JAT-PAT-TODAK MANDAL OF LAHORE-VIII
The recent
discussion about the excluded and partially included areas has served to draw
attention to the position of what are called the aboriginal tribes in India.
They number about 13 millions if not more. Apart from the questions whether
their exclusion from the new Constitution is proper or improper, the fact still
remains that these aborigines have remained in their primitive uncivilized
State in a land which boasts of a civilization thousands of years old. Not only
are they not civilized but some of them follow pursuits which have led to their
being classified as criminals. Thirteen millions of people living in the midst
of civilization are still in a savage state and are leading the life of
hereditary criminals! ! But the Hindus have never felt ashamed of it. This is a
phenomenon which in my view is quite unparalleled. What is the cause of this
shameful state of affairs ? Why has no attempt been made to civilize these
aborigines and to lead them to take to a more honourable way of making a living
? The Hindus will probably seek to account for this savage state of the
aborigines by attributing to them congenital stupidity. They will probably not
admit that the aborigines have remained savages because they had made no effort
to civilize them, to give them medical aid, to reform them, to make them good
citizens. But supposing a Hindu wished to do what the Christian missionary is
doing for these aborigines, could he have done it ? I submit not. Civilizing
the aborigines means adopting them as your own, living in their midst, and
cultivating fellow-feeling, in short loving them. How is it possible for a
Hindu to do this ? His whole life is one anxious effort to preserve his caste.
Caste is his precious possession which he must save at any cost. He cannot
consent to lose it by establishing contact with the aborigines the remnants of
the hateful Anary as of the Vedic
days. Not that a Hindu could not be
taught the sense of duty to fallen humanity, but the trouble is that no amount
of sense of duty can enable him to overcome his duty to preserve his caste.
Caste is, therefore, the real explanation as to why the Hindu has let the
savage remain a savage in the midst of his civilization without blushing or
without feeling any sense of remorse or repentance. The Hindu has not realized
that these aborigines are a source of potential danger. If these savages remain
savages they may not do any harm to the Hindus. But if they are reclaimed by
non-Hindus and converted to their faiths they will swell the ranks of the
enemies of the Hindus. If this happens the Hindu will have to thank himself and
his Caste System.
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