4 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
A heroic task
There is also a great necessity for effective legislation against superstitious practices prevalent among the masses. They find their support in the priest. Wasteful offerings to gods and goddesses, long mourning and multiple ceremonies at births, deaths and marriages, insensate caste dinners are some of the senseless and meaningless practices in which the priest delights. Be it an occasion of joy like wedding or sorrow like death, it is equally availed of by the priests, many of whom pray, as one of the Parsi correspondents, has excellently shown, in order to be able to prey on their victims. I say the Catalogue of the evils of priesthood is really appalling. Its final eradication can only be kept in view as an ideal but we cannot start a month too soon in initiating our righteous campaign. I cordially welcome the measures concerted by some of the leading Parsis. It is really surprising how much priestridden the Parsi community is. It has been estimated by some Parsi friends that for one year after his death, a dead Parsi is economically a heavier burden on the poor family than a living one. A Parsi newspaper recently gave the instance of a man who while living could hardly afford an aluminium tumbler. But when he died the priest insisted that a silver goblet should be employed in his funeral ceremony. I quote this to show that with their keen practical wisdom the Parsis have very appropriately taken the lead in initiating measures for ridding India of the evil of priest-craft and I have no doubt that all enlightened Hindus, Mahomedans and Christians will join this heroic and noble task of cleansing priestdom, the weight of which they are certainly far less fitted to bear than their Parsi brethren”. [1]
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1 The Bombay Chronicle, dated November 8, 1929.