HINDU HOLY MEN ARRESTED

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25177, 7 May 1947, Page 7

HINDU HOLY MEN ARRESTED

MINISTERS’ HOMES PICKETED

LIFTING OF BAN ON UNTOUCHABLES (Rec. 12.10 a.m.) LONDON, May 6. The New Delhi correspondent of the Associated Press says that several of the Hindu holy men who gathered in New Delhi to protest against the abolition of untouchability and “Government interference in the Hindu religion” were arrested for picketing the homes of Pandit. Nehru and the Home Minister in his Government (Sardar Patel). They shouted slogans such as “Cow slaughter must stop!” The holy men began their campaign on May 2. when they demonstrated In front of the Constituent Assembly. Swami Karpatriji Maharaj, one of the leaders, who was then arrested, is now hunger striking. The All-India Dharmasangh (Society of Righteousness) adopted the following five-point programme at a convention in Bombay in January: (1) Abolition of the slaughter of cows. (2) India must remain undivided. (3) The Government should repeal all laws interfering with the religious, social, and personal affairs of Hindus and drop pending measures. (4) The Government should stop all attempts to pollute the sanctity of Hindu temples and not interfere with traditional methods of image worship. (5) Holy men and scholars, and not politicians, should represent orthodox Hindus in the Constituent Assembly.