Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, SEPT. 17, 1932. THE CASTE OF HINDUISM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 247, 17 September 1932, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, SEPT. 17, 1932. THE CASTE OF HINDUISM.

A sew and disturbing factor has been introduced into the Indian communal question by the threat of Mr Gandhi to fast to death if the British Government proceeds with its proposals for the settlement of this vexed and bitter problem. V lien, at the conclusion of the second Round Table Conference in December last, the Hindus and Moslems had failed to bridge the gulf _ between them, the Prime Minister bluntly stated that this disability would not be permitted to remain a bar to progress, and the British Government would undertake to settle the question. Mr MacDonald, however, urged the parties to reconcile their own differences. They failed to do so. and in pursuance of its declaration the British Government has decided the matter. Part of its proposals is the provision of special electoral treatment for the depressed Hindu classes, tne “untouchables,” who are various]}' estimated to number between sixty and eighty millions. This is in line with the recommendations of the Simon Commission. In a letter to Sir Samuel Hoare (Secretary of State for India) written on March 11, Mr Gandhi held that a separate electorate for the depressed classes would impair the unity of Hinduism, and he threatened to fast to death if the procedure were not altered, hive months later he wrote to Mr MacDonald giving September 20 as the date of commencing the fast. In a carefully reasoned reply the Prime Minister clearly showed that under the British proposals the depressed classes would remain part of. the Hindu community. “They will.” he says, “vote with the Hindi! electorate on an equal footing, but for the first 20 years, while still remaining electorally part of the Hindu community, will receive through a limited number of special constituencies means of safeguarding their rights and interests.” The Government decided against the creation of a communal electorate for the “untouchables,” and Mr MacDonald, in a stinging comment, suggests that Mr Gandhi proposes to starve to death, “not in order to secure that the depressed classes shall have joint electorates with other Hindus, nor in order to maintain the unity of Hinduism,” which are already provided for, but “solely to prevent the depressed classes, who are admittedly suffering from terrible disabilities to-day, from being able to secure a limited number of representatives of their own choosing to speak on their behalf to the Legislatures, which will have a dominant influence over their future.”

Mr Gandhi, in his reply, burkes the issue, and claims that for him this is a religious matter. He persists in his view which Air AiaeDonald has shown to be wrong. One point in his letter to Air AiaeDonald should be noted: He asks for the publication of the communications as he “wants public opinion to be affected.” That reveals his peculiar attitude on the matter. But what of the depressed classes who number one-fourtli or more of India’s population? A year ago they were holding mass meetings throughout the country to “protest in the strongest language” against an attempt by the Con-

gress to cheat them out of what they claim to be their right to separate electorates in the constitution it was then hoped to have framed at the second Round Table Conference. At a Madras meeting Air Gandhi was described as the “greatest enemy of the ‘untouchables’.” The-crowds also proclaimed their loyalty to the British Throne. That is an estimate of their opinion of the Nationalist leader, whose party, they affirm, if it ever gained the ascendancy, would deprive the “untouchables” of the protection of the British Raj, their only defence at present against tyranny. A r alentine Chirol, the authority on Indian questions, has indicted the National Congress for having scarcely done anything in its many years of existence to mitigate the awful conditions under which the depressed classes exist. Again, Aliss Katherine Alayo, the author of “Alotlier India,” accuses Air Gandhi of mere lip service in his profession of acting on their behalf. Their cry, she says, is that the Alahatma would hold down the “untouchables” with one hand, while he raises their enemies, the Hindus, with the other to drive out their real protectors, the British people. Aliss Alayo ascribes to two active influences —the Christian missionaries and British justice—the improvement that has been effected in the depressed classes’ position. An eminent Indian Aloslem has declared that for these people “there is no emancipation of the bondage and thraldom of the crushing yoke of birth and the inexorable law of Karma, so long as their belief in the Hindu religion remains unshaken.” Erom this grim religious obsession of soul slavery, says Miss Alayo, only an antipodal creed brought by men themselves white hot with belief in the supreme efficacy of their own faith, could set the victim free. This may explain much in Air Gandhi’s latest action, but the present situation is a political one, not religious. That fact cannot be ignored, however much the Alahatma desires to cloud public opinion.