BRUTE FORCE.............UNTOUCHABILITY 455
The so-called Untouchables have brought the question a step nearer solution by their exemplary self-restraint under most provoking circumstances. Had they retaliated it would have been perhaps difficult to distribute the blame. As it is, the blame is all on the side of the “touchables.” Brute force will not sustain Untouchability. It will bring about a revulsion of feeling in favour of the suppressed classes. It is a sign of the times that there were at least some “touchables” who tried to defend the poor Untouchables. One could wish that there were many more in Mahad. Silent sympathy on such occasions is not of much use. Every Hindu, who considers the removal of Untouchability to be of paramount importance, should on such occasions prove his sympathy by publicly defending the supressed classes and having his own head broken in defending the helpless and the downtrodden.
I cannot help thinking that Dr. Ambedkar was fully justified in putting to test the resolutions of the Bombay Legislative Council and the Mahad Municipality by advising the so-called Untouchables to go to the tank to quench their thirst. No incident of this character should pass by unnoticed on the part of associations like the Hindu Mahasabha interested in this reform. Let them investigate the statements made by my correspondent and if they can be substantiated, let them condemn the action of the “touchables.” There is nothing like the growth of enlightened public opinion for eradicating everything evil, which Untouchability undoubtedly is.”
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1 : Young India, dated 28th April 1927.
Reprinted, Ganvir, Mahad Samata Sangar. Pp. 246-248.