'Vaishnava Jana To': Mahatma Gandhi's fight against untouchability

"I would far rather that Hinduism died than that untouchability lived." - Mahatma Gandhi

Eradicating untouchability from its roots was one of Mahatma Gandhi’s cardinal principles, upheld by the force of a lifetime of actions towards achieving it.

To begin with, Mahatma coined the term ‘Harijan’ or ‘Man of God’, intending to replace the term ‘Dalit’, which was a term that by and large means ‘oppressed’.

Although the terminology was debated widely by other leaders, the intention was to accord the community their own status in society. This title served as a linchpin to Gandhi’s philosophy.

His revolt against untouchability began at a very young age in 1881, when his mother warned him not to touch a boy named Uka who cleaned their toilets. The 12-year-old Gandhi dismissed his mother’s warnings and questioned her belief in the system.

Also read — 151 years of Gandhi, political jostling over his legacy continues

“If I accidentally touched Uka, I was asked to perform ablutions, and though I naturally obeyed, it was not without smilingly protesting that untouchability was not sanctioned by religion...I told my mother that she was entirely wrong in considering physical contact with Uka as sinful,” Gandhi recounted in his speech at the ‘Suppressed Classes Conference’ in Ahmedabad (Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol 23, pg 42).

In 1915, when Gandhi had recently returned from South Africa, he founded the ‘Satyagraha Ashram’ in Ahmedabad to spread his ideologies and train the community, despite the resistance shown by the local Vaishnavas.

In 1920, he pushed the envelope further and declared that his notion of ‘Swaraj’ was the complete eradication of untouchability and said: “Swaraj is a meaningless term if we desire to keep a fifth of India under perpetual subjection, and deliberately deny to them the fruits of national culture.”

Also Read: PM Modi pays tribute to Bapu at Raj Ghat, says 'much to learn from his life, noble thoughts'

On Nov. 27, 1927, Gandhi openly proclaimed that “if varnashrama goes to the dogs in the removal of untouchability, I shall not shed a tear.”

“For reforms of Hinduism and for its real protection, removal of untouchability is the greatest thing...removal of untouchability is....a spiritual process,” he said.

On Sept. 20, 1932, the Mahatma began his ‘fast unto death’ and "intended to sting the Hindu conscience into right religious action".

Also Read: Do Gandhi's views on world order, peace, and war still hold water?

Between November 1933 and August 1934, Gandhi set out on a journey that extended over 20,000 kilometres by train, car, bullock cart and on foot to raise money for his ‘Harijan Sevak Sangh’. His expedition went on for nine months and was undertaken across the nation, including in the Princely States. The Sangh was a medium through which he wanted to spread his message of uprooting untouchability as a practice as well as an ideology and empower the social, political, economic and cultural spheres of society.

In his weekly newspaper, ‘Harijan’, Gandhi had written on this subject, saying, “Today, Brahmins and Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras are mere labels. There is utter confusion of Varna as I understand it and I wish that all the Hindus will voluntarily call themselves Shudras. That is the only way to demonstrate the truth of Brahminism and to revive Varnadharma in its true state.”

Also Read | Gandhi Jayanti 2020: Lessons in financial discipline from the Mahatma

"This religion, if it can be called as such, stinks in my nostrils. This certainly cannot be the Hindu religion. I shall put up a lone fight, if need be, against this hypocrisy...the dirt that soils the scavenger is physical and can be easily removed but there are those who have become soiled with untruth and hypocrisy, and this diet is so subtle that it is very difficult to remove it..." (cited in Rajmohan Gandhi's The Good Boatman: A Portrait of Gandhi, New Delhi, Viking 1995, pg 237).

Gandhi did not believe in rebirth. Yet, to empathise with the oppressed caste, he once said, “If I have to be reborn, I should be born an untouchable, so that I may share their sorrows, sufferings, and the affronts levelled at them, in order that I may endeavour to free myself and them from that miserable condition.”

“Vaishnava Jana To” was Gandhi's vision, which meant that a true human is one who feels the pain of others, removes misery and is never arrogant.