WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : GANDHISM 277
In 1922, Mr. Gandhi was a defender of the caste system. Pursuing the inquiry, one comes across a somewhat critical view of the caste system by Mr. Gandhi in the year 1925. This is what Mr. Gandhi said on 3rd February 1925 :—
“I gave support to caste because it stands for restraint. But at present caste does not mean restraint, it means limitations. Restraint is glorious and helps to achieve freedom. But limitation is like chain. It binds. There is nothing commendable in castes as they exist today. They are contrary to the tenets of the shastras. The number of castes is infinite and there is a bar against intermarriage. This is not a condition of elevation. It is a state of fall.”
In reply to the question : What is the way out Mr. Gandhi said :
“The best remedy is that small castes should fuse themselves into one big caste. There should be four such big castes so that we may reproduce the old system of four varnas.”
In short, in 1925 Mr. Gandhi became an upholder of the Varna system.
The old Varna system prevalent in ancient India had society divided into four orders : (1) Brahmins, whose occupation was learning; (2) Kshatriyas whose occupation was warfare;
(3) Vaishyas, whose occupation was trade and (4) Shudras, whose occupation was service of the other classes. Is Mr. Gandhi’s Varna System the same as this old Varna system of the orthodx Hindus ? Mr. Gandhi explained his Varna system in the following terms [1] :
“1. I believe that the divisions into Varna is based on birth.
“2. There is nothing in the Varna system which stands in the way of the Shudra acquiring learning or studying military art of offence or defence. Contra it is open to a Kshatriya to serve. The Varna system is no bar to him. What the Varna system enjoins is that a Shudra will riot make learning a way of earning a living. Nor will a Kshatriya adopt service as a way of earning a living.
[Similarly a Brahmin may learn the art of war or trade. But he must not make them a way of earning his living. Contra a Vaishya may acquire learning or may cultivate the art of war. But he must not make them a way of earning his living.]
- The extracts are taken from an article by Mr. Gandhi on the subject and is reproduced in the Varna Vayavastha —a book which contains Mr. Gandhi’s writings in original Gujarathi.