Gandhi, dead or alive, is kept in the news because India’s Ruling Class feels that he serves its class and caste interests. And now, 35 years after his death, and almost forgotten except on officially sponsored yearly rituals, and when the value system for which Gandhi stood is crumbling, the Ruling Class is trying to resurrect Gandhi through a multi-million rupee film.
Because, the Ruling Class survives only on Gandhism. We want to make it clear that we have nothing against the Ruling Class calling him Mahatma. Who are we to object? Those who have been benefitted by him have every right to sing his praise. Just as we concede their right, they must give us also the right to assess this “Father of the nation”. Mrs. Savita Ambedkar said at Kolar that she had great respect for the Rastrapita, though he had not done anything for Dalits. Gandhi had come in the way of the happiness and benefits of Dalits.” (Indian Express, Feb. 18). This middle-class Messiah had a role to play and he played it well. Just as the people get the govt. they deserve, the society also throws up the leader it deserves. The India of the 20th century -t he dark age – perhaps, deserved only a leader like him. Already, a renowned historian like R. C. Mozumdar has said that Gandhi was “history’s magnificent failure”. History has already pronounced its verdict on Gandhi. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, India’s greatest son after the Buddha; has called him “a successful humbug.” And said : “If a man with a god’s name on his tongue and a sword under his armpit deserved the appellation of a Mahatma, then Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a Mahatma.” Therefore, it is no surprise that Dalits in many parts of India consider him their Enemy No. 1. But was he at least an honest enemy?
“Mahatmas have come and Mahatmas have gone. But the Untouchables have remained as Untouchables,” said Ambedkar. Because, of the 21 “fasts-unto-death”, that he staged there was not a single one that he undertook for the sake of Untouchables – renamed Harijans by him. And yet, the Ruling Class, with the Press at its command successfully painted him as the one who removed untouchability from India! Can there be a greater falsehood than this? He might not have fasted for Untouchables, but he did go on hunger strike against them. And this was described by the Ruling Class as Gandhi’s “Epic Fast” (1932) that culminated in the historic Poona Pact which Ambedkar described as “nothing but a declaration of war by Mr. Gandhi against the Untouchables“. If the Untouchables are living under a system of slavery unparalleled in the whole world today, the ignoble Poona Pact gave it the official seal.
India’s Press has been also tomtoming that Gandhi worked for the temple entry of Harijans. There can’t be a bigger bluff than this. The Guruvayur temple, which was just in the news, had already exposed this yet another Gandhian humbug as early as 1938. The person who exposed it was a Brahmin leader from Malabar – Ranga lyer. When Kelappan went on fast to secure entry of Untouchables to this temple, it was Gandhi who opposed it. And Ranga lyer, who brought a motion in the then Madras Assembly, spoke about it with great regret. All these are on record. (Ambedkar: Gandhi and Gandhism, Bheem Patrika publication-page 106-118). The pity of it is that this man, who was advertised as the champion of the Untouchables and Muslims, turned out to be their Enemy No. 1 by these very sections. Subsequent events have fully proved it. What a tragedy! How soon the myth got exposed. History is no respecter of personalities. And the Gandhi film by a sheer coincidence portrays exactly this very Gandhi. Look, today it is the very Muslims and Dalits who are voicing the protest against the Gandhi film that has already won many awards and has attracted crowds for months in the West. The lead actor – Ben Kingsley, as Gandhi – is declared the best actor of the year. But the film has sorely disappointed and angered the Dalits and Muslims. Top officials of the Govt ., the Prime Minister, who have seen the premiere of the film, failed to tell the director Richard Attenborough, on the absolute need to include the tremendous incidents leading to the Epic Fast of Gandhi over the famous Communal Award announced by the British Premier, Sir Ramsay Macdonald, on Aug. 17, 1932. The Award, inter alia, provided for separate electorates for Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Europeans and the Dalits. Ambedkar was mainly responsible for securing separate electorate for Dalits. Earlier (March 11, 1932), Gandhi had warned the British at the Second Round Table Conference in London, that he would resist with his life the grant of separate electorates to the Dalits, for, in his opinion. “it would create a division in Hinduism which I cannot possibly look forward to with any satisfaction whatsoever”. He added, “I do not mind the Depressed Classes, if they so desire being converted to Islam or Christianity, I should tolerate that, but I cannot tolerate what is in store for Hinduism if there are two divisions set forth in the villages.” Is it not clear from this that Gandhi was more interested in Hinduism than in the Dalits? In a statement made on Sep. 19, 1932, on Gandhi’s threatened fast, Ambedkar said, “Gandhi chooses to let everybody else except the Depressed Classes retain separate electorates given to them. If the nation is not going to be split up by separate electorates given to the Muslims and the Sikhs, the Hindu society cannot be said to be split up by separate electorates if the Depressed Classes are given the same. His conscience is not aroused if the nation is split by the arrangements of special electorates for classes and communities other than Depressed Classes. But Gandhi’s ways of thinking are strange. I am prepared to consider any proposal of Gandhi. I, however, trust that Gandhi will not drive me to the necessity of making a choice between his life and the rights of my people, for, I can never consent to deliver my people bound hand and foot to the caste Hindus for generations to come”. Most Hindu leaders, including Dr. Moonje, President of the Hindu Mahasabha and founder of the RSS, reconciled themselves to the provisions of the Communal Award, there being no alternative. But Gandhi alone was determined to deny separate electorates to the Dalits. And the propaganda is that Gandhi was the champion of Harijans.
Gandhi started his fast on Sept. 20, 1932 as a prisoner in the Yerwada Jail, Poona. Immediately a furious campaign was started against Ambedkar by the Hindu leaders and the Brahmin Press to force him to agree to the abolition of separate electorate. In turn, Ambedkar said : “As I had the privilege of representing the Untouchables at the RTC, it was assumed that the assent of the Untouchables would not be valid unless I was a party to it. The surprising fact is that my position as the leader of the Untouchables of India was not only not questioned by the Congress, but it was accepted as a fact. All eyes naturally turned to me as the man of the moment or rather as the villain of the piece”. The claims of Gandhi and the Congress to represent the Untouchables vanished into thin air and Ambedkar stood out on the Indian scene as the only man to stop Gandhi’s fast or as some people said Gandhi’s blackmail. At the meeting of the Hindu leaders held at Poona – Madan Mohan Malaviya presiding – Ambedkar was asked to speak first for resolving the issue. Ambedkar said calmly that “it was very proper that every man should try to save the precious life of Gandhi, but in the absence of any alternative proposal from Gandhi, there seemed to be no way out. But one thing is decided. To save Gandhi’s life, I would not be a party to any proposal that would be against the interests of my people”. The Hindu leaders expressed shock. Jawaharlal Nehru, who was then in the Allahabad jail, was tormented by the thought of Gandhi’s possible death. He wrote to his daughter, “I am shaken up completely and I know not what to do. My little world in which he has occupied such a big place, shakes and totters, and there seems to be darkness and emptiness everywhere ….. Shall I not see him again? And whom shall I go to when I am in doubt and require wise counsel, or am afflicted and in sorrow and need loving comfort? What shall we all do when our beloved chief who inspired us and led us has gone?” Gandhi offered reservation of seats for the Dalits under a joint electorate with the Hindus. Ambedkar asked for larger number of seats than that announced by the British Govt. if it is to be joint electorate and a referendum after 20 years. While the Hindu leaders were higgle-haggling for small increases in the quantum of seats, Ambedkar finally insisted on representation according to population both in the Central & State Legislatures. The negotiating leaders were very reluctant to agree to this principle, but Gandhi had no objection to give the Dalits any number of seats so long as they were not separated politically from the rest of the Hindus. The final figure was settled at 148, as against 71 in the Communal Award, and the Poona Pact was signed on the Sept. 24th, the 5th day of the fast. Gandhi ended the fast on the 26th after the Pact was accepted by the British. The Pact was signed on behalf of the Dalits by Ambedkar, and on behalf of the Hindus by Malaviya. The other signatories were M. R. Jayakar, Tej Bahadur Sapru, C. Rajagopalachari, M. C. Raja, Devdas Gandhi, Biswas, Rao Bahadur Srinivasan, Rajbhoj and others. The Pact has long been regarded as one extracted from the Untouchables under force, coercion and spiritual duress. It was a Pact more to save Gandhi than to serve the Untouchables. Anyway, the Poona Pact is part and parcel of not only Gandhi’s political life, but part of Indian history – and the future of Indian constitutional law, and the fate of Untouchables, were centred on Dr. Ambedkar’s signature. Any life of Gandhi would be incomplete without the great incidents leading to the Poona Pact. Ambedkar not only saved Gandhi’s life, but also his own, for, the Hindus would have butchered Ambedkar and many others if Gandhi had died in this crisis. Apart from the eminent Hindu leaders pleading with Ambedkar for concessions to save Gandhi’s life, there was Devdas Gandhi, last son of Gandhi and son-in-law of C. Rajagopalachari, who “with tears in his eyes, described the condition of his father to Ambedkar and entreated him not to hold over the agreement by pressing for a referendum”, which, however, was finally dropped by Ambedkar. It was also reported that Kasturba, wife of Gandhi, begged Ambedkar to save her mangalya by saving her husband from certain death. But alas the Gandhi film is silent on this!!! The Poona Pact is a vital part of Gandhi’s life. He had made abolition of untouchability a great a concern for him as the freedom of India. He had asserted that if freedom for India does not also mean freedom from untouchability, he would rather not have freedom at all. In the context of the blatant omission of Ambedkar from the Gandhi film, it is interesting and shocking to note that Jawaharlal Nehru, in his book, Discovery Of India, written in Ahmednagar prison in 1944, has not said a word about Ambedkar or the Poona Pact. When scores of Muslim, British and Christian characters figure in the book, Ambedkar, who had played such a large part in the making of the 1935 Act and safe-guarding the interests of the Dalits has been completely omitted. If Sir Richard had consulted books such as these also, there is no wonder he treated Ambedkar as of no importance. We Dalits are very much perturbed over this gross omission. We consider the blackout as a grave insult to our leader and saviour, a contempt to the problems of the Untouchables and a travesty of truth and history. Therefore, we protest against this film.
