Response to Arundhati Roy

Author(s): RAJMOHAN GANDHI

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 50, No. 30 (JULY 25, 2015), pp. 83-85
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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 DISCUSSION

Response to Arundhati Roy

Indians of South Africa rather than of its
Blacks constituted his priority, and for
some of that time he often sounded
uninformed, condescending and hurtful
rajmohan gandhi in his observations about Africans.
RAJMOHAN GANDHI

Continuing
Continuingwith the
with discussion
the discussion Twelcome Arundhati Roy's reply ("All On Dalits and Untouchability
around "The Doctor and the I t^e World's a Half-Built Dam," EPW, Regarding India's Dalits, Arundhati Roy's
Saint
Saint,"" Rajmohan
Raimohan Gandhi
Candhi A 20 June 2015) to my critique ("Inde- reply dwells in part on what she sees as
' j pendence and Social Justice: The my effort to show Gandhi's "missionary
counters Arundhati Roy's
counters Arundhati Roy S Ambedkar-Gandhi Debate," epw, 11 April compassion" towards them (p 168).
response
response ininfour
four areas—Gandhi
areas—Gandhi 2015) of her text, "The Doctor and the Those are her words, not mine. What I
and the Blacks of South Africa, Saint (Roy 2014)." No doubt, the readers believe I was demonstrating was the
Gandhi
Gandhiand
andcaste Gandhi
caste, and' and
Gandhi wil1 examine the critklue and the reP'y· toughness of Gandhi's language towards
' Still, I may be permitted a few com- caste Hindus. He demanded that they
Ambedkar, and the subject of
Ambedkar, and the subject of ments on the latter. acknowledge the inhumanity perpetrat
joint/separate electorates ed on Dalits for centuries. This blunt lan
joint/separate electorates
for Dalits. B'ac^s guage began while Gandhi was in South
for Dalits.
To counter my criticism that "The Doctor Africa and continued throughout the
and the Saint" misrepresented Gandhi rest of his life.
over South Africa's Blacks by quoting Thus, two years after Jallianwala,
him selectively and out of context, a Gandhi told a Suppressed Classes Con
criticism I substantiated by citing other ference in Ahmedabad that the crimes of
statements that Gandhi had made at the caste Hindus were as great as those corn
time, Arundhati Roy contends (p 172) mitted by the British Raj in Amritsar (cw
that all I had shown was that while in 19: 572). I provided other examples too
South Africa, Gandhi had attacked slav- to show that this was a steady note from
ery in America and praised Abraham Gandhi, but it is a note that Arundhati
Lincoln and, later, saved an African in Roy is not prepared to hear,
an Indian prison by sucking poison out She is right of course in saying that for
of him. a long time Gandhi did not openly attack
Actually I had done more. Among other "caste" as such, and focused energy on
things I had quoted (p 38) a remarkable abolishing untouchability. But a relent
but also quite well-known public utter- less attack on untouchability, then
ance by Gandhi in Johannesburg in 1908 practised even more widely and with
in which he looked ahead to a "commin- greater cruelty than in our times, was
gling of the different races" of South an excellent strategy for undermining
Africa, including "the Africans and the caste. Gandhi began executing that
Asiatics," to "produce a civilisation that strategy a hundred years ago. Before the
perhaps the world has not yet seen" (cw end of 1935, he would say in his journal,
8: 242-46). Were there many similarly in large type: "Caste Has to Go" (cw 62:
radical utterances at that time from 121-22).
Indians in South Africa or India? Yet In my critique I pointed out how Gan
Arundhati Roy not only excluded that dhi frankly admitted on 2 August 1931—
remark from her long account of Gandhi- just before he was to leave India for
and-Africans in "The Doctor and the the London conference where he and
Saint," she seems unwilling even now to Ambedkar had their memorable clash
acknowledge its existence. that after independence Dalits might be
However, let me repeat here what I worse off, for caste Hindus "would then
freely conceded in my critique, and be buttressed by the accession of power"
what, in fact, I had pointed out years (Pyarelal 1932: 303). It was this realisa
Rajmohan Gandhi (rajmohan.gandhi@gmail. earlier in my study, The Good Boatman tion that had propelled Gandhi's campa
com) is with the Center for Global Studies, (1995). While Gandhi was in South igns for mobilising the nation for dest
University of Illinois, the us. Africa (1893-1914), the rights of the roying untouchability. Once in England,
Economic & Political weekly 12223 july 25, 2015 vol l no 30 83

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DISCUSSION

Gandhi made other statements that that "he clearly never desired" any Constitution, in creating which Ambe
revealed his clear-eyed understanding friendship with Gandhi? Two months dkar played a greater role than anyone
of Indian society, such as after Gandhi's death, when Ambedkar else. It is because of that pact that we
The 'untouchables' are in the hands of marr'ed Sharada Kabir (Ramabai, today have reservations and joint elec
superior classes. They can suppress them Ambedkar's first wife had died in torates in our elections,
completely and wreak vengeance upon 1935) and Vallabhbhai Patel wrote to When Arundhati Roy says in her reply
the 'untouchables' who are at their mercy Ambedkar that "Bapu would have given that many Dalit figures are unhappy
(cw 48:258). y0U blessings," Ambedkar replied: "I about the Poona Pact, I know from per
This is more than a man wanting to agree that Bapu, if he had been sonal experience that she is right. In
exercise "compassion." He seeks a change alive, would have blessed it" (Das 1971, different parts of India, the Dalits I
in Indian society and is vigilant about Vol 6: 302). have talked to have asked me about the
the fate of Dalits in a future free-India This sentence does not prove "friend- Poona Pact. At times, pain is joined to
dominated by caste Hindus. ship" but perhaps it conveys a whisper the question.
of cordiality? This pain is undoubtedly linked to the
On Ambedkar and Gandhi This leads me to possibly the most in- fact that a fast by Gandhi had preceded
Claiming (p 170) that my critique "ass- teresting point in the discussion, and one the Poona Pact. Indeed, according to a
erts" a relationship of "friendship" bet- on which Arundhati Roy's reply has much widely-believed and plausible theory,
ween Ambedkar and Gandhi, Arundhati to say: the Poona Pact which was signed a the fast had forced Ambedkar into
Roy adds, "Thrusting a non-existent year after the 1931 London conference, accepting the Poona Pact's terms against
friendship that he clearly never desired whereby Gandhi (and his colleagues and his will.
onto Ambedkar is also a form of allies) agreed to something they had Aware as I was of Ambedkar's courage
disrespect." Rereading the critique, I do resisted until then, namely, reservations and frankness, I had often wondered
not find any reference in it to "friend- for Dalits, and Ambedkar (and his why in 1949 he had helped incorporate
ship" between Ambedkar and Gandhi, colleagues and allies) agreed to what the pact into the Constitution in the late
The word is absent. they had resisted until then, namely, 1940s if in fact he had been "coerced"
But does Arundhati Roy know Ambed- joint electorates. into accepting it in 1932. It did not seem
kar's mind so well as to be able to say Seventeen years later, the core of this consistent with what I had understood
categorically, 59 years after his death, pact was enshrined in the Indian of the spirit of the man.

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 DISCUSSION

There was another thing about the Gandhi had reached a great distance, However, Arundhati Roy charges me
coercion theory. Contemporary accounts Ambedkar refused to disown the terms (p 171) with "indirect and ignoble gloat
I had come across of the fast and the of the Poona Pact. Four years later, as a ing" over Ambedkar's defeats. I object. I
pact seemed to suggest hard bargaining, partner with Nehru, Patel and, yes, am not an imagined character to whom
eventual compromise, and, significantly Gandhi, Ambedkar incorporated those a novelist may assign lines and thoughts
enough, all-round satisfaction. Ambed- terms in free India's Constitution. of her choosing. As of writing I exist, and
kar's cordial words quoted in the end- If this reading is faulty, I would like to possess my own opinions. As far as I am
1932 book by Pyarelal, Gandhi's secre- be corrected. But Arundhati Roy's reply concerned, Ambedkar's electoral defeats
tary, did not seem to emanate from provides no correction. In fact, she says in the first half of the 1950s signified a
someone who had felt cornered. that I am "absolutely right" in thinking moral and political setback for the India
What then are the facts? Some clues that even after his 1951 resignation and of that time,
may be found in Ambedkar's scorching clash with Nehru and the Congress, But I must not end with a retort. An
1945 book, What Congress and Gandhi Ambedkar did not "try to have the Poona swering my question on who or what
Have Done to the Untouchables, where Pact annulled" (p 170). gives her hope—a question she did not
(as observed in my critique) Ambedkar Yet, as Arundhati Roy says and as I need to answer—Arundhati Roy has
attacks Gandhi's 1932 fast and the Poona know myself from personal encounters, taken the trouble to name (p 173) a
Pact's implementation in sharp language a great many Dalits across India believe number of courageous, dedicated and
but refrains from objecting to the that Ambedkar was totally opposed to unselfish persons, living and dead. Her
pact's terms. the Poona Pact. list includes many whom I admire as
In fact he claims the pact as a victory, well, including Savitribai and Jyotiba
writing, "When the fast failed and On Joint vs Separate Electorates Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar, and
Mr Gandhi was obliged to sign a pact— Arundhati Roy takes exception to my several of the living. I thank her.
called the Poona Pact—which conceded remark that in Uttar Pradesh (up), the
the demands of the Untouchables, he Bahujan Samaj Party (bsp) has won pow- references
REFERENCES

took his revenge by letting the Congress er more than once "thanks in part, some Ambedkar, β Ambedkar,
r (1945): what Congress
Β R (1945): What and. Gandhi
Congress and Gandhi
Have Done to the Untouchables, Bombay:
employ foul electioneering tactics..." might say, to the Poona Pact and the joint ^ t0 theThackers.
Untouchables, Bombay:
(italics mine; Ambedkar 1945: 259). electorate." She demands to know—with Das, Durga Das, ed (1971k
Durga Sardar
ed (1971): SardarPatel's Correspon
Patel's Correspon
dence, 10 Vols, Ahmedabad: Navajivan.
, Pyarelal's
^ . . .,1932. book
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ι, , <us.that
,ν a striking flourish—"Who are these 'some' dence· ioVoIs, Ahmedabad: Navajivan.
Gandhi, Μ Κ (nd): Collected Works ofCollected
Gandhi, Μ Κ (nd): MahatmaWorks of Mahatma
shortly after signing the pact, Ambedkar who might say" this? (pi7o) Gandhi, 100 Vols,Gandhi,
New 100Delhi:
Vols,Publications
New Delhi: Publications

Γ r New Delhi: Penguin.

said he had been "surprised, immensely I think some election analysts might Division. Division.
Gandhi, Rajmohan (1995): The Good Boatman,
surprised" to find "so much in common" indeed come up with such a conclusion. Gan^hl' (l995): The Good Boatman>
New Delhi: Penguin.
between Gandhi and himself. According Would Arundhati Roy like to argue the _ (2015): "independence and Social Justice:
— (2015): "Independence TheJustice: The
and Social
to Pyarelal, Ambedkar told Gandhi that opposite and claim that a bsp majority in Ambedkar-GandhiAmbedkar-Gandhi Debate,"
Debate," 11 April, 11 April, Economic
Economic
& Political Weekly.
if he devoted himself "entirely to the up, or a Republican Party victory inPyarelal
Ahmedabad: Navajivan.
(1932): Epic Fast, Ahmedabad: Navajivan.
welfare of the Depressed Classes," Gan- Maharashtra, is more likely with a sepa- R0y, ArundhatiRoy,
(2014):
Arundhati
"The Doctor
(2014):
and"The
the Doctor and the
dhi "would become our hero" (Pyarelal rate Dalit electorate? Saint"in B R Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste:
Saint" in Β R Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste:
The Annotated Critical Edition, New Delhi:
1932:59). "Many Dalit organisations," she as- Navayana.Navayana.
— World's
(2015): "All the World's aDam,"
Half-Built Dam,"
1 n 1 i> i_ 1 ^ r ^ ι 20 June, Economic & Political Weekly.
In his 1945 text, this is what Ambedkar serts, "called—and still call—for the — (2015): "All the
says about Pyarelal s book: restitution of the 1932 Communal
a Half-Built
20 June, Economic & Political Weekly.

The story of this fast has been told by Award" (which prescribed a separate
Mr Pyarelal in a volume which bears the Dalit electorate) (p 170). I think Dalit or
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Economic & Political weekly Q2S3 july 25, 2015 vol l no 30 85

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