Much is said of the inferiority of character that has resulted from the Untouchables' long degradation, But evidence of the survival of virtues, through all the crushing of the centuries, is by no means lacking. The Mahars, for example, outcastes used by caste villagers as are the Palers of Madras, practically as slaves [1] and for the basest tasks, are now employed by Government as couriers. In that capacity they are said to be entirely trustworthy, transporting hundreds of rupees without abstracting the smallest coin. The Dheds, Untouchables from whom, in the Bombay region, most Britons' servants are drawn, and whom few high caste Indians would tolerate near their persons, are, as a rule, honest, sober, and faithful.
As to the rating of converts to Christianity--there are now about five million of them--opinions differ; but in any case the fact stands that these converts are set free, as far as they can grasp freedom, from caste bonds. The faces of the Hindus are fixed against them, to be sure. But of the converts of the third generation many experienced persons are found to say that they are the hope of India.
[1. Joint Select Committee on the Government of India ., Vol. II, Minutes of Evidence, p. 188, Rai Bahadur K. V. Reddi; "They are the slaves of the Nation."]
So much, thus far, Britain, greatly aided By the Christian Missions, has accomplished for the outcaste, by patient, up-hill work, teaching, persuading, encouraging, on either side of the social gulf. And the last few years have seen the rise of new portents in the sky.
One of these is the tendency, in the National Social Conference and in Hindu political conventions, to declare openly against the oppression of the outcaste. But these declarations, though eloquent, have as yet borne little fruit other than words. A second phenomenon is the appearance of Indian volunteer associations partially pledged against Untouchability. These include the Servants of India,[2] avowedly political; Lord Sin-ha's society for the help of the outcastes of Bengal and Assam; the Brahmo Samaj, and others. Their work, useful where it touches, is sporadic, and infinitesimal compared to the need, but notable in comparison with the nothingness that went before.
[2. A Brief Account of the Work of the Servants of India Society, Aryabhushan Press, Poona, 1924, pp. 60-1.]
For no such conception is native to India. "All our Indian social work of today," the most distinguished of the Brahmo Samaj leaders said to me, "is frankly an imitation of the English and an outgrowth of theii influence in the land." Again and again I heard the gist of that statement from the lips of thoughtful Indians, in frank acknowledgment of the source of the budding change.
"The curse of Untouchability prevails to this day in all parts of India," said Sir Narayan Chandravarkar,[3] adding, "with the liberalizing forces of the British Government, the problem is leaping into full light. Thanks to that Government, it has become...an all-India problem."
[3. Hindu reformer, Judge of the High Court of Bombay, quoted in India in 1920, p. 135.]
Mr. Gandhi has been less ready to acknowledge beneficent influence from such a source--has, in fact, described the whole administrative system in India as "vile beyond description." But for the last five years his own warfare on Untouchability has not flagged even though his one unfaltering co-worker therein has been the British Government, aided preeminently by the Salvation Army. In its course he reprinted from the Indian vernacular press a learned Brahman pundit's recent statement on the subject, including this passage:[4]
[4. Young India, July 29, 1926, p. 268. Mr. Gandhi's phrase quoted a few lines above will be found in Gandhi's Letters on Indian Af* fairs, Madras, V. Narayanah and Co., p. 121.]
Untouchability is a necessity for man's growth.
Man has magnetic powers about him. This sakti[5] is like milk. It will be damaged by improper contacts. If one can keep musk and onion together, one may mix Brahmans and Untouchables.
[5. Energy, or the power of the Supreme personified.]
It should be enough that Untouchables are not denied the privileges of the other world.
Says Mr. Gandhi, in comment on the pundit's creed:[6]
[6. Young India, July 29, 1926.]
If it was possible to deny them the privileges of the other world, it is highly likely that the defenders of the monster would isolate them even in the other world.
"Among living Indians," says Professor Rushbrook Williams,[7] "Mr. Gandhi has done most to impress upon his fellow countrymen the necessity for elevating the depressed classes...When he was at the height of his reputation, the more orthodox sections of opinion did not dare to challenge his schemes."
[7. India in 1924-25, p. 264.]
But today the defenders of Untouchability are myriad, and, though Mr. Gandhi lives his faith, but few of his supporters have at any time cared to follow him so far.
On January 5, 1925, a mass meeting of Hindus was held in Bombay to protest against Mr. Gandhi's "heresy" in attacking Untouchability. The presiding officer, Mr. Manamohandas Ramji, explained that Untouchability rests on a plane with the segregation of persons afflicted with contagious diseases. Later he interpreted the speaker who pointedly suggested lynching for "heretics" who "threaten the disruption of Hindu society," to mean only that Hindus are "prepared to sacrifice their lives for the Hindu religion in order to preserve its ancient purity." The meeting closed after appointing a committee specially to undermine Mr. Gandhi's propaganda.
And it is fair to say that the discussions of Untouchability evoked by successive introductions of the subject in the great Hindu conventions show mainly by the heat of the system's defenders that ground has been won.
"You saw," said Mr. Gandhi, "the squabble that arose over it, in the Hindu Mahasabha." But Untouchability is going, in spite of all opposition, and going fast. It has degraded Indian humanity. The 'Untouchables' are treated as if less than beasts. Their very shadow denies in the name of God. I am as strong or stronger in denouncing Untouchability as I am in denouncing British methods imposed on India. Untouchability for me is more insufferable than British rule. If Hinduism hugs Untouchability, then Hinduism is dead and gone."[8][9]
[8. A hot and disorderly demonstration directed against those who would relax the pains of the Untouchables had persisted in the session of this great Hindu Convention of 1926.]
[9. Verbal statement to the author. Revised by Mr. Gandhi.]
Meantime another and a curious development has come to the Untouchables' aid. With the rapid Indianization of Government services, with the rapid concessions in Indian autonomy that have characterized British administration since the World War, an intense jealousy has arisen between the Hindu three-quarters and the Muhammadan fourth of the population. This subject will be treated elsewhere. Here it will suffice merely to name it as the reason why the Untouchables, simply because of numbers, have suddenly become an object of solicitude to the Hindu world. Sir T. W. Holderness, writing in 1920, put the point thus:[10]
[10. Peoples and Problems of India, Revised Edition, London, Williams and Norgate, 1920, pp. 101-2.]
The "depressed classes" in India form a vast multitude...A question that is agitating Hinduism at the present moment is as to whether these classes should be counted as Hindus or not. Ten years ago the answer would have been emphatically in the negative. Even now the conservative feeling of the country is for their exclusion. But the conscience of the more advanced section of the educated Hindus is a little sensitive on the point. It is awkward to be reminded by rival Muhammadan politicians that more than one-third of the supposed total Hindu population is not accepted by Hindus as a part of themselves, is not allowed the ministration of Brahman priests, is excluded from Hindu shrines. It is ob-viously desirable, in presence of such an argument, to claim the "depressed castes" as within the pale of Hinduism. But if they are to be so reckoned, logic demands that they should be treated with greater consideration than at present. Educated Hindus see this, and the uplifting of these castes figures prominently on the programmes of Indian social conferences. But the stoutest-hearted reformer admits to himself that the difficulties in the way of effective action in this matter are great, so strong is the hold that caste has on the Indian mind.
But here a fresh element comes in--another disturbing fruit of the intrusion of the West--a likelihood that, stimulated by the strange new foreign sympathy, the Untouchable may not much longer leave his religious status to be determined at the leisure and pleasure of the Hindu caste man. Islam, utterly democratic, will readily receive him into full partnership in the fold. Christianity not only invites him, but will educate and help him. The moment he accepts either Islam or Christianity, he is rid of his shame. The question, then, is chiefly a question of how long it takes a man, ages oppressed, to summon courage, spirit, and energy to stand up and shake off the dust.
In the autumn of 1917, the then Secretary of State for India, Mr. Montagu, chief advocate of the speedy Indianization of the Government, sat in Delhi receiving deputations from such elements of the Indian peoples as were moved to address him on that subject. All sorts and conditions of men appeared, all sorts of documentary petitions were submitted, all sorts of angles and interests. Among these, not meanly represented, loomed an element new on the Indian political stage--the Untouchables, awake and assertive, in many organized groups entreating the Secretary's attention.
Without one divergent voice they deprecated the thought of Home Rule for India. To quote them at length would be repetition. Their tenor may be sufficiently gathered from two excerpts.
The Panchama Kalvi Abivirthi-Abimana Sanga, a Madras Presidency outcastes' association,[11] "deprecates political change and desires only to be saved from the Brahmin, whose motive in seeking a greater share in the Government is...that of the cobra seeking the charge of a young frog."
[11. Addresses Presented in India to His Excellency the Viceroy and the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for India, London, 1918, p. 87.]
The Madras Adi Dravida Jana Sabha, organized to represent six million Dravidian aborigines of Madras Presidency, said:[12]
[12. Ibid., pp. 60-1.]
The caste system of the Hindus stigmatises us as untouchables...Caste Hindus could not, however, get on without our assistance. We supplied labour and they enjoyed the fruit, giving us a mere pittance in return. Our improvement in the social and economic scale began with and is due to the British Government. The Britishers in India--Government officers, merchants, and last, but not least, Christian missionaries--love us, and we love them in return. Though the general condition of the community is still very low, there are some educated men amongst us. But these are not allowed to rise in society on account of the general stigma attached by the Hindus to the community. The very names by which these people refer to us breathe contempt.
We need not say that we are strongly opposed to Home Rule. We shall fight to the last drop of our blood any attempt to transfer the seat of authority in this country from British hands to so-called high caste Hindus who have ill-treated us in the past and would do so again but for the protection of British laws. Even as it is, our claims, nay, our very existence, is ignored by the Hindus; and how will they promote our interests if the control of the administration passes into their hands?
"We love them," said these spokesmen of the out-caste--and the expression strikes home with a certain shock. But one is forced to remember that the sorrows of these particular under-dogs have never before, in all their dim centuries of history, elicited from any creature a thought or a helping hand. Here is a tale, as told to me, to show that even the degradation of ages cannot kill that in a man which lifts up his heart to his friend.
It concerns a command of Madrassi Sappers--coal-black Dravidians from around Bangalore--Untouchables all, or almost all. And it happened in the World War, at the taking of Kut.
"The river," said the witness, "is about three hundred yards wide at that point and swift. Our job was to cross in pontoons in the dim first gray of the morning, hoping to surprise the Turk. The duty of the sappers was to take the boats up the night before, under cover of darkness, and to make them ready; then to stand back while the combatant troops rowed themselves across.
"The sappers did their job. But just as the moment came to embark our men, the Turk waked up and opened fire. Our surprise was a washout. But we carried on, all the same.
"Now, the troops could lie flat in the bottom of the boats, but their rowers must sit on the thwarts and pull--three hundred yards, slantwise, in point-blank rifle range. Why, they hadn't a chance!
"What happened? What but those little Madrassis, pushing forward, all eagerness, begging: 'Sahibs, you want rifles over there. Rifles, Sahibs, rifles! We are only sappers. Let us row!'
"So the troops, rushing down, sprang into the boats and stretched flat. And the sappers jumped into the thwarts and pulled. And then--the Turk's machine-guns!
"When the boats came back, out of seventy rowers scarcely a man was left unhurt and many were dead. But those little sapper fellows ashore, they swarmed down, hove their dead out on the bank, jumped into their places, and, as each boat filled with men, shoved off into their comrades' fate. That is how the rifles got over to Kut. And those were coal-black Dravidians, mind you--'Untouchables,' unless they had turned Christian--which a fair lot of them had."
When the Prince of Wales sailed to India, late in 1921, Mr. Gandhi, then at the height of his popularity, proclaimed to the Hindu world that the coming visit was "an insult added to injury," and called for a general boycott.[13]
[13. Gandhi's Letters on Indian Affairs, pp. 96-7.]
Political workers obediently snatched up the torch, rushing it through their organizations, and the Prince's landing in Bombay became thereby the signal for murderous riot and destruction. No outbreak occurred among the responsible part of the population, nor along the line of progress, which was, of course, well guarded. But in the remoter areas of the city, hooliganism ran on for several days, with some fifty killings and four hundred woundings, Indian attacking Indian, while arson and loot played their ruinous part.
Meanwhile the Prince, seemingly unmoved by the first unfriendly reception of all his life, proceeded to carry out his officially arranged programme in and about the city. On the evening of November 22 it was scheduled that he should depart for the North.
As he left Government House on the three- or four-mile drive to the Bombay railway station, his automobile ran unguarded save for the pilot police car that went before. Where it entered the city, however, a cordon of police lined the streets on both sides. And behind that cordon pressed the people--the common poor people of the countryside in their uncountable thousands; pressed and pushed until, with the railway station yet half a mile away, the police line bent and broke beneath the strain.
Instantly the crowd surged in, closing around the car, shouting, fighting each other to work nearer--nearer still. What would they do? What was their temper? God knew! Gandhi's hot words had spread among them, and God alone, now, could help. Some reached the running-boards and clung. Others shoved them off, for one instant to take their places, the next themselves to be dragged away. And what was this they shouted? At first nothing could be made of it, in the bedlam of voices, though those charged with the safety of the progress strained their ears to catch the cries.
Then words stood out, continuously chanted, and the words were these:
"Yuvaraj Maharaj ki jai!" "Hail to the Prince!" And: "Let me see my Prince! Let me see my Prince! Let me only see my Prince just once before I die!"
The police tried vainly to form again around the car. Moving at a crawl, quite unprotected now, through an almost solid mass of shouting humanity, it won through to the railway station at last.
There, within the barriers that shut off the platform of the royal train, gathered the dignitaries of the Province and the City, to make their formal farewells. To these His Royal Highness listened, returning due acknowledgments. Then, clipping short his own last word, he turned suddenly to the aide beside him.
"How much time left?"
"Three minutes, sir," replied the aide.
"Then drop those barriers and let the people in"--indicating the mobs outside.
"Our hearts jumped into our mouths," said the men who told me the tale, ''but the barriers, of course, went down."
Like the sweep of a river in flood the interminable multitudes rolled in--and shouted and adored and laughed and wept, and, when the train started, ran alongside the royal carriage till they could run no more.
After which one or two super-responsible officials went straight home to bed.
So the Prince of Wales moved northward. And as he moved, much of his wholesome influence was lost, through the active hostility of the Indian political leader.
But if Gandhi's exhortations traveled, so did the news of the Prince's aspect--traveled far and fast, as such things do amongst primitive peoples.
And when he turned back from his transit of the Great North Gate--the Khyber Pass itself--a strange thing awaited him. A swarm of Untouchables, emboldened by news that had reached them, clustered at the roadside to do him reverence, "Government ki jai!" "Hail to the Government!" they shouted, with cheers that echoed from the barren hills.
And when the Prince slowed down his car to return their greetings, they leapt and danced in their excitement.
For nowhere in all their store of memory or of legend had they any history of an Indian magnate who had noticed an Untouchable except to scorn him. And here was a greater than all India contained--the son of the Supreme Power, to them almost divine, who deigned not only to receive but even to thank them for their homage! Small wonder that their spirits soared, that their eyes saw visions, that their tongues laid hold upon mystic words.
"Look! Look!" they cried to one another. "Behold, the Light! the Light!"
And such was their exaltation that many of them somehow worked through to Delhi to add themselves to the twenty-five thousand of their kind who there awaited the Prince's coming. The village people from round about flocked in to join them--the simple people of the soil who know nothing of politics but much of friendship as shown in works. And all together haunted the roadside, waiting and hoping for a glimpse of his face.
At last he came, down the Grand Trunk Road, toward the Delhi Gate. And in the center of the hosts of the Untouchables, one, standing higher than the rest, unfurled a flag.
"Yuvaraj Maharaj ki jai! Raja ke Bete ki jai!
"Hail to the Prince! Hail to the King's Son!" they all shouted together, to burst their throats. And the Prince, while the high-caste Indian spectators wondered and revolted within themselves at his lack of princely pride, ordered his car stopped.
Then a spokesman ventured forward, to offer in a humble little speech the love and fealty of the sixty millions of the Unclean and to beg the heir to the throne to intercede for them with his father the King Emperor, never to abandon them into the hands of those who despised them and would keep them slaves.
The Prince heard him through. Then--whether he realized the magnitude of what he did, or whether he acted merely on the impulse of his natural friendly courtesy toward all the world--he did an unheard-of thing. He stood up--stood up, for them, the "worse than dogs," spoke a few words of kindness, looked them all over, slowly, and so, with a radiant smile, gave them his salute.
No sun that had risen in India had witnessed such a sight. As the car started on, moving slowly not to crush them, they went almost mad. And again their eastern tongues clothed their thought. "Brother--that word was truth that our brothers brought us. Behold, the Light is there indeed! The Light--the Glory--on his face!"