E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & Timeswho bathes twice a day will unhesitatingly drink water that is unclean and fullof germs ... The individual Will keep his own fairly clean but throw all therubbish in the village street in front of his neighbour's house ...' Cleanliness, headds, is a religious rite, not an end in itself. If it were, Hindus would concernedwith the cleanliness of others, untouchables included.untouchability is segregation gone mad. Theoretically a device againstcontamination, it actually contaminates the country that allows it. MahatmaGandhi knew this and he fought untouchability for the sake of the castes aswell as the outcasts, but in fighting it he defied a thousand taboos and roused amillion fears, superstitions, hates and vested interests. Buddhism and manyHindu reformers had attacked untouchability; Gandhi said little against it untilhe had taken action against it.In his youth, Gandhi played with an untouchable boy, Putlibai forbade it.Though he loved her he disobeyed her, his first rebellion against authority. 'Iused to laugh at my dear mother', he wrote to Charles Freer Andrews, 'formaking us bathe when we brothers touched any pariah'. In South Africa, too, heassociated with untouchables. In May 1918, in Bombay, he went to a meetingcalled to improve the lot of untouchables. When he got up to deliver hisaddress, he said, 'Is there an untouchable here?' No hand was raised. Gandhirefused to speak.Now there came to Gandhi's ashram near Ahmedabad an untouchable familyand asked to become permanent members. He admitted them.A tempest broke.The presence of the untouchable father, mother and their little daughterLakshmi polluted the entire ashram, and how could the wealthy Hindus ofBombay and Ahmedabad finance a defiled place? They withdrew theircontributions. Maganlal, who kept the accounts, reported that he was out offunds and had no prospects for the next month.Then we shall go to live in the untouchable quarter,' Gandhi quietly replied.www.mkgandhi.org Page 161