It is said that there have been altogether 21 fasts to the credit of Mr. Gandhi. Some were for the sake of Hindu-Muslim unity and quite a number as atonements for the immoralities committed by the inmates of his Ashram. One was against the other of the Government of Bombay refusing to give the work of a scavenger in the goal to a prisoner by name, Mr. Patwardan although he demanded it. In these 21 fasts there is not one undertaken for the removal of Untouchability. These are very significant facts.
In 1930 came the: Round Table Conference. Mr. Gandhi joined the deliberations of the Conference in 1931. The Conference was concerned with a vital question of framing a constitution for a self-governing of India. It was unanimously held that if India was to be a self-governing country, then the government must be a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Everybody agreed that only when a government in a real sense could a government by the people be a government of the people and for the people. The problem was how to make it a government by the people in a country rent into communities, majorities and minorities, who are charged not merely with social cleavages but also with social antagonism. Having regard to these circumstances it was agreed that in India there was no possibility of government by the people unless Legislature and the Executive were framed based on communal representation.
The problem of the Untouchables loomed large at the Conference. It assumed a new aspect. The question was: Should the Untouchables be left as they were to the tender mercies of the Hindus, or should they be given the means to protect themselves by extending to them the principle of communal representation? The Untouchables strongly objected to be left to the pleasure of the Hindus and demanded the same protection as was given to the other minorities. The contention of the Untouchables was accepted by all. It was just and logical. They contended that the chasm between the Hindus and Muslims, between Hindus and Sikhs, between Hindus and Christians is nothing as compared with the chasm between the Hindus and the Untouchables. | It is the widest and the deepest. The chasm between the Hindus and the Muslims is religious and not social. That between the Hindus and the Untouchables is both religious and social. The antagonism arising out of the chasm existing between Hindus and Muslims cannot spell political disaster to the Muslims because the relationship between the Hindus and Muslims is not that of master and slave. It is one of mere estrangement. On the | other hand, the chasm between Hindus and the Untouchables must spell political disaster for the 1 Untouchables because the relationship between the two is that of master and slave. The Untouchables contended that the attempts to close the gap between them and the Hindus by means of social process had been tried for ages. They had all failed. There was no hope of their success. Since power is being transferred into the hands of the Hindu majority they must have political safeguards of the same sort as, if not better, than those conceded to the Muslims and other minorities.
Here was an opportunity to Mr. Gandhi to show his sympathy to the Untouchables by lending his support to their demand and thereby strengthen their power of resistance against the tyranny and oppression of the Hindus. Instead of showing his sympathy, Mr. Gandhi used every means in his power to defeat them. He made a pact with the Muslims with a view to isolate the Untouchables. Failing to win the Musalmans to his side, he went on a fast unto death to compel the British Government to withdraw their decision to give to the Untouchables the same political rights as given to the Muslims and other minority communities. When the fast failed and Mr. Gandhi was obliged to sign a pact’— called the Poona Pact — which conceded the political demands of the Untouchables he took his revenge by letting the Congress employ foul electioneering tactics to make their political rights of no avail”. (To be continued)
