Freedom\'s Battle - Mahatma Gandhi
The second is rejection of Hinduism and wholesale conversion to Islam or
Christianity. And if a change of religion could be justified for worldly
betterment, I would advise it without hesitation. But religion is a
matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment
of one's own religion. If the inhuman treatment of the Panchamas were a
part of Hinduism, its rejection would be a paramount duty both for them
and for those like me who would not make a fetish even of religion and
condone every evil in its sacred name. But, I believe that
untouchability is no part of Hinduism. It is rather its excrescence to
be removed by every effort. And there is quite an army of Hindu
reformers who have set their heart upon ridding Hinduism of this blot.
Conversion, therefore, I hold, is no remedy whatsoever.
Then there remains, finally, self-help and self-dependence, with such
aid as the non-Panchama Hindus will render of their own motion, not as a
matter of patronage but as a matter of duty. And herein comes the use of
non-co-operation. My correspondent was correctly informed by Mr.
Rajagopaluchari and Mr. Hanumantarao that I would favour well-regulated
non-co-operation for this acknowledged evil. But non-co-operation means
independence of outside help, it means effort from within. It would not
be non-co-operation to insist on visiting prohibited areas. That may be
civil disobedience if it is peacefully carried out. But I have found to
my cost that civil disobedience requires far greater preliminary
training and self-control. All can non-co-operate, but few only can
offer civil disobedience. Therefore, by way of protest against Hinduism,
the Panchamas can certainly stop all contact and connection with the
other Hindus so long as special grievances are maintained. But this
means organised intelligent effort. And so far as I can see, there is no
leader among the Panchamas who can lead them to victory through
non-co-operation.
The better way, therefore, perhaps, is for the Panchamas heartily to
join the great national movement that is now going on for throwing off
the slavery of the present Government. It is easy enough for the
Panchama friends to see that non-co-operation against this evil
government presupposes co-operation between the different sections
forming the Indian nation. The Hindus must realise that if they wish to
offer successful non-co-operation against the Government, they must make
common cause with the Panchamas, even as they have made common cause
with the Mussalmans. Non-co-operation with it is free from violence, is
essentially a movement of intensive self-purification. That process has
commenced and whether the Panchamas deliberately take part in it or
not, the rest of the Hindus dare not neglect them without hampering
their own progress. Hence though the Panchama problem is as dear to me
as life itself, I rest satisfied with the exclusive attention to
national non-co-operation. I feel sure that the greater includes
the less.
Closely allied to this question is the non-Brahmin question. I wish I
had studied it more closely than I have been able to. A quotation from
my speech delivered at a private meeting in Madras has been torn from
its context and misused to further the antagonism between the so-called
Brahmins and the so-called non-Brahmins. I do not wish to retract a word
of what I said at that meeting, I was appealing to those who are
accepted as Brahmins. I told them that in my opinion the treatment of
non-Brahmins by the Brahmins was as satanic as the treatment of us by
the British. I added that the non-Brahmins should be placated without
any ado or bargaining. But my remarks were never intended to encourage
the powerful non-Brahmins of Maharashira or Madras, or the mischievous
element among them, to overawe the so-called Brahmins. I use the word
'so-called' advisedly. For the Brahmins who have freed themselves from
the thraldom of superstitious orthodoxy have not only no quarrel with
non-Brahmins as such, but are in every way eager to advance
non-Brahmins wherever they are weak. No lover of his country can
possibly achieve its general advance if he dared to neglect the least of
his countrymen. Those non-Brahmins therefore who are coqueting with the
Government are selling themselves and the nation to which they belong.
By all means let those who have faith in the Government help to sustain
it, but let no Indian worthy of his birth cut off his nose to spite
the face.
AMELIORATION OF THE DEPRESSED CLASSES
The resolution of the Senate of the Gujarat National University in
regard to Mr. Andrews' question about the admission of children of the
'depressed' classes to the schools affiliated to that University is
reported to have raised a flutter in Ahmedabad. Not only has the flutter
given satisfaction to a 'Times of India' correspondent, but the occasion
has led to the discovery by him of another defect in the constitution of
the Senate in that it does not contain a single Muslim member. The
discovery, however, I may inform the reader, is no proof of the want of
national character of the University. The Hindu-Muslim unity is no mere
lip expression. It requires no artificial proofs. The simple reason why
there is no Mussalman representative on the Senate is that no higher
educated Mussalman, able to give his time, has been found to take
sufficient interest in the national education movement. I merely refer
to this matter to show that we must reckon with attempts to discredit
the movement even misinterpretation of motives. That is a difficulty
from without and easier to deal with.
The 'depressed' classes difficulty is internal and therefore far more
serious because it may give rise to a split and weaken the cause--no
cause can survive internal difficulties if they are indefinitely
multiplied. Yet there can be no surrender in the matter of principles
for the avoidance of splits. You cannot promote a cause when you are
undermining it by surrendering its vital parts. The depressed classes
problem is a vital part of the cause. _Swaraj_ is as inconceivable
without full reparation to the 'depressed' classes as it is impossible
without real Hindu-Muslim unity. In my opinion we have become 'pariahs
of the Empire' because we have created 'pariahs' in our midst. The slave
owner is always more hurt than the slave. We shall be unfit to gain
Swaraj so long as we would keep in bondage a fifth of the population of
Hindustan. Have we not made the 'pariah' crawl on his belly? Have we not
segregated him? And if it is religion so to treat the 'pariah.' It is
the religion of the white race to segregate us. And if it is no argument
for the white races to say that we are satisfied with the badge of our
inferiority, it is less for us to say that the 'pariah' is satisfied
with his. Our slavery is complete when we begin to hug it.
The Gujarat Senate therefore counted the cost when it refused to bend
before the storm. This non-co-operation is a process of
self-purification. We may not cling to putrid customs and claim the pure
boon of _Swaraj_. Untouchability I hold is a custom, not an integral
part of Hinduism. The world advanced in thought, though it is still
barbarous in action. And no religion can stand that which is not based
on fundamental truths. Any glorification of error will destroy a
religion as surely as disregard of a disease is bound to destroy a body.
This government of ours is an unscrupulous corporation. It has ruled by
dividing Mussalmans from Hindus. It is quite capable of taking advantage
of the internal weaknesses of Hinduism. It will set the 'depressed'
classes against the rest of the Hindus, non-Brahmins against Brahmins.
The Gujarat Senate resolution does not end the trouble. It merely points
out the difficulty. The trouble will end only when the masses and
classes of Hindus have rid themselves of the sin of untouchability. A
Hindu lover of Swaraj will as assiduously work for the amelioration of
the lot of the 'depressed' classes as he works for Hindu-Muslim unity.
We must treat them as our brothers and give them the same rights that we
claim for ourselves.
THE SIN OF UNTOUCHABILITY
It is worthy of note that the subjects Committee accepted without any
opposition the clause regarding the sin of untouchability. It is well
that the National assembly passed the resolution stating that the
removal of this blot on Hinduism was necessary for the attainment of
Swaraj. The Devil succeeds only by receiving help from his fellows. He
always takes advantage of the weakest spots in our natures in order to
gain mastery over us. Even so does the Government retain its control
over us through our weaknesses or vices. And if we would render
ourselves proof against its machination, we must remove our weaknesses.
It is for that reason that I have called non-co-operation a process of
purification. As soon as that process is completed, this government must
fall to pieces for want of the necessary environment, just as mosquitos
cease to haunt a place whose cess-pools are filled up and dried.
Has not a just Nemesis overtaken us for the crime of untouchability?
Have we not reaped as we have sown? Have we not practised Dwyerism and
O'Dwyerism on our own kith and kin? We have segregated the 'pariah' and
we are in turn segregated in the British Colonies. We deny him the use
of public wells; we throw the leavings of our plates at him. His very
shadow pollutes us. Indeed there is no charge that the 'pariah' cannot
fling in our faces and which we do not fling in the faces of Englishmen.
How is this blot on Hinduism to be removed? 'Do unto others as you would
that others should do unto you.' I have often told English officials
that, if they are friends and servants of India, they should come down
from their pedestal, cease to be patrons, demonstrate by their loving
deeds that they are in every respect our friends, and believe us to be
equals in the same sense they believe fellow Englishmen to be their
equals. After the experiences of the Punjab and the Khilafat, I have
gone a step further and asked them to repent and to change their hearts.
Even so is it necessary for us Hindus to repent of the wrong we have
done, to alter our behaviour towards those whom we have 'suppressed' by
a system as devilish as we believe the English system of the Government
of India to be. We must not throw a few miserable schools at them; we
must not adopt the air of superiority towards them. We must treat them
as our blood brothers as they are in fact. We must return to them the
inheritance of which we have robbed them. And this must not be the act
of a few English-knowing reformers merely, but it must be a conscious
voluntary effort on the part of the masses. We may not wait till
eternity for this much belated reformation. We must aim at bringing it
about within this year of grace, probation, preparation and _tapasya_.
It is a reform not to follow _Swaraj_ but to precede it.
Untouchability is not a sanction of religion, it is a devise of Satan.
The devil has always quoted scriptures. But scriptures cannot transcend
reason and truth. They are intended to purify reason and illuminate
truth. I am not going to burn a spotless horse because the Vedas are
reported to have advised, tolerated, or sanctioned the sacrifice. For me
the Vedas are divine and unwritten. 'The letter killeth.' It is the
spirit that giveth the light. And the spirit of the Vedas is purity,
truth, innocence, chastity, humility, simplicity, forgiveness,
godliness, and all that makes a man or woman noble and brave. There is
neither nobility nor bravery in treating the great and uncomplaining
scavengers of the nation as worse than dogs to be despised and spat
upon. Would that God gave us the strength and the wisdom to become
voluntary scavengers of the nation as the 'suppressed' classes are
forced to be. There are Augean stables enough and to spare for us to
clean.
VII. TREATMENT OF INDIANS ABROAD
INDIANS ABROAD
The prejudice against Indian settlers outside India is showing itself in
a variety of ways: Under the impudent suggestion of sedition the Fiji
Government has deported Mr. Manilal Doctor who with his brave and
cultured wife has been rendering assistance to the poor indentured
Indians of Fiji in a variety of ways. The whole trouble has arisen over
the strike of the labourers in Fiji. Indentures have been canceled, but
the spirit of slavery is by no means dead. We do not know the genesis of
the strike; we do not know that the strikers have done no wrong. But we
do know what is behind when a charge of sedition is brought against the
strikers and their friends. The readers must remember that the
Government that has scented sedition in the recent upheaval in Fiji is
the Government that had the hardihood to libel Mr. Andrew's character.
What can be the meaning of sedition in connection with the Fiji strikers
and Mr. Manilal Doctor? Did they and he want to seize the reins of
Government? Did they want any power in that country? They struck for
elementary freedom. And it is a prostitution of terms to use the word
sedition in such connection. The strikers may have been overhasty. Mr.
Manilal Doctor may have misled them. If his advice bordered on the
criminal he should have been tried. The information in our possession
goes to show that he has been strictly constitutional. Our point,
however, is that it is an abuse of power for the Fiji Government to have
deported Mr. Manilal Doctor without a trial. It is wrong in principle to
deprive a person of his liberty on mere suspicion and without giving him
an opportunity of clearing his character. Mr. Manilal Doctor, be it
remembered, has for years past made Fiji his home. He has, we believe,
bought property there. He has children born in Fiji. Have the children
no rights? Has the wife none? May a promising career be ruined at the
bidding of a lawless Government? Has Mr. Manilal Doctor been compensated
for the losses he must sustain? We trust that the Government of India
which has endeavoured to protect the rights of Indian settlers abroad
will take up the question of Mr. Doctor's deportation.
Nor is Fiji the only place where the spirit of lawlessness among the
powerful has come to the surface. Indians of (the late) German East
Africa find themselves in a worse position than heretofore. They state
that even their property is not safe. They have to pay all kinds of dues
on passports. They are hampered in their trade. They are not able even
to send money orders.
In British East Africa the cloud is perhaps the thickest. The European
settlers there are doing their utmost to deprive the Indian settlers of
practically every right they have hitherto possessed. An attempt is
being made to compass their ruin both by legislative enactment and
administrative action.
In South Africa every Indian who has anything to do with that part of
the British Dominions is watching with bated breath the progress of
commission that is now sitting.
The Government of India have no easy job in protecting the interests of
Indian settlers in these various parts of His Majesty's dominions. They
will be able to do so only by following the firmest and the most
consistent policy. Justice is admittedly on the side of the Indian
settlers. But they are the weak party. A strong agitation in India
followed by strong action by the Government of India can alone save the
situation.
INDIANS OVERSEAS
The meeting held at the Excelsior Theatre in Bombay to pass resolutions
regarding East Africa and Fiji, and presided over by Sir Narayan
Chandavarkar, was an impressive gathering. The Theatre was filled to
overflowing. Mr. Andrews' speech made clear what is needed. Both the
political and the civil rights of Indians of East Africa are at stake.
Mr. Anantani, himself an East African settler, showed in a forceful
speech that the Indians were the pioneer settlers. An Indian sailor
named Kano directed the celebrated Vasco De Gama to India. He added amid
applause that Stanley's expedition for the search and relief of Dr.
Livingstone was also fitted out by Indians. Indian workmen had built the
Uganda Railway at much peril to their lives. An Indian contractor had
taken the contract. Indian artisans had supplied the skill. And now
their countrymen were in danger of being debarred from its use.
The uplands of East Africa have been declared a Colony and the lowlands
a Protectorate. There is a sinister significance attached to the
declaration. The Colonial system gives the Europeans larger powers. It
will tax all the resources of the Government of India to prevent the
healthy uplands from becoming a whiteman's preserve and the Indians
from being relegated to the swampy lowlands.
The question of franchise will soon become a burning one. It will be
suicidal to divide the electorate or to appoint Indians by nomination.
There must be one general electoral roll applying the same
qualifications to all the voters. This principle, as Mr. Andrews
reminded the meeting, had worked well at the Cape.
The second part of the East African resolution shows the condition of
our countrymen in the late German East Africa. Indian soldiers fought
there and now the position of Indians is worse than under German rule.
H.H. the Agakhan suggested that German East Africa should be
administered from India. Sir Theodore Morison would have couped up all
Indians in German East Africa. The result was that both the proposals
went by the board and the expected has happened. The greed of the
English speculator has prevailed and he is trying to squeeze out the
Indian. What will the Government of India protect? Has it the will to do
so? Is not India itself being exploited? Mr. Jehangir Petit recalled the
late Mr. Gokhale's views that we were not to expect a full satisfaction
regarding the status of our countrymen across the seas until we had put
our own house in order. Helots in our own country, how could we do
better outside? Mr. Petit wants systematic and severe retaliation. In
my opinion, retaliation is a double-edged weapon. It does not fail to
hurt the user if it also hurts the party against whom it is used. And
who is to give effect to retaliation? It is too much to expect an
English Government to adopt effective retaliation against their own
people. They will expostulate, they will remonstrate, but they will not
go to war with their own Colonies. For the logical outcome of
retaliation must mean war, if retaliation will not answer.
Let us face the facts frankly. The problem is difficult alike for
Englishmen and for us. The Englishmen and Indians do not agree in the
Colonies. The Englishmen do not want us where they can live. Their
civilisation is different from ours. The two cannot coalesce until there
is mutual respect. The Englishman considers himself to belong to the
ruling race. The Indian struggles to think that he does not belong to
the subject race and in the very act of thinking admits his subjection.
We must then attain equality at home before we can make any real
impression abroad.
This is not to say that we must not strive to do better abroad whilst we
are ill at ease in our own home. We must preserve, we must help our
countrymen who have settled outside India. Only if we recognise the true
situation, we and our countrymen abroad will learn to be patient and
know that our chief energy must be concentrated on a betterment of our
position at home. If we can raise our status here to that of equal
partners not in name but in reality so that every Indian might feel it,
all else must follow as a matter of course.
PARIAHS OF THE EMPIRE
The memorable Conference at Gujrat in its resolution on the status of
Indians abroad has given it as its opinion that even this question may
become one more reason for non-co-operation. And so it may. Nowhere has
there been such open defiance of every canon of justice and propriety as
in the shameless decision of confiscation of Indian rights in the Kenia
Colony announced by its Governor. This decision has been supported by
Lord Milnor and Mr. Montagu. And his Indian colleagues are satisfied
with the decision. Indians, who have made East Africa, who out-number
the English, are deprived practically of the right of representation on
the Council. They are to be segregated in parts not habitable by the
English. They are to have neither the political nor the material
comfort. They are to become 'Pariahs' in a country made by their own
labour, wealth and intelligence. The Viceroy is pleased to say that he
does not like the outlook and is considering the steps to be taken to
vindicate the justice. He is not met with a new situation. The Indians
of East Africa had warned him of the impending doom. And if His
Excellency has not yet found the means of ensuring redress, he is not
likely to do it in future. I would respectfully ask his Indian
colleagues whether they can stand this robbery of their
countrymen rights.
In South Africa the situation is not less disquieting. My misgivings
seem to be proving true, and repatriation is more likely to prove
compulsory than voluntary. It is a response to the anti-Asiatic
agitation, not a measure of relief for indigent Indians. It looks very
like a trap laid for the unwary Indian. The Union Government appears to
be taking an unlawful advantage of a section of a relieving law designed
for a purpose totally different from the one now intended.
As for Fiji, the crime against humanity is evidently to be hushed up. I
do hope that unless an inquiry is to be made into the Fiji Martial Law
doings, no Indian member will undertake to go to Fiji. The Government of
India appear to have given an undertaking to send Indian labour to Fiji
provided the commission that was to proceed there in order to
investigate the condition on the spot returns with a favourable report.
For British Guiana I observe from the papers received from that
quarter, that the mission that came here is already declaring that
Indian labour will be forthcoming from India. There seems to me to be no
real prospect for Indian enterprise in that part of the world. We are
not wanted in any part of the British Dominion except as Pariahs to do
the scavenging for the European settlers.
The situation is clear. We are Pariahs in our own home. We get only what
Government intend to give, not what we demand and have a right to. We
may get the crumbs, never the loaf. I have seen large and tempting
crumbs from a lavish table. And I have seen the eyes of our Pariahs--the
shame of Hinduism--brightening to see those heavy crumbs filling their
baskets. But the superior Hindu, who is filling the basket from a safe
distance, knows that they are unfit for his own consumption. And so we
in our turn may receive even Governorships which the real rulers no
longer require or which they cannot retain with safety for their
material interest--the political and material hold on India. It is time
we realised our true status.
VIII. NON-CO-OPERATION
A writer in the "Times of India," the Editor of that wonderful daily and
Mrs. Besant have all in their own manner condemned non-co-operation
conceived in connection with the Khilafat movement. All the three
writings naturally discuss many side issues which I shall omit for the
time being. I propose to answer two serious objections raised by the
writers. The sobriety with which they are stated entitles them to a
greater consideration than if they had been given in violent language.
In non-co-operation, the writers think, it would be difficult if not
impossible to avoid violence. Indeed violence, the "Times of India"
editorial says, has already commenced in that ostracism has been
resorted to in Calcutta and Delhi. Now I fear that ostracism to a
certain extent is impossible to avoid. I remember in South Africa in the
initial stages of the passive resistance campaign those who had fallen
away were ostracised. Ostracism is violent or peaceful in according to
the manner in which it is practised. A congregation may well refuse to
recite prayers after a priest who prizes his title above his honour. But
the ostracism will become violent if the individual life of a person is
made unbearable by insults innuendoes or abuse. The real danger of
violence lies in the people resorting to non-co-operation becoming
impatient and revengeful. This may happen, if, for instance, payment of
taxes is suddenly withdrawn or if pressure is put upon soldiers to lay
down their arms. I however do not fear any evil consequences, for the
simple reason that every responsible Mahomedan understands that
non-co-operation to be successful must be totally unattended with
violence. The other objection raised is that those who may give up their
service may have to starve. That is just a possibility but a remote one,
for the committee will certainly make due provision for those who may
suddenly find themselves out of employment. I propose however to examine
the whole of the difficult question much more fully in a future issue
and hope to show that if Indian-Mahomedan feeling is to be respected,
there is nothing left but non-co-operation if the decision arrived at
is adverse.