E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & TimesThe 'Anguish of September 1932' began for Gandhi early that year. He hadgathered from the newspapers that the proposed new British constitution ofIndia would grant separate electorates not only to Hindus and Moslems as in thepast but to untouchables, or 'Depressed Classes'. He accordingly wrote a letteron March 11, 1932, to Sir Samuel Hoare, the Secretary of State for India.'A separate electorate for the Depressed Classes', Gandhi wrote, 'is harmful forthem and for Hinduism.... So far as Hinduism is concerned, separateelectorates would simply vivisect and disrupt it... The political aspect,important though it is, dwindles into insignificance compared to the moral andreligious issue.' If therefore the Government decided to create a separateelectorate for untouchables, 'I must fast unto death'. That, he knew, wouldembarrass the authorities whose prisoner he was, but 'for me the contemplatedstep is not a method, it is part of my being'.The minister replied to the prisoner on April 13, saying that no decision had yetbeen taken and that his views would be considered before it was taken.No new developments occurred until August 17, 1932 when Prime MinisterMacDonald announced Britain's decision in favor of separate electorates.'I have to resist your decision with my life,' Gandhi wrote to Ramsay MacDonaldthe next day. 'The only way I can do it is by declaring a perpetual fast untodeath from food of any kind save water with or without salt and soda.' The fastwould commence at noon, September 20.In a very long reply, dated 10 Downing Street, September 9, 1932, PrimeMinister MacDonald said he had received Gandhi's communication with muchsurprise and, let me add, with very sincere regret'. Gandhi had misunderstood;they had considered his known friendship for the untouchables and his letter toSir Samuel Hoare. 'We felt it our duty to safeguard what we believe to be theright of the Depressed Classes to a fair proportion of representation in thelegislatures' and 'we were equally careful to do nothing that would split offtheir community from the Hindu world.'www.mkgandhi.org Page 346