454 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Untouchable attempting to enter the temple practically ran amuck, went to the bazar and began to beat any Untouchable they came across in the street. All the while this beating was going on the part of the touchables, not one Untouchable offered any resistance. A few touchables who sympathized with the Untouchables tried to protect them; but the furious mob would not be checked. They even rushed into the huts of shoe-makers and such others and beat them severely. The helpless Untouchables ran wildly for help; but none was offered by the shopkeepers. The Untouchables who were in the pandal were derided by the touchables for not coming out in the open to fight. There were nearly 1,500 of the former in the pandal and if they had offered to fight there would have been a great calamity and Hinduism would have been disgraced. Dr. Ambedkar justified the advice that he had given on the strength of the resolution that was passed in the Bombay Legislative Council and on the opinion expressed by the Mahad Municipality that the Untouchables were lawfully entitled to take water from public tanks and wells.
Mahatma Gandhi expressed his views on Satyagraha and the problem of Untouchability in the Hindu Society, thus :
I have omitted from the correspondent’s letter several passages giving further details. But the letter appears to me to be genuine and does not in any way appears to be an over-estimate. Assuming then that the incident is correctly reported there can be no question about the unprovoked lawlessness on the part of the so-called higher classes. For, it should be remembered that it was not the drinking of water at the tank which had brought together the “touchables” to the temple but the false report that the Untouchables were wanting to enter the temple. But one can hardly expect sanity to exist side by side with unreason. Untouchability itself has no reason behind it. It is an inhuman institution. It is tottering and it is sought to be supported by the so-called orthodox party by sheer brute force.