Addition to Gandhi Paper
Posted by Sanj Singh
Addition to Gandhi Paper
Posted by Sanj Singh on Sunday, 7/15/2001 11:31 AM MDT
| Sat Sri Akal, I was making an addition to a paper I wrote on M K Gandhi a while back. I have added two things, one was my assessment of Gandhi's view of the caste system, and the other was Gandhi's denouncement of the possible conversions of untouchables to Sikhism. I have posted the parts I wanted to add below, and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on things I should possibly change, add, or delete. Thanks, Sundeep --------- Gandhi was so adamant in his view of Sikhism being a part of Hinduism that he even went to the extent of condemning the conversion of untouchables to Sikhism if Sikhs asserted their belief that Sikhism was not a sect of Hinduism. At that time, Dr. Ambedkar had been the leader of over 60 million untouchables who had desired to convert to another religion in order to free untouchables from the enslavement they had received as being part of the caste system. Dr. Ambedkar had shown a very strong interest in the conversion of those untouchables to Sikhism, to the extent that he even had his own nephew baptized into Sikhism. Gandhi found this possible conversion to be an intolerable view in light of Sikhs viewing themselves as not being a part of Hinduism. While Gandhi wrote: ?I don?t mind untouchables if they do desire, being converted to Islam or Christianity (CW, Vol 48, pg 98)? he insisted that conversion to Sikhism by these untouchables was ?dangerous.? He wrote: ?Today I will only say that to me Sikhism is a part of Hinduism. But the situation is different from a legal point of view. Dr. Ambedkar wants a change of religion. If becoming a Sikh amounts to conversion, then this kind of conversion on the parts of Harijans is dangerous. If you can persuade the Sikhs to accept that Sikhism is a part of Hinduism and if you can make them give up the separate electorate, then I will have no objections to Harijans calling themselves Sikhs (CW, Vol 63, pg 267).? ---- An area where I strongly disagreed with Gandhi on was his stance on the caste system. There is a common misconception that Gandhi supported the abolition of the caste system. That is incorrect. While Gandhi did speak out against wrongs committed against untouchables, he never disagreed with the theory behind the caste system, that of division of society based upon ancestral profession. While Gandhi may have advocated increasing the rights of untouchables, he felt they should gain those rights while still retaining their status within the caste system. His failure to outright ask for the abolishment of the system that had caused this inequality to exist in the first place severely hurt the cause of untouchables. This was further compounded by many of Gandhi?s ?fasts unto death? that aimed at not allowing untouchables to have separate electorates in order to secure their rights. In the end, untouchables were coerced by the threat of Gandhi?s death to forgo their desire for these separate electorates. Gandhi failed to realize that as long as the caste system exists, as long as a Brahmin by definition is ?high caste? and a Shudra by definition is ?low caste?, this equality he spoke up would never exist. Gandhi wrote: "To destroy the caste system and adopt the Western European social system means that Hindus must give up the principle of hereditary occupation which is the soul of the caste system. [The] hereditary principle is an eternal principle. To change it is to create disorder.... It will be chaos if every day a Brahmin is to be changed into a Shudra and a Shudra is to be changed into a Brahmin. The caste system is a natural order of society.... I am opposed to all those who are out to destroy the caste system" (CW, Vol. IX, pg 275g). Dr. Ambedkar, the leader of the untouchables, advocated a much different view that Gandhi did not support, but that I firmly do. Dr. Ambedkar advocated the complete abolition of the caste system from Indian society. Dr. Ambedkar wrote, ?There will be outcastes as long as there are castes, and nothing can emancipate the outcaste except the destruction of the caste system." He continued: ?The mass of people [in India have] tolerated the social evils to which they have been subjected... [because they] have been completely disabled for direct action on account of this wretched system of caste?They could not bear arms and without arms they could not rebel...They could receive no education, [so] they could not think out or know the way to their salvation.... 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...." Dr. Ambedkar had an accurate understanding of the reality that until the stigma of being an ?untouchable? was removed, they would forever remain in continual enslavement due to the status they were born into. He realized that only way to ever remove the stigma completely would be to remove the title and system that had caused it. Gandhi?s inability to grasp this fact only insured the eternal servitude of low caste Hindus to the upper caste elite in India. Dr. Ambedkar wrote, ?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.? Ambedkar?s argument unfortunately did not convince Gandhi of the need to abolish the caste system. The strength of the caste system in Indian society toda y, coupled with the fact that untouchables find themselves in the same low position now as before Gandhi, indicates that Gandhi may have inadvertently given his mandate to this continual discrimination. The fact that untouchables are no more empowered now than before Gandhi proves that his view of untouchables gaining equality while remaining within the caste system was neither realistic nor practical, but instead seems to have done nothing to change their position within society. Instead of supporting the idea of abolishing a system that by mere purpose and definition sanctioned inequality, discrimination, and exploitation of human beings, he gave his support to its continual practice. Instead of trying to remove a system that had caused the continual oppression and enslavement of his fellow co-religionists for over several hundred years, he instead attempted to try to find a ?compromise? with it in order to reconcile old Hindu customs and traditions with New Age notions of equality and fair treatment. The status of lower caste Hindus today shows quite clearly how much that compromise failed. |
 | Addition to Gandhi Paper... (Sanj Singh - 15.Jul.01) |
| . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Chandran Gangadharan - 16.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Sanj Singh - 16.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Chandran Gangadharan - 16.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia - 16.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Chandran Gangadharan - 16.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia - 16.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Balvinder Singh S Bal - 16.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Kirpan Singh Singhshavenolastnames - 16.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia - 16.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Chandran Gangadharan - 16.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia - 16.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Manjinder A Singh - 17.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Manjinder A Singh - 17.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Pritamest Singh - 17.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Pritamest Singh - 18.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . . . Re: Addition to Gandhi Pa... (Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia - 16.Jul.01) | |
| . . . . Jains/Sikhs/Buddhists: ar... (Balvinder Singh S Bal - 16.Jul.01) |
