Congressmen in Madras
Independencewalla Runs Amock
Mr. S. Satyamurti, the Provincial Secretary of the Independence League, tabled a question at the Madras Legislative council which was answered on the 31st January: “Will the Hon. The Law Member be pleased to state whether it is a fact that while Mr. E. V. Ramaswami Nayakar and Mr. Surendranath Arya were allowed to hold a conference and preach against society and religion at Vellore early this month, the police and the magistracy prevented meetings being held under Congress auspices by serving orders under Section 144 of the criminal procedure code?” The spirit of the question betrays the mentality of the Indepencewalla, who far from bothering himself about measures for the securing of independence from Britain is actually intent on increasing the hold of the foreign Government on India by himself turning informer against his countrymen and instigating and assisting government prosecutions. Had Mr. Satyamurthi been a patriot he would have contented himself with entering a protest against the repressive order prohibiting the Congress meeting without going out of his way to suggest the appropriateness of adopting repressive measure against Messrs. Nayakar and Arya. But the Independencewalla thirsts for blood and he would not rest content unless the British Bureaucracy obliges him by bringing the head of his political opponent on a charger. We have here an indication of what we shall experience when India attains to Independence and Mr. Satyamurti assumes the reins of Government.
The allegation that Messrs. Nayakar and Arya preached against society and religion is grossly libelous. Mr. Nayakar is the chief of the Self-respect movement and has dedicated his life to the task of social reform and social reconstruction on a scale hitherto undreamt of in our country. Mr. Arya is a member and a responsible officer of one of the reformed Christian Churches. The charge against Messrs. Nayakar and Arya comes with ill grace from a social obscurantist who seeks to perpetuate child widows and Devadasis and a religious reactionary who raises the cry of ‘religion in danger’ in support of derelict religious heads whose actions were sought to be controlled by the legislature.
– Revolt, 6 February 1929
National Language vs. Common Language (By Kirk)
These are days of catch phrases. Nationalism is one such and the national soldier, the future citizen of a free India is but election folder. There is a crop of movements calculated to bring freedom for our country and one such is the movement for a national language.
One does not clearly understand what is meant by the talk of a national language. Mr. C. Rajagopalachairar, the protagonist of the movement in the south, would have it as the State language for future India. He says, “The intelligentsia of India must therefore undertake the duty of carrying out the will of the people and manage central affairs as well as provincial matters.” He asks, “Can the deliberations of the Central Assembly and the transactions of the high officers of state and others exercising authority in the central government be permitted to be done in English?” And in answer he says “obviously not, if we desire democracy to be true in fact as well as in form – if we do not want educated men to be appointed to places of power and influence and conduct their affairs apart from the people and the electorate”. In his scheme of nationalism and democracy there is place for the mother tongues as well as for English which latter he calls the language of international commerce.
This argument is high sounding but one does not understand as to what it leads to excepting the enforcement of Hindi on South Indians. Mr. Rajagopalachariar refers to the Nehru Constitution which is vague and grotesque, complex in its provisions relating to the lingua franca. There is place for Hindi and Urdu and also English in the Nehru millennium.
Let us now consider the argument put forth in favour of a language of state, calculated to establish democracy in fact as well as in form. First of all democracy is said to be the rule by the intelligentsia. The intelligentsia everywhere and much more so in our country vigorously exploit the people in the interest of the classes to which they belong. For democracy to be real, therefore, the people at large should participate in the Government. An illiterate population is unfit for democracy. The task before the Nation-builder is therefore mass education and the eradication of illiteracy. As long as we accede the necessity for the study of three languages on the part of anyone aspiringto participate in the government of his country you only extend the period of exploitation and unscrupulousness on the part of the intelligentsia.
If illiteracy is to be obliterated among the people the advocacy of the study of three languages is a menace. There must be one common language for the classes and the masses alike which will completely satisfy our secular needs. The problem of the multiplicity of scripts must also be tackled. There is no necessity for so many scripts while the genius of all the scripts in the country employed in uniting the different languages is the same. The scripts of all of them are unscientific. They share the complexity of the picture scripts without their art and the multiplicity of all primitive inventions.The languages have a tendency to multiply even in this age of quick locomotion and news transmission because of our devotion for the mother tongues, sister tongues, king’s tongues and international tongues. In a perfect scheme of democracy therefore there is no place for so many tongues. If illiteracy is to be removed, the “Divine Nagari” and the “holy Arabic” scripts cannot be of any use. We must agree on the adoption of universal script so scientifically revised that one can learn it in a few hours time. The feat is not impossible.
We should build up a language which will be a synthesis of all the Indian languages but devoid of the confusing complexity of their grammar. As a first step we should decide on the adoption of universal script capable of writing down all the existing Indian languages. We should start and persistently push forward a movement for the attainment of common language in the near nature. The common language will be ushered in by a process of gradual evolution. No existing language however “national” its pretensions, will be suitable as the common language for the future.
– Revolt, 13 February 1929
Week by Week (By Spectator)
It is certain that whatever may have been their experience elsewhere, the Simon Commission are going to have a hearty welcome in Madras. Almost all the prominent political organizations in the city are busy making preparations at present to offer a warm reception to the Commission on their arrival on the 18th instant. It is true of course, that there are a few Congressmen intent on creating trouble of some kind or other with a view to make it appear that they are the only pebbles in the beach to a be reckoned with and that they have the whole province behind their back. But even these tub thumpers seem to be none too keen on the mission they profess so much fervour about. Already the air is thick with rumors that they have decided not to precipitate a hartal – they will be content, it is said, if a few urchins could be got hold of to “demonstrate” on the occasion.
No doubt the Mussolini of Mylapore has excused himself from being present in the assembly on the occasion of the vote on the Public Safety Bill on the ground that his presence in the City at present is essential in the interests of the organization of a thorough boycott of the Commission (1). But those who are in the know about the doings of the local Congress clique are emphatic in their assertion that even the great Sriman is not without his misgivings about the prospect ahead. He is acutely aware, in the first place, of the fact that, apart from a handful of people, the rest of the citizens are at one in their desire to maintain the tradition of dignity and hospitality to the stranger when the Simonites arrive; and, secondly, he is also aware that, circumstances being what they are, it is quite likely that any excessive zeal on the part of himself and his followers for black flag processions and unruly demonstrations might possibly result in a repetition of the “Iron Bridge history” (2) of last year. However, we shall wait and see how things will pan out in the end.
In this connection it is worthy of note that in spite of Messrs. Satyamurti and Company, the Madras Corporation has decided on Simon Commission. This decision was arrived at by a clear majority of votes, and to a reader of the proceedings of the debate in the Council it is clear that, were it not for some unexpected happenings, the majority would have been even greater. In the first place, some of the
requisitionists for the special meeting turned tail at the last moment, possibly because of the “tremendous pressure” brought to bear upon them by the Swarajists. Secondly, some of the Europeans, taking the cue from Mr. A. A. Hayles of the “Madras Mail”, thought it was the better part of valour to stay away from the Corporation at the time of voting instead of participating in it. It is notorious that Mr. Hayles has for a long time past been posing himself as a great authority of civic affairs, and from the day the Justice Party came back into power in the Corporation, he has been feeling a certain amount of uneasiness and and discomfort augmented, no doubt, by the notorious fact that, on the two occasions he interested himself actively in the election of the president, the horses he backed never reached anywhere near the winning post.
However, it is something to find that Mr. Reid one of the European members of the Corporation regards it as a “curious mentality” on the part of a European to dissuade his kith and kin from doing honour to a body of Englishmen who have come to India on a mission of great importance. For the moment, Mr. Hayles has become a favourite in Swarajist circle, because of his dubious politics but time alone can show how long the present European-cum-Swarajist game of tiger-hunting will go on in an amicable fashion.
Another equally absorbing topic of discussion at the present moment is the provincial Self-Respect Conference which is going to meet at Chingleput on the 17th and 18th instants. That the Conference is going to be a tremendous success goes without saying. Its organizers are sparing neither money nor energy so that the Conference may be made a memorable one. The present writer had an opportunity of witnessing the preparations on a very huge scale that are now going on at Chingleput for the holding of the Conference, and he is convinced that the impression of everyone who will be attending the session will necessarily be one of thankfulness and gratitude to the organizers for having given them the privilege of attending a function which is bound to be epoch-making both from the point of view of spectacular magnificence and that of public utility.
–Revolt, 13th February 1929
Is this Nationalism? (by Eaviyar) (3)
For thousands of years India’s wealth has been undermined by the incomers in the name of religion, god, festivals, caste, ceremonials, etc. And as a result, people have been plunged into the mire of ignorance and illiteracy. Similarly, in recent years, in the political arena a section of the people are wasting our wealth and are acting as spies to foreigners and are playing havoc on the country in the name of Nationalism, Swaraj, Independence, etc. People are not able to realize this sort of sham. For in our country, however educated a man is, his reasoning faculty is curbed by his religion and his powers of discrimination are arrested. Similarly powers of discretion cease to function in respect of politics. Just as a set of people meet their selfish ends in the name of religion; there are also those that call themselves educated having similar interests in politics. This conclave of people has enshrouded humanity in ignorance which has ultimately brought the country to a calamitous condition. Since 40 or 50 years, the sham of politics has wrought countless wrongs to our country and kept the mass ever under its thumb without allowing it a single chance to raise its head. The selfishness of the educated class and the misguided blind belief resulting from the ignorance of the uneducated people keep us away from search after truth and justice.
Let us examine the present condition of politics in our country. Today in the political world there are two sets of people that are making much noise, viz the Congressmen and the Independents. What are their qualifications? Let us examine their “deeds” and “sacrifices” in the name of politics. On the Congress platform they would declare that the “Satanic” British Government should be swept off at once. People would also applaud them. But their sons, brothers and relations would be earning Rs. 500, 1000, 2000 & 3000 a month as Munsiffs and Judges under the same Government. Their heroic declarations would but serve to strengthen the positions of their relations in the various professions and yet they will be masquerading in the name of the country.
The Secretary of the Congress, Mr. Rangasami Iyengar would roar, “we must obstruct the Government from functioning and beard the lion in its own den.” But his brother would crawl into the den of
Government, bow low to the Britisher, lick at his feet and hold the banner of the Bureaucracy. Mr. S. Srinivasa Iyengar.To prove his ‘patriotism’ the Independent-wallah would ask others to do away with the British connection, but, every morning he would unconsciously find himself at the feet of the judges addressing the representatives of the “satanic” government as “Your Lordship, Your Honour” etc. and would coolly pocket a few thousands. His creed of independence would also help him in securing fresh appointments for his kith and kin.
And there are other political magnates who are said to be intoxicated with too much of patriotism. Messrs. Srinivasa Sastri, T. Rangachari, Mani Iyer, V. Krishnasami Iyer, C. P. Ramasami Iyer, C.Vijayaraghavachari are names to be conjured with. And surely their sons, nephews, brothers, brothers-in-law and other relations are reaping the fruits of these “patriotic” brains. Those that are unfit for Government services and those that are retired from service have come out as patriots, but their sons, and relations are in the service of the “Satanic” Government.
After the advent of the Congress, i.e., since 30 to 40 years, the Brahmins have managed to enter into almost all branches of Government services. And so it is proof positive that national organization, the Congress has done nothing but the obtaining of 97% of the appointments to the Brahmins who are but 3% of the entire population.
Year after year resolutions are passed in the Congress demanding provincial autonomy and reforms in the machinery of Government. But the number of new appointments is increasing in geometrical progression resulting in the consequent increase in taxation. The Government are forced to throw loaves and fishes of office to these patriots and if they refuse to do this, there is a big agitation brought about in the name of the illiterate masses. The Government finds itself on a bed of roses day by day, by providing appointments for such agitators and their kith and kin. It is why Government also are helping the Congress. The Britishers are here to earn and to enjoy. And there are the Congressmen to secure comforts and conveniences for the Britishers.
A number of political parties have sprung up within the Congress itself, as Independence, Swarajya, Liberal, Home Rule etc. Each of them sing the same chorus of “amelioration of the distressed.” Create new appointments, new committees, new delegate-ships to foreign
countries and the like. The ultimate result is a heavy taxation on the people and the consequential impoverishment of the nation. For example, today we find thrice the number of officers in each of the departments of Government service as that before the advent of the Congress. Has the population increased thrice after the Congress?
They ask people not to learn English since it is a foreign tongue. But they educate their children in English schools with the help of their earnings got from us by such fraudulent methods as festivals, ceremonials and other rites. And today we find the Brahmins who were fed in Chatrams (charity and rest houses – editors) employed as proprietors, and those who studied under municipal lanterns occupying all places in Government services. And this is done again in the name of nationalism.
Before the advent of the Congress i.e. before the Government bribed the monopolist community with appointments, the revenue of our country was about 25 to 30 crores. As a result of the work of the Congress for these 40 years and more, 140 to 150 crores are being collected from us in the shape of taxes. The aggrieved party is not the Independence-wallahs who were once beggars (for that is the verdict of history) but we the agriculturists, traders and labourers. And the result is there is an increasing flow in the emigration of labourers to foreign countries. Yet nationalism is masquerading the land.
But when we press for communal representation, there is the cry from the so-called nationalists that it is an obstacle to national progress, and we are labeled as “unpatriotic”. Then, there is no longer the usual pressure for fresh appointments. We are styled as “Brahmin-haters” and the “nationalists” use this weapon as one of their election tactics when they came to the people with their fire-eating promises. This is again done in the name of patriotism.
The present ministers of our province are condemned, and especially Mr. S. Muthiah Mudaliar is decried as a “traitor.” Where does the truth lie? The Congress resolution ran that no support should be given to ministers and that diarchy should be broken to pieces. But soon after the last elections, was it not these Congress men that helped Dr. Subbaroyan in the formation of the ministry? (4) And is it not an open secret that Messrs. Ranganadha Mudaliar and Arogyasami Mudaliar were chosen as ministers on their promise to play to the tunes of the Congressmen? Then Mr. Muthiah Mudaliar fought the Congress
members in the provincial and the All-India Congress Committees. But he was not only denied a chance to speak in the All-India Congress Committee, but the “nationalists” congratulated themselves on their achievement in forming a Ministry from other than the Justice Party. Can any one with Non-brahmin blood in his veins continue in the Congress any more? And so Mr. Mudaliar was obliged to resign his seat on the Congress Committee, form a separate party, accept a ministry and do what he can to the cause of the Non-brahmins. What the previous ministry for a period of 7 years was not able to achieve, Mr. Mudaliar achieved within a few months after the acceptance of his office (5). It is he that was responsible for doing the pioneer work in securing communal representation in the service. That is why the Brahmins denounce Mr. Mudaliar and also induce others to do the same. Wherever their interest is affected they appear in their masks of patriotism and stand before the masses, in the name of nationalism. Such a Congress we do not want; such a patriotism we do not require. Come what may, let us not be perturbed by such terms as “traitor to the Congressmen” and “traitor to the country”. In the coming elections, of course, the Brahmins would move heaven and earth to defeat Mr. Mudaliar. They would even employ agents to dupe the people. If it is a fact that they want to end diarchy, was it not the Congress Party that formed the ministry soon after the last elections? When we say this, we are traitors to the Congress!
Then comes the questions of the Simon Commission. During the last elections, the Congress Candidates promised to co-operate with the Simon Commission and canvassed votes only on that condition. But when they found that the Brahmins and their satellites had no place in it, they have raised the “Boycott” cry. If the members are sincere they should resign their seats in the Council and seek re-election on the boycott ticket. We hope the “Nationalists” would take up this challenge.
Revolt, 27 March 1929
The Coming Elections
The elections are fast approaching and preparations are rapidly in the making. All that is necessary for electioneering propaganda is being cautiously prepared by individuals as well as political parties. So far as our province is concerned the elections will have its usual thunders, lightnings, effusions, vapourings and manoeuvres. In other countries at the time of the elections the contesting parties or candidates place before their electorate their qualifications and the work they turned out in the past. Personalities or sanctity of party names do not play any part, and in fact, cannot play any part also. Quibblings, interpretations and fire-eating promises do not help the candidates of other countries, as they do in our province.
The samples of such effusions and manouevres are already begun. The Swarajists of Madras who are famous for their unadulterated patriotism, their indomitable courage, their bearding the bureaucratic lion in its own den, have begun their vicious propaganda. They know full well that the cries of “Vandemataram” and “Allah-ho-Akbar” will no longer help them. Even as the Vedic hymns have lost their supernatural powers of bringing down rain at will and cursing the enemies, these two mantrams of Bharatamatha have, even before the last elections, lost their power of securing single votes. The Swarajists, who are past masters in the art of deluding the public, played their game at the head of the inevitable Mussolini of Mylapore in the name of Mr. Gandhi. It was at the last elections, that “Gandhi-ki-jai” was utilized as a successful weapon on the election field. And the years that followed were not so happy. Gandhi came to be regarded only as the name of an individual, and not a qualification for the candidates. The Swarajists by and by came to realize how the time has come to prove their past history to be nothing but a camouflage.
Now that the elections are drawing nearer, the Independents in collaboration with the Swarajists, are trying fresh attempts to succeed, not in the despised “job-hunting but in “obstructing the Government within its four walls”. Some of the erstwhile Congresswallahs are already at the game of forming a National party with no objections to office while admitting that Dyarchy is a failure and must be ended.
The Swarajist Deputy leader has already prepared the ground for “office”. Sriman Srinivasa Iyengar, inspite of his bragging patriotism is an Iyengar at heart. The history of his support to the Independent binamy ministry and his followers bid for office is fresh in the memory of his chelas who know his acclamations for what they are worth. “Job hunting” is a slogan to work the public against the Justice party. “Independence” is an election stunt in which neither the leader of the party nor his followers believe. What about the obstruction tactics of the Swarajists, their national demands, boycotts and what not? What was the result of the national demand? A grand walk out, and a grander entry into the council halls. What about the boycotts? “Simon-go back” was the cry intended for the public but the Nehru Constitution was for the Commission’s perusal.
This is the past history of the Swarajists’ fury, red in tooth and claw. They succeeded in their nefarious campaign so far but they can never do so hereafter. Their Congress is up again with the old game. Boycott of foreign cloth, prohibtion of drinks and the removal of untouchability are the three items on the Congress programme. Burning of foreign cloth has had its laudable career and at Calcutta was performed the cremation of the programme by the Mahatma himself with the dakshina of a rupee. None need be serious about the untouchability programme since the originators themselves know that it is a thing which won’t help them in their game. As for prohibition, the Chota Gandhi is up in arms against the evil. “Messages” are being manufactured from London in support of his programme. The very leader who stopped picketing of liquor shops at Madura after a few scores of volunteers had been clapped in prison and in order to appease his followers, invented the “Nagpur flag” while Jabalpore-flag fight started by Mrs. Sarojini Devi was ignored, is now seriously bent upon his prohibition programme. The readers are aware that he was likewise serious about it a few months before the last elections.
The future is yet hopeful for the Swarajist election programme. Mr. Gandhi is touring Andhra desa and the echo of his propaganda is likely to be heard in Tamilnad also. The “pussy foot” of Tiruchengode (6) is a sly cat indeed! Mr. Bajaj and the Hindi Nationalism have had their sojourn in Tamil nad. A few thousands of rupees are at their disposal. The Leader and the Secretary of the Hindi movement are those who won’t commit the folly of knowing the national language. Good election agents are they!.
All these preparations for the forthcoming elections may not stand in good stead as far as Tamil Nad is concerned. The Swarajist vandalism and the Congress hoodwinking are spent bullets, but the Swarjists brain is resourceful. “Religion in danger” is the slogan of Neo nationalism. The infidels must be impaled, the Self-respectors and the Justicites. The Pandits with their passion of Gnanasambanda (7) fresh with the blood stains of the Jains are up in arms against the infidels. The Council Swarga shall not accommodate the infidels. A few years ago, when the Endowments Act (8) was on the anvil, the Swarajists raised a hue and cry but they were then mere novices in this trade of religion. Unaided and unsupported they couldn’t succeed. Now there are pandits in plenty who are prepared to stand by them. They are now adepts in the art of fraud and camouflage. Congress, it may be argued, has nothing to do with gods and godliness. But the lawyer brain must certainly have an explanation which is not vouchsafed to the commonsensed man. “Patrotism is Godliness” is the new interpretation of Congress nationalism.
So we have the new code of Samuel Johnson, “God-head is the last resort of a scoundrel.” The Swarajists are free to go about bragging unchecked, and hoodwinking the public into the belief that the Justicites and the Self-respectors are Atheists. Gods must be saved, and the Justicites must be driven out of the Council. The people’s passion for god must be exploited and this is best done through the “gods”, “Vote for the Swarajists and save your gods” is to be the election cry hereafter. Indeed the gods on earth, the “bhoosuras” hope to attract devotees from the “Foot-born slaves”. Swaraj ki jai. But alas, the Swarajist is so blind that he can never see that there is no dearth for thinking men in the country even in the age of Swarajism.
– Revolt, 24 April 1929
Self-Respect Movement will and must triumph (Mr.R.S.writes in the Sunday Times)
You cannot put down the Self Respect movement by mere abuse. In fact, I make bold to assert that it can end only in triumph. And it must win; for its defeat will mean a severe set back to the National movement.
Perhaps you laugh and even pity me for this declaration; but if you are a sincere well wisher of Mother India it is your duty to see that the Self-Respect movement triumphs.
In Congress Camp
No thinking Indian can question the need for it. Let me explain how I became a convert to it – not now but twelve years ago.
As a Congress delegate I went to Lucknow in December 1910. There two compartments had been put up in the same hall to serve meals for delegates. My Brahmin friends had their food first and then came our turn! Naturally we had to get on with the remains. Why should that be? When there are two separate rooms, why should they not have served us the meals at the same time?
A revolting experience
On the second day, we had a most horrible experience. The leaves on which the Brahmins ate their meals had been heaped up in our room. They were giving out a stench and the liquid from them had penetrated almost the entire surface. In those impossibly dirty surroundings, we were asked to eat.
Who will not revolt at such monstrous treatment and that in the Congress camp itself?
Needless to say, we left it in a body and thereafter took our food in a hotel though we had paid at the camp for the day’s meals.
Resolved to keep out
Some of my Non Brahmin friends, the late Mr. Somasundaram Pillai in particular were so shocked at that experience that they kept out of the Congress from that day. They did not attend even the Lucknow Session itself.
Will you tolerate such treatment? And is it not being continued to this day? Strange though it may seem, it is not reserved to us who are grouped, of course wrongly, as Brahmin haters. Take for instance the experience of a non Brahmin critic of the Self Respect movement like Mr. T.V. Kalyanasundra Mudaliar.
Insulting hosts
He was once invited to a Brahmin house for meals; and the host would not take a refusal. What was the outcome? This “Educated gentleman” and Congressman, first went to the kitchen and had a sumptuous dinner; and then after he had partaken of even tamboolam, he asked Mr. T.V.K. to have his food outside; and the utmost that he conceded to him was that if T.V.K. was not accustomed to take his leaf and smear cow-dung, the servant woman would do it!
Why should our Brahmin friends force such insults on us? They invite us to dinner they get offended if we refuse to come and when we go, such is the treatment they offer. Yet these are the very people who throw up their hands in horror at the Self-Respect movement.
– Revolt, 17 April 1929
North Indian Patriots and South Indian Brahmins (Mr.P. Chidambaram Pillai, B.A., B.L.)
For quite a long time, till very recently as recently, as fifteen years ago, Madras was known as the “benighted” Presidency; politically and socially, it had gathered such an odorous reputation for obscurantism, servility, double dealing, tall talk and empty vapourings that all patriots severely left alone the Madras presidency.
It was Mrs. Besant at first, and later Mahatmaji who “discovered” the Madras Brahmin and “boosted” him up in Indian politics. Both these giants later on found that they had caught a veritable Tartar in the Madras Brahmin. The Madras Brahmin has been their evil genius. Mrs. Besant was at one time riding the political winds with her Home Rule movement. But so much has been written about her by the late Dr. T.M. Nair, the great Non Brahmin leader that she herself has complained bitterly about the Non-Brahmins of Madras.
So we may leave that lady alone to her Brahmin admirers.
As regards Mahatmaji, when he took up Indian politics after his permanent return from South Africa, the late G.K. Gokhale felt considerable diffidence about his political capacity. Mrs. Besant called him an “infant” in politics. He has been that ever since.
In the last analysis it will be found that if Mahatmaji turns to be such an unexpected failure, it is all one to the Madras Brahmin crossing his path. It ever was a bad omen. In South Africa, it was the Madrasi Non Brahmin who furnished him with an opportunity to put his Tolstoyan theories into practice. On his return to India, especially during his last tours in the South, he forgot all about the Non-Brahmin and the stuff of which he is made. He became a regularized Sankaracharya, as Mr. E.V.Ramasami put it; his darshan was denied to Non Brahmins; it was a pontifical affair, ably stage managed by Brahmins; his head was in the clouds of Gita and Varnashrama Dharma. It is ever so with a Non Brahmin when he achieves eminence. Sabarmathi became the stronghold of Varnashrama Dharma. Gita has been the undoing of Mahatmaji. One even suspects whether he is even aware of the intensity of the Non-Brahmin feeling against him. He does not read newspapers and still he wants to lead the public.
But the Madras Brahmin has been astute enough to use him for all his purposes. He was utilized to give publicity to a Brahmin newspaper of Madras and a Brahmin doctor; his name was dragged in during the last elections; his prestige was employed to build up oottuprahs or work houses for Brahmins out of Khadi, out of funds furnished by the starving millions of the south (oottuprahs were legion in the Travancore state and meant to feed Brahmins – editors); he was caught hold of to advertise a Madras Brahmin as the Agent to South Africa; he, quite unnecessarily, insulted the untouchables and the depressed classes of Madras by his predeluvian theories of Varanashrama Dharma. And today he stands a spent force in Indian politics; an extinct volcano, unable to command a shred of sympathy from the Non Brahmin youths of the South or from anywhere. He has become Mrs. Besant No.2, an old religious fossil, unprogressive, halting, given to more whims and caprices than even the venerable old lady – the most tragic figure today in India.
How far, blindfold, he is being led by the Madras Brahmin will be evident from the ultimatum issued recently by the Mahatma in connection with Hindi propaganda in the South. This is in effect from what he has said: “If Madras does not take to Hindi, then Madras will be left alone in the Swaraj to come.” That is one thing, but his lieutenants were busy saying that as Brahmins got jobs in Government service because they took first to English education and Non Brahmins had then lagged behind, similarly it was said, if Non Brahmins were lukewarm in taking up Hindi, then they should not complain later on if Brahmins ousted them from prominent places in the coming Swaraj. Both of them were rubbing the Non Brahmin the wrong way up: the one with a set purpose and the other unwittingly without knowing and without caring to know what the situation was like. The whole of South India would be wearing Khadi and speaking Hindi to please Mahatmaji if for no other reason, if only he would keep the Madras Brahmin and his Varnashrama Dharma out of it; he could not for his life, for his new fangled spiritual life, do it, and hence the tragedy. His Varnashrama Dharma has been his political ruin.
II
The late Deshabandhu Das, himself a man of mighty intellect and keen political insight fell under the spell of the Madras Brahmin and succumbed. Another political genius of the north, the late Mr. G.K. Gokhale was enveloped by a South Indian Brahmin true to type. The so called Liberal Party is either being guided or influenced by the Madras Brahmin. Another has become a military expert on frontier defence, yet another on family limitation, some are posing as authorities on the Constitution of Indian states.
The Madras Brahmin spread his tentacles far and wide in search of power and influence. He swamped the Congress, crumpled it up: it now lies in ruins. The latest combination between Madras Brahmins and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was quite in keeping with tradition but for the fact that the young Pandit had one or two cleansing thoughts, which would not have kept the team going for long and so it did.
The young Pandit said only recently, “The Indian intelligentsia has a heavy task and many have nobly essayed it. But there are far too many whose words are louder than their acts and who seek to cover their social obscurantism by pious pharses or political extremism. They are gradually being found out and they must realize that political progress cannot be divorced from social and economic progress and the choice lies between progress all along the line or stagnation and reaction”. The Pandit, with his clean politics, stands poles away from the Varnashrama Dharmite politician of the South. Hence the rupture. After this statement by Pandit Jawaharlal, there can be nothing doing as between himself and the reactionary Brahmin of Madras.
That is why the venerable Malaviyaji with the “pious phrases” was invited to the South by the Brahmins. While at Kottayam, among the Thiyas or Ezhavas of Travancore one of the most gifted and intelligent races in South India, though ranked by the ignorant caste Hindu among the depressed classes, the learned Pandit said, that he could find texts in the shastras which permitted temple entry to the untouchables and the depressed classes. At Madras in the midst of Brahmin Pandits, he even denied having put forward such a claim. Rather inconsistent, extremely unfortunate and quite unpleasant.
Hereafter it would be pleasanter if the northern patriot would stick to Benares to wash away his sins and gets buried or burnt on it banks. He need not think of doing it at the Cape (Cape Comorin – editors). That may be reserved for the sinners of the south. Even in the ocean there may not be sufficient enough receptacle to receive all the sins perpetrated in the name of caste and religion in the southern country, even in a very small portion of it.
And therefore, goodbye, my masters, and don’t you come and interfere with our programme. We think of retaining our self-respect without the assistance of either North Indian Hindu Patriot or South Indian Varnashrama Dharmite, for you are one, after all. The self respect movement shall be the Ulster of Varnashrama Dharma Swaraj. Our slogan will be the old one. “Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right”
– Revolt, 23 June 1929
Notes
- The reference here is to S.Srinivasa Iyengar, former Advocate-General of the Madras Presidency and a prominent Brahmin Congressman from Madras. He went on to become a member of the Imperial Legislature, yet was also the President of both the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee and the All India Congress Committee. Unsurprisingly, he was one of the champions within Congress of that party contesting elections and entering the legislature .
- The reference is probably to a violent incident related to the Congress-led Simon Commission boycott agitations in Madras city3.
- Eaviyar is E V Ramasami – this is an English transcription of his Tamil initials.
- Following the defeat of the Justice party in the 1927 elections, and because the Congress Swarajists declined to accept office, an independent ministry was formed – comprising Dr.P.Subbaroyan, a former Justicite and two others, who owed allegiance to the Congress. Keen to keep the Justicites out of the legislature, Congress conceded support to this independent ministry. Meanwhile, Justicites resolved not to accept office until dyarchy was abolished, whereupon Congress decided to withdraw support to the independent ministry. The two ministers who had been sworn in with Congress support resigned. However, desperate to make the reform scheme work, and with the assistance of the Justicites the governor of Madras appointed Muthiah Mudaliyar and Sethurathinam Iyer to the Cabinet. Scored by his ormer colleagues in the Congress, Muthiah Mudaliar nevertheless went on to adopt the Justicite line in politics and supported the Non-brahmin cause.
- Muthiah Mudaliyar was instrumental in implementing the all-important Communal Government orders that enabled reservation of government jobs for Non-brahmins. The GOs were originally passed by the Justice Party ministry in 1921.
- The reference here is to C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) who had established a Gandhian ashram near Tiruchengode town. (Rajaji was also known as the Chota Gandhi.)
- Gnanasambanda was one the best-known of the 63 Tamil Saivite saints. He was opposed to Jains and Jainism in the Tamil country and it is said that he was responsible them being impaled in public.
- The Hindu Religious Endowment Act was enacted by the first Justice Ministry in Madras – the act enabled greater state control and regulation of temple affaris and brought important Hindu temples under the direct administration of Government.
