It is worthy of note that the subjects Committee accepted without any
opposition the clause regarding the sin of untouchability. It is well
that the National assembly passed the resolution stating that the
removal of this blot on Hinduism was necessary for the attainment of
Swaraj. The Devil succeeds only by receiving help from his fellows. He
always takes advantage of the weakest spots in our natures in order to
gain mastery over us. Even so does the Government retain its control
over us through our weaknesses or vices. And if we would render
ourselves proof against its machination, we must remove our weaknesses.
It is for that reason that I have called non-co-operation a process of
purification. As soon as that process is completed, this government must
fall to pieces for want of the necessary environment, just as mosquitos
cease to haunt a place whose cess-pools are filled up and dried.
Has not a just Nemesis overtaken us for the crime of untouchability?
Have we not reaped as we have sown? Have we not practised Dwyerism and
O'Dwyerism on our own kith and kin? We have segregated the 'pariah' and
we are in turn segregated in the British Colonies. We deny him the use
of public wells; we throw the leavings of our plates at him. His very
shadow pollutes us. Indeed there is no charge that the 'pariah' cannot
fling in our faces and which we do not fling in the faces of Englishmen.
How is this blot on Hinduism to be removed? 'Do unto others as you would
that others should do unto you.' I have often told English officials
that, if they are friends and servants of India, they should come down
from their pedestal, cease to be patrons, demonstrate by their loving
deeds that they are in every respect our friends, and believe us to be
equals in the same sense they believe fellow Englishmen to be their
equals. After the experiences of the Punjab and the Khilafat, I have
gone a step further and asked them to repent and to change their hearts.
Even so is it necessary for us Hindus to repent of the wrong we have
done, to alter our behaviour towards those whom we have 'suppressed' by
a system as devilish as we believe the English system of the Government
of India to be. We must not throw a few miserable schools at them; we
must not adopt the air of superiority towards them. We must treat them
as our blood brothers as they are in fact. We must return to them the
inheritance of which we have robbed them. And this must not be the act
of a few English-knowing reformers merely, but it must be a conscious
voluntary effort on the part of the masses. We may not wait till
eternity for this much belated reformation. We must aim at bringing it
about within this year of grace, probation, preparation and _tapasya_.
It is a reform not to follow _Swaraj_ but to precede it.
Untouchability is not a sanction of religion, it is a devise of Satan.
The devil has always quoted scriptures. But scriptures cannot transcend
reason and truth. They are intended to purify reason and illuminate
truth. I am not going to burn a spotless horse because the Vedas are
reported to have advised, tolerated, or sanctioned the sacrifice. For me
the Vedas are divine and unwritten. 'The letter killeth.' It is the
spirit that giveth the light. And the spirit of the Vedas is purity,
truth, innocence, chastity, humility, simplicity, forgiveness,
godliness, and all that makes a man or woman noble and brave. There is
neither nobility nor bravery in treating the great and uncomplaining
scavengers of the nation as worse than dogs to be despised and spat
upon. Would that God gave us the strength and the wisdom to become
voluntary scavengers of the nation as the 'suppressed' classes are
forced to be. There are Augean stables enough and to spare for us to
clean.