E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & Timesuntouchables; copies of these resolutions formed a man-high heap in Gandhi'sprison yard.Villages and small towns allowed untouchables to use water wells. Hindu pupilsshared benches formerly reserved for untouchables. Roads and streets, fromwhich they were previously excluded, were opened to Harijans.A spirit of reform, penance and self-purification swept the land. During the sixfast days, most Hindus refrained from going to cinemas, theatres, orrestaurants. Weddings were postponed.A cold political agreement between Gandhi and Ambedkar, without a fast,would have had no such effect on the nation; it might have redressed a legalHarijan grievance, but it would have remained a dead letter as far as theHindu's personal treatment of untouchables was concerned. Most Hindus wouldnever have heard of it. The political pact was important only after theemotional churning which Gandhiji's fast gave the country.The fast could not kill the curse of untouchability, which was more than threethousand years old. Access to a temple ls not access to a good job. The Harijansremained the dregs of Indian society. Nor did segregation end when Gandhislowly drank his orange juice.But after the fast, untouchability forfeited its public approval; the belief in itwas destroyed. A practice deeply embedded in a complicated religion full ofmystic overtones and undercurrents was recognized as morally illegitimate. Ataboo hallowed by custom, tradition and ritual lost its potency had beensocially improper to consort with Harijans; in many circles now it becamesocially improper not to consort with them. To practice untouchability brandedone a bigot a reactionary. Before long, marriages were taking place betweenHarijans and Hindus; Gandhi made a point of attending some.Gandhi's 'Epic Fast' snapped a long chain that stretched back into antiquity andhad enslaved tens of millions. Some links of the chain remained. Many woundsfrom the chain remained. But nobody would forge new links; nobody would linkthe links together again. The future promised freedom.www.mkgandhi.org Page 361