By Dr Xavier P Mao & Dr Subhash C Arya
Honour killing which is the result of inter-caste marriage is widely prevalent in India even today. The Supreme Court judgment of December 12, 2009, states, “…caste is such a concept that grips a person even before his birth and does not leave him even after his death..the vicious grip of the caste, community, religion, though totally unjustified, is a stark reality.” The curse of caste system was beautifully explained by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in the following words: “Caste system has made the Brahmins intellectually dishonest, the Kshatriyas haughty and cruel, the Vaishyas greedy for money, and has dehumanized the Shudras.” This historical statement also reveals why India and its people are counted as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. But in this connection, Mr. M K Gandhi stated in his journal Harijan on March 6, 1947, “I believe in Varnashrama (caste system), which is the law of life. The law of Varna (colour and /or caste?) is nothing but the law of conservation of energy. Why should my son not be scavenger if I am one?” Some more references on belief and support of caste system is demonstrated by his statements given in various published articles such as , “I call myself a Sanatana man, one who firmly believes in the caste system”. (Dharma Manthan, p 4). These quotes from Gandhi’s own mouth clearly show that he was a strong believer of caste system with its serious negative implications. In fact, Gandhi did his barrister -at-law in the UK and thereafter practiced law in South Africa for about 21 years, which was incongruity between his thought and action because as per Hindu Varna-system he should have followed his ancestor’s business being born in business class family. Later on he was not at all consistent in his profession as he partly joined politics and partly behaved like a saint/Brahmin type. Lastly the very caste system which was watered, nourished and preserved by Gandhi was responsible for his assassination by a Brahmin Nathuram Godse as his popularity and fame surpassed the established supremacy of Brahmins in the then India including Pandit J N Nehru. Gandhi’s contemporary important leaders were all paying respect to him and following his advice in their day to day activities, however, those strong believers in caste system could not tolerate the outstanding leadership of Gandhi surpassing even the Brahmins. Nathuram Godse was merely representative of such thoughts and feelings and became honor killer to re-establish the supremacy of Brahmins over other castes.
Why Dalits and Tribes do not like M K Gandhi
The term “Harijan” given to the untouchables/Dalits by Gandhi was strongly objected to by the Dalits/untouchables including Dr B R Ambedkar as Harijans are the offspring of the Devadasi (temple prostitutes) and the temple priests. The identity of the father was not known so they were called children of God. This clearly shows that the term Harijan is highly derogatory and abusive in nature. Consequently, the untouchables strongly protested against Gandhi’s label for them without their consent. Present Central Government notification about the ban in not using the word Harijan for Scheduled Caste people in official documents also endorses the implication of this derogatory word. Similarly, the term Girijan to tribe was also strongly objected by tribes as it has negative connotation of their identity, however; in reality, they are/were unpaid teachers to the caste Hindu society as well articulated by Prof. Kancha Ilaiah in his famous book entitled “Post Hindu India”. Tribes knew various food nutritious values, medicinal plants, ecosystem etc. The attitude of Gandhi towards the communal award given to the then SC/ST clearly reflects the duplicity of his stand as he did not oppose the communal award to other better off than untouchables like Muslims, Sikhs, Christian and Anglo-Indians. By resorting fast unto death in the garb of a saint, Gandhi made Dr. Ambedkar a kind of villain in the eyes of the common Indian public. It has been also substantiated partly when Gandhi returned from the Second Round-table Conference; he was greeted with black flag by untouchables at the Mumbai port. In this way, Gandhi tried to belittle and denigrate Dr. Ambedkar, which has earned dislike among the Dalits.
Gandhi did not support Dr. Ambedkar’s historical movement against the prohibition of drinking water from the public well for the untouchables on the same moral principle of salt law. From 1930-1936, Dr. Ambedkar had led Kalaram Temple movement vigorously but the objectives could not be achieved. Because of the failure to change the rigid attitude of caste Hindu towards the untouchables he was compelled to declare publicly at Yeola Conversion Conference in year 1935 that, “I am born a Hindu. I could not help it, but I solemnly assure you that I will not die a Hindu’. He said: ‘Hindu civilization is a diabolical contrivance to suppress and enslave humanity”.
Irony of Gandhi
Gandhi’s name was nominated for a nobel peace prize five times – in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and 1948, he was not found suitable because of his racism against the Africans and his support for war in his life time such as during the Anglo-Boer war, Bambatha Rebellion in 1906 in which many Zulu tribal impis and chiefs were killed. In 1937, Norwegian Professor Jacob Worm-Müller said that, “It is significant that [Gandhi’s] well-known struggle in South Africa was on behalf of the Indians only, and not of the blacks whose living conditions were even worse.” According to Gandhi’s view, the Black Africans main job was hunting, and their aim in life was to collect some number of cattle to purchase a wife and rest of the time, they spend in indolence, nakedness, lethargy and sluggishness. Hypocritically, Gandhi was against the British rule in India though he supported the British rule in South Africa. Recently, in 109th Congress of USA condemned Gandhi’s racism remarks. In view of the negative and phony non-violence, international image of Gandhi had made him unsuitable for Nobel Peace prize despite five times nomination. Further, in his own country India, he was not given the highest civilian Bharat Ratna award, which raises doubt in the mind of younger generation for his genuine contribution to Indian society.
On 21st May, 2012, Mr. Abhishek Kadyan and Ms. Aishwarya Parasher (a girl student of class VI) have filed RTIs regarding the title of Gandhi as the father of the nation. In reply to RTIs, Shyamala Mohan, Director and Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), has stated, “Although Mahatma Gandhi is popularly known as ‘Father of the Nation’, no such title was ever formally conferred upon him by the government”. This shows how false propaganda has been blindly converted into apparent truth.
In a similar vein, from 1997 onwards, on the entire Indian rupee notes were completely replaced by Gandhi’s portrait over Ashoka Pillar. Recently, in the light of such emergent serious controversy, RBI invited public opinion about the replacement of Gandhi’s portrait. Mahatma Gandhi himself admitted that he slept naked with his grand nieces in the name of Brahmacharya experiment. However, there are other women aged between 18 to 25 years with whom Gandhi slept and was recorded in Dr. L R Bali’s book entitled “RANGILA GANDHI” and “KYA GANDHI MAHATMA THE. The biographer of Mr. M K Gandhi, Jad Adam has concluded Gandhi as sex mad in his recent published book titled, “Gandhi: Naked Ambition”.
In conclusion, we have found that the real Gandhi is not as great as he is projected by the media and his followers. The qualities of a great human being universally accepted are not matching with Gandhi’s attitudes and values towards man and society including his personal life. Even though in his own time, Dr. Ambedkar evaluated and compared Gandhi’s personality with the then great persons such as Ranade, and Md. Jinnah in his published book titled, “Gandhi Ranade and Jinnah”. Therefore, we have enough documentary evidences to show that Gandhi’s fall is expected with the passage of time.
(Authors of this article are Associate Professor, Dept. of Philosophy, NEHU, & Associate Professor, Dept. of Electronics & Communication Engineering, NEHU, respectively.)