Thepfulhouvi Solo
Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, a Member of the ‘Untouchable’ Community in India, a PhD from Harvard USA, legal education from UK was the Author of the CONSTITUTION OF INDIA. He saw his Community can prosper if it elects its own Leaders to the Legislative Bodies. Mahatma Gandhi did not favor it, claiming it is undemocratic, saying that every Citizen should be free and equal to elect any person of his or her choice. Gandhi and Ambedkar Perhaps vied for the Leadership of the Harisjans in India. Gandhi’s stand appears enlightened and democratic. He told Ambedkar they are both Harijans; and he by choice and Ambedkar by birth; that was their only difference, Gandhi told him.
The Mahatma undertook a Fast on the Issue; on the 16th days Gandhi became very weak and the whole of India waited breathless; his death would create social mayhem in India, the Untouchables will be blamed for the unthinkable consequences in case the Mahatma dies in his Fast. Ambedkar can not bear the consequences. The unprecedented circumstances forced him to withdraw his demand and the Mahatma ended his fast.
The Mahatma’s stand appears fair but has a hidden kink in the iron Chain that binds the low Caste in India to an everlasting completely de-humanized human life in India. Gandhi wanted to preserve the Hindu Culture, he wanted India to remain the Hindu way of life; the trouble is: the Hindu Way of life is as much a Religion. The Law of Manu remain valid and it says God made the Brahmins from his Head, the Kshetryas from his Chest, the Vaisyas from his Stomach and the Sudras from his Foot. The Sudras are forever born to serve the other upper Castes and there is no possibility of a Sudra ever to incarnate a higher Caste. Women are inferiors in Hindu view of life, they are not allowed to touch the Book of the Law or read them.
The Mahatma’s stand can be compared to the “FREEDOM OF RELIGION” in India today where a Hindu converting to Christianity is a CRIME but a Christian converting to Hinduism is not. The Freedom of Religion Law requires a person to first report to a Police Officer of his intension which on enquiry may prove a Crime.
The Mahatma becoming a Harijan by choice can not liberate the Untouchables from their perpetual bondage; for that matter, even if the whole batch of Gandhi’s Congress Leaders becoming Harijans by choice would not change the Caste System in India. The Constitution of India does not allow Caste discrimination: the Indian Penal Code makes the Practice a Crime. There is no Segregation in India in Transport, in the Education Institutes, in the Government Services and in private Companies, but even today a Dalit Bridegroom is not allowed to ride on a Horse through the village of the High Caste, it is highly unlikely a Sweeper can walk in front of a group of High Castes. Honor Killings, Gang Rape of Dalit women, Parading of them Naked in the Streets, refusing them to enter the Temple etc do not produce shock waves in Caste ridden Indian Society. CASTE SYSTEM STILL EXISTS IN INDIA IN THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE.
No doubt, Job Reservations has benefited individual Dalits, but the Reservation has not done away Caste System from Indian, not even the Constitution has succeeded. The job Reservation would not make Dalit a higher Caste in India. There is no way an Untouchable can be liberated out of the Hindu Fold except by becoming a non-Hindu: the mind boggling tragedy is that: ‘it is a Crime for a Hindu to op out of the Hindu Belief System’: the FREEDOM OF RELIGION in India makes is so. If there is ever a Curse in the world, surely this is One.
Dr. Ambedkar was a Minister in the Government during the time but his Peons would not touch him, he could not find anyone to rent him a house to stay, the High Caste Hotel boy would not wash the Cup from which an Untouchable drank and so Ambedkar is once said to have thrown it down on the floor to smash it into pieces. In complete loss of hope in the Hindu fold, Ambedkar finally led 3,00,000 of his people in a single mass conversion to Bhudhism. He was very much attracted to Christianity but the bad examples of the Christians were a stumbling block for him to become Christian!
The case of ‘Woman Reservation’ in India, encounter similar forces: The Woman Reservation would certainly benefit certain Women, but that would not remove Hinduism’s low attitude towards the woman. That attitude is in the Brain in the heads of the Hindus; that attitude is in the Mind of the Hindu people of India. This mindset will not change until the Religious Law of consigning a low position to the woman in ‘Manu’ changes; no easy to imagine happen in India today.
Woman Reservation may be made into a Law, it may be entered in the Constitution; be it a Crime; it would definitely benefit certain women but it will not cure the Hindu Disease of low status of women in the Hindu Ethos. Woman Reservation is good in the sense that at least certain individuals would be benefited; but Women Reservation would not cure the disease; it would give relief only from the Pain. Woman Seat Reservation in India is only a Pain Killer; it would not cure the disease. The sentence of down grading Women in the Manu Law must be extricated from the Book.
Naga Society does not have the Hindu woman society Pain and hence Women in Nagland may not need if it is only a Pain Killer.
