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On December 12, 1935, I received the following letter from Mr. Sant Ram, the Secretary of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal:
“It is not possible to break Caste without annihilating the religious notions on which it, the Caste system, is founded.”
One cannot have any respect or regard for men who take the position of the Reformer and then refuse even to see the logical consequences of that position, let alone following them out in action.
But the world owes much to rebels who would dare to argue in the face of the pontiff and insist that he is not infallible. I do not care about the credit which every progressive society must give to its rebels. I shall be satisfied if I make the Hindus realize that they are the sick men of India, and that their sickness is causing danger to the health and happiness of other Indians.
According to the Shastras, the Brahmin is appointed to be the Guru for the three Varnas, varnanam bramhano garu, is a direction of the Shastras. The
The critics fall into two distinct classes. One
class consists of political reformers, and the other of the Socialists.
touch by mistake. In Poona, the capital of the Peshwa, the untouchable was required to carry, strung from
Every Congressman who repeats the dogma of Mill that one country is not fit to rule another country, must admit that one class is not fit to rule another class.
In this connection it is necessary to make a distinction between social reform in the sense of the reform of the Hindu family, and social reform in the sense of the reorganization and reconstruction of the Hindu Society. The former has a relation to widow remarriage, child marriage, etc., while the latter relates to the abolition of the Caste System.
The Social Conference was a body which mainly concerned itself with the
reform of the high-caste Hind...
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political reform did in fact gain precedence over social reform. But
That the makers of political constitutions must take account of social forces is a fact which is recognized by no less a person than Ferdinand Lassalle, the friend and co-worker of Karl Marx. In
The constitutional questions are in the first instance not questions of right but questions of might. The actual constitution of a country has its existence only in the actual condition of force which exists in the country: hence political constitutions have value and permanence only when they accurately express those conditions of forces which exist in practice within a society.
It shows that the politicians who denied that the social problem in India had any bearing on the political problem were forced to reckon with the social problem in devising the Constitution.
let political reformers turn in any direction they like: they will find that in the making of a constitution, they cannot ignore the problem arising out of the prevailing social order.
It was Puritanism that won the war of American Independence, and Puritanism was a religious movement.
emancipation of the mind and the soul is a necessary preliminary for the political expansion of the people.
That religion is the source of power is illustrated by the history of India, where the priest holds a sway over the common man
often greater than that of the magistrate, and where everything, even such things as strikes and elections, so easily takes a religious turn and can so easily be given a religious twist.
If the source of power and dominion is, at any given time or in any given society, social and religious, then social reform and religious reform must be accepted as the necessary sort of reform.
equalization of property is the only real reform and that it must precede everything else.
Caste is the monster that crosses your path. You cannot have political reform, you cannot have economic reform, unless you kill this monster.
It is defended on the ground that the Caste System is but another name for division of labour;
Caste System is not merely a division of labour. It is also a division of labourers.
If a Hindu is seen to starve rather than take to new occupations not assigned to his Caste, the reason is to be found in the Caste System. By not permitting readjustment of occupations, Caste becomes a direct cause of much of the unemployment we see in the country.
The Caste system cannot be said to have grown as a means of preventing the
admixture of races, or as a means of maintaining purity of blood.
[The] Caste system does not demarcate racial division. [The] Caste system is a social division of people of the same race.
[The] Caste System is a negative thing. It merely prohibits persons belonging to different castes from intermarrying. It is not a positive method of selecting which two among a given caste should marry.
Caste does not result in economic efficiency. Caste cannot improve, and has not improved, the race. Caste has however done one thing.
has completely disorganized and demoralized the Hindus.
The first and foremost thing that must be recognized is that Hindu Society is a myth. The name Hindu is itself a foreign name. It was given by the Mohammedans to the natives for the...
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It does not occur in any Sanskrit work prior to the Mo...
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A caste has no feeling that it is affiliated to other castes, except when there is a Hindu-Muslim riot. On all other occasions each caste endeavours to segregate itself and to distinguish itself from other castes.
There is no Hindu consciousness of kind. In every Hindu the consciousness that exists is the consciousness of his caste.
Men constitute a society because they have things which they possess in common. To have similar things is totally different from possessing things in common. And the only way by which men can come to possess things in common with one another is by being in communication with one another.
The Caste System prevents common activity; and by preventing common activity, it has prevented the Hindus from becoming a society with a unified life and a consciousness of its own being.
The Brahmin’s primary concern is to protect “his interest” against those of the non-Brahmins; and the non-Brahmins’ primary concern is to protect their interests against those of the Brahmins.
the present-day non-Brahmins cannot forgive the present-day Brahmins for the insult their ancestors gave to Shivaji. The present-day Kayasthas will not forgive the present-day Brahmins for the infamy cast upon their forefathers by the forefathers of the latter. To what is this difference due? Obviously to the Caste System.
The existence of Caste and Caste Consciousness has served to keep the memory of past feuds between castes green, and has prevented solidarity.
higher-caste Hindus have deliberately prevented the lower castes who are within the pale of Hinduism from rising to the cultural level of the higher castes.
Hindu religion ceased to be a missionary religion when the Caste System grew up among the Hindus.
Castes are autonomous, and there is no authority anywhere to compel a caste to admit a new-comer to its social life. Hindu Society being a collection of castes, and each caste being a closed corporation, there is no place for a convert. Thus it is the caste which has prevented the Hindus from expanding and from absorbing other religious communities. So long as Caste remains, Hindu religion cannot be made a missionary religion, and Shudhi will be both a folly and a futility.
Among Sikhs and Muslims there is a social cement which makes them Bhais. Among Hindus there is no such cement, and one Hindu does not regard another Hindu as his Bhai. This explains why a Sikh says and feels that one Sikh, or one Khalsa, is equal to sava lakh men. This explains why one Mohammedan is equal to a crowd
Hindus. This difference is undoubtedly a difference due to Caste. So long as Caste remains, there will be no Sanghatan; and so long as there is no Sanghatan the Hindu will remain weak and meek.
The capacity to appreciate merits in a man, apart from his caste, does not exist in a Hindu.
My Ideal: a Society based on Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity
An ideal society should be mobile, should be full of channels for conveying a change taking place in one part to other parts.
