1
RELIGION AND PRIEST BE BROUGHT
UNDER PROPER CONTROL
By
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, M. A., Ph. D., D. Sc, Bar-at-Law., M. L. C.
While at Belgaum I heard of the movement started by some of the Parsis in Bombay to found an association, the prime object of which shall be the abolition of priesthood as a caste. The object of such a body has only to be stated for the vast majority of the young educated people of India to accept it with alacrity. I do not feel called upon to discuss the ways of the Parsi Mobeds. But my Parsi friends may rest assure that the Hindu priestly classes stand in no way superior ethically, educationally or otherwise to the average member of the Parsi priesthood.
A Clog on the wheel
The counts in the indictment against the hereditary Hindu priests are numerous and appalling. He is a clog on the wheel of our civilization. Man is born, he weds, becomes the father of a family and then in time dies. All along the priest shadows him like an evil genius. Deviation from draconian rules prescribed by him according to the Shastras and Smritis of his own making is punished with a terror which 99 per cent are unable to withstand. Ostracism or casting out man from Society is the weapon fashioned by the Devil himself. This the priest wields with ruthless, relentless and inexorable vigour. I must admit the officiating Brahmin is a miserable specimen of humanity as a rule. He knows it just as well as we do. He practises the shame of being a middleman between the unseen powers and the helpless man and makes a living by it. Philosophers may well ask, is this class reprobate at heart ? But whatever be the answer to the question this parasite living upon and eating into the vitals of Society can no longer be permitted to function without check or control. We in India might take a leaf out of the English reformation and bring both the religion and the priest under proper control and prevent its rank and wild growth.