Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-12
GANDHI FORCES CASTE HTNDUS
TO ELEVATE 'UNTOUCHABLES"
Indian independence Leader Places Glass
Equality Above All Other Items in
Gable Telling Aims.

OF precedence while a Magyar Zone OF
the subdivisions of the untouchables)
can pollute a man of higher caste only
by touching him. people of the Kan
malan group, including maSons, black
smiths. carpenters and workers in leatn-
er, pollute at a distance OF "a rect,
toddy drawers "a native liquor at st
feet, Pulayan or Cheruman cultivators
at 4S feet, while IN the case OF the
Paratyan CPariahs), who eat beef, the
range of pollution is no less than %
feet.
For many years the Government,
aided by the Indian social reformers,
has been trying to uplift the condition
OF these untouchableS. Perhaps 1t would
be correct to say that the influence OF
Christian missionaries has been the
greatest single factor in the movement
for the removal of untouchability. the
early Indian reformers were either I'M
pressed by the Christian ideal. which at
once elevated the converted Pariah to
Semblance Of decency, not permitted
him before, or were alarmed at the first
increase in the number of Sudra con-
verts to Christianity.
Recent Advance Greatest.
The greatest advance in this direc-
ton has however, been made in recent
years by Mahatma Gandhi. Through
his movement Of Satyagraha and nom
cooperation he has for at least IL years
carried the gospel Of removal OF I'M
touchablity to all corners OF India:
Everywhere Nationalist have organized
special committees for the specific pur-
pose Of the removal of untouchability.
/ Many years before he ever asked his
Acknowledgements to give up this, the
most Objectionable feature of the caste
system, Mahatfna Gandhi had adopted
as his own daughter, a girl of the low
est untouchable caste. And although
despite his being member OF the tnlrd
caste-hiS spiritual eminence has mace
him the superior of millions OF Brah-
minis, who now offer him the same ritu-
al as accorded the gods-he mas re-
tanned the Pariah girl as his most be-
loved child.
The disabilities and Determinations
with which the untouchables suffer have
for centuries bordered on the inhuman.
But the conscience of Hinduism had
not been touched until Gandhi brought
the problem before it, in all its lurid
cruelty and injustice.
Freedom Not Deserved.
"If YOU cannot treat Justly human
beings who are given in your care by
YOUR common creator you 90 not de-
serve to be freed from the domination
of Others" he said to them.
Until few years ago the untouch-
ables were not permitted-and that
holds true for the most part even today
to drink water from the same faucets,
draw water from the same wells, walk
on the same streets, enter or worship
in the same temples, go to the same
schools, travel on the same railroad
trains or tramcars, as the caste Hindus.
They were not counted as human beings
in any sense except numerically As fol-
lowers of Hinduism. And all this in
spite of the fact that Lord Krishna. the
greatest of Hindu incarnations, was a
member of the dark race.
But now the bigotry of other days
seems to be fast giving way. More than
all else, Gandhi's concentrated cam
paign for the wiping out of this evil is