Evening star., 1933-08-13


tial to vacations and to American pro-
fessorjis and because of this, most
anxious to get me to visit his native
village the next time the college calen-
dar afforded us a holiday. I finally
yielded. A few days later, on drizzly,
chilly afternoon in early February, we
arrived at his village and climbed down
from the lofty backs of a couple OF
borrowed camels.
The village school was in session.
About 80 Indian children were in at
tendance, all squatting about on the
ground and intoning their lessons to
a bearded pundit. From time to time
the pundit got up, walked over to the
edge of the compound and picked up
states which he found teetering on top
of the fence rails. He read these and
corrected them. then put them back
on the fence and returned to his little
group under the trees.
Must Put States on Fence.
asked Sankarlingam about it.
"They are studying on the other side
Of the fence On this side are the caste
Hindus," he told me.
You mean the Untouchables are on
the other side?" I pursued.
"Yes, quite so, professorji. One does
not touch them. The pundit cannot
take their states. They must put the
States on the fence first. Then he will
read the states and set them back"
But wouldn't it be more efficient" I
argued, IF the Untouchables did their
studying inside the compound along
with the others?"
The we'll is In the compound, sir.
They cannot use it. They must find
other water"
I spent two or three days in
Sankarlingam's village. Before We left
he showed me the Untouchables' water
supply It was natural scoop in the
ground, oval in shape, about 40 feet
long and half full of feculent water. 1t
had no inlet and no outlet. 1t cap
tured the surface water of the meager
Christmas rains over small stretch
Of 6 or 7 acres, but it served to
keep the Untouchables supplied until
the monsoon season in June. when
enough rain would fall to fill the shall
low basin to the top. In all seasons
of the year the village cattle drank
from this same pool, so did the dogs.
In the hot weather water buftaloeS
used it as q wallow.
Shares Gandhis Hatred.
The sight impressed me, and before
the end of my two years in the country
I had seen more than enough of the
discriminatory treatment of these un-
fortunate people to share and sympa-
thize with Gandhi's undying hatred for
the institution in its entirety.
An understanding of the utter deg
radiation in the lives of 1ndia's 45,000,-
900 Of pariah Hindus is not to be had
through the chance observations of a
day of two. however lively those OBJ
servations may be. Restrictions upon
the depressed classes vary according
to the orthodoxy of the province in
which they happen to be living. In the
Punjab, the most enlightened province
on the Indian peninsula, orthodox
Hindu law and observance have been
appreciably relaxed in the last century,
with the happy result that Untouch-
ables are by no means so 'untouchable"
there as they would be had they been
born farther south. One rarely sees a
Punjabi Brahmin going out of his way
to escape the shadow of an Untouch-
able, though one sees this commonly in
every province south of Delhi.
But certain important restrictions,
both social and occupational, are preva
lent in every province. Untouchabies
must not enter Hindu temples at any
time. They must marry endogamously.
1llcy IIluSI ucNSl puG lllt1I IId1luS UpOlI
caste Hindu. They must eat and
drink apart from caste Hindus. They
must live in separate parts of the vii
lage and work within circumScribed
areas of the village farm land They
must not enter any accredited business
industry, profession. The highest oc-
cupational level to which they may as
pire is that Of shoemaking and black
smithing because Hindus attach shame
and uncleanliness to anything pertain
ing to the feet). BY heritage their
vocationS are Scavenglng, street sweep
ing and sewer cleaning. They must
never use community wells. laundering
places or bathing CHATS. They are fire.
quently barred from certain highways
and from particularly popular short
cuts between highways. These are the
standard prohibitions There are many
more. less important and less general,
sprinkled throughout the country.
Remains An Untouchable.
One becomes an Untouchable by
being born of Untouchable parentage.
and he remains an Untouchable
throughout his life, propogating Un-
touchable children if he marries. The
essence of caste is bound in the in
flexible tradition of pursuing the labors
of ones forefathers Unfortunately it
Is also the rule with outcastes Hindu
philosophy is based on the belief that
one is what he is because that is what
he was born, and that he can advance
to something more fortunate only
through a sequence OF reincarnat1onS.
Such a system is hardest on the Un-
touchables simply because they are on
the bottom of the pile.
MohandaS Karamchand Gandhi for
many years has recognized the evils in
herent In the ''untouchable" feature of
Hinduism, and he has repeatedly at
tempted to correct them. He made an
effort in this direction at the second
Round Table Conference in London.
The members were gathered for the
purpose of devising an immediate and
practicable solution to the minorities
problem, the problem of the Untouch-
ables included. The conference was
doomed to dismal failure from the
start. Every Indian who attended did
SO at the invitation of the crown. Not
q single representative was elected, ap
pointed, or designated by his Indian
constituents in his native province.
None of the Indian representatives eX-
cept Gandhi himself was a representa-
tive Indian national They represented
the communities to which they be-
longed, whether Sikh, Indian Christian,
Mussulman, depressed classes (Un-
touchable), Anglo-Indian, Hindu or ma
tive state, and they were all suspicious
Of each other and determined to main
tain the integrity of their respective
communities when the actual award OF
seats in provincial legislatures was de-
cided
Betrays Trust of Pariahs.
This was exactly the sort of set-up
England had hoped for and the results
OF the conference were inevitable. Al
most every Indian capitulated for sep
arate electorates for his community.
DR.. Ambedkar. the delegate represent
ing the Untouchables. astonished Gand-
hi by throwing in his vote with the
rest. In doing this, Ambedkar betrayed
IL Ix,L lie, e ri he nd rod