ANNIHILATION OF CASTE
WITH
WITH
A REPLY TO MAHATMA GANDHI
"Know Truth as
Truth and Untruth as Untruth "
—buddha
"He that WILL
NOT reason is a bigot He that CANNOT reason is a fool He that DARE NOT reason
is a slave " H. drummond
Printed from
the third edition of 1944
_____________________________________________________________________
Contents
1. Preface to the Second Edition
2. Preface to the
Third Edition
3. Prologue
4. Speech Prepared By Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
5.
Appendix I : A Vindication
Of Caste By Mahatma Gandhi
6. Appendix II : A Reply To The Mahatma By Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
ANNIHILATION OF CASTE
PREFACE TO THE
SECOND EDITION
The speech
prepared by me for the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal of Lahore has had an astonishingly warm
reception from the Hindu public for whom it was primarily intended. The English
edition of one thousand five hundred was exhausted
within two months of its publication. It is translated into Gujarati and Tamil. It is being translated in Marathi, Hindi, Punjabi
and Malayalam. The demand for the English text
still continues unabated. To satisfy this demand it has become necessary to
issue a Second Edition. Considerations of history and effectiveness of appeal
have led me to retain the original form of the essay—namely the speech
form—-although I was asked to recast it in the form of a direct narrative. To
this edition I have added two appendices. I have collected in Appendix I the
two articles written by Mr. Gandhi by way of review
of my speech in the Harijan,
and his letter to Mr. Sant Ram, a member of the
Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal. In Appendix II, I have printed my views in reply to the
articles of Mr. Gandhi collected in Appendix 1. Besides Mr. Gandhi many others
have adversely criticised my views as expressed in my speech. But I have felt
that in taking notice of such adverse comments I
should limit myself to Mr. Gandhi. This I have done not because what he has
said is so weighty as to deserve a reply but because to many a Hindu he is an
oracle, so great that when he opens his lips it is expected that the argument
must close and no dog must bark. But the world owes much to rebels who would
dare to argue in the face of the pontiff and insist that he is not infallible.
I do not care for the credit which every progressive society must give to its
rebels. I shall be satisfied if I make the Hindus realize that they are the
sick men of India and that their sickness is causing danger to the health and
happiness of other Indians.
B. R. AMBEDKAR
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
The Second
edition of this Essay appeared in 1937, and was
exhausted within a very short period. A new edition has been in demand for a long time. It was my intention to
recast the essay so as to incorporate into it another essay of mine called " Castes in
India, their Origin and their Mechanism ",
which appeared in the issue of the Indian Antiquary Journal for May 1917. But
as I could not find time, and as there is very little prospect of my being able
to do so and as the demand for it from the public is very insistent, I am
content to let this be a mere reprint of the Second edition.
I am glad to find that this
essay has become so popular, and I hope that it will serve the purpose for
which it was intended.
22, Prithwiraj Road
22, Prithwiraj Road
New Delhi 1st
December 1944 B. R. AMBEDKAR
PROLOGUE
PROLOGUE
On December
12, 1935, I received the following letter from Mr. Sant
Ram, the Secretary of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal :
My dear Doctor Saheb,
Many thanks
for your kind letter of the 5th December. I have released it for press without
your permission for which I beg your pardon, as I
saw no harm in giving it publicity. You are a great
thinker, and it is my well-considered opinion that none else has studied the
problem of Caste so deeply as you have. I have always benefited myself and our
Mandal from your ideas. I have explained and preached it in the Kranti many
times and I have even lectured on it in many Conferences. I am now very anxious
to read the exposition of your new formula—"
It is not possible to break Caste without annihilating the religious notions on
which it, the Caste system, is founded." Please do explain it at length at your earliest convenience, so
that we may take up the idea and emphasise it from press and platform. At
present, it is not fully clear to me.
* * * * *
Our Executive
Committee persists in having you as our President for our Annual Conference. We can change
our dates to accommodate your convenience.
Independent Harijans of Punjab are very much
desirous to meet you and discuss with you their plans. So if you kindly accept
our request and come to Lahore to preside over the Conference
it will serve double purpose. We will invite Harijan
leaders of all shades of opinion and you will get an opportunity of giving your
ideas to them.
The Mandal has
deputed our Assistant Secretary, Mr. Indra Singh, to meet you at Bombay in Xmas and discuss with you the whole situation with a
view to persuade you to please accept our request.
* * * * *
The Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal, I was given to understand, to be an organization of Caste Hindu Social
Reformers, with the one and only aim, namely to eradicate the Caste System from
amongst the Hindus. As a rule, I do not like to take any part in a movement
which is carried on by the Caste Hindus. Their attitude towards social reform is
so different from mine that I have found it difficult to pull on with them.
Indeed, I find their company quite uncongenial to me on account of our
differences of opinion. Therefore when the Mandal
first approached me I declined their invitation to preside. The Mandal,
however, would not take a refusal from me and sent down one of its members to
Bombay to press me to accept the invitation. In the end I agreed to preside.
The Annual Conference was to be held at Lahore, the headquarters of the Mandal.
The Conference was to meet in Easter but was subsequently postponed to the
middle of May 1936. The Reception Committee of the Mandal has now cancelled the
Conference. The notice of cancellation came long after my Presidential address
had been printed. The copies of this address are now lying with me. As I did
not get an opportunity to deliver the address from the presidential chair the
public has not had an opportunity to know my views on the problems created by
the Caste System. To let the public know them and also to dispose of the
printed copies which are lying on my hand, I have decided to put the printed
copies of the address in the market. The accompanying pages contain the text of that address.
The public
will be curious to know what led to the cancellation of my appointment as the
President of the Conference. At the start, a dispute arose over the printing of
the address. I desired that the address should be printed in Bombay. The Mandal
wished that it should be printed in Lahore on the ground of economy. I did not
agree and insisted upon having it printed in Bombay. Instead of agreeing to my
proposition I received a letter signed by several members of the Mandal from
which I give the following extract :
27-3-36
Revered Dr. Ji,
Your letter
of the 24th instant addressee to Sjt. Sant Ram has been
shown to us. We were a little disappointed to read it. Perhaps you are not
fully aware of the situation that has arisen here. Almost all the Hindus in the
Punjab are against your being invited to this province. The Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal has been subjected to the
bitterest criticism and has received censorious rebuke from all quarters. All
the Hindu leaders among whom being Bhai Parmanand, M-L.A. (Ex-President, Hindu Maha Sabha), Mahatma Hans Raj, Dr. Gokal Chand Narang,
Minister for Local Self-Government, Raja Narendra Nath, M.L.C. etc., have dissociated themselves from this step of the Mandal.
Despite all this the runners of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal (the
leading figure being Sjt. Sant Ram) are determined to wade through thick and
thin but would not give up the idea of your presidentship. The Mandal has earned a bad name.
*
* * *
*
Under the
circumstances it becomes your duty to co-operate with the Mandal. On the one
hand, they are being put to so much trouble and hardship by the Hindus and if
on the other hand you too augment their difficulties it will be a most sad
coincidence of bad luck for them.
We hope you will think over the matter and do what
is good for us all.
*
* * * *
This letter
puzzled me greatly. I could not understand why the Mandal should displease me
for the sake of a few rupees in the matter of printing the address. Secondly, I
could not believe that men like Sir Gokal Chand Narang had really resigned as a protest
against my selection as
President because I had received the following letter from Sir Gokal Chand
himself :
5 Montgomery Road
Lahore,
7-2-36
Dear Doctor Ambedkar,
I am glad to
learn from the workers of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal
that you have agreed to preside at their next anniversary to be held at Lahore
during the Easter holidays, it will give me much
pleasure if you stay with me while you are at Lahore. More when we meet.
Yours
sincerely,
G. C. narang
Whatever be
the truth I did not yield to this pressure. But even when the Mandal found that
I was insisting upon having my address printed in Bombay instead of agreeing to
my proposal the Mandal sent me a wire that they were sending Mr. Har Bhagwan to Bombay to " talk over matters personally " Mr. Har Bhagwan came to Bombay on the 9th of
April. When I met Mr. Har Bhagwan I found that he had nothing to say regarding
the issue. Indeed he was so unconcerned regarding the printing of the address,
whether it should be printed in Bombay or in Lahore, that he did not even
mention it in the course of our conversation. All that he was anxious for was
to know the contents of the address. I was then convinced that in getting the
address printed in Lahore the main object of the Mandal was not to save money
but to get at the contents of the address. I gave him a copy. He did not feel
very happy with some parts of it. He returned to Lahore. From Lahore, he wrote
to me
the following letter :
Lahore,
dated April 14, 1936
My dear Doctor Sahib,
Since my
arrival from Bombay, on the 12th, I have been indisposed
owing to my having not slept continuously for 5 or 6 nights, which were spent in the train. Reaching here I came to know that
you had come to Amritsar.
I would have seen you there if I were well enough to go about. I have made over
your address to Mr. Sant Ram for translation and he
has liked it very much, but he is not sure whether it could be translated by
him for printing before the 25th. In any case, it woud
have a wide publicity and we are sure it would wake the Hindus up from their
slumber.
The passage I
pointed out to you at Bombay has been read by some of our friends with a little
misgiving, and those of us who would like to see the Conference terminate
without any untoward incident would prefer that at least the word " Veda " be left
out for the time being. I leave this to your good sense. I hope, however, in
your concluding paragraphs you will make it clear that the views expressed in
the address are your own and that the responsibility does not lie on the Mandal. I hope, you will not mind this statement of
mine and would let us have 1,000 copies of the address, for which we shall, of
course, pay. To this effect I have sent you a telegram today. A cheque of Rs. 100 is enclosed herewith which kindly acknowledge,
and send us your bills in due time.
I have called
a meeting of the Reception Committee and shall communicate their decision to
you immediately. In the meantime kindly accept my heartfelt thanks for the
kindness shown to me and the great pains taken by you in the preparation of
your address. You have really put us under a heavy debt of gratitude.
Yours
sincerely,
har bhagwan
P.S.—Kindly send the copies of the address by passenger
train as soon as it is printed, so that copies may be sent to the Press for publication.
Accordingly I
handed over my manuscript to the printer with an order to print 1,000 copies.
Eight days later, I received another letter from Mr. Har
Bhagwan which I reproduce below :
Lahore,
22-4-36
Dear Dr. Ambedkar,
We are in
receipt of your telegram and letter, for which kindly accept our thanks. In accordance with your desire, we have
again postponed our Conference, but feel that it would have been much better to
have it on the 25th and 26th, as the weather is growing warmer and warmer every
day in the Punjab. In the middle of May it would be fairly hot, and the sittings
in the day time would not be very pleasant and comfortable. However, we shall
try our best to do all we can to make things as
comfortable as possible, if it is held in the middle of May.
There is,
however, one thing that we have been compelled to bring to your kind attention. You will remember that when I pointed
out to you the misgivings entertained by some of
our people regarding your declaration on the subject of change of religion, you
told me that it was undoubtedly outside the scope of the Mandal and that you had no intention to say anything
from our platform in that connection. At the same time when the manuscript of
your address was handed to me you assured me that that was the main portion of
your address and that there were only two or three concluding paragraphs that
you wanted to add. On receipt of the second instalment
of your address we have been taken by surprise, as that would make it so
lengthy, that we are afraid, very few people would read the whole of it.
Besides that you have more than once stated in your address that you had
decided to walk out of the fold of the Hindus and
that that was your last address as a Hindu. You have also unnecessarily
attacked the morality and reasonableness of the Vedas and other religious books of
the Hindus, and have at length dwelt upon the technical side of Hindu religion,
which has absolutely no connection with the problem at issue, so much so that
some of the passages have become irrelevant and off the
point. We would have been very pleased if you had confined your address to that
portion given to me, or if an addition was necessary, it would have been
limited to what you had written on Brahminism etc.
The last portion which deals with the complete annihilation of Hindu religion
and doubts the morality of the sacred books of the Hindus as well as a hint
about your intention to leave the Hindu fold does
not seem to me to be relevant.
I would
therefore most humbly request you on behalf of the
people responsible for the Conference to leave out the passages referred to above,
and close the address with what was given to me or add a few paragraphs on
Brahminism. We doubt the wisdom of making the address unnecessarily provocative
and pinching. There are several of us who subscribe to your feelings and would
very much want to be under your banner for remodelling of the Hindu religion.
If you had decided to get together persons of your cult I can assure you a
large number would have joined your army of reformers from the Punjab.
In fact, we
thought you would give us a lead in the destruction of the evil of caste
system, especially when you have studied the subject so thoroughly, and
strengthen our hands by bringing about a revolution and making yourself as a
nucleus in the gigantic effort, but declaration of
the nature made by you when repeated loses its
power, and becomes a hackneyed term. Under the circumstances, I would request
you to consider the whole matter and make your address more effective by saying
that you would be glad to take a leading part in the destruction of the caste
system if the Hindus are willing to work in right earnest toward that end, even if they had to forsake their kith and kin and
the religious notions. In case you do so, I am sanguine that you would find a ready response from the Punjab in such an
endeavour.
I shall be grateful if you will help us at this
juncture as we have already undergone much expenditure and have been put to suspense, and let us know by the return of post that you have condescended to limit your
address as above. In case, you still insist upon the printing of the address in toto, we very much regret it would not
be possible—rather advisable for us to hold the
Conference, and would prefer to postpone it sine
die, although by doing so we shall be losing the goodwill of the people
because of the repeated postponements. We should, however, like to point out
that you have carved a niche in our hearts by writing such a wonderful treatise
on the caste system, which excels all other treatises so far written and will
prove to be a valuable heritage, so to say. We shall be ever indebted to you
for the pains taken by you in its preparation.
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