The Essential Gandhi (38 page)

 … There are many things which municipalities can remedy if they will only treat the cities under their care as if they were their own houses.…

 … It is high time we developed a healthy sense of civic duty. In this matter we have much to learn from the West. People of the West are builders of big cities. They know the value of fresh air, clean water and clean surroundings.…
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 … 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 machinations we must remove our weaknesses. It is for that reason that I have called Non-coöperation 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 mosquitoes cease to haunt a place whose cesspools 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?… We have segregated the “pariah” and we are in turn segregated in the British Colonies.…

 … The slave owner is always more hurt than the slave. We shall be unfit to gain Swaraj so long as we would keep in bondage a fifth of the population of Hindustan. Have we not made the “pariah” crawl on his belly? Have we not segregated him? And if it is religion so to treat the “pariah” it is the religion of the white race to segregate us. And if it is no argument for the white race to say we are satisfied with the badge of our inferiority, it is less for us to say the “pariah” is satisfied with his. Our slavery is complete when we begin to hug it.
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 … I am unconcerned with the question of what place untouchables will have in any political constitution that may be drawn up. Every one of the artificial props that may be set up in the constitution will be broken to bits if we Hindus do not wish to play the game.… This removal of untouchability is not to be brought about by any legal enactment. It will be brought about only when the Hindu conscience is roused to action and of its own accord
removes
the shame.…
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…
Governments cannot afford to lead in matters of reform. By their very nature Governments are but interpreters and executors of the expressed will of the people whom they govern, and even a most autocratic Government will find itself unable to impose a reform which its people cannot assimilate.…
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It is a tragedy that religion for us means today nothing more than restrictions on food and drink, nothing more than adherence
to a sense of superiority and inferiority.… Birth and observance of forms cannot determine one’s superiority and inferiority. Character is the only determining factor. God did not create men with the badge of superiority or inferiority; no scripture which labels a human being as inferior or untouchable because of his or her birth can command our allegiance, it is a denial of God and Truth, which is God.
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 … It is a blasphemy to say that God set apart any portion of humanity as untouchable.…
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Untouchability poisons Hinduism as a drop of arsenic poisons milk.

Knowing the quality of milk and the use of milk, and knowing the quality of arsenic, we should be impatient with the man sitting near a pitcher of milk and trying to remove arsenic grain by grain, and we should throw the whole pitcher overboard.… I feel therefore that patience in a matter of this character is not a virtue. It is impossible to restrain ourselves. Patience with evil is really trifling with evil and with ourselves.…
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 … I would far rather that Hinduism died than that untouchability lived.
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We can do nothing without Hindu-Moslem unity and without killing the snake of untouchability. Untouchability is a corroding poison that is eating into the vitals of Hindu society.… No man of God can consider another man as inferior to himself. He must consider every man as his blood brother. It is the cardinal principle of every religion.
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[As] I know that God is found more often in the lowliest of His creatures than in the high and mighty, I am struggling to reach the status of these.… Hence my passion for the service of the suppressed classes [untouchables]. And as I cannot render this service
without entering politics, I find myself in them. Thus I am no master, I am but a struggling, erring, humble servant of India and, therethrough, of humanity.
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 … That belief in untouchability can co-exist with learning in the same person, adds no status to untouchability but makes one despair of mere learning’s being an aid to character or sanity.
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[It] is not enough for you to hold the belief passively that untouchability is a crime. He who is a passive spectator of crime is really, and in law, an active participator in it.…
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 … The breaking of heads will not serve the purpose. Orthodoxy will stiffen its back and suck nourishment out of the blood of its martyrs. For if the orthodox are injured, sympathy will irresistibly be drawn towards them though their cause is wrong.… And even if force succeeded, it would merely mean mechanical use of a single public road [by untouchables, forbidden to use it] and not change of opinion.

What, however, the Hindu Reformers want is the conversion of the orthodox people who have made of untouchability a religion. This they will do only by suffering.… Satyagraha is utter self-effacement, greatest humiliation, greatest patience and brightest faith. It is its own reward.
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 … The silent loving suffering of one single pure Hindu … will be enough to melt the heart of millions of Hindus, but the sufferings of thousands of non-Hindus in behalf of the untouchables will leave the Hindus unmoved. Their blind eyes will not be opened by outside interference, however well-intentioned and generous it may be, for it will not bring home to them the sense of guilt.… All reform to be sincere and lasting must come from within.
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You [Untouchables] should realize that you are cleaning Hindu society. You have therefore to purify your lives. You should cultivate the habits of cleanliness so that no one may point his finger at you. Use alkali ash or earth if you cannot afford to use soap to keep
yourselves clean. Some of you are given to drinking and gambling which you must get rid of.… You must not ask the Hindus to emancipate you as a matter of favor. Hindus must do so, if they want, in their own interests. You should, therefore, make them feel ashamed by your own purity and cleanliness.…
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The following is almost a verbatim report of the quiet talk I gave to the inmates of the Satyagraha Ashram at Vykom. The Ashram has at the present moment over fifty volunteers who stand or squat in front of the four barricades which are put up to guard the four entrances to the Vykom temple [from untouchables].… I reproduce the talk as being of general interest and applicable to all Satyagrahis.

[The] success of the movement depends more on yourself than on outside support. If there is nothing in you, or if there is not much in you, any amount of enthusiasm brought about by a passing visit like mine will be of no avail.…

 … I would ask you to forget the political aspect of the program. Political consequences of this struggle there are, but you are not to concern yourself with them. If you do, you will miss the true result and also miss the political consequences, and when the real heat of the struggle is touched you will be found wanting.… We are endeavoring to rid Hinduism of its greatest blot. The prejudice we have to fight against is an age-long prejudice.… If you think the struggle is to end with opening the roads in Vykom to the unapproachables, you are mistaken. The road must be opened. It has got to be opened. But that will be the beginning of the end. The end is to get all such roads … opened … and not only that, but we expect our efforts may result in amelioration of the general condition of the untouchables.… That will require tremendous sacrifice. For our aim is not to do things by violence to opponents.… The question is whether you are capable of every suffering that may be imposed upon you or may be your lot in the journey towards the goal. Even whilst you are suffering, you may have no bitterness—no trace of it—against your opponents. [It] is not a mechanical act at all.… I want you to feel like loving your opponents,
and the way to do it is to give them the same credit for honesty of purpose which you would claim for yourself. I know that it is a difficult task. I confess that it was a difficult task for me yesterday whilst I was talking to those friends who insisted on their right to exclude the unapproachables from the temple roads. [Immediately] we begin to think of things as our opponents think of them we shall be able to do them full justice. I know this requires a detached state of mind, and it is a state very difficult to reach. Nevertheless, for a Satyagrahi it is absolutely essential. Three-fourths of the miseries and misunderstandings in the world will disappear if we step into the shoes of our adversaries and understand their standpoint. We will then agree with our adversaries quickly or think of them charitably. In our case there is no question of our agreeing with them quickly as our ideals are radically different. But we may be charitable to them and believe that they actually mean what they say.… Our business, therefore, is to show them that they are in the wrong, and we should do so by our suffering. I have found that mere appeal to reason does not answer where prejudices are age-long and based on supposed religious authority. Reason has to be strengthened by suffering, and suffering opens the eyes of understanding.… I know that it is a difficult and slow process. But if you believe in the efficacy of Satyagraha, you will rejoice in this slow torture and suffering, and you will not feel the discomfort of your position as you go and sit in the boiling sun from day to day.…

I regard you as soldiers in this campaign.… If we are to become a powerful nation you must obey all directions that may be given to you from time to time. This is the only way in which either political or religious life can be built up. You must have determined for yourselves certain principles and you must have joined the struggle in obedience to these principles.… Every piece of work in connection with the struggle is just as important as any other piece, and therefore the work of sanitation in the Ashram is just as important as spinning away at the barricades. And if in this place the work of cleaning the closets and compound is more distasteful than spinning, it should be considered far more important and profitable.…

I know all this will sound hard and difficult for you. [It] will be
wrong on my part if I deceive you or myself in believing that this is an easy thing.

Much corruption has crept into our religion. We have become lazy as a nation.… Selfishness dominates our action.… We are uncharitable to one another. And if I did not draw your attention to the things I have, it would not be possible to rid ourselves of all these evils. Satyagraha is a relentless search for truth, and a determination to reach truth. I can only hope you will realize the import of what you are doing. And if you do, your path will be easy—easy because you will take delight in difficulties and you will laugh in hope when everybody is in despair.…
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