Mahatma Gandhi

and The

“Untouchables”.

Subject: Language IV.Teacher: Elda Patricia Moller Jensen.Student: Adela Pérez del Viso.Date: September 25 2013.

Mahatma Gandhi

and The

“Untouchables”.

GANDHI and The UNTOUCHABLES.

•Two starting points: 1.“The God of Small Things”.

2.Scene in the Movie “GANDHI”.•

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS.

•Village school for untouchable children. (P.13).•“Velutha wasn´t supposed to be a carpenter”. (P.73) •Relationship between Velutha and Ammu. Ammu condemned by the family•Velutha, Vellya Pappen and Kuttapen lived in a wretched hut, downriver from the Ayemenem house. (P.78)

UNTOUCHABILITY: CENTRAL

ROLE

SECOND STARTING POINT: THE MOVIE.

GOKULADA/CASTURBA.4 KIDS. VASHIA. BRAHMACHARIA (Aged 36)

SECOND STARTING POINT: THE MOVIE.

ANALYSIS OF GANDHI´S IDEAS, as regards UNTOUCHABLES:

1.Some thoughts.2.A saint ?3.A traitor ?

4.Middle position. Conclusion.

Gandhi´s originMohandas Karamchad Gandhi.2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948Mahatma: in Sanscrit: “high soul”

or Venerable.Born and raised in a MERCHANT

CASTE, VAISHIAS.Trained in law at the “INNER

TEMPLE”, London (Barrister).

Gandhi´s thoughts

In 1925: A “Panchama” should be seen as a Sudra (Same work). Varna system´s authenticity. (“The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (100 vols., Delhi.1958.260)

1927: “In [my] conception of the law of varna, no one is superior to any other.... A scavenger or a latrine-sweeper: same status as a Brahmin” (id. P.410).

In the summer of 1934, three attempts were made on Gandhi´s life.

HIS WORDS AS REGARDS

UNTOUCHABILITY.

Gandhi as a Saint.

Harijans. (pros and cons)Six-day fast while imprisoned in

Jerwada Jail.Poona Pact as a result. 1932: Separate electorates

(benches) under the new constitution.

1933 21-day fast of self purification and 1- year campaign.

1933: three attempts against him.

• CAMPAIGNE AGAINST

UNTOUCHABILITY.

Gandhi as a Dalit´s traitor.

A PROTEST BANNER IN A RALLY.

Gandhi as a Dalit´s traitor.

Bimrao Ramji Ambedkar.1891 1956

Gandhi as a Dalit´s traitor.

•Gandhi´s campaigne was noxious : separate representatives.

•HARIJAN means “Children of God”: paternalism •SOCIALLY IMMATURE.•UNDERMINING Dalit´s political RIGHTS.

•“Devious and untrustworthy“ Gandhi.•In 1950: converted into Budhism.

•Born into the Vaishya caste, Gandhi insisted he was able to SPEAK ON BEHALF of Dalits, despite the presence of DALIT ACTIVISTS such as Ambedkar.

•Ambedkar sought to remove the Dalits out of the Hindu community, while Gandhi tried to save Hinduism by exorcising untouchability.

•Ambedkar complained that Gandhi moved too slowly; Hindu traditionalists said Gandhi was a dangerous radical who rejected scripture

Gandhi as a Dalit´s traitor.

OTHER CRITICS. Racism. Nazism.

• Many articles and books state Gandhi loved the Caste system (VARNA) and that he was a racist.•Gandhi lived in South Africa from 1893 to 1914. In 1906, he joined the military with a rank of Sergeant-Major and actively participated in the war against the blacks. (“The raw kaffir”).

•Grenier, Richard. The Gandhi Nobody Knows published in Commentary March 1983; pages 59 to 72. •Hug, Fazlul. Gandhi: Saint or Sinner? And its 2nd chapter "Gandhi's Anti-African Racism“

•“One of Gandhi's major "achievements" in South Africa was to promote racial segregation by refusing to share a post office door with the black natives”.•Greatest injustice against the struggle for liberation of black people was the projection of Mahatma Gandhi as committed to a cause against segregation. It is a fallacy

•“Mahatma Gandhi exposed” (a racist and a pedophile).

MIDDLE POSITION. “CHANGES IN MAHATMA GANDHI’S VIEWS ON CASTE AND INTERMARRIAGE”Mark Lindley (historian of modern India)

ABSTRACT: Gandhi’s views in regard to basic aspects of the caste system changed in the last years of his life. In the 1920s he had held that every Hindu “must follow the hereditary profession” and that “prohibition of intermarriage” between people of different varnas was “necessary for a rapid evolution of the soul.” But later he gradually became “a social revolutionist,” advocating **intermarriage between Brahmins and Untouchables in order to dismantle the caste system “root and branch,” and **acknowledging that “When all become casteless, monopoly of occupations would disappear.” The changes were due in part to the influence of two opponents of the caste system whose integrity he held in high regard: Ambedkar and Gora.

CONCLUSION. QUOTE.

“I would like to be burnt

along with my written works”

Arundhaty Roy: “The God of Small Things”.“Gandhi, a racist and a pedofile” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIcSo10dU2k“Mahatma Gandhi hated black people!”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeJQ1QXT2Lc“M.G.was one of Nazis greatest friends”. telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6140002“Campaign against Untouchability”.http://www.gandhism.net/gandhiandblacks.phpGandhian Institute and Research Foundation Website.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

SOURCES

Gandhi and the Dalit controversy: The limits of the moral force of an individual Miki Kashtan February 27, 2012

Mark Lindley. “Changes in Mahatma Gandhi´s views on Caste and Intermarriage”.

Ancient Civilization.ttp://www.ushistory.org/civ/8b.asp

Stanley Wolpert. “Gandhi”. La Nación. 2003. P. 256.

SOURCES