Black Leadership Analysis

Mr. Mohandas Gandhi joined the Indian National Congress in 1919. He then conducted a four-pronged campaign for Indian independence from 1920 to 1942. The first pillar was non-cooperation to make government rule useless. Those Indians who did not go along with non-cooperation had to suffer social boycott. Members of Congress would not buy or fraternize with Indians not involved with the freedom struggle. There would be Civil Disobedience or protests to show the multitudes of people unsatisfied with His Majesty’s Rule to further the cause of freedom. The final weapon was the fast, welded by Mr. Gandhi himself. The fear of public backlash from the death of someone as revered as Mr. Gandhi was enough to push legislation through.

The freedom campaign was mostly taken up by Hindus. Muslims played a small role for a short time. Dalits, Indians without Caste, played little to no part. They knew if India did become independent upper castemen would control government with the lower caste serving as policemen. With a power structure of nothing but castemen, how would Dalits secure their rights? Dalits wanted safeguard for political representation and government employment guaranteed in the constitution.

The relationship between Dalits and the British began with the invasion of the East India Company. The company enlisted Dalits in the state of Maharashtra to take power away from the Hindus and install the first British stronghold. The resulting victory of the Dalits showed that divine fate did not determine their station. They can unify and overthrow their oppressors.

Dalits began to see themselves as a separate political and social entity. Hindus never questioned Dalits being a separate entity until political power was to be split between various factions in India. Now Congress is emphatic that Dalits are part of Hinduism, but in what way.

Ambedkar dissects the question of various levels. The first is in the territorial sense of those that occupy the area colloquially referred to as Hindustan. At that level, one could say Dalits are Hindus. However, at that level, Muslims and Sikhs could be considered Hindus. Both groups received accommodations for political representation in the constitution.

The next level one could answer the question is social. Do Dalits and Hindus interact enough on a social level to be considered one people? The answer is emphatical, no! Untouchability, by its very definition, precludes even contact. No reason to also ask about intermarriage, dining, or occupations. In no arena are Dalits socializing with Hindus.

The last level is as members of the religion of Hinduism. First, one must ask what Hinduism is. Ambedkar explains there is no unifying moral code or system of practice. What is commonly referred to as Hinduism is various cults with a similar origin. Many Dalits were members of these cults even though there were strong movements of conversion to Buddhism and Islam.

Even if Dalits occupy a cult of Rama, Krishna, Vishnu, or Shiva, they do not observe untouchability. There is also not enough interaction with mainstream Hindu cults to consider both cults brothers. Even if Dalits occupy the same cult as a Hindu, it would not mean they are in the same community. Indian Christians, Europeans, and Anglo-Indians hold the same religion, but they are not unified in a singular community.

Now that Dalits have established themselves as a separate community, why not grant Dalits constitution safeguards? Allowing the safeguards would build the trust and sense of brotherhood that Congress said was necessary. Indian independence would never stand without this sense of fellow feeling. What Dalits are asking for in political representation and government work is very reasonable. The alternative would be to ask for an independent country like many of the Muslims and Sikhs. If Congress does not want to grant Dalit accommodations, one must wonder if they ever intended to treat Dalits equally.

The adversity faced by Dalits is much more significant than just untouchability. They are fighting to overturn the belief built up over thousands of years. Because Dalits did not cause the belief in inferiority as ordained by a divine fate, no amount of self-improvement on the part of Dalits will rectify it. The Hindus must end discrimination. The question remains do Hindus as a collective understand the atrocities they have inflicted on Dalits and do they care to act to remedy the situation.

In Ambedkar’s book What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to The Untouchables details the history of the Indian National Congress and their relationship with Dalits and Dalit issues. The Indian National Congress is a political party. Ambedkar ran the opposition party called the Indian Republican Party, which he named after the American political party that freed the slaves. The book provides a history and contemporary analysis of the Congressman.

The Indian National Congress (Congress) formed in 1885. Their main goal was to lobby for the full independence of India. Initially, Congress wanted to address political and social issues. However, the two goals often contradicted. When a social issue was championed people of different castes would be set against each other. The disunity weakened the party’s efforts for Indian independence.

There were two schools of thought on the subject of social reform. The first was there needed more equity in Indian society, but the political realm is not the place for it. Individuals and community organizations can improve the plight of the downtrodden. The second was that no social reform is needed at all. Over the years, Congress became less and less interested in social reform, and the subject had not been raised from 1895 to 1917. The Indian Social Reform Party took up social reform outside of Congress.

In 1917, the Depressed India Association gathered in Bombay to pass a resolution to the British government. The Dalit leaders created a resolution that stated India should not receive Independence until Depressed Classes have full rights. These rights would include access to public facilities such as schools, roadways, and water sources. Dalits should also have proper representation in government and legal protection from discrimination if Dalits don’t have full citizenship, then India should stay in the hands of the British. The Depressed Classes pledged loyalty to the British Crown before all other entities. If the Depressed Classes supported Congress’s plan for independence, Congress would have to take their issues seriously.

In response to Dalit’s First Resolution of Loyalty, Congress had to pass the 1917 resolution to improve the lot of Depressed Classes. Congress’s response was to declare that India can’t be free while oppressing its citizens.

Gandhi joined the Indian National Congress in 1919 and completely overhauled it. When he entered, it was a gathering of intellectuals that would pass resolutions and wait for the British government to act on them. Gandhi instituted an overhaul in 1922 called the Bardoli plan.

The Bardoli plan expanded membership to anyone in India for a small fee. Once membership grew to 10 million, they can advocate for the use of the spinning wheel instead of buying foreign cloth, alcohol temperance, and community-led conflict resolution. There was an effort to improve the social condition of depressed classes as part of this plan.

In two interviews in 1920, Gandhi expressed his view on the communal question. He expressed fear that the Dalits or any community asking for help from the government would be moving from the frying pan into the fire. When the government gives aid they do it to manipulate the group against the rest of India. Gandhi references Muslims and Sikhs as examples. Many Dalits wish to convert, but conversion is only a matter of the heart and has no bearing on one’s physical condition. He encouraged Dalits to aid in the effort of independence and that many in Hinduism are pushing for reform. The oppression of Dalits hurts the case for Indian independence. If Untouchables enter the cause of Swaraj, they will be more than welcome.

Congress did state they would work to improve the life of Dalits. However, little was actually done. One of the Dalit’s most staunch allies in Congress, Swami Shradhanard resigned due to Congress’s inaction. In May of 1923, Congress official requested the Hindu Mahasabha take up the issue of removing Untouchability. The Mahasabha was especially unequipped to handle the communal question. They formed as a militant response to Islam’s growth in India. The communal question would not become a priority again until after the Poona Pact of 1932.

On September 30, 1932 Congress established the Harijan Sevak Singh. The name loosely translates into the servants of the untouchables. In the official mission statement the founders are clear the goal is not to end untouchability. Instead they seek to improve the life of Dalits without rattling the social order.

Harijan Sevak Singh or Singh for short embarked on a program to improve public facilities for Dalits. The Singh supplied and aided clinics reserved for Dalits. There was also a campaign to improve water wells that Dalits were allowed to use. Scholarships were given to Dalits for high school, trade school and college. Many Dalits did benefit from the Singhs program.

Even though there was benefit to the program there would always be serious disparity if all public facilities were not open Dalits. There is no such thing as separate but equal. Those in power will always fund their facilities before the facilities of the downtrodden. There were Dalits on the board of the Singh when it began. However, once years passed and the mission never grew to include Dalits in the normal functioning of society, the Dalit leaders left. Gandhi never found replacements and said his reasoning was the curse of untouchability is the responsibility of castemen to end.

Untouchability was not a priority of Mr. Gandhi during the height of his civil disobedience campaign from 1922-1941. Congress boycotted the British government and goods. He was tried in 1922 for sedition and sentenced to six years. He was release in 1924 due to illness. There was a six year effort that began in 1935 to win access to public wells and temples. However, Gandhi never used civil disobedience against Hindus. The effort changed to simply improving water sources already segregated for Dalits. As far as temples, 142 were opened to Dalits. But of the 142 temples 121 were owner less, essentially Dalits were granted access to temples no one else wanted.

During Gandhi’s civil disobedience campaign, Ambedkar was agitating for access to Chawdar Water Tank in Bombay. The most famous of Ambedkar’s acts of defiance of caste rule happened when he gathered a group of Dalits to drink from the water tank in 1927. The Bombay campaign of 1927 included access to other public facilities such as schools. Ambedkar did reach out to Gandhi’s organization Harijian Sevak Sangh and they did nothing. In fact, they aided the Hindus in blocking legal adjunctions by the Dalits.

On November 13, 1931, a select committee of the Round Table Conference submitted the Minorities Pact detailing a plan to give Dalits weightage. Weightage is having a percentage of the vote larger than their population size. Also, there would be seats reserved in the legislature and executive cabinet for Depressed Classes. The reserved seats would be elected using a separate electorate of depressed classes. Forty-six percent of the population of India supported the resolution.

Gandhi came out in opposition to the Minorities Pact. He argued that having a specific plan for material redress for the condition of Depressed Classes would make untouchability a permanent status. Instead, untouchability should be removed by building solidarity in the independence struggle. Once British Rule is removed, Indians would naturally work together. There were many already in Hinduism that was working to remove untouchability. By improving the spiritual/psychological condition at the individual level, untouchability would naturally end. The government doesn’t need to protect Depressed classes because Hindus were serious about reform.

The primary advocate for the Depressed Classes was Dr. Ambedkar. He was a Dalit, one the suffered from untouchability, and became a leader in government as well as a world-renowned scholar. He was instrumental in the passage of the Minorities Pact. Gandhi dismissed Ambedkar as bitter about difficulties experienced in his own life. Ambedkar was full of unfounded suspicion and saw all Hindus as enemies. Gandhi could understand his pain because he faced similar treatment as an Indian living in South Africa in his younger years.

Instead of working with Ambedkar to absolve his fears, Gandhi chose to work behind the back of Ambedkar to get the Muslim and Sikh delegation to withdraw their support for the Minorities Pact. Gandhi submitted the Gandhi-Muslim Pact as an alternative. The new pact increased the political power of Muslims and Sikhs with no recognition of other minorities. The British government initiated the Franchise Committee to resolve the discrepancies between the two schemes. The committee began work in January of 1932.

To further undermine the Minorities Pact, Gandhi threatened to go on a hunger strike until all mentions of untouchability are removed from the Constitution. His first letter to Sir Samuel Hoare was dated March 11, 1932. Sir Hoare replied he would make no changes to the Constitution. His Majesty’s Government made the Dalit provision official on August 17, 1932. Gandhi went on a hunger strike the next day.

Ambedkar could let Gandhi fast till death. The provisions were in the Constitution. However, he knew that the death of Gandhi would cause a serious backlash, physical and political, for depressed classes. Ambedkar entered into negotiations with Congress and created a compromise called the Poona Pact. The pact ended the special electorate for Depressed Classes. However, it increased the number of reserved seats in the Provincial (State) Legislatures from 78 to 148. The Central (Federal) Legislature had 18% of its seats reserved for Dalits. The Minorities Pact reserved the seats for 20 years. The Poona Pact reduced this time to 10 years.

The Poona Pact was destructive to the politics of depressed classes. The separate electorate allowed for candidates that specifically addressed Dalit issues to win. If the candidates were chosen from general electorates, the candidate would have to appeal to the masses. In fact, a depressed class candidate could win by only appealing to Hindus in provinces with few depressed class members. The Poona Pact significantly weakened Dalit’s ability to push for their rights.