Evening star., 1933-08-13
GANDHI HAS BROKEN BACK
OF INDIA UNTOUCHABILITY
Recently Ended Hunger Strike Is Goal
for Which He Has TASTED and
Gone to Jail.


touchables. And I claim that If
there were a referendum of the I'm
touchables, would get their vote and
top the poll to boot ii. e., against
Ambedkarl. And would work from
one end of India to the other telling
the Untouchables that separate cleo
torates and separate reservations [of
seatsl are not the way to remove this
bar sinister which is the shame, not
! of the Untouchables, but of Orthodox
Hinduism. would not sell the vital
interest of the Untouchables even for
the sake of winning the freedom OF
Hinduism died than that untouchability
lived" Those were very powerful
statements for any caste Hindu to
make; and Gandhi, before a month had
passed, had occasion to prove that he
meant them
Macdonald Presides.
Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald
presided over the deliberations of this
d. conference. At their conclusion he
presented his award to the members
granting separate celebrates to several
OF the minoritieS, including Untouch-
ables, despite Gandhis persuasive ap-
peal to the contrary. The delegates
returned to India, Gandhi with them
and the English statesmen relaxed
little prematurely, as it turned out
GandhiS last sentence at the round
| table deserved more respect than the
British gave it. 1t had ominouS over
tones. If I were the only person to
resist Untouchability, I would resist
it with my life And with his life
he promptly began to back up what
he had said. He started the fast
unto death"
| However dramatic this posture may
have appeared to the world, it was
none the less justified by grave ex-
pedjency and provoked into being by
! the sincere conviction that it was
| the only way to avert disaster for the
| Untouchables Gandhi is emotionally
and constitutionally incapable of cheap
| histrionics, and he has never made a
deliberate grandstand play in his life.
If he is shrewd opportunist he is
also the sanest. the most liberal, ideal
istic humanitarian the Orient has pro-
duced in 10 centuries. His fast-as he
had perhaps anticipated-was effective.
It lasted six days. Macdonald, hectic
with annoyance and impotent before
the Mahatma's serene stubbornness,
surrendered. England patiently could
not afford to be the instrument of
Gandhi's death Neither could she af-
ford to seem to be- The Untouchable
clause was stricken from the Macdonald
award.
Hard to Sell New Idea.
The long campaign to eXtirpate from
the core of Hinduism all of the dis
graceful and hebetating influences of
Untouchability has been plagued and
hampered not only by British indiffer-
ence but by strong opposition from
thousands of orthodox high caste
is a creature of unbudging prejudice,
imbued with the conviction that all his
prejudices are established facts and
that all opinions of contrary nature
are either dangerous or silly or alto
gether false. 1t is almost impossible
to SELL new idea in India.
Gandhi Is well acquainted with this
form of blockade He has met it in
every social reform he has ever under
taken. When he began to agitate for
the extension of the temple entry
privilege for the Untouchables of the
Madras Presidency, he expected to en-
counter trouble among orthodox Hin
dus. That he had less trouble than he
anticipated was due rather more to
the force of the mans personality than
to the luminosity of his argument. At
that time he was in the Yerewada Jail
in Poona, about 100 miles southeast of
Bombay From his cell he was carry
ing on wide correspondence, and in
addition was editing the Untouchables'
weekly, Harlan, a happy Sanskrit
title meaning Children of God" The
paper had influence in Hindu circles
and the orthodox worshippers in the
Guruvayoor Temple in Madras were
caught up in the spirit Of Gandhis in
tense humanitarianism. They finally
agreed to let the Untouchables worship
with them. The actual temple entry
baked at the last minute by the temple
priests.
VerdictS InconteStable.
AS the trustees Of their temples. the
Hindu priests are practically unim-
peachable, their word is final and
their verdicts incontestable. The
judgment of the Guruvayoor priests
against Untouchables was widely pub
licized in India through Gandhi's
Harlan and many other papers. and
enjoyed extensive discussion by Hindus
all over the country Gandhi natur-
ally enough. condemned the action of
the trustees because it obstructed
progress at time when Hinduism was
psychologically prepared to accept its
own responsibility for the "bar sinis-
ter" of Untouchability and give the
pariahS of India a new social and re-
ligious deal
The dispute was carried to the Gen.
tral Assembly in New Delhi. and be-
came known as the legal disabilities"
feature of the reform movement. There
were two bills pending at the time
two which pertained intimately to
Untouchab bles-and neither one had
been permitted an introduction to the
floor of the Legislature. One was the
anti -Untouchable bill, the other was
the temple entry bill.
English legislators and sycophantic
Indians repeatedly deferred open dis
cussion of these bills. and the Guru-
vayoor situation remained at an awk-
ward standstill
First Had Four Purposes.
Gandhi, Of course. knew that all the
legal hokuS -pokus was pure nonsense,
compounded for dilatory purposes.
Harlan stormed with indignant pro-
test. Untouchables all over India be-
came collectively articulate and de-
manding. Young India, violently pro-
Gandhi, cheered every issue of the
paper, and when the Mahatma finally
announced that he was going to fast
again, this time for 81 days, England
herself became noticeably embarrassed.
1t did not seem probable that man
of So years, man whose normal
weight was under ITO pounds. could
survive an ordeal so grueling. Gandhi
was freed from Jail as soon as the fast
began.
Actually the fast had four purposes:
To protest the pettifoggery of the
priests in their action toward Un-
touchables, to censure British apathy
in regard to the Untouchable bills in
the Central Legislature. to re-empha-
size to orthodox Hindus their respon-
sibility for the pariah curse and, final
ly. to bolster his own "soul-force"
through self -purification. Fasting is a
common thing in the Orient and older
than the Old Testament. 1t is a pc