MRA: Then the right to work should have been recognised as a fundamental right.
BRA: I was only one of the members of the drafting committee.
MRA: so you became a lamb before the lions.
BRA: I bleated good deal. I am now roaring
MRA: As a lawyer, you know how the judges will always decide in favour of the high caste, upper class Hindus.
BRA: Of course, the only Non-Brahmin in our Government of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru fought hard against the right to own property being a fundamental right… But Babu Rajendra Prasad felt that Nehru wanted to make India into Russia. The Caste Hindus, therefore, only conceded the other rights of man as directive principles… to be fought for in Parliament
MRA: Which could be weighted in favour of men of property.
BRA: The socialists can win a majority one day. And ask for redress. Any how, the outcastes and tribals have been declared Scheduled Castes. They will be given certain privileges to uplift them like reservation for admission to schools and colleges and scholarships.
MRA: The Caste Hindus will always resent reservation.
BRA: We must organise ourselves. Arouse the disinherited to fight. There are more outcastes than Caste Hindus if we include the Muslims who are also regarded as Untouchables by the casteists. And the tribal people. Together, with the socialists they can abolish ownership of private property. No landlords, no tenants. No landless labourers.
MRA: State capitalism might also prove to be dangerous. You know what Stalin has done in Russia. Imposed a set of bureaucrats on the people in the name of Communism.
BRA: Of course, we must protect the individual from invasion of his rights from other individuals. Liberty of the person must always be a primary concern.
That was in my mind when I urged for fundamental rights.
MRA: If that was in your mind then you might urge Parliament to revise fundamental rights. We must fight against both state capitalism and private capitalism. You know how the vast majority of people everywhere are subject to the will of the employers.
BRA: Indeed, liberty so far seems to be the liberty of the landlord to increase rent. The capitalist always wants to reduce wages and increase hours of work. Capitalism is a dictatorship of private employer.
MRA: The fundamental rights right to life, liberty and happiness-remain a dream.
BRA: The new young must go on fighting. They can change the constitution.
MRA: This may not be possible without upturning like the 1789 revolution in France.
BRA: Strange to hear his from you. I thought that by making Gandhi the liberator of Untouchables in your novel, you have been converted to non-violence.
MRA: I could not live up to the Mahatma’s ideal. We had to face Hitler and Mussolini. I went to Spain and joined the International Brigade. Though I fainted at the sight of blood in a clinic and was asked to opt out.. But one had to take sides in the second world war. A poet called the so-called war for freedom of the democracies against fascism, the fight for a “half lie” against a “big lie”
BRA: You know, though the Mahatma was all for the Harijans, he did not get up his beliefs in the Varnashram dictated by the Bhagwad Gita... By calling them sons of Hari, the supreme God, he thought he was exalting them. In fact they were left at the lowest levels.
MRA: Is that why you have adopted Buddhism as your religion?
BRA: May be that was the chief consideration. Also by remaining a scheduled Castes citizen, one accepts the status of the outcaste.
(To be continued)
