Babasaheb Dr B.R Ambedkar

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z:\ ambedkar\vol-05\vol5-06.indd MK SJ+YS 23-9-2013 448 448 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Nothing can be more explicit than this. Nothing can be more businesslike and nothing can be more materialistic than this pronouncement from the Congress platform. But I am not aware that Mr. Gandhi has ever condemned it in the way in which he now condemns the endeavour of Christian Missions to convert the Untouchables. Nobody from Gandhi’s camp protested against this outrageous suggestion. Probably they could not because the Congress Hindus believed that it was their duty to help the Musalmans to fulfil what they regarded as their religious duty, and that conversion is a religious duty with the Musalman nobody can deny. At any rate the Hindu leaders of Congress, as stated by George Joseph in 1920, held “that it was the religious duty of the Hindus to help Muslims in the maintenance of the Turkish Khilafat over the Arabs in the Jazirut-al-Arab because Muslim theologians and political leaders assured us that it was their religious duty. It went against the grain because it meant the maintenance of a foreign Government over Arabs; but Hindus had to stomach it because it was urged on them as part of the religious duty of the Hindus 1 . If this is true why should Gandhi not help the Christians to carry on conversion because conversion is also a fulfilment of their religious duty. Why there should be a different measuring rod today because it is the Christians that are involved is more than one can understand. Mr. George Joseph was well within bounds when he said : “The only difference is that there are 75 millions of Muslims and there are only 6 millions of Christians. It may be worth-while making peace with Muslims because they can make themselves a thorn in the side of Nationalism : Christians do not count, because they are small in numbers.” That Mr. Gandhi is guided by such factors as the relative strength of the Musalmans and Christians, their relative importance in Indian politics, is evident from the terms he uses in condemning what he calls “propaganda by vilification”. When such a propaganda emanates from Christian missionaries he uses the following language to condemn it. (Quotation is not there in the MS.—Ed.). On the other hand when he comes out against a propaganda emanating from the Muslim all that he says : 2 “It is tragic to see that religion is dragged down to the low level of crude materialism to lure people into mission which the most cherished sentiments of millions of human beings are trodden under foot. 1 Harijan, 8th February 1936, p. 415. 2 Harijan, August 8, 1936.
z:\ ambedkar\vol-05\vol5-06.indd MK SJ+YS 23-9-2013 449 THE CONDITION OF THE CONVERT 449 “I hope that the pamphlet has no support from thoughtful Musalmans who should read it to realize the mischief such pamphlets can create. “My correspondent asks me how to deal with the menace. One remedy I have applied, viz, to bring hereby the villifying propaganda to the notice of the responsible Muslim world. He himself can claim the attention of the local Musalman leaders to the publication. The second and the most important thing to do is purification from within. So long as the position of untouchability remains in the Hindu body it will be liable to attacks from outside. It will be proof against such attacks only when a solid and impregnable wall of purification is erected in the shape of complete removal of untouchability.” The ferocity of the former and the timidity and softness of the latter are obvious enough. Surely Gandhi must be regarded as an astute “respecter of persons”. But apart from this difference in his attitude towards Muslim and Christian propaganda, have Mr. Gandhi’s arguments against Christian Missions, which I have summarized above, any validity ? They are just clever. There is nothing profound about them. They are the desperate arguments of a man who is driven to wall. Mr. Gandhi starts out by making a distinction between equal tolerance and equal respect. The phrase “equal respect” is a new phrase. What distinction he wants to make thereby is difficult to recognize. But the new phraseology is not without significance. The old phrase “equal tolerance” indicated the possibility of error. “Equal respect” on the other hand postulates that all religions are equally true and equally valuable. If I have understood him correctly then his premise is utterly fallacious, both logically as well as historically. Assuming the aim of religion is to reach God—which I do not think it is—and religion is the road to reach him, it cannot be said that every road is sure to lead to God. Nor can it be said that every road, though it may ultimately lead to God, is the right road. It may be that (all existing religions are false and) the perfect religion is still to be revealed. But the fact is that religions are not all true and therefore the adherents of one faith have a right, indeed a duty, to tell their erring friends what they conceive to be the truth. That Untouchables are no better than a cow is a statement which only an ignoramus, or an arrogant person, can venture to make. It is arrant nonsense. Mr. Gandhi dares to make it because he has come to regard himself as so great a man that the ignorant masses will not question his declarations and the dishonest intelligentsia will uphold him in whatever he says. Strangest part of his argument lies in wishing to
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’ Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (14
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No one can hope to make any effecti
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Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar : Writings a
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Collected Works of Babasaheb Dr. Am
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(vi) FOREWORD It is a matter of som
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(viii) PREFACE The success of legis
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(xii) EDITORIAL It was learnt that
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(xiv) EDITORIAL *9. The Decline and
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(xvi) EDITORIAL Part—III What the
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(xx) TABLE OF CONTENTS Page BOOK II
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Babasaheb Dr B.R Ambedkar

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