Between November 1933 and August 1934, for nearly nine months, Gandhi conducted an intensive crusade against untouchability all over the country, including in the Princely States, travelling over 20,000 kilometres by train, car, bullock cart and on foot, collecting money for the recently founded Harijan Sevak Sangh, propagating the removal of untouchability in all its forms and practices, and urging social workers to go to the villages for the social, economic, cultural and political uplift of the ‘Untouchables’.
Full Answer
How did Gandhi fight for women's rights?
He fought against the practices of sati, child marriage, oppression of widows, 'pardah', and fueled emancipation of women. Several women were employed in the salt march and even given the wheel to spin hand made clothing during popular movements of boycotting western clothing.
How did Mahatma Gandhi fought against untouchability?
Between November 1933 and August 1934, for nearly nine months, Gandhi conducted an intensive crusade against untouchability all over the country, including in the Princely States, travelling over 20,000 kilometres by train, car, bullock cart and on foot, collecting money for the recently founded Harijan Sevak Sangh, ...
What did Gandhi do for women in India?
During the freedom struggle in the 1930s, Gandhiji exhorted women to take part in Satyagraha movement on par with men. That 17,000 of around 30,000 persons who courted arrest during the Salt Satyagraha were women volunteers is a conspicuous example of their equal role under the leadership of the Mahatma.
What did Mahatma Gandhi do for the untouchable?
Mahatma Gandhi called 'untouchables', Harijans and worked for their liberation. He organised satyagrahas to secure the Dalits entry into temples, access to public wells, tanks, roads, and schools. To dignify the work of the sweepers, he himself took up the task of cleaning toilets.
How did Mahatma Gandhi uplift the untouchables Class 10?
Gandhi organised satyagraha to secure the entry of the dalits into temples, and access to public wells, tanks, roads and schools. He himself cleaned toilets to dignify the work of the 'bhangi' (the sweepers), He tried persuading upper castes to change their heart and give up 'the sin of untouchability'.
What was Gandhi's view on women?
Gandhi was of the opinion that women were superior to men in their moral and spiritual strength. They had greater powers of self-sacrifice and suffering. On this account, women were capable of infinite strength, which they only needed to realize and channel.
What were Gandhi's views on women's participation?
1 Answer. (i) According to Gandhiji, a woman is a comparison of man and gifted with equal rights of freedom and liberty. (ii) A woman is more fit than a man to take exploration and bolder action in non-violence. (iii) A woman is the better half of humanity, not the weaker sex.
What was Gandhi's belief in untouchability?
Gandhi’s beliefs on untouchability were backed by the force of a lifetime of action. At the age of twelve, in 1881, Gandhi had disregarded his mother’s warnings to not touch Uka, an ‘Untouchable’, who used to clean latrines in their house.
What was Gandhi's central concern?
Untouchability was one of Gandhi’s central concerns. In both words and actions, Gandhi attacked untouchability in ways that were radical for a ‘caste Hindu’. Despite being a ‘caste Hindu’, Gandhi identified himself with the ‘Untouchables’ .
What is Gandhi Jayanti?
The 150th Gandhi Jayanti in 2019 coincides with the 85th anniversary of the conclusion of Gandhi’s historic campaign for the removal of untouchability in all its forms and practices. Between November 1933 and August 1934, for nearly nine months, Gandhi conducted an intensive crusade against untouchability all over the country, including in the Princely States, travelling over 20,000 kilometres by train, car, bullock cart and on foot, collecting money for the recently founded Harijan Sevak Sangh, propagating the removal of untouchability in all its forms and practices, and urging social workers to go to the villages for the social, economic, cultural and political uplift of the ‘Untouchables’. Ambedkar seldom took note of it; ‘Dalits’ today do not celebrate it; and Gandhi biographers pass over it in a few paragraphs. Yet, there is nothing in the annals of Indian history to which it can be compared. Untouchability was one of Gandhi’s central concerns. In both words and actions, Gandhi attacked untouchability in ways that were radical for a ‘caste Hindu’. Despite being a ‘caste Hindu’, Gandhi identified himself with the ‘Untouchables’.
What did Gandhi do to help the caste system?
Significantly, Gandhi worked for the ending of the caste system itself, which was responsible for the caste and other socio-economic disabilities of the ‘Untouchables’. He looked for the most effective, quickest and the most inoffensive way to destroy caste.
How did Gandhi reject the Varna?
Thus, in one stroke Gandhi rejected the essence of the varna or the caste system by asserting that it was not determined by birth or heredity. By 1935, when Ambedkar was strongly criticising Gandhi’s views on untouchability, Gandhi’s final position was that caste had to go.
Why was the participation of caste Hindus necessary?
According to Gandhi, the participation of the ‘caste Hindus’ was necessary both for the effectiveness of the non-violent mass political movement for freedom from colonial rule and for the success of the movement against untouchability. For him, not keeping in mind the sentiments of the majority of the orthodox Hindus would have been suicidal.
Why was Gandhi ostracised?
Gandhi was ostracised for this act but he refused to perform penance. This strength of mind remained with Gandhi even in South Africa (1893-1914) where he allowed persons of all communities, religions, races and castes, including the ‘Untouchables’, to stay in his house like members of his family.
What was Gandhi's untouchability fast?
Yeravada Jail, where Gandhi undertook 'untouchability' fast in September 1932. More important than the new electoral arrangement was the emotional catharsis through which the Hindu community had passed. The fast was intended by Gandhi "to sting the conscience of the Hindu community into right religious action".
What was Gandhi's idea of scrapping electorates?
The scrapping of separate electorates was only the beginning of the end of untouchability. Under Gandhi’s inspiration, while he was still in prison, a new organization, Harijan Sevak Sangh was founded to combat untouchability and a new weekly paper, the Harijan, was started. Harijan means "children of God"; it was Gandhi’s name for ...
Why did Gandhi go on a fast?
A new twist to the civil disobedience movement came in September 1932 when Gandhi, who was in Yeravda Jail, went on a fast as a protest against the segregation of the so-called "untouchables" in the electoral arrangement planned for the new Indian constitution. Uncharitable critics described the fast as a form ...
What happened to Gandhi on June 25th?
On June 25, while Gandhi was on his way to the municipal hall in Poona, a bomb was thrown at his party. Seven persons were injured, but Gandhi was unhurt. He expressed his "deep pity" for the unknown thrower of the bomb.
When did Gandhi retire?
Gandhi sensed the critical mood in the Congress party and in October 1934, announced his retirement from it.
Where did Gandhi break his fast?
A number of Hindu leaders met the representatives of the untouchables; an alternative electoral arrangement was agreed upon, and received the approval of the British Government before Gandhi broke his fast. Yeravada Jail, where Gandhi undertook 'untouchability' fast in September 1932.
When did Gandhi start fasting?
The news that Gandhi was about to fast shook India from one end to the other. September 20, 1932, when the fast began, was observed as a day of fasting and prayer. At Shantiniketan, poet Tagore, dressed in black, spoke to a large gathering on the significance of the fast and the urgency of fighting an age-old evil.
What did Gandhi do to abolish untouchability?
Believing that untouchability is a religious issue, Gandhi sought to abolish the "pernicious custom" of untouchability not the caste system. He also avoided taking up the issues of intermarriage and inter-dining. Hindus, he believed, owed it to themselves and to Hinduism to eradicate untouchability. "We must clearly realize that we have to attain not. . . [untouchables'] salvation but ours by treating them as equals, by admitting them to our schools, etc.," 95 He pressed caste Hindus to a change of heart and pushed the untouchables to integrate into Hindu society. Orthodox Hindus refused to accept his interpretation of Hinduism. "The fight against sanatanists [orthodox] is becoming ... increasingly difficult. . . . The more I ignore their abuses, the fiercer they are becoming/' he wrote to Nehru. 96 After decades in public life, at the height of his anti-untouchability campaign in 1933, he acknowledged that "the evil (of untouchability) is far greater than even I had thought it to be." 97
Where was Gandhi's anti-untouchability stance?
Back in India, Gandhi's anti-untouchability stance awakened in childhood and nurtured in South Africa entered a new phase, a public phase, at Satyagraha Ashram, founded by the Mahatma in May 1915 in Kochrab village near Ahmedabad. The ashram was the linchpin of Gandhi's philosophy of action; it was a laboratory where visions of a just society were conceived and where women and men trained to carry forward Gandhi's political and social agenda. It was also a setting where methods to transform society were worked out. At the heart of the ashram was its discipline of vows and the elimination of untouchability was one of the vows all members of the ashram took. 19 Considering that Gandhi had already positioned himself in opposition to untouchability, it was only to be expected that its eradication would become one of Satyagraha Ashram's major activities. 20 "Untouchability had not only no place in the Ashram, but its eradication from Hindu society was one of our principal objectives," Gandhi stated. 21 It was in the ashram setting that Gandhi's position on untouchability ceased to be purely personal and private; his stand against the practice of untouchability became part of the public debate. And it took the Mahatma on a collision course with orthodox Hindus.
What was Gandhi's family without distinction?
And it took the Mahatma on a collision course with orthodox Hindus. All of humanity for Gandhi was one large family without distinction of race, religion, or nationality. Untouchability stood in opposition, to his notion of divinely gathered family and community.
What did Gandhi and Ambedkar offer to the public?
Gandhi and Ambedkar offered specific goals for and pathways to the creation of a just social order in India.
What was Gandhi's social status?
As a caste Hindu and the son of a prime minister of the princely state of Kathiawar, Gandhi knew what it was like to be "somebody." His father's position and the family's standing within the caste hierarchy gave Gandhi social status. All that changed once he got to South Africa, where he, not unlike his compatriots, was subjected to racial prejudice and many humiliations. For the first, time he was "nobody." Before emerging on the national scene in India, while still in South Africa, with deep study and deliberate care he crafted the concept of Satyagraha — the philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance. And he also posited an alternative vision of a just society based on simplicity, nonviolence, and individual autonomy.
What were Gandhi's reservations about nonviolent direct action?
Gandhi's reservations about not resorting to nonviolent direct action in his opposition to untouchability, however, were not shared by everyone. The instrument of Satyagraha was there in the public consciousness and at least some were ready to apply its principles and to confront the proponents of untouchability.
What did Gandhi write to the organizers of the Vykom Satyagraha?
In the dozens of letters he wrote to the organizers over the duration of the life of the Vykom Satyagraha, Gandhi communicated the philosophical, tactical, and strategic aspects of Satyagraha. He also wrote often and in detail about Vykom in Young India, a bi-weekly he published in English.
What was Gandhi's perception of women?
Gandhi's Perception of Women. There was a marked departure of Gandhi's perception of women from that of other reformers. The stance taken by other social reformers and leaders, prior to Gandhi created a helpless image of the Indian women. With the emergence of Gandhi, a new conception of women gradually gained currency.
How did Gandhi's inspiring ideologies help them?
Gandhi's inspiring ideologies boosted their morale and helped them to rediscover their self esteem. Not only there was a general awakening among the women, but under Gandhi's leadership, they entered into the national mainstream, taking parts in the National Movements.
Why did Gandhi say that girls should never marry men who demand dowry?
He opined that girls should never marry men who demand dowry, at the cost of their self respect and dignity. As Gandhi believed that the basis of marriage is mutual love and respect, he urged people to solemnize inter communal marriages between the Harijans and caste Hindus.
What were the social evils of Gandhi?
When Gandhi emerged on to the political scenario, social evils like child marriage and dowry system were rampant. Indian women had an average life span of only twenty seven years. Death of women in labor was a common phenomenon. The percentage of women with basic education was as low as two percent. The patriarchal nature of the society confined ...
What was Gandhi's responsibility for the social crusade?
It was in such a dismal milieu that Gandhi took the responsibility of shouldering a social crusade that led to a major reorientation of the common notion of women in the Indian society.
What were Gandhi's virtues?
In fact, women for Gandhi were embodiments of virtues like knowledge, humility, tolerance, sacrifice and faith. These qualities were essential prerequisites for imbibing the virtue of satyagraha. The capability of enduring endless suffering can be witnessed only in the women, according to the Mahatma.
What was Gandhi's contribution to India?
Gandhi throughout his life waged a crusade for the upliftment of the socially downtrodden, making significant contributions for the enhancement of the status of women in India. Women under his aegis, took a milestone step towards reestablishing their identity in the society.
What did Gandhi's unflinching confidence in women do?
Gandhi's unflinching confidence in women did not blind him to the real situation of women in the country. The unjust social structure, anti-women religious practices, rituals and conventions have debilitated women that have been not only marginalised women but were victims of inhuman cruelty.
What did Gandhi do to help women?
Gandhi, as friend, philosopher and guide of women used to receive large number of letters wherein the women wrote about their pitiable conditions. Gandhi had advised them to face them bravely and also suggested solutions. He opposed sati, child marriage, evil system (purdah) or husband's domination over his wife.
What is Gandhi's philosophy?
GANDHI'S socio-political philosophy is feminist, which addresses to gender equity, constructed on patriarchal values. There is a contradiction in them; however Gandhi based the edifice of his philosophy on this contradiction. Politics and social life has always been associated with masculinity. It is concerned with power struggle, coercion, war, ...
Why did Gandhi choose his strategy?
Gandhi had admitted that he had designed his strategy and chosen his particular forms of struggle very consciously and deliberately, so as to encourage women's participation in them.
What was Gandhi's undoing?
However, his advocacy of rights of women within the patriarchal values was his undoing. Gandhi's revolutionary ideas are trapped in established socio-cultural values, which created a contradiction in his understanding of woman's place in family, society and politics. He reverts back to the dominant values of gender relationships as it exists in ...
What did Gandhi oppose?
He opposed sati, child marriage, evil system (purdah) or husband's domination over his wife. He had supported widow marriage, advocated women's education. There is a strong streak of gender sensitivity in Gandhi's analysis of man-woman relationship, marriage and sexuality.
What was Gandhi's main cause of the Quit India movement?
Gandhi had launched many struggles in India for innumerable causes like those against untouchability, cow protection, basic education and above all the freedom struggle .They were termed as non-cooperation movement, civil disobedience movement and Quit India movement and were based on his philosophy of satyagraha.
Webinar Summary
In this webinar, King will talk about the main findings of her most recent book “Gandhian Nonviolent Struggle and Untouchability in South India: The 1924-1925 Vykom Satyagraha and the Mechanisms of Change.” In the Indian village of Vykom (now in Kerala, India,) a 1920s nonviolent struggle sought to open to everyone the roads surrounding the Brahmin temple there.
Presenter
Mary King went to work for the civil rights movement soon after graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University, first in Atlanta and then in Mississippi, 1962-1965, serving on the staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
What did Gandhi call the untouchables?
Gandhi began to call the untouchables Harijans – a term not associated with the many derogatory and derisive words used for identifying them. Harijan meant “creation of God”. Today, it is regarded as a patronizing term for the untouchables, who themselves prefer to be known as Dalits.
Why did Gandhi approve of the Harijans?
Gandhi approved of this scheme wholeheartedly for he regarded such schools as “patent instruments for exorcising the demon of untouchability”. Gandhi’s contribution in ensuring justice and equity for Harijans in the Constitution of India cannot be undervalued.
What was Gandhi's support for the Vykom Satyagraha?
The issue of untouchability assumed a truly national dimension after Gandhi offered unqualified support to the Vykom Satyagraha launched by some local leaders of Travancore in modern day Kerala, who were trying to remove the ban on the entry of untouchables on the roads surrounding the Vykom temples. Through Young India, Gandhi informed the ...
What was the strongest impetus for the anti-untouchability movement?
The strongest impetus that the anti-untouchability movement received was from die heroic fast unto death Gandhi undertook against the implementation of the Communal Award on 20 September 1932 and its aftermath – the Poona or Yeravda Pact, as it came to be known. To quote him: “My politics are derived from my religion, ...
Who set up the first industrial training school in India?
Gandhi’s dream of establishing an ideal industrial training school exclusively for Harijans was fulfilled to some extent in 1939, when he presided over the first convocation of such a school in Delhi, set up by the Harijan Sevak Sangh in 1936.
Which is stronger, nationalism or sacrificial death?
Nationalism will be the stronger for sacrificial death. The vast majority of the Indian community has instinctively recognized the correctness and implications of this fast.”. Gandhi described the Yeravda Pact, which was reached on 24 September after hectic negotiations, as “a generous gesture on all sides”.
Who proposed the model schools for Harijans?
One instance was the scheme of model schools for Harijans proposed by G.D. Birla, who was also president of the Harijan Sevak Sangh. Birla was of the opinion that the education provided so far to the Harijans in a few places was of an inferior kind and this only added to their inferiority complex.
Why did Gandhi cut the girls hair off?
Gandhi responded by personally cutting the girls' hair off, to ensure the "sinner's eye" was "sterilised". Gandhi boasted of the incident in his writings, pushing the message to all Indians that women should carry responsibility for sexual attacks upon them. Such a legacy still lingers.
What did Gandhi believe about menstruation?
As accounted by Rita Banerji, in her book Sex and Power, "he believed menstruation was a manifestation of the distortion of a woman's soul by her sexuality". During Gandhi's time as a dissident in South Africa, he discovered a male youth had been harassing two of his female followers.
Why did Gandhi ban women from wearing jeans?
In the summer of 2009, colleges in north India reacted to a spate of sexual harassment cases by banning women from wearing jeans, as western-style dress was too "provocative" for the males on campus. Gandhi believed Indian women who were raped lost their value as human beings.
Why did Gandhi sleep with his great niece?
He took to sleeping with naked young women, including his own great-niece, in order to "test" his commitment to celibacy. The habit caused shock and outrage among his supporters.
What was Gandhi's genius?
Gandhi's genius was to realise the great power of non-violent political revolution. But the violence of his thoughts towards women has contributed to countless honour killings and immeasurable suffering. Remember, there's no such thing as a saint. Topics. India.
Did Gandhi moderate his views towards the end of his life?
He moderated his views towards the end of his life. But the damage was done, and the legacy lingers in every present-day Indian press report of a rape victim who commits suicide out of " shame". Gandhi also waged a war against contraceptives, labelling Indian women who used them as whores.
Did Gandhi take his own vows?
He took his own celibacy vow unilaterally, without consulting his wife. Both Gandhi and his hagiographers claimed he viewed women as equal to men, pointing to his inclusion of women in India's independence struggle.
How did Gandhi help India achieve independence?
Widely referred to as Mahatma, meaning great soul or saint in Sanskrit, Gandhi helped India reach independence through a philosophy of non-violent non-cooperation. Photograph by Rühe, ullstein bild/Getty. By Erin Blakemore. Published September 27, 2019.
Why did Gandhi leave India?
After a period of teenage rebellion, he left India to study law in London. Before going, he promised his mother he’d again abstain from sex, meat, and alcohol in an attempt to re-adopt strict Hindu morals. A portrait of Gandhi as a young man. Photograph by Bettmann, Getty.
What did Gandhi say after he was gone?
However, Mahatma Gandhi the public figure left an indelible mark on the history of India and on the exercise of civil disobedience worldwide. “After I am gone, no single person will be able completely to represent me,” he said . “But a little bit of me will live in many of you.
Why was Gandhi imprisoned?
Imprisoned for a year because of the Salt March, he became more influential than ever.
What happened after Gandhi's assassination?
After Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, children climbed on cars and men scaled telephone poles to to get a better view of his funeral procession, which was attended by over 1.5 million people. Ascetic and unflinching, Gandhi changed the face of civil disobedience around the world.
What was Gandhi's philosophy?
Along the way, he developed a public persona and a philosophy of truth-focused, non-violent non-cooperation he called Satyagraha. Gandhi brought Satyagraha to India in 1915, and was soon elected to the Indian National Congress political party.
When did Gandhi get out of prison?
A frail Gandhi was released from prison in 1944, and Britain at last began to make plans to withdraw from the Indian subcontinent. It was bittersweet for Gandhi, who opposed the partition of India and attempted to quell Hindu-Muslim animosity and deadly riots in 1947. India finally gained its independence in August 1947.
by Sudarshan Kapur*
- Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) and Bhimjirao Ambedkar (1891-1956) are among the major makers of modern India. Their public careers began early — Gandhi's in South Africa in the mid-1890s and Ambedkar's in western India in the early 1920s. They built on the work of nineteenth century and early twentieth century religious and social reformers such as Ram Mohun Roy (177…
II
- As a caste Hindu and the son of a prime minister of the princely state of Kathiawar, Gandhi knew what it was like to be "somebody." His father's position and the family's standing within the caste hierarchy gave Gandhi social status. All that changed once he got to South Africa, where he, not unlike his compatriots, was subjected to racial prejudice and many humiliations. For the first, ti…
III
- Gandhi began to question the practice of untouchability at the age of twelve. An untouchable named Uka used to clean the toilets in the Gandhi household. Gandhi's mother forbade him to touch Uka. His questioning, however, went deeper and gained its anchor in the Hindu scriptures. In a certain sense, the roots of Gandhi's rejection of untouchability...
IV
- Back in India, Gandhi's anti-untouchability stance awakened in childhood and nurtured in South Africa entered a new phase, a public phase, at Satyagraha Ashram, founded by the Mahatma in May 1915 in Kochrab village near Ahmedabad. The ashram was the linchpin of Gandhi's philosophy of action; it was a laboratory where visions of a just society were conceived and whe…
Vi
- Meanwhile, the Gandhi-led salt Satyagraha sufficiently weakened British resolve to hold on to India.65 Though initially he was not seeking a separate electorate for the untouchables, the second Round Table Conference (1931), called by Westminster to discuss the future I of India, gave Ambedkar an opening which he seized.66 Ambedkar now pressed for statutory guarantee…
VII
- Believing that untouchability is a religious issue, Gandhi sought to abolish the "pernicious custom" of untouchability not the caste system. He also avoided taking up the issues of intermarriage and inter-dining. Hindus, he believed, owed it to themselves and to Hinduism to eradicate untouchability. "We must clearly realize that we have to attain not. . . [untouchables'] salvation bu…
Notes and References
- Courtesy: Adapted from 'Gandhi Marg', Volume 32, Number 1, April-June 2010. PROFESSOR SUDARSHAN KAPUR, founder of Naropa University's Peace Studies Department, has taught extensively at the Iliff School of Theology, the University of Denver and the University of Colorado at Boulder in the areas of religion and social change, peace and conflict studies, African-Americ…