Mr. Candler some time ago asked me in an imaginary interview whether if
I was sincere in my professions of Hindu-Mahomedan Unity. I would eat
and drink with a Mahomedean and give my daughter in marriage to a
Mahomedan. This question has been asked again by some friends in another
form. Is it necessary for Hindu Mahomedan Unity that there should he
interdining and intermarrying? The questioners say that if the two are
necessary, real unity can never take place because crores of _Sanatanis_
would never reconcile themselves to interdining, much less to
intermarriage.
I am one of those who do not consider caste to be a harmful institution.
In its origin caste was a wholesome custom and promoted national
well-being. In my opinion the idea that interdining or intermarrying is
necessary for national growth, is a superstition borrowed from the West.
Eating is a process just as vital as the other sanitary necessities of
life. And if mankind had not, much to its harm, made of eating a fetish
and indulgence we would have performed the operation of eating in
private even as one performs the other necessary functions of life in
private. Indeed the highest culture in Hinduism regards eating in that
light and there are thousands of Hindus still living who will not eat
their food in the presence of anybody. I can recall the names of several
cultured men and women who ate their food in entire privacy but who
never had any illwill against anybody and who lived on the friendliest
terms with all.
Intermarriage is a still more difficult question. If brothers and
sisters can live on the friendliest footing without ever thinking of
marrying each other, I can see no difficulty in my daughter regarding
every Mahomedan brother and _vice versa_. I hold strong views on
religion and on marriage. The greater the restraint we exercise with
regard to our appetites whether about eating or marrying, the better we
become from a religious standpoint. I should despair of ever cultivating
amicable relations with the world, if I had to recognise the right or
the propriety of any young man offering his hand in marriage to my
daughter or to regard it as necessary for me to dine with anybody and
everybody. I claim that I am living on terms of friendliness with the
whole world. I have never quarrelled with a single Mahomedan or
Christian but for years I have taken nothing but fruit in Mahomedan or
Christian households. I would most certainly decline to eat food cooked
from the same plate with my son or to drink water out of a cup which his
lips have touched and which has not been washed. But the restraint or
the exclusiveness exercised in these matters by me has never affected
the closest companionship with the Mahomedan or the Christian friends
or my sons.
But interdining and intermarriage have never been a bar to disunion,
quarrels and worse. The Pandavas and the Kauravas flew at one another's
throats without compunction although they interdined and intermarried.
The bitterness between the English and the Germans has not yet died out.
The fact is that intermarriage and interdining are not necessary factors
in friendship and unity though they are often emblems thereof. But
insistence on either the one or the other can easily become and is
to-day a bar to Hindu-Mahomedan Unity. If we make ourselves believe that
Hindus and Mahomedans cannot be one unless they interdine or intermarry,
we would be creating an artificial barrier between us which it might be
almost impossible to remove. And it would seriously interfere with the
flowing unity between Hindus and Mahomedans if, for example, Mahomedan
youths consider it lawful to court Hindu girls. The Hindu parents will
not, even if they suspected any such thing, freely admit Mahomedans to
their homes as they have begun to do now. In my opinion it is necessary
for Hindu and Mahomedan young men to recognise this limitation.
I hold it to be utterly impossible for Hindus and Mahomedans to
intermarry and yet retain intact each other's religion. And the true
beauty of Hindu-Mahomedan Unity lies in each remaining true to his own
religion and yet being true to each other. For, we are thinking of
Hindus and Mahomedans even of the most orthodox type being able to
regard one another as natural friends instead of regarding one another
as natural enemies as they have done hitherto.
What then does the Hindu-Mahomedan Unity consist in and how can it be
best promoted? The answer is simple. It consists in our having a common
purpose, a common goal and common sorrows. It is best promoted by
co-operating to reach the common goal, by sharing one another's sorrow
and by mutual toleration. A common goal we have. We wish this great
country of ours to be greater and self-governing.[4] We have enough
sorrows to share and to-day seeing that the Mahomedans are deeply
touched on the question of Khilafat and their case is just, nothing can
be so powerful for winning Mahomedans friendship for the Hindu as to
give his whole-hearted support to the Mahomedan claim. No amount of
drinking out of the same cup or dining out of the same bowl can bind the
two as this help in the Khilafat question.
And mutual toleration is a necessity for all time and for all races. We
cannot live in peace if the Hindu will not tolerate the Mahomedan form
of worship of God and his manners and customs or if the mahomedans will
be impatient of Hindu idolatory, cow-worship. It is not necessary for
toleration that I must approve of what I tolerate. I heartily dislike
drinking, meat eating and smoking, but I tolerate all these in Hindus,
Mahomedans and Christians even as I expect them to tolerate my
abstinence from all these, although they may dislike it. All the
quarrels between the Hindus and the Mahomedans have arisen from each
wanting to _force_ the other his view.