Sarcasm & Saint

Nearly perfect was a sarcasm uttered last week by ex-Viceroy of India Baron Irwin. Last year while Mr. Gandhi was in London, Lord Irwin was often called his "friend," interceded frequently with the Mahatma on behalf of His Majesty's Government. Last week correspondents told the tall baron that in Yerovda Jail near Bombay, small Mr. Gandhi had decided to begin "a fast unto Death." Reason: to protest against the Indian franchise system arbitrarily decreed by His Majesty's Government after the leading Indians consulted had withdrawn in a body from the Government's consultative committee.

Commented Friend Irwin: "Gandhi is now speaking in a language the Indian people understand. If I were to get out in the hallway of the government buildings at New Delhi, squat on the floor and refuse to eat a bite until the Indian civil disobedience movement came to terms, the trouble would be over in a few days. Of course, before those few days could elapse my Liberal, Conservative and Labor colleagues in London would send for me to come home and would have a padded cell waiting for me on my arrival."

From London to Gandhi cabled Vithalbhai Patel, onetime President of the Indian Legislative Assembly: "You expect His Majesty's Government to modify its actions. Your expectation is based upon the assumption that the British Government has a heart which we can touch by our sufferings. It is heartless. ... I, with all Indians abroad, deplore your decision to fast unto death."

Certainly His Majesty's Government has a head. Two days after Lord Irwin's memorable sarcasm the Government announced that Gandhi, who was not "imprisoned" but "detained during the pleasure of the Government" in Yerovda Jail, would be ousted and detained under guard in a house, if he should begin to fast. Thus, said a British spokesman "the question of forcible feeding would not arise."

Efforts to discredit the Mahatma on the eve of his fast ranged from official British announcements that he was being fitted with a new set of false teeth to the instinctive act of a British showman who cabled Mr. Gandhi a cash offer to come to England and starve unto Death as a sideshow freak. "Your case, right or wrong," cabled Showman Luke Gannon, "will then be understood by the people of England."

In stern contrast was a pronouncement by the Leader of the Labor Party and of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the House of Commons. "There is nothing to be gained by speaking of Mr. Gandhi as a fanatic," said Leader George Lansbury. "There can be no peace in India without a collaboration of Mr. Gandhi and his Indian National Congress Party."

Why Unto Death? Highly controversial is the question whether Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is a sincere champion of India's Untouchables (Scavenger Class) or a hypocrite who mouths defense of the Untouchables while secretly working against them, in behalf of the higher Hindu castes in which he is a No. 3.*

Facts are that the Mahatma adopted as his daughter an Untouchable girl who has grown to womanhood in his home; that Mrs. Gandhi devotes herself incessantly to the cause of the Untouchables; and that Mr. Gandhi was denounced last year by the Untouchables' spokesman at the India Round Table Conference, Dr. B. M. Ambedkar.

Dr. Ambedkar was not chosen by the Untouchables but appointed by His Majesty's Government. He was educated as a protege of His Highness the Gjekwar of Baroda. When he challenged Mr. Gandhi in London the Mahatma replied: "I claim myself in my own person to represent the vast masses of the Untouchables. ... I claim that if there was a referendum of the Untouchables I would get their vote and top the poll to boot." This defy, uttered almost a year ago, did not move His Majesty's Government to hold a poll of the Untouchables. Last week United Press reported from Bombay: "Thousands of Untouchables throughout India have joined in a resolution voicing their gratitude to Gandhi for his fight in their behalf. Their resolution declares that they are praying that the man who is trying to elevate them will 'live many years.' "

The Government decree against which Mr. Gandhi threatened to hunger strike unto Death is also supposed to elevate the Untouchables, a paradox which profoundly muddled the issue last week. On its face the decree grants a separate franchise to Untouchables for 20 years in seven out of the nine provinces in which His Majesty's Government has decided to set up Indian Provincial Legislatures. Is not this giving the Untouchables an advantage which they badly need in struggling for their rights against Hindus of the four higher castes?

Years ago Mahatma Gandhi took the position which he threatened last week to defend to the Death: All caste barriers must be broken down and to perpetuate them by a separate electoral system would be to strengthen the caste curse.

In London the Mahatma said: "I would far rather that Hinduism died than that Untouchability lived. ... I would not sell the interests of the Untouchables even for the sake of winning the freedom of India. ... I propose the most drastic legislation, rendering criminal all the special persecution to which these fellow countrymen of mine are subjected by the so-called superior classes. ... I am certain that the question of separate electorates for the Untouchables is the modern manufacture of a Satanic government. ... I want to say with all the emphasis that I can command that if I were the only person to resist this thing I would nevertheless resist it with my life."

God-given Opportunity. What the Mahatma or "Great Soul" said last year he merely repeated in other words last week; but his original words had passed completely out of English minds. Surprise was the keynote of His Majesty's Government's reaction and of British editorials--surprise that a fanatic should suddenly have decided to stake his life upon a point which seemed to most Englishmen minor, almost an afterthought.

In his cell Mr. Gandhi placidly told his British jailers that he defied them to eject him on the "humiliating terms" that he must be detained in some other place. As to his fast the Mahatma appeared cheerful.

"There is every cause for rejoicing!" he cried. "This is a god-given opportunity that has come to me--to offer my life as a final sacrifice to the downtrodden."

*No. 1 Brahmins; No. 2 Khattrias; No. 3 Vaishyas; No. 4 Sudras; No. 5 Untouchables (not strictly a caste).

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