sense of religious sanctity behind Caste and Varna must be destroyed ; (6) That the sanctity of Caste and Varna can be destroyed only by discarding the
divine authority of the Shastras.
It will be noticed that the questions raised by the Mahatma
are absolutely beside the point and show that the main
argument of the speech was lost upon him.
Ill
Let me examine the substance of the points made
by the Mahatma. The first point made by the Mahatma is that the texts cited by me are not
authentic. I confess I am no authority on this matter. But I should like to state that the
texts cited by me are all taken from the writings of the
late Mr. Tilak who was a recognised authority on the
Sanskrit language and on the Hindu Shastras. His
second point is that these Shastras should be interpreted not by the learned
but the saints and that, as the saints have understood them, the Shastras do not support Caste and Untouchabilty. As regards the
first point what I like to ask the Mahatma is what does it
avail to any one if the texts are interpolations and if they have been differently interpreted by the saints ? The masses do not make any distinction between texts which
are genuine and texts which are interpolations. The masses do not know what the texts are.
They are too illiterate to know the contents of the Shastras. They have believed what they have been told and
what they have been told is that the Shastras do enjoin as
a religious duty the observance of Caste and Untouchability.
With regard to the
saints, one must admit that howsoever different and elevating their teachings may have
been as compared to those of the merely learned they have been lamentably
ineffective. They have been ineffective for two reasons. Firstly, none of the saints
ever attacked the Caste System. On the contrary, they were
staunch believers in the System of
Castes. Most of them lived and died. as members of the castes
which they respectively belonged. So passionately attached
was Jnyandeo to his status as a Brahmin that when the Brahmins of Paithan would not admit him to
their fold he moved heaven and earth to get his status as a Brahmin recognized by the Brahmin fraternity.
And even the saint Eknath who now figures in the film " Dharmatma " as a hero for having shown courage to touch the
untouchables and dine with them, did so not because he was
opposed to Caste and Untouchability
but because he felt that the pollution caused thereby could be washed away by a bath in
the sacred waters of the river
Ganges.* [f1]The saints have never according to my study carried on a
campaign against. Caste and Untouchability.
They were not concerned with
the struggle between men. They were concerned with the relation between man and God. They did not preach that all men
were equal. They preached that all
men were equal, in the eyes of God a very different and a very innocuous proposition which
nobody can find difficult to preach or dangerous to believe in. The second reason why the
teachings of the saints proved ineffective was because the masses have been taught that a
saint might break Caste but the common man must not. A saint therefore never became an example to follow. He always remained a pious
man to be honoured. That the masses have remained staunch believers in Caste and Untouchability shows that the
pious lives and noble sermons of the saints have had no effect on their life and conduct
as against the teachings of the Shastras. Thus it can be a matter of no
consolation that there were saints or that there is a Mahatma
who understands the Shastras
differently from the learned few or ignorant many. That the masses hold different view of
the Shastras is fact which should and must be
reckoned with. How is that to be dealt with except by denouncing the authority of the Shastras, which continue to govern their conduct,
is a question which the Mahatma has not considered. But whatever the plan the Mahatma puts
forth as an effective means to free the masses from the teachings of the Shastras, he must accept that the pious life led
by one good Samaritan may be very elevating to himself but
in India, with the attitude the common man has to saints
and to Mahatmas—to honour but not to follow—one
cannot make much out of it.
IV
The third point made by the Mahatma is that a
religion professed by Chaitanya, Jnyandeo,
Tukaram, Tiruvalluvar, Rarnkrishna Paramahansa etc.
cannot be devoid of merit as is made out by me and that a religion has to be judged not by
its worst specimens but by the best it might have produced.
I agree with every word of this statement. But I do not quite understand what the Mahatma
wishes to prove thereby. That religion should be judged not by its worst specimens but by
its best is true enough but does it dispose of the matter ?
I say it does not. The question still remains—why the worst
number so many and the best so few ? To my mind there are
two conceivable answers to this question : ( 1 ) That the worst by reason of some original perversity of theirs are morally
uneducable and are therefore incapable of making the remotest approach to the religious ideal. Or (2) That the
religious ideal is a wholly wrong ideal which has given a wrong moral twist to the lives
of the many and that the best have become best in spite of the wrong ideal—in fact by
giving to the wrong twist a turn in the right direction. Of these two explanations I am
not prepared to accept the first and I am sure that even the Mahatma will not insist upon
the contrary. To my mind the second is the only logical and reasonable explanation unless
the Mahatma has a third alternative to explain why the
worst are so many and the best so few. If the second is the
only explanation then obviously the argument of the Mahatma that a religion should be
judged by its best followers carries us nowhere except to pity the lot of the many who
have gone wrong because they have been made to worship wrong ideals.
V
The argument of the Mahatma
that Hinduism would be tolerable if only many were to follow the example of the saints is fallacious for another reason. [f.2] By citing the names of such illustrious persons as Chaitanya etc. what the Mahatma
seems to me to suggest in its broadest and simplest form is that Hindu society can be made
tolerable and even happy without any fundamental change in its structure
if all the high caste Hindus can be persuaded to follow a high standard of morality in
their dealings with the low caste Hindus. I am totally opposed to this kind of ideology. I
can respect those of the caste Hindus who try to realize a
high social ideal in their life. Without such men India would be an uglier and a less
happy place to live in than it is. But nonetheless anyone
who relies on an attempt to turn the members of the caste Hindus into better men by improving
their personal character is in my judgment wasting his energy and bugging an illusion. Can personal character make the maker of
armaments a good man, i.e. a man who will sell shells that will not burst and gas
that will not poison ? If it cannot, how can you accept
personal character to make a man loaded with the consciousness of Caste, a good man, i.e. a man who would treat his fellows as his
friends and equals ? To be true to himself he must deal
with his fellows either as a superior or inferior according
as the case may be; at any rate, differently from his own
caste fellows. He can never be expected to deal with his
fellows as his kinsmen and equals. As a matter of fact, a Hindu does treat all those who are not of his Caste as though they were aliens, who
could be discriminated against with impunity and against whom any fraud or trick may be
practised without shame. This is to say that there
can be a better or a worse Hindu. But a good Hindu there cannot be. This is so not because there is anything wrong with his personal
character. In fact what is wrong is the entire basis of his relationship to his fellows.
The best of men cannot be moral if the basis of relationship between them and their
fellows is fundamentally a wrong relationship. To a slave his master
may be better or worse. But there cannot be a good master. A good man cannot be a master
and a master cannot be a good man. The same applies to the relationship between high caste
and low caste. To a low caste man a high caste man can be better
or worse as compared to other high caste men. A high caste man cannot be a good man in so
far as he must have a low caste man to distinguish him as high caste man. It cannot be
good to a low caste man to be conscious that there is a high caste man above him. I have
argued in my speech that a society based on Varna
or Caste is a society which is based on a wrong relationship. I had hoped that the Mahatma
would attempt to demolish my argument. But instead of doing that he has merely reiterated
his belief in Chaturvarnya without disclosing the ground on
which it is based.
VI
Does the Mahatma
practise what he preaches ? One does not like to make
personal reference in an argument which is general in its
application. But when one preaches a decline and holds it as a dogma there is a curiosity to know how
far he practises what he preaches. It may be that his failure
to practise is due to the ideal
being too high. to be attainable; it may be that his
failure to practise is due to the innate hypocrisy of the man. In any case he exposes his
conduct to examination and I must not be blamed if I asked
how far has the Mahatma attempted to realize his ideal in
his own case. The Mahatma is a Bania
by birth. His ancestors had abandoned trading in favour of ministership which is a calling
of the Brahmins. In his own life, before he became a
Mahatma, when occasion came for him to choose his career he
preferred law to scales. On abandoning law he became half saint and half politician. He
has never touched trading which is his ancestral calling. His youngest
son—I take one who is a faithful follower of his father—born a Vaishya has married a Brahmin's daughter and has chosen to
serve a newspaper magnate. The Mahatma is not known to have condemned him for not following his ancestral calling. It may be wrong and uncharitable
to judge an ideal by its worst specimens. But surely the Mahatma as a specimen has no better and if he even fails to
realize the ideal then the
ideal must be an impossible ideal quite opposed to the
practical instincts of man. Students of Carlyle know that
he often spoke on a subject before he thought about it. I wonder whether such has not been
the case with the Mahatma in regard to the subject matter
of Caste. Otherwise certain
questions which occur to me would not have escaped him.
When can a calling be deemed to have become an ancestral
calling so as to make it binding on a man ? Must man follow
his ancestral calling even
if it does not suit his capacities, even when it has ceased to be profitable ? Must a man live by his ancestral calling even if he finds it to be immoral ? If
every one must pursue his ancestral calling then it must follow that a man must. continue
to be a pimp because his grandfather was a pimp and a woman must continue to be a
prostitute because her grandmother was a prostitute. Is the
Mahatma prepared to accept the logical conclusion of his doctrine ? To me bis ideal of following
one's ancestral calling is not only an impossible and
impractical ideal, but it is also morally an indefensible ideal. VII
The Mahatma sees great virtue in a Brahmin
remaining a Brahmin all his life. Leaving aside the fact there are many Brahmins who do
not like to remain Brahmins ail their lives. What can we
say about those Brahmins who have clung to their ancestral calling of priesthood ? Do they do so from any faith in the virtue of the principle
of ancestral calling or do they do so from motives of
filthy lucre ? The Mahatma
does not seem to concern himself with such queries. He is satisfied that these are "
real Brahmins who are living on alms freely given to them and giving freely what they have of spiritual treasures ".
This is how a hereditary Brahmin priest appears to the Mahatma—a
carrier of spiritual treasurers. But another portrait of the hereditary Brahmin can also be drawn. A Brahmin
can be a priest to Vishnu—the God of Love. He can be a priest to Shankar—the God. of Destruction.
He can be a priest at Buddha Gaya
worshipping Buddha—the greatest teacher of mankind who
taught the noblest doctrine of Love. He also can be a
priest to Kali, the Goddess, who must have a daily sacrifice of an animal to satisfy her thirst for blood ; He will be a priest of the temple
of Rama—the Kshatriya
God! He will also be a priest
of the Temple of Parshuram,
the God who took Avatar to destroy the Kshatriyas ! He can be a priest to Bramha, the Creator of
the world. He can be a priest to a Pir whose God Allah will
not brook the claim of Bramha to share his spiritual
dominion over the world ! No
one can say that this is a picture which is not true to life. If this is a true picture
one does not know what to say of this capacity to bear loyalties
to Gods and Goddesses whose attributes are so antagonistic that no honest man can be a
devotee to all of them. The Hindus rely upon this extraordinary phenomenon as evidence of
the greatest virtue of their religion—namely
its catholicity, its spirit of toleration. As against this
facile view, it can be urged that what is toleration and catholicity may be really nothing more
creditable than indifference or flaccid latitudinarianism.
These two attitudes are hard to distinguish in their outer
seeming. But they are so vitally unlike in their real quality that no one who examines
them closely can mistake one for the other. That a man is ready to render homage to many
Gods and Goddesses may be. cited as evidence of his tolerant spirit.. But can it not also be evidence of insincerity born of a
desire to serve the times ? I am sure that this toleration
is merely insincerity. If this view is well founded, one may ask what spiritual treasure
can there be with a person who is ready to be a priest and a devotee to any deity which it
serves his purpose to worship and to adore ? Not only must
such a person be deemed to be bankrupt of all spiritual treasures but for him to practice
so elevating a profession as that of a priest simply
because it is ancestral, without faith, without belief,
merely as a mechanical process handed down from. father to son, is not a conservation of virtue; it is really the
prostitution of a noble profession which is no other than the service of religion.
VIII
Why does the Mahatma
cling to the theory of every one following his or her
ancestral calling ? He gives
his reasons nowhere But there must be some reason although he does not cars to avow it.
Years ago writing on "
Caste versus
Class " in his Young
India he argued that Caste System was better than Class System on the ground that
caste was the best possible adjustment of social stability. If that be the reason why the
Mahatma clings to the theory of every one following his or her ancestral calling, then he
is clinging to a false view of social life. Everybody wants social stability and some
adjustment must be made in the relationship between individuals and classes in order that
stability may be had. But two things, I am sure nobody wants.
One thing nobody wants is static relationship, something that is unalterable, something
that is fixed for all times. Stability is wanted but not at
the cost of change when change is imperative. Second thing nobody wants is mere
adjustment. Adjustment is wanted but not at the sacrifice of social justice. Can it be said that the adjustment of social relationship on the basis of caste i.e. on the basis
of each to his hereditary calling avoids these two evils ?
I am convinced that it does not. Far from being the best possible adjustment I have no
doubt that it is of the worst possible kind inasmuch as it
offends against both the canons of social adjustment—namely fluidity and equity.
IX
Some might think that the Mahatma has made much progress inasmuch as he now only
believes in Varna and docs not believe in Caste.
It is true that there was a time when the Mahatma was a full-blooded and a blue-blooded Sanatani Hindu. He believed
in the Vedas, the
Upanishads, the Puranas and all that
goes by the name of Hindu scriptures and therefore in avatars and rebirth. He believed in Caste and
defended it with the vigour of the orthodox. He condemned the cry for inter-dining, inter-drinking
and inter-marrying and argued that restraints about inter-dining to a great extent "
helped the cultivation of will-power and the conservation of certain social virtue ". It is good that he has repudiated this sanctimonious
nonsense and admitted that caste " is harmful both to
spiritual and national growth," and may be, his son's marriage outside his caste has
had something to do with this change of view. But has the
Mahatma really progressed ? What is the nature of the Varna for which the Mahatma stands ? Is it the Vedic conception as commonly understood and
preached by Swami Dayanaad Saraswati and his followers, the Arya
Samajists ? The essence of
the Vedic
conception of Varna is the pursuit of a
calling which is appropriate to one's natural aptitude. The essence of the Mahatma's conception of Varna
is the pursuit of ancestral calling irrespective of natural aptitude. What is the
difference between Caste and Varna as understood
by the Mahatma? I find none. As defined by the Mahatma, Varna becomes merely a different name for Caste for the simple reason that it is the same in essence—namely pursuit of ancestral calling. Far from
making progress the Mahatma has suffered retrogression. By putting this interpretation
upon the Vedic conception of Varna he has really made ridiculous what was
sublime. While I reject the Vedic Varnavyavastha for reasons given in the speech I must
admit that the Vedic theory of Varna as interpreted by Swami Dayanand and some others is a sensible and an inoffensive
thing. It did not admit birth as a determining factor in fixing the place of an individual
in society. It only recognized worth. The Mahatma's view of Varna
not only makes nonsense of the Vedic
Varna but it makes it an abominable thing. Varna
and Caste are two very different concepts. Varna
is based on the principle of each according to his worth-while Caste is based on the
principle of each according to his birth. The two are as distinct
as chalk is from cheese. In fact there is an antithesis between the two. If the Mahatma believes as he does in every
one following his or her ancestral calling, then most certainly he is advocating the Caste
System and that in calling it the Varna System
he is not only guilty of terminologicale inexactitude, but he is causing confusion worse confounded. I am sure that
all his confusion is due to the fact that the Mahatma has no definite and clear conception as to what is Varna and what is Caste and as to the necessity of
either for the conservation of Hinduism. He has said and
one hopes that he will not find some mystic reason to
change his view that caste is not the essence of Hinduism. Does he regard Varna as the essence of Hinduism ? One cannot as yet give any categorical answer. Readers of
his article on " Dr. Ambedkar's
Indictment " will answer "
No ". In that article he does not say that the dogma
of Varna is an essential
part of the creed of Hinduism. Far from making Varna
the essence of Hinduism he says " the essence of
Hinduism is contained in its enunciation of one and only God as Truth and its bold
acceptance of Ahimsa as the law of the human family " But the readers of his article in reply to Mr. Sant Ram will say " Yes ". In that article he says "
How can a Muslim remain one if he rejects the Qurtan, or a Christian remain
as Christian if he rejects the Bible ? If Caste and Varna are convertible terms and if Varna is an integral part of the Shastras which
define Hinduism I do not know how a person who rejects Caste, i.e. Varna can call himself a Hindu ? " Why this prevarication
? Why does the Mahatma hedge ? Whom does he want to
please ? Has the saint failed to sense the truth ? Or does the politician stand in the way of the Saint ? The real reason why the Mahatma is suffering from this
confusion is probably to be traced to two sources. The first is the temperament of the
Mahatma. He has almost in everything the simplicity of the child with the child's capacity for self-deception. Like a child he can believe in
anything he wants to
believe. We must therefore wait till such time as it pleases the Mahatma to abandon his faith in Varna
as it has pleased him to abandon his faith in Caste. The second source of confusion is the
double role which the Mahatma wants to play—of a Mahatma and a Politician. As a
Mahatma he may be trying to spiritualize Politics. Whether he has succeeded in it or not
Politics have certainly commercialized him. A politician must know that Society cannot
bear the whole truth and that he must not speak the whole truth;
if he is speaking the whole truth it is bad for his politics. The reason why the Mahatma
is always supporting Caste and Varna is because
he is afraid that if he opposed them he will lose his place in politics. Whatever may be
the source of this confusion the Mahatma must be told that
he is deceiving himself and also deceiving the people by preaching Caste under the name of Varna.
X
The Mahatma says that the standards I have
applied to test Hindus and Hinduism are too severe and that judged by those standards every known living faith will probably fail. The complaint that my standards
are high may be true. But the question is not whether they
are high or whether they are low. The question is whether they are the right standards to
apply. A People and their Religion must be judged by social
standards based on social ethics. No other standard would
have any meaning if religion is held to be a necessary good
for the well-being of the people. Now I maintain that the standards I have applied to test
Hindus and Hinduism are the most appropriate standards and that I know of none that are
better. The conclusion that every known religion would fail
if tested by my standards may be true. But this fact should not give the Mahatma as the
champion of Hindus and Hinduism a ground for comfort any more than the existence of one madman should give
comfort to another madman or the existence of one criminal should give comfort to another
criminal. I like to assure
the Mahatma that it is not the mere failure of the Hindus
and Hinduism which has produced in me the feelings of disgust and contempt with which. I am charged. I realize that the world
is a very imperfect world and any one who wants to live in it must bear with its imperfections. But while I am. prepared to bear with the
imperfections and shortcomings of the society in which I may be destined to labour, I feel I should not consent to
live in a society which cherishes wrong ideals or a society which having right ideals will not consent to
bring its social life in conformity with those ideals. If I am disgusted with Hindus and Hinduism it is because I am convinced that they
cherish wrong ideals and live
a wrong social life. My quarrel with Hindus and Hinduism is
not over the imperfections of their social conduct. It is much more fundamental. It is
over their ideals.
XI
Hindu society seems to me to stand in need of a moral regeneration which it is dangerous to postpone. And the question is who can
determine and control this
moral regeneration ? Obviously only those who have
undergone an intellectual regeneration and those who are
honest enough to have the courage of their convictions born
of intellectual emancipation. Judged by this standard the Hindu leaders who count are in
my opinion quite unfit for
the task. It is impossible to say that they have undergone the preliminary intellectual regeneration. If they had
undergone an intellectual regeneration
they would neither delude themselves in the simple way of
the untaught multitude nor would they take advantage of the
primitive ignorance of others as one sees them doing. Notwithstanding the crumbling state of Hindu society these leaders will nevertheless unblushingly appeal
to ideals of the past which have in every way ceased to have any connection with the present ; which
however suitable they might
have been in the days of their origin have now become a warning
rather than a guide. They still have a mystic respect for the earlier forms which make them disinclined—nay opposed to
any examination of the foundations of their Society. The Hindu
masses are cf course
incredibly heedless in the formation of their beliefs. But so are the Hindu leaders. And what is worse is that.
These Hindu leaders become filled with an illicit passion
for their beliefs when any
one proposes to rob them of their companionship. The Mahatma. is no exception. The Mahatma
appears not to believe in thinking He prefers to follow the
saints. Like a conservative with his reverence for consecrated notions
he is afraid that if he once starts thinking, many ideals
and institutions to which lie clings
will be doomed. One must sympathize with him. For every act of independent thinking puts some
portion of apparently stable world
in peril. But it is equally
true that dependence on saints
cannot lead us to know the truth. The saints are after
all only human beings and as Lord Balfour said , " the human mind is no more a truth finding apparatus than the snout of a pig ". In so far as he does think,
to me he really appears to be prostituting his intelligence
to find reasons for supporting this archaic social
structure of the Hindus. He is the most influential apologist of it and therefore the worst enemy of the Hindus.
Unlike the Mahatma there are Hindu leaders who
are not content merely to believe and follow. They dare to
think, and act in, accordance with the result of their
thinking. But unfortunately they are either a dishonest lot
or an indifferent lot when it comes to the question of
giving right guidance to the mass of the people. Almost every Brahmin has
transgressed the rule of Caste. The number of Brahmins who sell shoes is far greater than those who practise priesthood. Not
only have the Brahmins given up their ancestral calling of
priesthood for trading but they have entered trades which, are prohibited to them by the Shaslras. Yet how
many Brahmins who break Caste every day will preach against Caste and against the Shastras ? For one honest Brahmin preaching against Caste and Shastras because
his practical instinct and moral conscience cannot support a conviction in them, there are
hundreds who break Caste and trample upon the Shastras
every day but who are the most fanatic upholders of the theory of Caste and the sanctity of the Shastras. Why this duplicity ? Because they feel that if the masses are emancipated from the yoke of Caste they would be
a menace to the power and prestige of the Brahmins as a class. The dishonesty of this intellectual class who would deny
the masses the fruits of their thinking is a most
disgraceful phenomenon.
The Hindus in
the words of Mathew Arnold are "
wandering between two worlds, one dead, the other powerless to be born ". What
are they to do ? The Mahatma
to 'whom they appeal for
guidance does not believe in thinking and can therefore give no guidance which can be said to stand the test of
experience. The intellectual classes to whom the masses
look for guidance are either too dishonest or too indifferent
to educate them in the right direction. We are indeed witnesses to a great tragedy. In the
face of this tragedy all one can do is to lament and say—such be thy Leaders, O! Hindus.