Vol. 5 · pages 131–135

116 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES rules and regulations of the established order and of which description has been given in earlier chapters are all the doings of the Shudras. The reasons for this want of solidarity is not far to seek. It is to be found in the system of graded inequality whereby the Brahmin is above everybody, the Shudra is below the Brahmin and above the Untouchable. If the Hindu social order was based on inequality, it would have been over-thrown long ago. But it is based on graded inequality so that the Shudra while he is anxious to pull down the Brahmin, he is not prepared to see the Untouchable raised to his level. He prefers to suffer the indignities heaped upon him by the Brahmins to join the Untouchables for a general levelling down of the social order. The result is that, there is nobody to join the Untouchable in his struggle. He is completely isolated. Not only is he isolated he is opposed by the very classes who ought to be his natural allies. This isolation is one more obstacle in the removal of untouchability. zz

117 PROBLEM OF ISOLATION 1APPENDICES TO BOOK 1 APPENDIX I 2MATTERS MADE WORSE BY UNTOUCHABILITY A correspondent from Jaipur reports the following incident which occured in June 1953: “Jaipur, June 25: The guinea worm, called nahru or bala by people here, is a disease prevalent in the State which keeps the patient suffering for months, sometimes for a year or two. Many lose the use of a limb as a result of this disease. The disease spreads through the medium of drinking water. The only preventive steps doctors advice is that water should be drunk after boiling and filtering. The disease frequently occurs as the rains set in, which is also the time for sowing with the result that at a time when he should be preparing to earn his living a villager is confined to bed. On investigation in the village of Kopra near Banswara it was found that in 57 families there were 125 sufferers from guinea worm. There were six members in a Harijan family, five of whom had guinea worm. They had only a few bits of dry meat to eat. Often the trouble is thrust on these people by society. A pond from which Harijans drink water was so dirty that it must have been a nursery for the guinea worm. When showed to the Collector of Banswara he was shocked and ordered the pond closed immediately. Nearby, was a pucca well from which water could be taken by entering into it. Hindu were entreated to permit Harijans, to take water from this well but they would not agree. The Collector asked them if they would drink the water from the pond, if told to. They admitted that the water was unfit for human use, yet they would not allow Harijans use of the pucca well. Conditions are bad and Harijans are the worst sufferers. The law has made untouchability a crime. The Harijan Sevak Sangh has long been working for its oblition, but it cannot be said that the hearts and minds of caste Hindus in the countryside have undergone a change. The State Governments have not been able to do much in this connexion. ‘All Press news-reports printed in Appendices to the Book I, have been found at the end of M.S. of this book. —E.d. 2 It approved in the Statesman of June 27, 1953.

118 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES APPENDIX II From ‘Sunday Times’, March 9, 1952 WHERE WEARING A SHIRT IS AN OFFENCE Woes of Harijans in S. India A Social Worker’s Experience (By Swami Anand Thirth, Regional Officer, All India Harijan Sevak Sangh) It is sad to notice that the various civil disabilities of Harijans still continue to exist in our villages in spite of the Civil Disabilities Removal Act which came into force about five years ago. It is now 9 months since the All India Harijan Sevak Sangh started its intensive work for the removal of social disabilities of Harijans in Melur Taluk in Mathurai district. Several disabilities of Harijans regarding tea shops, barber saloons, wells, tanks, chavadies, etc., have been brought to light during this period. In some places it is the Village Munsifs who were expected to give wide publicity to the Act and enforce it, that are very reactionary forces standing in the way of the poor Harijans exercising their elementary rights. A few instances are cited below to show how deep-rooted is the prejudice against the Harijans in our society. In Parli near Natham, a Harijan youth who refused to take tea in a cocoanut shell and desired to be served in the glass tumbler was kicked and shoed on the head by a caste Hindu who was subsequently convicted and fined only Rs. 10 by the Sub-Magistrate, Melur. At Melavalvoo, when I went to a tea shop with two Harijan boys, a group of people threatened to assault me and drove away the boys. A glass tumbler was wantonly broken by the tea shopkeeper and they all demanded that I must pay for it on penalty of being thrashed. I, however, took shelter in an Elementary School nearby and the crowd disappeared only on the intervention of the President of the Panchayat Board. At Kelavalvoo, the Harijans take water from a dirty pond in which men bathe and cattle are washed. The Harijans were encouraged to go to the public Oorani (protected water tank), but they were abused and threatened by the caste Hindus so that they dare not take water from the Oorani. There is a Police Station at Kelavalvoo, but the police here are indifferent towards the disabilities of the Harijans. In Attukulam the caste Hindus put night-soil in the public well because they could not physically obstruct the Harijans who took water from it under our directions. In Ettimangalam, the caste Hindus destroyed the paddy

119 PROBLEM OF ISOLATION seedlings raised by some Harijans in Government poromboke and because the Harijans had got into the chavadi during a public meeting held in the village. No action was taken by the police on the complaint given by the poor Harijans. In Tiruvadur when we directed Harijans to take water from the Oorani, a caste Hindu youth assaulted a pregnant Harijan woman and broke her pot as well. The caste Hindu was charged by the police and convicted by the Sub-Magistrate to pay a fine of only Rs. 15 and thereafter the Harijans are freely taking water from this Oorani. In Kottagudi, a village barber, who refused hair-cut to a Harijan boy was charged by the police and convicted by the Sub-Magistrate. But thereafter, the Harijans were summoned by the caste Hindus to the chavadi and warned that in case they sought the service of this barber, a collective fine would be imposed on them. In Kidaripatti, the Harijans are not allowed to take the corpse through the public foot path and they are also not permitted to ride on cycle through the village streets. A case regarding the alleged obstruction of a Harijan from riding on cycle is pending trial in the Sub-Magistrate’s Court, Melur. In Nundikovilpatti, only three furlongs from the Taluk Office, Melur, the Harijans were taking drinking water from a dirty channel because they had no access to the Oorani. Two complaints were given to the police regarding this and now the caste Hindus dare not obstruct the Harijans. In Thekkitheru, when the Harijans sat on the Manthai chavadi during a public meeting held at the chavadi, pebbles were thrown at them till they quitted the place out of fear. In Navinipatti about two miles from Melur, the village Munsif himself is alleged to have taken objection to the Harijans wearing-decent dress on Pongal festival day and made two Harijan youths to remove their shirts and upper cloth. The youths were made to do Kumbidal (full prostration on the ground) and go away in loin-cloth only. The most painful oppression has been in Mankulam, about ten miles from Mathurai city, where the village Munsif took a hostile attitude. Two Harijan youths went to tea shop and as they were denied admission, they complained to the police. For this, one of them was tied to a pillar and mercilessly beaten by a caste Hindu boy under instructions from the elders. Another Harijan was assaulted with a knife by a servant of the village Munsif. The Harijans were socially boycotted and denied labour because they took water from the public Oorani. The shopkeepers refused to sell provisions to them and they were put to starvation for two days. The situation improved only after the intervention of the Revenue Divisional Officer.

120 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Recently, two Harijans and myself were brutally attacked by a band of caste Hindus and beaten with firewood cudgels for having bathed in the tank and gone into a coffee club in front of the chavadi. We were admitted and treated in the Government Hospital in Mathurai. I sustained a fracture in the right foot due to which I cannot use the right leg and walk. Sixteen persons including the village Munsif have been charged by the police for rioting. Some Congress-men are, however, trying for a compromise because some of their relations are involved in this. These friends are also known to have approached the authorities in this connection. Mahatmaji had desired us to consider the Harijans as blood brothers, but alas ! blood is thicker than water. One feels so dejected and disheartened at the attitude of the caste Hindus towards the Harijans in spite of the great sacrifices of Mahatmaji, who won Swaraj for us and desired us to concede freedom to these downtrodden people as well. The Revenue and police authorities can do a lot to remove the disabilities of the Harijans. Mahatmaji’s son Manilal is offering satyagraha in South Africa for the civil disabilities of Indians. But we are denying similar liberties to the Harijans whom Mahatmaji owned as his kith and kin. Let the caste Hindus and Congressmen who adore Mahatmaji remember that his spirit will not rest in peace till the curse of untouchability is wiped out, root and branch, from the nook and corner of our land. The Government must realise the deed for greater efforts to remove this bane from our society. APPENDIX III LYNCH LAW AGAINST HARIJANS (Painful and shameful atrocities in Thumbapatti) Stop the Chavadi Courts in our Villages The Chavadi Courts: It is a well known fact that though the Harijans are denied entry in the public chavadies in the villages in Tamilnad, they are tried by the caste Hindus at these chavadies and victimised to such an extent that they always live in fear of the caste Hindus. One of the reasons why the Harijans in the villages do not respond to our movement of the removal of their civil disabilities is their constant fear of this victimisation by the caste Hindus under the leadership of the village Periambalagar, the chief of the caste Hindus. In several places, the villagers run these chavadi courts under the colour of holding Panchayats. The poor Harijans are summoned to the chavadi and tried like slaves. If any of them go against the order of the Periambalagar then the Lynch Law is put into operations and they are subjected to