Kanshramji referred to people
like you as Chamchas. This is the thinking of slaves of the ruling
castes which is dreaming to curb MASTER KEY being acquired by BSP. These
chelas, stooges, bootlickers can never stop BSP acquiring the MASTER
KEY. These Chamchas are mushrooms that come during a rain and vanishes
later. Likewise during election they come up and after elections they
vanish like poisonous mushrooms.

SEE TRUTH AS TRUTH AND UNTRUTH AS UNTRUTH

NOW Strengthen Our Intensive National Campaign to “HAND OVER MASTER KEY MAYAWATI - SAVE PRABUDDHA BHARATH”

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 5:59 PM, political power DMM <powerdmm@gmail.com> wrote:
Karnataka
Assembly Elections are over. Congress won the state. BJP got a shock
treatment from Yedurappa’s KJP. Janata Dal (S) bettered its position. It
is all because of misuse of EVM  while the BSP is marching ahead or the
caravan will never  back since it is a movement that will be there as
long as there is caste discriminatve source of bias. Tampering of EVM is
responsible as the Superior Court

has ordered the replacement of all EVMs.

ANNIHILATION OF CASTE

WITH

“Know
Truth as Truth and Untruth as Untruth ”

—buddha

Contents

 

1.     Preface to the Second
Edition

2.     Preface to the
Third Edition

3.     Prologue

4.     Speech Prepared
By Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

5.     Appendix I :  A
Vindication Of Caste By Mahatma Gandhi

6.     Appendix  II :
A Reply To The Mahatma By Dr. B. R.
Ambedkar

 

ANNIHILATION OF
CASTE

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

The speech prepared by me for the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal of Lahore
has had an astonishingly warm reception from the Hindu public for whom it was primarily
intended. The English edition of one thousand five hundred
was exhausted within two months of its publication. It is translated into Gujarati and Tamil. It is being translated in Marathi, Hindi, Punjabi and Malayalam. The demand for the English text still continues
unabated. To satisfy this demand it has become necessary to issue a Second Edition.
Considerations of history and effectiveness of appeal have led me to retain the original
form of the essay—namely the speech form—-although I was asked to recast it in
the form of a direct narrative. To this edition I have added two appendices. I have
collected in Appendix I the two articles written by Mr. Gandhi
by way of review of my speech in the Harijan, and his letter to Mr. Sant Ram, a member of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal. In Appendix II,
I have printed my views in reply to the articles of Mr. Gandhi collected in Appendix 1.
Besides Mr. Gandhi many others have adversely criticised my views as expressed in my
speech. But I have felt that in taking notice of such adverse comments
I should limit myself to Mr. Gandhi. This I have done not because what he has said is so
weighty as to deserve a reply but because to many a Hindu he is an oracle, so great that
when he opens his lips it is expected that the argument must close and no dog must bark.
But the world owes much to rebels who would dare to argue in the face of the pontiff and
insist that he is not infallible. I do not care for the credit which every progressive
society must give to its rebels. I shall be satisfied if I make the Hindus realize that
they are the sick men of India and that their sickness is causing danger to the health and
happiness of other Indians.

B. R. AMBEDKAR

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

The Second edition
of this Essay appeared in 1937, and was exhausted within a very short period. A new
edition has been in demand for a long time. It was my
intention to recast the essay so as to incorporate into it another essay of mine called “ Castes in India,
their Origin and their Mechanism “, which appeared
in the issue of the Indian Antiquary Journal for May 1917. But as I could not find time,
and as there is very little prospect of my being able to do so and as the demand for it
from the public is very insistent, I am content to let this be a mere reprint of the
Second edition.

I am glad to find that this essay has become so
popular, and I hope that it will serve the purpose for which it was intended.
22, Prithwiraj Road

New Delhi 1st December 1944              
           
B. R. AMBEDKAR

PROLOGUE

On December 12, 1935, I received the following
letter from Mr. Sant Ram, the Secretary of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal :

 

My dear Doctor Saheb,

Many thanks for your kind letter of the 5th
December. I have released it for press without your
permission for which I beg your pardon, as I saw no harm in
giving it publicity. You are a great thinker, and it is my well-considered opinion that
none else has studied the problem of Caste so deeply as you have. I have always benefited
myself and our Mandal from your ideas. I have explained and preached it in the Kranti many times and
I have even lectured on it in many Conferences. I am now very anxious to read the
exposition of your new formula—“ It is not
possible to break Caste without annihilating the religious notions on which it, the Caste
system, is founded.” Please do explain it at length at
your earliest convenience, so that we may take up the idea and emphasise it from press and
platform. At present, it is not fully clear to me.

*         
*         
*         *          *

Our Executive Committee persists in having you
as our President for our Annual Conference. We can change our dates to accommodate
your convenience. Independent Harijans of Punjab are very
much desirous to meet you and discuss with you their plans. So if you kindly accept our
request and come to Lahore to preside over the Conference it
will serve double purpose. We will invite Harijan leaders of
all shades of opinion and you will get an opportunity of giving your ideas to them.

The Mandal has deputed our Assistant Secretary,
Mr. Indra Singh, to meet you
at Bombay in Xmas and discuss with you the whole situation
with a view to persuade you to please accept our request.

*         
*  
       *         
*         
*

The Jat-Pat-Todak
Mandal, I was given to understand, to be an organization of
Caste Hindu Social Reformers, with the one and only aim, namely to eradicate the Caste
System from amongst the Hindus. As a rule, I do not like to take any part in a movement
which is carried on by the Caste Hindus. Their attitude towards social reform is so
different from mine that I have found it difficult to pull on with them. Indeed, I find
their company quite uncongenial to me on account of our differences of opinion. Therefore
when the Mandal first approached me I declined their
invitation to preside. The Mandal, however, would not take a refusal from me and sent down
one of its members to Bombay to press me to accept the invitation. In the end I agreed to
preside. The Annual Conference was to be held at Lahore, the headquarters of the Mandal.
The Conference was to meet in Easter but was subsequently postponed to the middle of May
1936. The Reception Committee of the Mandal has now cancelled the Conference. The notice
of cancellation came long after my Presidential address had been printed. The copies of
this address are now lying with me. As I did not get an opportunity to deliver the address
from the presidential chair the public has not had an opportunity to know my views on the
problems created by the Caste System. To let the public know them and also to dispose of
the printed copies which are lying on my hand, I have decided to put the printed copies of
the address in the market. The accompanying pages contain
the text of that address.

The public will be curious to know what led to the cancellation of my
appointment as the President of the Conference. At the start, a dispute arose over the
printing of the address. I desired that the address should be printed in Bombay. The
Mandal wished that it should be printed in Lahore on the ground of economy. I did not
agree and insisted upon having it printed in Bombay. Instead of agreeing to my proposition
I received a letter signed by several members of the Mandal from which I give the
following extract :

 

27-3-36

 

Revered Dr. Ji,

Your letter of the 24th instant addressee to Sjt. Sant Ram has been shown to
us. We were a little disappointed to read it. Perhaps you are not fully aware of the
situation that has arisen here. Almost all the Hindus in the Punjab are against your being
invited to this province. The Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal has been
subjected to the bitterest criticism and has received censorious rebuke from all quarters.
All the Hindu leaders among whom being Bhai Parmanand, M-L.A. (Ex-President, Hindu Maha Sabha), Mahatma Hans Raj, Dr. Gokal Chand Narang, Minister for
Local Self-Government, Raja Narendra Nath, M.L.C. etc., have dissociated
themselves from this step of the Mandal.

Despite all this
the runners of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal (the leading figure being Sjt. Sant Ram) are
determined to wade through thick and thin but would not give up the idea of your
presidentship. The Mandal has earned a bad name.

*       
*        *        *        *

Under the circumstances it becomes your duty to
co-operate with the Mandal. On the one hand, they are being put to so much trouble and
hardship by the Hindus and if on the other hand you too augment their difficulties it will
be a most sad coincidence of bad luck for them.

We hope you will think over the matter and do
what is good for us all.

*        
*         *         *         *

This letter puzzled me greatly. I could not
understand why the Mandal should displease me for the sake of a few rupees in the matter
of printing the address. Secondly, I could not believe that
men like Sir Gokal Chand Narang had really resigned as a protest against my selection as President because I had
received the following letter from Sir Gokal Chand himself :

 

5 Montgomery Road

Lahore,

7-2-36

 

Dear Doctor Ambedkar,

I am glad to learn from the workers of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal that you have agreed to preside at their
next anniversary to be held at Lahore during the Easter holidays,
it will give me much pleasure if you stay with me while you are at Lahore. More when we
meet.

Yours sincerely,

G. C. narang

 

Whatever be the truth I did not yield to this
pressure. But even when the Mandal found that I was insisting upon having my address
printed in Bombay instead of agreeing to my proposal the Mandal sent me a wire that they
were sending Mr. Har Bhagwan
to Bombay to “ talk over matters personally “ Mr. Har Bhagwan came to Bombay on the 9th of April. When
I met Mr. Har Bhagwan I found that he had nothing to say regarding the issue. Indeed he
was so unconcerned regarding the printing of the address, whether it should be printed in
Bombay or in Lahore, that he did not even mention it in the course of our conversation.
All that he was anxious for was to know the contents of the address. I was then convinced
that in getting the address printed in Lahore the main object of the Mandal was not to
save money but to get at the contents of the address. I gave him a copy. He did not feel
very happy with some parts of it. He returned to Lahore. From Lahore, he wrote to me

the following letter :

 

Lahore,

dated April 14, 1936

 

My dear Doctor Sahib,

Since my arrival from Bombay, on the 12th, I
have been indisposed owing to my having not slept
continuously for 5 or 6 nights, which were spent in the
train. Reaching here I came to know that you had come to Amritsar. I would have seen you there if I were well enough to go
about. I have made over your address to Mr. Sant Ram for
translation and he has liked it very much, but he is not sure whether it could be
translated by him for printing before the 25th. In any case, it would
have a wide publicity and we are sure it would wake the Hindus up from their slumber.

The passage I pointed out to you at Bombay has
been read by some of our friends with a little misgiving, and those of us who would like
to see the Conference terminate without any untoward incident would prefer that at least
the word “ Veda “ be
left out for the time being. I leave this to your good sense. I hope, however, in your
concluding paragraphs you will make it clear that the views expressed in the address are
your own and that the responsibility does not lie on the Mandal.
I hope, you will not mind this statement of mine and would let us have 1,000 copies of the
address, for which we shall, of course, pay. To this effect I have sent you a telegram
today. A cheque of Rs. 100 is enclosed herewith which kindly
acknowledge, and send us your bills in due time.

I have called a meeting of the Reception
Committee and shall communicate their decision to you immediately. In the meantime kindly
accept my heartfelt thanks for the kindness shown to me and the great pains taken by you
in the preparation of your address. You have really put us under a heavy debt of
gratitude.

Yours sincerely,

har bhagwan

P.S.—Kindly
send the copies of the address by passenger train as soon as it is printed, so that copies
may be sent to the Press for publication.

Accordingly I handed over my manuscript to the
printer with an order to print 1,000 copies. Eight days later, I received another letter
from Mr. Har Bhagwan which I
reproduce below :

 

Lahore,

22-4-36

 

Dear Dr. Ambedkar,

We are in receipt of your telegram and letter,
for which kindly accept our thanks. In accordance with your
desire, we have again postponed our Conference, but feel that it would have been much
better to have it on the 25th and 26th, as the weather is growing warmer and warmer every
day in the Punjab. In the middle of May it would be fairly hot, and the sittings in the
day time would not be very pleasant and comfortable. However, we shall try our best to do all we can to make things as comfortable as possible,
if it is held in the middle of May.

There is, however, one thing that we have been
compelled to bring to your kind attention. You will remember
that when I pointed out to you the misgivings entertained by
some of our people regarding your declaration on the subject of change of religion, you
told me that it was undoubtedly outside the scope of the Mandal
and that you had no intention to say anything from our platform in that connection. At the
same time when the manuscript of your address was handed to me you assured me that that
was the main portion of your address and that there were only two or three concluding
paragraphs that you wanted to add. On receipt of the second instalment of your address we have been taken by surprise, as that
would make it so lengthy, that we are afraid, very few people would read the whole of it.
Besides that you have more than once stated in your address that you had decided to walk
out of the fold of the Hindus and that that was your last
address as a Hindu. You have also unnecessarily attacked the morality and reasonableness
of the Vedas and
other religious books of the Hindus, and have at length dwelt upon the technical side of
Hindu religion, which has absolutely no connection with the problem at issue, so much so
that some of the passages have become irrelevant and off the
point. We would have been very pleased if you had confined your address to that portion
given to me, or if an addition was necessary, it would have been limited to what you had
written on Brahminism etc. The last portion which deals with
the complete annihilation of Hindu religion and doubts the morality of the sacred books of
the Hindus as well as a hint about your intention to leave
the Hindu fold does not seem to me to be relevant.

I would therefore most
humbly request you on behalf of the people responsible for
the Conference to leave out the passages referred to above,
and close the address with what was given to me or add a few paragraphs on Brahminism. We
doubt the wisdom of making the address unnecessarily provocative and pinching. There are
several of us who subscribe to your feelings and would very much want to be under your
banner for remodelling of the Hindu religion. If you had decided to get together persons
of your cult I can assure you a large number would have joined your army of reformers from
the Punjab.

In fact, we thought you would give us a lead in
the destruction of the evil of caste system, especially when you have studied the subject
so thoroughly, and strengthen our hands by bringing about a revolution and making yourself
as a nucleus in the gigantic effort, but declaration of the
nature made by you when repeated loses its power, and
becomes a hackneyed term. Under the circumstances, I would request you to consider the
whole matter and make your address more effective by saying that you would be glad to take
a leading part in the destruction of the caste system if the Hindus are willing to work in
right earnest toward that end, even if they had to forsake
their kith and kin and the religious notions. In case you do so, I am sanguine that you would find a ready response from the Punjab in such an
endeavour.

I shall be grateful if you will help us at this
juncture as we have already undergone much expenditure and have been put to suspense, and let us know by the return
of post that you have condescended to limit your address as above. In case, you still
insist upon the printing of the address in toto, we very much regret it would not be possible—rather advisable for us to hold the Conference, and
would prefer to postpone it sine die, although
by doing so we shall be losing the goodwill of the people because of the repeated
postponements. We should, however, like to point out that you have carved a niche in our
hearts by writing such a wonderful treatise on the caste system, which excels all other
treatises so far written and will prove to be a valuable heritage, so to say. We shall be
ever indebted to you for the pains taken by you in its preparation.

Thanking you very much for your kindness and
with best wishes.

I am,

Yours sincerely,

har bhagwan

 

To this letter I sent the following reply :

27th April 1936

Dear Mr. Har Bhagwan,

I am in receipt of your letter of the 22nd April. I note with regret that the Reception Commitiee of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal “ would prefer to
postpone the Conference sine die “ if I
insisted upon printing the address in toto. In
reply I have to inform you that I also would prefer to have the Conference
cancelled—1 do not like to use vague terms—if the Mandal insisted upon having my
address pruned to suit its circumstances. You may not like my decision. But I cannot give
up, for the sake of the honour of presiding over the
Conference, the liberty which every President must have in the preparation of the address.
I cannot give up for the sake of pleasing the Mandal the
duty which every President owes to the Conference over which
he presides to give it a lead which he thinks right and proper. The issue is one of
principle and I feel I must do nothing to compromise it in any way.

I would not have entered into any controversy
as regards the propriety of the decision taken by the Reception Committee. But as you have
given certain reasons which appear to throw the blame on me. I am bound to answer them. In the first place, I must dispel the notion that the
views contained in that part of the address to which objection has been taken by the
Committee have come to the Mandal as a surprise. Mr. Sant
Ram, I am sure, will bear me out when I say that in reply to one of his letters I had said
that the real method of breaking up the Caste System was not to bring about inter-caste dinners and inter-caste
marriages but to destroy the religious notions on which Caste was founded and that Mr.
Sant Ram in return asked me to explain what he said was a
novel point of view. It was in response to this invitation from Mr. Sant Ram that I thought I ought to elaborate in my address what
I had stated in a sentence in my letter to him. You cannot, therefore, say that the views
expressed are new. At any rate, they are not new to Mr. Sant Ram who is the moving spirit
and the leading light of your Mandal.
But I go further and say that I wrote this part of my address
not merely because I felt it desirable to do so. I wrote it
because I thought that it was absolutely necessary to
complete the argument. I am amazed to read that you characterize the portion of the speech to which your Committee objects as “ irrelevant and off the
point “. You will allow me to say that I am a lawyer
and I know the rules of relevancy as well as any member of
your Committee. I most emphatically maintain that the portion objected to is not only most
relevant but is also important. It is in that part of the
address that I have discussed the ways and means of breaking up the Caste System. It may
be that the conclusion I have arrived at as to the best method of destroying Caste is
startling and painful. You are entitled to say that my analysis is wrong. But you cannot
say that in an address which deals with the problem of Caste
it is not open to me to discuss how Caste can be destroyed.

Your other complaint relates to the length of
the address. I have pleaded guilty to the charge in the address itself. But, who is really
responsible for this ? I fear you have come rather late on
the scene. Otherwise you would have known that originally I had planned to write a short
address for my own convenience as I had neither the time nor the energy to engage myself
in the preparation of an elaborate thesis. It was the Mandal who asked me to deal with the
subject exhaustively and it was the Mandal which sent down to me a list of questions
relating to the Caste System and asked me to answer them in
the body of my address as they were questions which were
often raised in the controversy between the Mandal and its opponents and which the Mandal
found difficult to answer satisfactorily. It was in trying to meet the wishes of the
Mandal in this respect that the address has grown to the length to which it has. In view
of what I have said I am sure you will agree that the fault respecting length of the
address is not mine.

I did not expect that your Mandal would be so
upset because I have spoken of the destruction of Hindu Religion. I thought it was only
fools who were afraid of words. But lest there should be any misapprehension in the minds
of the people I have taken great pains to explain what I mean by religion and destruction
of religion. I am sure that nobody on reading my address could possibly misunderstand me.
That your Mandal should have taken a fright at mere words as “destruction
of religion etc.” notwithstanding
the explanation that accompanies .them does not raise the Mandal in my estimation. One cannot have any respect or regard for men who take
the position of the Reformer and then refuse even to see the logical consequences of that
position, let alone following them out in action.

You will agree that I have never accepted to be
limited in any way in the preparation of my address and the
question as to what the address should or should not contain was never even discussed
between myself and the Mandal. I had always taken for
granted that I was free to express in the address such views
as I held on the subject Indeed until, you came to Bombay on the 9th April the Mandal did
not know what sort of an address I was preparing. It was when you came to Bombay that I
voluntarily told you that I had no desire to use your platform from which to advocate my
views regarding change of religion by the Depressed Classes. I think I have scrupulously
kept that promise in the preparation of the address. Beyond a passing reference of an indirect character
where I say that “ I am sorry I will not be here. . . etc.”
I have said nothing about the subject in my address. When I see you object even to such a
passing and so indirect a reference, I feel bound to ask ;
did you think that in agreeing to preside over your Conference I would be agreeing to
suspend or to give up my views regarding change of faith by the Depressed Classes ? If you did think so I must tell you that I am in no way
responsible for such a mistake on your part. If any of you had even hinted to me that in
exchange for the honour you were doing me by electing as President, I was to abjure my
faith in my programme of conversion, I would have told you
in quite plain terms that I cared more for my faith than for any honour from you.

After your letter of the 14th, this letter of
yours comes as a surprize to me. I am sure that any one who
reads them will feel the same. I cannot account for this sudden volte face on the part of the Reception Committee.
There is no difference in substance between the rough draft which was before the Committee
when you wrote your letter of the 14th and the final draft
on which the decision of the Committee communicated to me in your letter under reply was
taken. You cannot point out a single new idea in the final draft which is not contained in
the earlier draft. The ideas are the same. The only difference is that they have been
worked out in greater detail in the final draft. If there was anything to object to in the
address you could have said so on the 14th. But you did not. On the contrary you asked me
to print off 1,000 copies leaving me the liberty to accept
or not the verbal changes which you suggested. Accordingly I got 1,000 copies printed
which are now lying with me. Eight days later you write to say that you object to the
address and that if it is not amended the Conference will be cancelled. You ought to have
known that there was no hope of any alteration being made in the address. I told you when
you were in Bombay that I would not alter a comma, that I would not allow any censorship
over my address and that you would have to accept the address as it came from me. I also
told you that the responsibility. for the views expressed in the address was entirely mine
and if they were not liked by the Conference I would not mind at all if the Conference
passed a resolution condemning them. So anxious was I to relieve your Mandal from having
to assume responsibility for my views and also with the object of not getting myself entangled by too intimate an
association with your Conference, I suggested to you that I
desired to have my address treated as a sort of an inaugural address and not as a
Presidential address and that the Mandal should find some
one else to preside over the Conference, and deal with the resolutions. Nobody could have
been better placed to take a decision on the 14th than your Committee. The Committee
failed to do that and in the meantime cost of printing has been incurred which, I am sure,
with a little more firmness on the part of your Committee could have been saved.

I feel sure that the views expressed in my
address have little to do with the decision of your Committee. I have reasons to believe
that my presence at the Sikh Prachar Conference held at Amritsar has had a good deal to do with the decision of the
Committee. Nothing else can satisfactorily explain the sudden volte face shown by the Committee between the 14th
and the 22nd April. I must not however prolong this controversy and must request you to
announce immediately that the Session of the Conference which was to meet under my
Presidentship is cancelled. All the grace has by now run out and I shall not consent to
preside even if your Committee agreed to accept my address
as it is- in toto. I thank you for your appreciation of the pains I have taken in the preparation of the address. I certainly have profited by the
labour if no one else docs. My only regret is that I was put to such hard labour at a time when my health was not equal to the strain it has caused.

Yours sincerely,

B. R. ambedkar

 

This correspondence will disclose the reasons which have led to the
cancellation by the Mandal of my appointment as President and the reader will be in a
position to lay the blame where it ought properly to belong. This is I believe the first
time when the appointment of a President is cancelled by the Reception Committee because
it does not approve of the views of the President. But whether that is so or not, this is
certainly the first time in my life to have been invited to preside over a Conference of
Caste Hindus. I am sorry that it has ended in a tragedy. But what can any one expect from
a relationship so tragic as the relationship between the reforming sect of Caste Hindus
and the self-respecting sect of Untouchables where the former have no desire to alienate
their orthodox fellows and the latter have no alternative
but to insist upon reform being carried out ?

Rajgriha,

Dadar,
Bombay 14 15th May 1936                                          
B. R. AMBEDKAR

• SPEECH PREPARED BY

  Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

  FOR

  The 1936 Annual Conference of the Jat-Pat-Todak
  Mandal of Lahore

  BUT NOT DELIVERED

  Owing
  to the cancellation of the Conference by the Reception Committee on the ground that the
  views expressed in the Speech would be unbearable to the Conference

  Friends,

  I am really sorry for the members of the
  Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal who have so very kindly invited me to preside over this Conference. I
  am sure they will be asked many questions for having selected me as the President. The
  Mandal will be asked to explain as to why it has imported a man from Bombay to preside
  over a function which is held in Lahore. I believe the Mandal could easily have found some
  one better qualified than myself to preside on the occasion. I have criticised the Hindus.
  I have questioned the authority of the Mahatma whom they revere. They hate me. To them I
  am a snake in their garden. The Mandal will no doubt be asked by the politically-minded
  Hindus to explain why it has called me to fill this place of honour. It is an act of great
  daring. I shall not be surprised if some political Hindus regard it as an insult. This
  selection of mine cannot certainly please the ordinary religiously-minded Hindus. The
  Mandal may be asked to explain why it has disobeyed the Shastric injunction in selecting the President.
  Accoding to the Shastras the Brahmin is
  appointed to be the Guru for the three Varnas,
  varnanam bramhano garu, is a direction of the Shastras.
  The Mandal therefore knows from whom a Hindu should take his lessons and from whom he
  should not. The Shastras do not permit a Hindu
  to accept any one as his Guru merely because he is well versed. This is made very clear by
  Ramdas, a Brahmin saint from Maharashtra, who is alleged to have inspired Shivaji to
  establish a Hindu Raj. In his Dasbodh, a
  socio-politico-religious treatise in Marathi verse Ramdas
  asks, addressing the Hindus, can we accept an Antyaja to be our Guru because he is a
  Pandit (i.e. learned) and gives an answer in the
  negative. What replies to give to these questions is a matter which I must leave to the
  Mandal. The Mandal knows best the reasons which led it to travel to Bombay to select a
  president, to fix upon a man so repugnant to the Hindus and to descend so low in the scale
  as to select an Antyaja— an untouchable—to address an audience of the Savarnas. As for myself you will allow me to say
  that I have accepted the invitation much against my will and also against the will of many
  of
  my fellow untouchables. I know that the Hindus are sick of me. I know
  that I am not a persona grata with them. Knowing all this I have
  deliberately kept myself away from them. I have no desire to inflict myself upon them. I
  have been giving expression to my views from my own platform. This has already caused a
  great deal of heartburning and irritation. I have no desire to ascend the platform of the
  Hindus to do within their sight what I have been doing within their hearing. If I am here
  it is because of your choice and not because of my wish. Yours is a cause of social
  reform. That cause has always made an appeal to me and it is because of this that I felt I
  ought not to refuse an opportunity of helping the cause especially when you think that I
  can help it. Whether what I am going to say today will help you in any way to solve the
  problem you are grappling with is for you to judge. All I hope to do is to place before
  you my views on the problem.
  

• The path of social reform like the path to
  heaven at any rate in India, is strewn with many difficulties. Social reform in India has
  few friends and many critics. The critics fall into two distinct classes. One class
  consists of political reformers and the other of the socialists.

  It was at one time recognized that without
  social efficiency no permanent progress in the other fields of activity was possible, that
  owing to mischief wrought by the evil customs, Hindu Society was not in a state of
  efficiency and that ceaseless efforts must be made to eradicate these evils. It was due to
  the recognition of this fact that the birth of the National Congress was accompanied by
  the foundation of the Social Conference. While the Congress was concerned with defining
  the weak points in the political organisation of the country, the Social Conference was
  engaged in removing the weak points in the social organisation of the Hindu Society. For
  some time the Congress and the Conference worked as two wings of one common activity and
  they held their annual sessions in the same pandal. But soon the two wings developed into
  two parties, a Political Reform Party and a Social Reform Party, between whom there raged
  a fierce controversy. The Political Reform Party supported the National Congress and
  Social Reform Party supported the Social Conference. The two bodies thus became two
  hostile camps. The point at issue was whether social reform should precede political
  reform. For a decade the forces were evenly balanced and the battle was fought without
  victory to either side. It was however evident that the fortunes of the; Social Conference
  were ebbing fast. The gentlemen who presided over the sessions of the Social Conference
  lamented that the majority of the educated Hindus were for political advancement and
  indifferent to social reform and that while the number of those who attended the Congress
  was very large and the number who did not attend but who sympathized with it even larger,
  the number of those who attended the Social Conference was very much smaller. This
  indifference, this thinning of its ranks was soon followed by active hostility from the
  politicians. Under the leadership of the late Mr. Tilak, the courtesy with which the
  Congress allowed the Social Conference the use of its pandal was withdrawn and the spirit
  of enmity went to such a pitch that when the Social Conference desired to erect its own
  pandal a threat to burn the pandal was held out by its opponents. Thus in course of time
  the party in favour of political reform won and the Social Conference vanished and was
  forgotten. The speech, delivered by Mr. W. C. Bonnerji in 1892 at Allahabad as President
  of the eighth session of the Congress, sounds like a funeral oration at the death of the
  Social Conference and is so typical of the Congress attitude that I venture to quote from
  it the following extract. Mr. Bonnerji said :

  ” I for one have no patience with those
  who saw we shall not be fit for political reform until we reform our social system. I fail
  to see any connection between the two. . .Are we not fit (for political reform) because
  our widows remain unmarried and our girls are given in marriage earlier than in other
  countries ? because our wives and daughters do not drive about with us visiting our
  friends? because we do not send our daughters to Oxford and Cambridge ? ” (Cheers)’

  I have stated the case for political reform as
  put by Mr. Bonnerji. There were many who are happy that the victory went to the Congress.
  But those who believe in the importance of social reform may ask, is the argument such as
  that of Mr. Bonnerji final ? Does it prove that the victory went to those who were in the
  right ? Does it prove conclusively that social reform has no bearing on political reform ?
  It will help us to understand the matter if I state the other side of the case. I will
  draw upon the treatment of the untouchables for my facts.

  Under the rule of the Peshwas in the Maratha
  country the untouchable was not allowed to use the public streets if a Hindu was coming
  along lest he should pollute the Hindu by his shadow. The untouchable was required to have
  a black thread either on his wrist or in his neck as a sign or a mark to prevent the
  Hindus from getting themselves polluted by his touch through mistake. In Poona, the
  capital of the Peshwa, the untouchable was required to carry, strung from his waist, a
  broom to sweep away from behind the dust he treaded on lest a Hindu walking on the same
  should be polluted. In Poona, the untouchable was required to carry an earthen pot, hung
  in his neck wherever he went, for holding his spit lest his spit falling on earth should
  pollute a Hindu who might unknowingly happen to tread on it. Let me take more recent
  facts. The tyranny practised by the Hindus upon the Balais, an untouchable community in
  Central India, will serve my purpose. You will find a report of this in the Times of India of 4th January 1928. “The
  correspondent of the Times of India reported
  that high caste Hindus, viz. Kalotas, Rajputs and Brahmins including the Patels and
  Patwaris of villages of Kanaria, Bicholi-Hafsi, Bicholi-Mardana and of about 15 other
  villages in the Indore djistrict (of the Indore State) informed the Balais of their
  respective villages that if they wished to live among them they must conform to the
  following rules :

  (1) Balais must not wear gold-lace-bordered
  pugrees.

  (2) They must not wear dhotis with coloured or
  fancy borders.

  (3) They must convey intimation of the death of
  any Hindu to relatives of the deceased—no matter how far away these relatives may be
  living.

  (4) In all Hindu marriages, Balais must play
  music before the processions and during the marriage.

  (5) Balai women must not wear gold or silver
  ornaments; they must not wear fancy gowns or jackets.

  (6) Balai women must attend all cases of
  confinement of Hindu women.

  (7) Balais must render services without
  demanding remuneration and must accept whatever a Hindu is pleased to give.

  (8) If the Balais do not agree to abide by
  these terms they must clear out of the villages. The Balais refused to comply; and the
  Hindu element proceeded against them. Balais were not allowed to get water from the
  village wells; they were not allowed to let go their cattle to graze. Balais were
  prohibited from passing through land owned by a Hindu, so that if the field of a Balai was
  surrounded by fields owned by Hindus, the Balai could have no access to his own field. The
  Hindus also let their cattle graze down the fields of Balais. The Balais submitted
  petitions to the Darbar against these persecutions ; but as they could get no timely
  relief, and the oppression continued, hundreds of Balais with their wives and children
  were obliged to abandon their homes in which their ancestors lived for generations and to
  migrate to adjoining States, viz. to villages in Dhar, Dewas, Bagli, Bhopal, Gwalior and
  other States. What happened to them in their new homes may for the present be left out of
  our consideration. The incident at Kavitha in Gujarat happened only last year. The Hindus
  of Kavitha ordered the untouchables not to insist upon sending their children to the
  common village school maintained by Government. What sufferings the untouchables of
  Kavitha had to undergo for daring to exercise a civic right against the wishes of the
  Hindus is too well known to need detailed description. Another instance occurred in the
  village of Zanu in the Ahmedabad district of Gujarat. In November 1935 some untouchable
  women of well-to-do families started fetching water in metal pots. The Hindus looked upon
  the use of metal pots by untouchables as an affront to their dignity and assaulted the
  untouchable women for their impudence. A most recent event is reported from the village
  Chakwara in Jaipur State. It seems from the reports that have appeared in the newspapers
  that an untouchable of Chakwara who had returned from a pilgrimage had arranged to give a
  dinner to his fellow untouchables of the village as an act of religious piety. The host
  desired to treat the guests to a sumptuous meal and the items served included ghee (butter) also. But while the assembly of
  untouchables was engaged in partaking of the food, the Hindus in their hundred, armed with
  lathis, rushed to the scene, despoiled the food and belaboured the untouchables who left
  the food they were served with and ran away for their lives. And why was this murderous
  assault committed on defenceless untouchables ? The reason given is that the untouchable
  host was impudent enough to serve ghee and his untouchable guests were foolish enough to
  taste it. Ghee is undoubtedly a luxury for the rich. But no one would think that
  consumption of ghee was a mark of high social status. The Hindus of Chakwara thought
  otherwise and in righteous indignation avenged themselves for the wrong done to them by
  the untouchables, who insulted them by treating ghee as an item of their food which they
  ought to have known could not be theirs, consistently with the dignity of the Hindus. This
  means that an untouchable must not use ghee even if he can afford to buy it, since it is
  an act of arrogance towards the Hindus. This happened on or about the 1st of April 1936 !

  Having stated the facts, let me now state the
  case for social reform. In doing this, I will follow Mr. Bonnerji, as nearly as I can and
  ask the political-minded Hindus ” Are you fit for political power even though you do
  not allow a large class of your own countrymen like the untouchables to use public school
  ? Are you fit for political power even though you do not allow them the use of public
  wells ? Are you fit for political power even though you do not allow them the use of
  public streets ? Are you fit for political power even though you do not allow them to wear
  what apparel or ornaments they like ? Are you fit for political power even though you do
  not allow them to eat any food they like ? ” I can ask a string of such questions.
  But these will suffice, I wonder what would have been the reply of Mr. Bonnerji. I am sure
  no sensible man will have the courage to give an affirmative answer. Every Congressman who
  repeats the dogma of Mill that one country is not fit to rule another country must admit
  that one class is not fit to rule another class.

  How is it then that the Social Reform Party
  last the battle ? To understand this correctly it is necessary, to take note of the kind
  of social reform which the reformers were agitating for. In this connection it is
  necessary to make a distinction between social reform in the sense of the reform of the
  Hindu Family and social reform in the sense of the reorganization and reconstruction of
  the Hindu Society. The former has relation to widow remarriage, child marriage etc., while
  the latter relates to the abolition of the Caste System. The Social Conference was a body
  which mainly concerned itself with the reform of the high caste Hindu Family. It consisted
  mostly of enlightened high caste Hindus who did
  not feel the necessity for agitating for the abolition of caste or had not the courage to
  agitate for it. They felt quite naturally a greater urge to remove such evils as enforced
  widowhood, child marriages etc., evils which prevailed among them and which were
  personally felt by them. They did not stand up for the reform of the Hindu society. The
  battle that was fought centered round the question of the reform of the family. It did not
  relate to the social reform in the sense of the break-up of the caste system. It was never
  put in issue by the reformers. That is the reason why the Social Reform Party lost.

  I am aware that this argument cannot alter the fact that political reform did
  in fact gain precedence over social reform. But the argument has this much value if not
  more. It explains why social reformers lost the battle. It also helps us to understand how
  limited was the victory which the Political Reform Party obtained over the Social Reform
  Party and that the view that social reform need not precede political reform is a view
  which may stand only when by social reform is meant the reform of the family. That
  political reform cannot with impunity take precedence over social reform in the sense of
  reconstruction of society is a thesis which, I am sure, cannot be controverted. That the
  makers of political constitutions must take account of social forces is a fact which is
  recognized by no less a person than Ferdinand Lassalle, the friend and co-worker of Karl
  Marx. In addressing a Prussian audience in 1862 Lassalle said :

  ” The
  constitutional questions are in the first instance not questions of right but questions of
  might. The actual constitution of a country has its existence only in the actual condition
  of force which exists in the country : hence political constitutions have value and
  permanence only when they accurately express those conditions of forces which exist in
  practice within a society”

  But it is not necessary to go to Prussia. There
  is evidence at home. What is the significance of the Communal Award with its allocation of
  political power in defined proportions to diverse classes and communities ? In my view,
  its significance lies in this that political constitution must take note of social
  organisation. It shows that the politicians who denied that the social problem in India
  had any bearing on the political problem were forced to reckon with the social problem in
  devising the constitution. The Communal Award is so to say the nemesis following upon the
  indifference and neglect of social reform. It is a victory for the Social Reform Party
  which shows that though defeated they were in the right in insisting upon the importance
  of social reform. Many, I know, will not accept this finding. The view is current, and it
  is pleasant to believe in it, that the Communal Award is unnatural and that it is the
  result of an unholy alliance between the minorities and the bureaucracy. I do not wish to
  rely on the Communal Award as a piece of evidence to support my contention if it is said
  that it is not good evidence. Let us turn to Ireland. What does the history of Irish Home
  Rule show ? It is well-known that in the course of the negotiations between the
  representatives of Ulster and Southern Ireland, Mr. Redmond, the representative of
  Southern Ireland, in order to bring Ulster in a Home Rule Constitution common to the whole
  of Ireland said to the representatives of Ulster : ” Ask any political safeguards you
  like and you shall have them.” What was the reply that Ulstermen gave ? Their reply
  was ” Damn your safeguards, we don’t want to be ruled by you on any terms.”
  People who blame the minorities in India ought to consider what would have happened to the
  political aspirations of the majority if the minorities had taken the attitude which
  Ulster took. Judged by the attitude of Ulster to Irish Home Rule, is it noting that the
  minorities agreed to be ruled by the majority which has not shown much sense of
  statesmanship, provided some safeguards were devised for them ? But this is only
  incidental. The main question is why did Ulster take this attitude ? The only answer I can
  give is that there was a social problem between Ulster and Southern Ireland the problem
  between Catholics and Protestants, essentially a problem of Caste. That Home Rule in
  Ireland would be Rome Rule was the way in which the Ulstermen had framed their answer. But
  that is only another way of stating that it was the social problem of Caste between the
  Catholics and Protestants, which prevented the solution of the political problem. This
  evidence again is sure to be challenged. It will be urged that here too the hand of the
  Imperialist was at work. But my resources are not exhausted. I will give evidence from the
  History of Rome. Here no one can say that any evil genius was at work. Any one who has
  studied the History of Rome will know that the Republican Constitution of Rome bore marks
  having strong resemblance to the Communal Award. When the kingship in Rome was abolished,
  the Kingly power or the Imperium was divided
  between the Consuls and the Pontifex Maximus. In the Consuls was vested the secular
  authority of the King, while the latter took over the religious authority of King. This
  Republican Constitution had provided that, of the two Consuls one was to be Patrician and
  the other Plebian. The same constitution had also provided that, of the Priests under the
  Pontifex Maximus, half were to be Plebians and the other half Patricians. Why is it that
  the Republican Constitution of Rome had these provisions which, as I said, resemble so
  strongly the provisions of the Communal Award ? The only answer one can get is that the
  Constitution of Republican Rome had to take account of the social division between the
  Patricians and the Plebians, who formed two distinct castes. To sum up, let political
  reformers turn to any direction they like, they will find that in the making of a
  constitution, they cannot ignore the problem arising out of the prevailing social order.

  The illustrations which I have taken in support
  of the proposition that social and religious problems have a bearing on political
  constitutions seem to be too particular. Perhaps they are. But it should not be supposed
  that the bearing of the one on the other is limited. On the other hand one can say that
  generally speaking History bears out the proposition that political revolutions have
  always been preceded by social and religious revolutions.

  The religious Reformation started by Luther was
  the precursor of the political emancipation of the European people. In England Puritanism
  led to the establishment of political liberty. Puritanism founded the new world. It was
  Puritanism which won the war of American Independence and Puritanism was a religious
  movement. The same is true of the Muslim Empire. Before the Arabs became a political power
  they had undergone a thorough religious revolution started by the Prophet Mohammad. Even
  Indian History supports the same conclusion. The political revolution led by Chandragupta
  was preceded by the religious and social revolution of Buddha. The political revolution
  led by Shivaji was preceded by the religious and social reform brought about by the saints
  of Maharashtra. The political revolution of the Sikhs was preceded by the religious and
  social revolution led by Guru Nanak. It is unnecessary to add more illustrations. These
  will suffice to show that the emancipation of the mind and the soul is a necessary
  preliminary for the political expansion of the people.
  

• Ill

  Let me now turn to the Socialists. Can the
  Socialists ignore the problem arising out of the social order ? The Socialists of India
  following their fellows in Europe are seeking to apply the economic interpretation of
  history to the facts of India. They propound that man is an economic creature, that his
  activities and aspirations are bound by economic facts, that property is the only source
  of power. They, therefore, preach that political and social reforms are but gigantic
  illusions and that economic reform by equalization of property must have precedence over
  every other kind of reform. One may join issue on every one of these premises on which
  rests the Socialists’ case for economic reform having priority over every other kind of
  reform. One may contend that economic motive is not the only motive by which man is
  actuated. That economic power is the only kind of power no student of human society can
  accept. That the social status of an individual by itself often becomes a source of power
  and authority is made clear by the sway which the Mahatmos have held over the common man.
  Why do millionaires in India obey penniless Sadhus and Fakirs ? Why do millions of paupers
  in India sell their trifling trinkets which constitute their only wealth and go to Benares
  and Mecca ? That, religion is the source of power is illustrated by the history of India
  where the priest holds a sway over the common man often greater than the magistrate and
  where everything, even such things as strikes and elections, so easily take a religious
  turn and can so easily be given a religious twist. Take the case of the Plebians of Rome
  as a further illustration of the power of religion over man. It throws great light on this
  point. The Plebs had fought for a share in the supreme executive under the Roman Republic
  and had secured the appointment of a Plebian Consul elected by a separate electorate
  constituted by the Commitia Centuriata, which
  was an assembly of Piebians. They wanted a Consul of their own because they felt that the
  Patrician Consuls used to discriminate against the Plebians in carrying on the
  administration. They had apparently obtained a great gain because under the Republican
  Constitution of Rome one Consul had the power of vetoing an act of the other Consul. But
  did they in fact gain anything ? The answer to this question must be in the negative. The
  Plebians never could get a Plebian Consul who could be said to be a strong man and who
  could act independently of the Patrician Consul. In the ordinary course of things the
  Plebians should have got a strong Plebian Consul in view of the fact that his election was
  to be by a separate electorate of Plebians. The question is why did they fail in getting a
  strong Plebian to officiate as their Consul? The answer to this question reveals the
  dominion which religion exercises over the minds of men. It was an accepted creed of the
  whole Roman populus that no official could
  enter upon the duties of his office unless the Oracle of Delphi declared that he was
  acceptable to the Goddess. The priests who were in charge of the temple of the Goddess of
  Delphi were all Patricians. Whenever therefore the Plebians elected a Consul who was known
  to be a strong party man opposed to the Patricians or ” communal ” to use the
  term that is current in India, the Oracle invariably declared that he was not acceptable
  to the Goddess. This is how the Plebians were cheated out of their rights. But what is
  worthy of note is that the Plebians permitted themselves to be thus cheated because they
  too like the Patricians, held firmly the belief that the approval of the Goddess was a
  condition precedent to the taking charge by an official of his duties and that election by
  the people was not enough. If the Plebians had contended that election was enough and that
  the approval by the Goddess was not necessary they would have derived the fullest benefit
  from the political right which they had obtained. But they did not. They agreed to elect
  another, less suitable to themselves but more suitable to the Goddess which in fact meant
  more amenable to the Patricians. Rather than give up religion, the Plebians give up
  material gain for which they had fought so hard. Does this not show that religion can be a
  source of power as great as money if not greater ? The fallacy of the Socialists lies in
  supposing that because in the present stage of European Society property as a source of
  power is predominant, that the same is true of India or that the same was true of Europe
  in the past. Religion, social status and property are all sources of power and authority,
  which one man has, to control the liberty of another. One is predominant at one stage; the
  other is predominant at another stage. That is the only difference. If liberty is the
  ideal, if liberty means the destruction of the dominion which one man holds over another
  then obviously it cannot be insisted upon that economic reform must be the one kind of
  reform worthy of pursuit. If the source of power and dominion is at any given time or in
  any given society social and religious then social reform and religious reform must be
  accepted as the necessary sort of reform.

  One can thus attack the doctrine of Economic
  Interpretation of History adopted by the Socialists of India. But I recognize that
  economic interpretation of history is not necessary for the validity of the Socialist
  contention that equalization of property is the only real reform and that it must precede
  everything else. However, what I like to ask the Socialists is this : Can you have
  economic reform without first bringing about a reform of the social order ? The Socialists
  of India do not seem to have considered this question. I do not wish to do them an
  injustice. I give below a quotation from a letter which a prominent Socialist wrote a few
  days ago to a friend of mine in which he said, ” I do not believe that we can build
  up a free society in India so long as there is a trace of this ill-treatment and
  suppression of one class by another. Believing as I do in a socialist ideal, inevitably I
  believe in perfect equality in the treatment of various classes and groups. I think that
  Socialism offers the only true remedy for this as well as other problems.” Now the
  question that I like to ask is : Is it enough for a Socialist to say, ” I believe in
  perfect equality in the treatment of the various classes ? ” To say that such a
  belief is enough is to disclose a complete lack of understanding of what is involved in
  Socialism. If Socialism is a practical programme and is not merely an ideal, distant and
  far off, the question for a Socialist is not whether he believes in equality. The question
  for him is whether he minds one class
  ill-treating and suppressing another class as a matter of system, as a matter of principle
  and thus allow tyranny and oppression to continue to divide one class from another. Let me
  analyse the factors that are involved in the realization of Socialism in order to explain
  fully my point. Now it is obvious that the economic reform contemplated by the Socialists
  cannot come about unless there is a revolution resulting in the seizure of power. That
  seizure of power must be by a proletariat. The first question I ask is : Will the
  proletariat of India combine to bring about this revolution ? What will move men to such
  an action ? It seems to me that other things being equal the only thing that will move one
  man to take such an action is the feeling that other man with whom he is acting are
  actuated by feeling of equality and fraternity and above all of justice. Men will not join
  in a revolution for the equalization of property unless they know that after the
  revolution is achieved they will be treated equally and that there will be no
  discrimination of caste and creed. The assurance of a socialist leading the revolution
  that he does not believe in caste, I am sure, will not suffice. The assurance must be the
  assurance proceeding from much deeper foundation, namely, the mental attitude of the
  compatriots towards one another in their spirit of personal equality and fraternity. Can
  it be said that the proletariat of India, poor as it is, recognise no distinctions except
  that of the rich and the poor ? Can it be said that the poor in India recognize no such
  distinctions of caste or creed, high or low ? If the fact is that they do, what unity of
  front can be expected from such a proletariat in its action against the rich ? How can
  there be a revolution if the proletariat cannot present a united front? Suppose for the
  sake of argument that by some freak of fortune a revolution does take place and the
  Socialists come in power, will they not have to deal with the problems created by the
  particular social order prevalent in India ? I can’t see how a Socialist State in India
  can function for a second without having to grapple with the problems created by the
  prejudices which make Indian people observe the distinctions of high and low, clean and
  unclean. If Socialists are not to be content with the mouthing of fine phrases, if the
  Socialists wish to make Socialism a definite reality then they must recognize that the
  problem of social reform is fundamental and that for them there is no escape from it.
  That, the social order prevalent in India is a matter which a Socialist must deal with,
  that unless he does so he cannot achieve his revolution and that if he does achieve it as
  a result of good fortune he will have to grapple with it if he wishes to realize his
  ideal, is a proposition which in my opinion is incontrovertible. He will be compelled to
  take account of caste after revolution if he does not take account of it before
  revolution. This is only another way of saying that, turn in any direction you like, caste
  is the monster that crosses your path. You cannot have political reform, you cannot have
  economic reform, unless you kill this monster.

  IV

  It is a pity that Caste even today has its
  defenders. The defences are many. It is defended on the ground that the Caste System is
  but another name for division of labour and if division of labour is a necessary feature
  of every civilized society then it is argued that there is nothing wrong in the Caste
  System. Now the first thing is to be urged against this view is that Caste System is not
  merely division of labour. It is also a division of
  labourers. Civilized society undoubtedly needs division of labour. But in no civilized
  society is division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into
  watertight compartments. Caste System is not merely a division of labourers which is quite
  different from division of labour—it is an hierarchy in which the divisions of
  labourers are graded one above the other. In no other country is the division of labour
  accompanied by this gradation of labourers. There is also a third point of criticism
  against this view of the Caste System. This division of labour is not spontaneous; it is
  not based on natural aptitudes. Social and individual efficiency requires us to develop
  the capacity of an individual to the point of competency to choose and to make his own
  career. This principle is violated in the Caste System in so far as it involves an attempt
  to appoint tasks to individuals in advance, selected not on the basis of trained original
  capacities, but on that of the social status of the parents. Looked at from another point
  of view this stratification of occupations which is the result of the Caste System is
  positively pernicious. Industry is never static. It undergoes rapid and abrupt changes.
  With such changes an individual must be free to change his occupation. Without such
  freedom to adjust himself to changing circumstances it would be impossible for him to gain
  his livelihood. Now the Caste System will not allow Hindus to take to occupations where
  they are wanted if they do not belong to them by heredity. If a Hindu is seen to starve
  rather than take to new occupations not assigned to his Caste, the reason is to be found
  in the Caste System. By not permitting readjustment of occupations, caste becomes a direct
  cause of much of the unemployment we see in the country. As a form of division of labour
  the Caste system suffers from another serious defect. The division of labour brought about
  by the Caste System is not a division based on choice. Individual sentiment, individual
  preference has no place in it. It is based on the dogma of predestination. Considerations
  of social efficiency would compel us to recognize that the greatest evil in the industrial
  system is not: so much poverty and the suffering that it involves as the fact that so many
  persons have callings which make no appeal to those who are engaged in them. Such callings
  constantly provoke one to aversion, ill will and the desire to evade. There are many
  occupations in India which on account of the fact that they are regarded as degraded by
  the Hindus provoke those who are engaged in them to aversion. There is a constant desire
  to evade and escape from such occupations which arises solely because of the blighting
  effect which they produce upon those who follow them owing to the slight and stigma cast
  upon them by the Hindu religion. What efficiency can there be in a system under which
  neither men’s hearts nor their minds are in their work? As an economic organization Caste
  is therefore a harmful institution, inasmuch as, it involves the subordination of man’s
  natural powers and inclinations to the exigencies of social rules

  V

  Some have dug a biological trench in defence of
  the Caste System. It is said that the object of Caste was to preserve purity of race and
  purity of blood. Now ethnologists are of opinion that men of pure race exist nowhere and
  that there has been a mixture of all races in all parts of the world. Especially is this
  the case with the people of India. Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar in his paper on Foreign Elements in the Hindu Population has stated
  that ” There is hardly a class, or Caste in India which has not a foreign strain in
  it. There is an admixture of alien blood not only among the warrior classes—the
  Rajputs and the Marathas—but also among the Brahmins who are under the happy delusion
  that they are free from all foreign elements.” The Caste system cannot be said to
  have grown as a means of preventing the admixture of races or as a means of maintaining
  purity of blood. As a matter of fact Caste system came into being long after the different
  races of India had commingled in blood and culture. To hold that distinctions of Castes or
  really distinctions of race and to treat different Castes as though they were so many
  different races is a gross perversion of facts. What racial affinity is there between the
  Brahmin of the Punjab and the Brahmin of Madras ? What racial affinity is there between
  the untouchable of Bengal and the untouchable of Madras ? What racial difference is there
  between the Brahmin of the Punjab and the Chamar of the Punjab ? What racial difference is
  there between the Brahmin of Madras and the Pariah of Madras ? The Brahmin of the Punjab
  is racially of the same stock as the Chamar of the Punjab and the Brahmin of Madras is of
  the same race as the Pariah of Madras. Caste system does not demarcate racial division.
  Caste system is a social division of people of the same race. Assuming it, however, to be
  a case of racial divisions one may ask : What harm could there be if a mixture of races
  and of blood was permitted to take place in India by intermarriages between different
  Castes ? Men are no doubt divided from animals by so deep a distinction that science
  recognizes men and animals as two distinct species. But even scientists who believe in
  purity of races do not assert that the different races constitute different species of
  men. They are only varieties of one and the same species. As such they can interbreed and
  produce an offspring which is capable of breeding and which is not sterile. An immense lot
  of nonsense is talked about heredity and eugenics in defence of the Caste System. Few
  would object to the Caste System if it was in accord with the basic principle of eugenics
  because few can object to the improvement of the race by judicious noting. But one fails
  to understand how the Caste System secures judicious mating. Caste System is a negative
  thing. It merely prohibits persons belonging to different Castes from intermarrying. It is
  not a positive method of selecting which two among a given Caste should marry. If Caste is
  eugenic in origin then the origin of sub-Castes must also be eugenic. But can any one
  seriously maintain that the origin of sub-Castes is eugenic ? I think it would be absurd
  to contend for such a proposition and for a very obvious reason. If Caste means race then
  differences
  of sub-Castes cannot mean differences of race because sub-Castes become
  ex hypothesia sub-divisions of one and the same
  race. Consequently the bar against intermarrying and interdining between sub-Castes cannot
  be for the purpose of maintaining purity of race or of blood. If sub-Castes cannot be
  eugenic in origin there cannot be any substance in the contention that Caste is eugenic in
  origin. Again if Caste is eugenic in origin one can understand the bar against
  intermarriage. But what is the purpose of the interdict placed on interdining between
  Castes and sub-Castes alike ? Interdining cannot infect blood and therefore cannot be the
  cause either of the improvement or of deterioration of the race. This shows that Caste has
  no scientific origin and that those who are attempting to give it an eugenic basis are
  trying to support by science what is grossly unscientific. Even today eugenics cannot
  become a practical possibility unless we have definite knowledge regarding the laws of
  heredity. Prof. Bateson in his Mendel’s Principles
  of Heredity says, ” There is nothing in the descent of the higher mental
  qualities to suggest that they follow any single system of transmission. It is likely that
  both they and the more marked developments of physical powers result rather from the
  coincidence of numerous factors than from the possession of any one genetic element.”
  To argue that the Caste System was eugenic in its conception is to attribute to the
  forefathers of present-day Hindus a knowledge of heredity which even the modern scientists
  do not possess. A tree should be judged by the fruits it yields. If caste is eugenic what
  sort of a race of men it should have produced ? Physically speaking the Hindus are a C3
  people. They are a race of Pygmies and dwarfs stunted in stature and wanting in stamina.
  It is a nation 9/1Oths of which is declared to be unfit for military service. This shows
  that the Caste System does not embody the eugenics of modem scientists. It is a social
  system which embodies the arrogance and selfishness of a perverse section of the Hindus
  who were superior enough in social status to set it in fashion and who had authority to
  force it on their inferiors.
  

• VI

  Caste does not result in economic efficiency.
  Caste cannot and has not improved the race. Caste has however done one thing. It has
  completely disorganized and demoralized the Hindus.

  The first and foremost thing that must be
  recognized is that Hindu Society is a myth. The name Hindu is itself a foreign name. It
  was given by the Mohammedans to the natives for the purpose of distinguishing themselves.
  It does not occur in any Sanskrit work prior to the Mohammedan invasion. They did not feel
  the necessity of a common name because they had no conception of their having constituted
  a community. Hindu society as such does not exist. It is only a collection of castes. Each
  caste is conscious of its existence. Its survival is the be all and end all of its
  existence. Castes do not even form a federation. A caste has no feeling that it is
  affiliated to other castes except when there is a Hindu-Muslim riot. On all other
  occasions each caste endeavours to segregate itself and to distinguish itself from other
  castes. Each caste not only dines among itself and marries among itself but each caste
  prescribes its own distinctive dress. What other explanation can there be of the
  innumerable styles of dress worn by the men and women of India which so amuse the tourists
  ? Indeed the ideal Hindu must be like a rat living in his own hole refusing to have any
  contact with others. There is an utter lack among the Hindus of what the sociologists call
  ” consciousness of kind “. There is no Hindu consciousness of kind. In every
  Hindu the consciousness that exists is the consciousness of his caste. That is the reason
  why the Hindus cannot be said to form a society or a nation. There are however many
  Indians whose patriotism does not permit them to admit that Indians are not a nation, that
  they are only an amorphous mass of people. They have insisted that underlying the apparent
  diversity there is a fundamental unity which marks the life of the Hindus in as much as
  there is a similarity of habits and customs, beliefs and thoughts which obtain all over
  the continent of India. Similarity in habits and customs, beliefs and thoughts there is.
  But one cannot accept the conclusion that therefore, the Hindus constitute a society. To
  do so is to misunderstand the essentials which go to make up a society. Men do not become
  a society by living in physical proximity any more than a man ceases to be a member of his
  society by living so many miles away from other men. Secondly similarity in habits and
  customs, beliefs and thoughts is not enough to constitute men into society. Things may be
  passed physically from one to another like bricks. In the same way habits and customs,
  beliefs and thoughts of one group may be taken over by another group and there may thus
  appear a similarity between the two. Culture spreads by diffusion and that is why one
  finds similarity between various primitive tribes in the matter of their habits and
  customs, beliefs and thoughts, although they do not live in proximity. But no one could
  say that because there was this similarity the primitive tribes constituted one society.
  This
  is because similarly in certain things is not enough to constitute a
  society. Men constitute a society because they have things
  which they possess in common. To have similar thing is totally different from possessing
  things in common. And the only way by which men can come to possess things in common with
  one another is by being in communication with one another. This is merely another way of
  saying that Society continues to exist by communication indeed in communication. To make
  it concrete, it is not enough if men act in a way which agrees with the acts of others.
  Parallel activity, even if similar, is not sufficient to bind men into a society. This is
  proved by the fact that the festivals observed by the different Castes amongst the Hindus
  are the same. Yet these parallel performances of similar festivals by the different castes
  have not bound them into one integral whole. For that purpose what is necessary is for a
  man to share and participate in a common activity so that the same emotions are aroused in
  him that animate the others. Making the individual a sharer or partner in the associated
  activity so that he feels its success as his success, its failure as his failure is the
  real thing that binds men and makes a society of them. The Caste System prevents common
  activity and by preventing common activity it has prevented the Hindus from becoming a
  society with a unified life and a consciousness of its own being.

  VII

  The Hindus often complain of the isolation and
  exclusiveness of a gang or a clique and blame them for anti-social spirit. But they
  conveniently forget that this anti-social spirit is the worst feature of their own Caste
  System. One caste enjoys singing a hymn of hate against another caste as much as the
  Germans did in singing their hymn of hate against the English during the last war. The
  literature of the Hindus is full of caste genealogies in which an attempt is made to give
  a noble origin to one caste and an ignoble origin to other castes. The Sahyadrikhand is a notorious instance of this class
  of literature. This anti-social spirit is not confined to caste alone. It has gone deeper
  and has poisoned the mutual relations of the sub-castes as well. In my province the Golak
  Brahmins, Deorukha Brahmins, Karada Brahmins, Palshe Brahmins and Chitpavan Brahmins, all
  claim to be sub-divisions of the Brahmin Caste. But the anti-social spirit that prevails
  between them is quite as marked and quite as virulent as the anti-social spirit that
  prevails between them and other non-Brahmin castes. There is nothing strange in this. An
  anti-social spirit is found wherever one group has ” interests of its own “
  which shut it out from full interaction with other groups, so that its prevailing purpose
  is protection of what it has got. This anti-social spirit, this spirit of protecting its
  own interests is as much a marked feature of the different castes in their isolation from
  one another as it is of nations in their isolation. The Brahmin’s primary concern is to
  protect ” his interest ” against those of the non-Brahmins and the non-Brahmin’s
  primary concern is to protect their interests against those of the Brahmins. The Hindus,
  therefore, are not merely an assortment of castes but they are so many warring groups each
  living for itself and for its selfish ideal. There is another feature of caste which is
  deplorable. The ancestors of the present-day English fought on one side or the other in
  the wars of the Roses and the Cromwellian War. But the decendents of those who fought on
  the one side do not bear any animosity— any grudge against the descendents of those
  who fought on the other side. The feud is forgotten. But the present-day non-Brahmins
  cannot forgive the present-day Brahmins for the insult their ancestors gave to Shivaji.
  The present-day Kayasthas will not forgive the present-day Brahmins for the infamy cast
  upon their forefathers by the forefathers of the latter. To what is this difference due ?
  Obviously to the Caste System. The existence of Caste and Caste Consciousness has served
  to keep the memory of past feuds between castes green and has prevented solidarity.

  VIII

  The recent discussion about the excluded and
  partially included areas has served to draw attention to the position of what are called
  the aboriginal tribes in India. They number about 13 millions if not more. Apart from the
  questions whether their exclusion from the new Constitution is proper or improper, the
  fact still remains that these aborigines have remained in their primitive uncivilized
  State in a land which boasts of a civilization thousands of years old. Not only are they
  not civilized but some of them follow pursuits which have led to their being classified as
  criminals. Thirteen millions of people living in the midst of civilization are still in a
  savage state and are leading the life of hereditary criminals! ! But the Hindus have never
  felt ashamed of it. This is a phenomenon which in my view is quite unparalleled. What is
  the cause of this shameful state of affairs ? Why has no attempt been made to civilize
  these aborigines and to lead them to take to a more honourable way of making a living ?
  The Hindus will probably seek to account for this savage state of the aborigines by
  attributing to them congenital stupidity. They will probably not admit that the aborigines
  have remained savages because they had made no effort to civilize them, to give them
  medical aid, to reform them, to make them good citizens. But supposing a Hindu wished to
  do what the Christian missionary is doing for these aborigines, could he have done it ? I
  submit not. Civilizing the aborigines means adopting them as your own, living in their
  midst, and cultivating fellow-feeling, in short loving them. How is it possible for a
  Hindu to do this ? His whole life is one anxious effort to preserve his caste. Caste is
  his precious possession which he must save at any cost. He cannot consent to lose it by
  establishing
  contact with the aborigines the remnants of the hateful Anary as of the
  Vedic days. Not that a Hindu could not be taught the sense of duty to
  fallen humanity, but
  the trouble is that no amount of sense of duty can enable him to overcome his duty to
  preserve his caste. Caste is, therefore, the real explanation as to why the Hindu has let
  the savage remain a savage in the midst of his civilization without blushing or without
  feeling any sense of remorse or repentance. The Hindu has not realized that these
  aborigines are a source of potential danger. If these savages remain savages they may not
  do any harm to the Hindus. But if they are reclaimed by non-Hindus and converted to their
  faiths they will swell the ranks of the enemies of the Hindus. If this happens the Hindu
  will have to thank himself and his Caste System.

  IX

  Not only has the Hindu made no effort for the
  humanitarian cause of civilizing the savages but the higher-caste Hindus have deliberately
  prevented the lower castes who are within the pale of Hinduism from rising to the cultural
  level of the higher castes. 1. will give two instances, one of the Sonars and the other of
  the Pathare Prabhus. Both are communities quite well-known in Maharashtra. Like the rest
  of the communities desiring to raise their status these two communities were at one time
  endeavouring to adopt some of the ways and habits of the Brahmins. The Sonars were styling
  themselves Daivadnya Brahmins and were wearing their ” dhotis ” with folds on
  and using the word namaskar for salutation.
  Both, the folded way of wearing the ” dhoti ” and the namaskar were special to the Brahmins. The Brahmins
  did not like this imitation and this attempt by Sonars to pass off as Brahmins. Under the
  authority of the Peshwas the Brahmins successfully put down this attempt on the part. of
  the Sonars to adopt the ways of the Brahmins. They even got the President of the Councils
  of the East India Company’s settlement in Bombay to issue a. prohibitory order against the
  Sonars residing in Bombay. At one time the Pathare Prabhus had widow-remarriage as a
  custom of their caste. This custom of widow-remarriage was later on looked upon as amark
  of social inferiority by some members of the caste especially because it was contrary to
  the custom prevalent among the Brahmins. With the object of raising the status of their
  community some Pathare Prabhus sought to stop this practice of widow-remarriage that was
  prevalent in their caste. The community was divided into two camps, one for and the other
  against the innovation. The Peshwas took the side of those in favour of widow-remarriage
  and thus virtually prohibited the Pathare Prabhus from following the ways of the Brahmins.
  The Hindus criticise the Mohammedans for having spread their religion by the use of the
  sword. They also ridicule Christianity on the score of the inquisition. But really
  speaking who is better and more worthy of our respect—the Mohammedans and Christians
  who attempted to thrust down the throats of unwilling persons what they regarded as
  necessary for their salvation or the Hindu who would not spread the light, who would
  endeavour to keep others in darkness, who would not consent to share his intellectual and
  social inheritance with those who are ready and willing to make it a part of their own
  make-up ? I have no hesitation in saying that if the Mohammedan has been cruel the Hindu
  has been mean and meanness is worse than cruelty.

  X

  Whether the Hindu religion was or was not a
  missionary religion has been a controversial issue. Some hold the view that it was never a
  missionary religion. Others hold that it was. That the Hindu religion was once a
  missionary religion must be admitted. It could not have spread over the face of India, if
  it was not a missionary religion. That today it is not a missionary religion is also a
  fact which must be accepted. The question therefore is not whether or not the Hindu
  religion was a missionary religion. The real question is why did the Hindu religion cease
  to be a missionary religion ? My answer is this. Hindu religion ceased to be a missionary
  religion when the Caste System grew up among the Hindus. Caste is inconsistent with
  conversion. Inculcation of beliefs and dogmas is not the only problem that is involved in
  conversion. To find a place for the convert in the social life of the community is another
  and a much more important problem that arises in connection with conversion. That problem
  is where to place the convert, in what caste ? It is a problem which must baffle every
  Hindu wishing to make aliens converts to his religion. Unlike the club the membership of a
  caste is not open to all and sundry. The law of caste confines its membership to person
  born in the caste. Castes are autonomous and there is no authority anywhere to compel a
  caste to admit a new-comer to its social life. Hindu Society being a collection of castes
  and each caste being a close corporation there is no place for a convert. Thus it is the
  caste which has prevented the Hindus from expanding and from absorbing other religious
  communities. So long as caste remain, Hindu religion cannot be made a missionary religion
  and Shudhi will be both a folly and a futility.

  XI

  The reasons which have made Shudhi impossible for Hindus are also responsible
  for making Sanghatan impossible. The idea
  underlying Sanghalan is to remove from the mind
  of the Hindu that timidity and cowardice which so painfully make him off from the
  Mohammedan and the Sikh and which have led him to adopt the low ways of treachery and
  cunning for protecting himself. The question naturally arises : From where does the Sikh
  or the Mohammedan derive his strength which makes him brave and fearless ? I am sure it is
  not due to relative superiority of physical strength, diet or drill. It is due to the
  strength arising out of the feeling that all Sikhs will come to the rescue of a Sikh when
  he is in danger and that all Mohammedans will rush to save a Muslim if he is attacked. The
  Hindu can derive no such strength. He cannot feel assured that his fellows will come to
  his help. Being one and fated to be alone he remains powerless, develops timidity and
  cowardice and in a fight surrenders or runs away. The Sikh as well as the Muslim stands
  fearless and gives battle because he knows that though one he will not be alone. The
  presence of this belief in the one helps him to hold out and the absence of it in the
  other makes him to give way. If you pursue this matter further and ask what is it that
  enables the Sikh and the Mohammedan to feel so assured and why is the Hindu filled with
  such despair in the matter of help and assistance you will find that the reasons for this
  difference lie in the difference in their associated mode of living. The associated mode
  of life practised by the Sikhs and the Mohammedans produces fellow-feeling. The associated
  mode of life of the Hindus does not. Among Sikhs and Muslims there is a social cement
  which makes them Bhais. Among Hindus there is no
  such cement and one Hindu does not regard another Hindu as his Bhai. This explains why a Sikh says and feels that
  one Sikh, or one Khalsa is equal to Sava Lakh
  men. This explains why one Mohammedan is equal to a crowd of Hindus. This difference is
  undoubtedly
  a difference due to caste. So long as caste remains, there will be no
  Sanghalan and so long as there is no Sanghatan the Hindu will remain
  weak and meek. The
  Hindus claim to be a very tolerant people. In my opinion this is a mistake. On many
  occasions they can be intolerant and if on some occasions they are tolerant that is
  because they are too weak to oppose or too indifferent to oppose. This indifference of the
  Hindus has become so much a part of their nature that a Hindu will quite meekly tolerate
  an
  insult as well as a wrong. You see amongst them, to use the words of
  Morris, ” The great reading down the little, the strong beating
  down the weak, cruel men fearing not, kind men daring not and wise men caring not.”
  With the Hindu Gods all forbearing, it is not difficult to imagine the pitiable condition
  of the wronged and the oppressed among the Hindus. Indifferentism is the worst kind of
  disease that can infect a people. Why is the Hindu so indifferent? In my opinion this
  indifferentism is the result of Caste System which has made Sanghatan and co-operation even for a good cause
  impossible.

  XII

  The assertion by the individual of his own
  opinions and beliefs, his own independence and interest as over against group standards,
  group authority and group interests is the beginning of all reform. But whether the reform
  will continue depends upon what scope the group affords for such individual assertion. If
  the group is tolerant and fair-minded in dealing with such individuals they will continue
  to assert and in the end succeed in converting their fellows. On the other hand if the
  group is intolerant and does not bother about the means it adopts to stifle such
  individuals they will perish and the reform will die out. Now a caste has an unquestioned
  right to excommunicate any man who is guilty of breaking the rules of the caste and when
  it is realized that excommunication involves a complete cesser of social intercourse it
  will be agreed that as a form of punishment there is really little to choose between
  excommunication and death. No wonder individual Hindus have not had the courage to assert
  their independence by breaking the barriers of caste. It is true that man cannot get on
  with his fellows. But it is also true that he cannot do without them. He would like to
  have the society of his fellows on his terms. If be cannot get it on his terms then he
  will be ready to have it on any terms even amounting to complete surrender. This is
  because he cannot do without society. A caste is ever ready to take advantage of the
  helplessness of a man and insist upon complete conformity to its code in letter and in
  spirit. A caste can easily organize itself into a conspiracy to make the life of a
  reformer a hell and if a conspiracy is a crime I do not understand why such a nefarious
  act as an attempt to excommunicate a person for daring to act contrary to the rules of
  caste should not be made an offence punishable in law. But as it is, even law gives each
  caste an autonomy to regulate its membership and punish dissenters with excommunication.
  Caste in the hands of the orthodox has been a powerful weapon for persecuting the reforms
  and for killing all reform.

  XIII

  The effect of caste on the ethics of the Hindus
  is simply deplorable. Caste has killed public spirit. Caste has destroyed the sense of
  public charity. Caste has made public opinion impossible. A Hindu’s public is his caste.
  His responsibility is only to his caste. His loyalty is restricted only to his caste.
  Virtue has become caste-ridden and morality has become, caste-bound. There is no sympathy
  to the deserving. There is no appreciation of the meritorious. There is no charity to the
  needy. Suffering as such calls for no response. There is charity but it begins with the
  caste and ends with the caste. There is sympathy
  but not for men of other caste. Would a Hindu acknowledge and follow the leadership of a
  great and good man? The case of a Mahatma apart, the answer must be that he will follow a
  leader if he is a man of his caste. A Brahmin will follow a leader only if he is a
  Brahmin, a Kayastha if he is a Kayastha and so on. The capacity to appreciate merits in a
  man apart from his caste does not exist in a Hindu. There is appreciation of virtue but
  only when the man is a fellow caste-man. The whole morality is as bad as tribal morality.
  My caste-man, right or wrong; my caste-man, good or bad. It is not a case of standing by
  virtue and not standing by vice. It is a case of standing or not standing by the caste.
  Have not Hindus committed treason against their country in the interests of their caste?
  

• XIV

  I would not be surprised if some of you have
  grown weary listening to this tiresome tale of the sad effects which caste has produced.
  There is nothing new in it. I will therefore turn to the constructive side of the problem.
  What is your ideal society if you do not want caste is a question that is bound to be
  asked
  of you. If you ask me, my ideal would be a society based on Liberty,
  Equality and Fraternity. And why not ? What objection can there
  be to Fraternity ? I cannot imagine any. An ideal society should be mobile, should be full
  of channels for conveying a change taking place in one part to other parts. In an ideal
  society there should be many interests consciously communicated and shared. There should
  be varied and free points of contact with other modes of association. In other words there
  must be social endosmosis. This is fraternity, which is only another name for democracy.
  Democracy is not merely a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living,
  of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and
  reverence towards fellowmen. Any objection to Liberty ? Few object to liberty in the sense
  of a right to free movement, in the sense of a right to life and limb. There is no
  objection to liberty in the sense of a right to property, tools and materials as being
  necessary for earning a living to keep the body in due state of health. Why not allow
  liberty to benefit by an effective and competent use of a person’s powers ? The supporters
  of caste who would allow liberty in the sense of a right to life, limb and property, would
  not readily consent to liberty in this sense, inasmuch as it involves liberty to choose
  one’s profession. But to object to this kind of liberty is to perpetuate slavery. For
  slavery does not merely mean a legalized form of subjection. It means a state of society
  in which some men are forced to accept from other the purposes which control their
  conduct. This condition obtains even where there is no slavery in the legal sense. It is
  found where, as in the Caste System, some persons are compelled to carry on certain
  prescribed callings which are not of their choice. Any objection to equality ? This has
  obviously been the most contentious part of the slogan of the French Revolution. The
  objections to equality may be sound and one may have to admit that all men are not equal.
  But what of that ? Equality may be a fiction but nonetheless one must accept it as the
  governing principle. A. man’s power is dependent upon (1) physical heredity, (2) social
  inheritance or endowment in the form of parental care, education, accumulation of
  scientific knowledge, everything which enables him to be more efficient than the savage,
  and finally, (3) on his own efforts. In all these three respects men are undoubtedly
  unequal. But the question is, shall we treat them as unequal because they are unequal ?
  This is a question which the opponents of equality must answer. From the standpoint of the
  individualist it may be just to treat men unequally so far as their efforts are unequal.
  It may be desirable to give as much incentive as possible to the full development of every
  one’s powers. But what would happen if men were treated unequally as they are, in the
  first two respects ? It is obvious that those individuals also in whose favour there is
  birth, education, family name, business connections and inherited wealth would be selected
  in the race. But selection under such circumstances would not be a selection of the able.
  It would be the selection of the privileged. The reason therefore, which forces that in
  the third respect we should treat men unequally demands that in the first two respects we
  should treat men as equally as possible. On the other hand it can be urged that if it is
  good for the social body to get the most out of its members, it can get most out of them
  only by making them equal as far as possible at the very start of the race. That is one
  reason why we cannot escape equality. But there is another reason why we must accept
  equality. A Statesman is concerned with vast numbers of people. He has neither the time
  nor the knowledge to draw fine distinctions and to treat each equitably i.e. according to need or according to capacity.
  However desirable or reasonable an equitable treatment of men may be, humanity is not
  capable of assortment and classification. The statesman, therefore, must follow some rough
  and ready rule and that rough and ready rule is to treat all men alike not because they
  are alike but because classification and assortment is impossible. The doctrine of
  equality is glaringly fallacious but taking all in all it is the only way a statesman can
  proceed in politics which is a severely practical affair and which demands a severely
  practical test.

  XV

  But there is a set of reformers who hold out a
  different ideal. They go by the name of the Arya Samajists and their ideal of social
  organization is what is called Chaturvarnya or the division of society into four classes
  instead of the four thousand castes that we have in India. To make it more attractive and
  to disarm opposition the protagonists of Chaturvarnya take great care to point out that
  their Chaturvarnya is based not on birth but on guna
  (worth). At the outset, I must confess that notwithstanding the worth-basis of this
  Chaturvarnya, it is an ideal to which I cannot reconcile myself. In the first place, if
  under the Chaturvarnya of the Arya Samajists an individual is to take his place in the
  Hindu Society according to his worth. I do not understand why the Arya Samajists insist
  upon labelling men as Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. A learned man would be
  honoured without his being labelled a Brahmin. A soldier would be respected without his
  being designated a Kshatriya. If European society honours its soldiers and its servants
  without giving them permanent labels, why should Hindu Society find it difficult to do so
  is a question, which Arya Samajists have not cared to consider. There is another objection
  to the continuance of these labels. All reform consists in a change in the notions,
  sentiment and mental attitudes of the people towards men and things. It is common
  experience that certain names become associated with certain notions and sentiments, which
  determine a person’s attitude towards men and things. The names, Brahmin, Kshatriya,
  Vaishya and Shudra, are names which are associated with a definite and fixed notion in the
  mind of every Hindu. That notion is that of a hierarchy based on birth. So long as these
  names continue, Hindus will continue to think of the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and
  Shudra as hierarchical divisions of high and low, based on birth, and act accordingly. The
  Hindu must be made to unlearn all this. But how can this happen if the old labels remain
  and continue to recall to his mind old notions. If new notions are to be inculcated in the
  minds of people it is necessary to give them new names. To continue the old name is to
  make the reform futile. To allow this Chaturvarnya, based on worth to be designated by
  such stinking labels of Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, indicative of social
  divisions based on birth, is a snare.

  XVI

  To me this Chaturvarnya with its old labels is
  utterly repellent and my whole being rebels against it. But I do not wish to rest my
  objection to Chaturvarnya on mere grounds of sentiments. There are more solid grounds on
  which I rely for my opposition to it. A close examination of this ideal has convinced me
  that as a system of social organization, Chaturvarnya is impracticable, harmful and has
  turned out to be a miserable failure. From a practical point of view, the system of
  Chaturvarnya raises several difficulties which its protagonists do not seem to have taken
  into account. The principle underlying caste is fundamentally different from the principle
  underlying Varna. Not only are they
  fundamentally different but they are also fundamentally opposed. The former is based on
  worth . How are you going to compel people who have acquired a higher status based on
  birth without reference to their worth to vacate that status ? How are you going to compel
  people to recognize the status due to a man in accordance with his worth, who is occupying
  a lower status based on his birth ? For this you must first break up the caste System, in
  order to be able to establish the Varna system.
  How are you going to reduce the four thousand castes, based oil birth, to the four Varnas, based on worth ? This is the first
  difficulty which the protagonists of the Chaturvarnya must grapple with. There is a second
  difficulty which the protagonists of Chaturvarnya must grapple with, if they wish to make
  the establishment of Chaturvarnya a success.

  Chaturvarnya pre-supposes that you can classify
  people into four definite classes. Is this possible ? In this respect, the ideal of
  Chaturvarnya has, as you will see, a close affinity to the Platonic ideal. To Plato, men
  fell by nature into three classes. In some individuals, he believed mere appetites
  dominated. He assigned them to the labouring and trading classes. Others revealed to him
  that over and above appetites, they have a courageous disposition. He classed them as
  defenders in war and guardians of internal peace. Others showed a capacity to grasp the
  universal reason underlying things. He made them the law-givers of the people. The
  criticism to which Plato’s Republic is subject, is also the criticism which must apply to
  the system of Chaturvarnya, in so far as it proceeds upon the possibility of an accurate
  classification of men into four distinct classes. The chief criticism against Plato is
  that his idea of lumping of individuals into a few sharply marked-off classes is a very
  superficial view of man and his powers. Plato had no perception of the uniqueness of every
  individual, of his incommensurability with others, of each individual forming a class of
  his own. He had no recognition of the infinite diversity of active tendencies and
  combination of tendencies of which an individual is capable. To him, there were types of
  faculties or powers in the individual constitution. All this is demonstrably wrong. Modem
  science has shown that lumping together of individuals into a few sharply marked-off
  classes is a superficial view of man not worthy of serious consideration. Consequently,
  the utilization of the qualities of individuals is incompatible with their stratification
  by classes, since the qualities of individuals are so variable. Chaturvarnya must fail for
  the very reason for which Plato’s Republic must fail, namely that it is not possible to
  pigeon men into holes, according as he belongs to one class or the other. That it is
  impossible to accurately classify people into four definite classes is proved by the fact
  that the original four classes have now become four thousand castes.

  There is a third difficulty in the way of the
  establishment of the system of Chaturvarnya. How are you going to maintain the system of
  Chaturvarnya, supposing it was established ? One important requirement for the successful
  working of Chaturvarnya is the maintenance of the penal system which could maintain it by
  its sanction. The system of Chaturvarnya must perpetually face the problem of the
  transgressor. Unless there is a penalty attached to the act of transgression, men will not
  keep to their respective classes. The whole system will break down, being contrary to
  human nature. Chaturvarnya cannot subsist by its own inherent goodness. It must be
  enforced by law.

  That, without penal sanction the ideal of
  Chaturvarnya cannot be realized, is proved by the story in the Ramayana of Rama killing
  Shambuka. Some people seem to blame Rama because he wantonly and without reason killed
  Shambuka. But to blame Rama for killing Shambuka is to misunderstand the whole situation.
  Ram Raj was a Raj based on Chaturvarnya. As a king, Rama was bound to maintain
  Chaturvarnya. It was his duty therefore to kill Shambuka, the Shudra, who had transgressed
  his class and wanted to be a Brahmin. This is the reason why Rama killed Shambuka. But
  this also shows that penal sanction is necessary for the maintenance of Chaturvarnya. Not
  only penal sanction is necessary, but penalty of death is necessary. That is why Rama did
  not inflict on Shambuka a lesser punishment. That is why Manu-Smriti prescribes such heavy
  sentences as cutting off the tongue or pouring of molten lead in the ears of the Shudra,
  who recites or hears the Veda. The supporters
  of Chaturvarnya must give an assurance that they could successfully classify men and they
  could induce modern society in the twentieth century to reforge the penal sanctions of
  Manu-Smriti.

  The protagonists of Chaturvarnya do not seem to
  have considered what is to happen to women in their system. Are they also to be divided
  into four classes, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra? Or are they to be allowed to
  take the status of their husbands. If the status of the woman is to be the consequence of
  marriage what becomes of the underlying principle of Chaturvarnya, namely, that the status
  of a person should be based upon the worth of that person ? If they are to be classified
  according to their worth is their classification to be nominal or real ? If it is to be
  nominal then it is useless and then the protagonists of Chaturvarnya must admit that their
  system does not apply to women. If it is real, are the protagonists of Chaturvarnya
  prepared to follow the logical consequences of applying it to women ? They must be
  prepared to have women priests and women soldiers. Hindu society has grown accustomed to
  women teachers and women barristers. It may grow accustomed to women brewers and women
  butchers. But he would be a bold person, who would say that it will allow women priests
  and women soldiers. But that will be the logical outcome of applying Chaturvarnya to
  women. Given these difficulties, I think no one except a congenital idiot could hope and
  believe in a successful regeneration of the Chaturvarnya.

  XVII

  Assuming that Chaturvarnya is practicable, I
  contend that it is the most vicious system. That the Brahmins should cultivate knowledge,
  that the Kshatriya should bear arms, that the Vaishya. should trade and that the Shudra
  should serve sounds as though it was a system of division of labour. Whether the theory
  was intended to state that the Shudra need not
  or that whether it was intended to lay down that he must
  not, is an interesting question. The defenders of Chaturvarnya give it the first
  meaning.
  They say, why should the Shudra need trouble to acquire wealth, when
  the three Vamas are there to support him ? Why need the
  Shudra bother to take to education, when there is the Brahmin to whom he can go when the
  occasion for reading or writing arises ? Why need the Shudra worry to arm himself because
  there is the Kshatriya to protect him ? The theory of Chaturvarnya, understood in this
  sense, may be said to look upon the Shudra as the ward and the three Vamas as his guardians. Thus interpreted, it is a
  simple, elevating and alluring theory. Assuming this to be the correct view of the
  underlying conception of Chaturvarnya, it seems to me that the system is neither
  fool-proof nor knave-proof. What is to happen, if the Brahmins, Vaishyas and Kshatriyas
  fail to pursue knowledge, to engage in economic enterprise and to be efficient soldiers
  which are their respective functions ? Contrary-wise, suppose that they discharge their
  functions but flout their duty to the Shudra or to one another, what is to happen to the
  Shudra if the three classes refuse to support him on fair terms or combine to keep him
  down ? Who is to safeguard the interests of the Shudra or for the matter of that of the
  Vaishya and Kshatriya when the person, who is trying to take advantage of his ignorance is
  the Brahmin? Who is to defend the liberty of the Shudra and for the matter of that, of the
  Brahmin and the Vaishya when the person who is robbing him of it is the Kshatriya ?
  Inter-dependence of one class on another class is inevitable. Even dependence of one class
  upon another may sometimes become allowable. But why make one person depend upon another
  in the matter of his vital needs ? Education everyone must have. Means of defence everyone
  must have. These are the paramount requirements of every man for his self-preservation.
  How can the fact that his neighbour is educated and armed help a man who is uneducated and
  disarmed. The whole theory is absurd. These are the questions, which the defenders of
  Chaturvarnya do not seem to be troubled about. But they are very pertinent questions.
  Assuming their conception of Chaturvarnya that the relationship between the different
  classes is that of ward and guardian is the real conception underlying Chaturvarnya, it
  must be admitted that it makes no provision to safeguard the interests of the ward from
  the misdeeds of the guardian. Whether the relationship of guardian and ward was the real
  underlying conception, on which Chaturvarnya was based, there is no doubt that in practice
  the relation was that of master and servants. The three classes, Brahmins, Kshatriyas and
  Vaishyas although not very happy in their mutual relationship managed to work by
  compromise. The Brahmin flattered the Kshatriya and both let the Vaishya live in order to
  be able to live upon him. But the three agreed to beat down the Shudra. He was not allowed
  to acquire wealth lest he should be independent of the three Varncus. He was prohibited from acquiring knowledge
  lest he should keep a steady vigil regarding his interests. He was prohibited from bearing
  arms
  lest he should have the means to rebel against their authority. That
  this is how the Shudras were treated by the Tryavarnikas
  is evidenced by the Laws of Manu. There is no code of laws more infamous regarding social
  rights than the Laws of Manu. Any instance from anywhere of social injustice must pale
  before it. Why have the mass of people tolerated the social evils to which they have been
  subjected? There have been social revolutions in other countries of the world. Why have
  there not been social revolutions in India is a question which has incessantly troubled
  me. There is only one answer, which I can give and it is that the lower classes of Hindus
  have been completely disabled for direct action on account of this wretched system of
  Chaturvarnya. They could not bear arms and without arms they could not rebel. They were
  all ploughmen or rather condemned to be ploughmen and they never were allowed to convert
  their ploughshare into swords. They had no bayonets and therefore everyone who chose could
  and did sit upon them. On account of the Chaturvarnya, they could receive no education.
  They could not think out or know the way to their salvation. They were condemned to be
  lowly and not knowing the way of escape and not having the means of escape, they became
  reconciled to eternal servitude, which they accepted as their inescapable fate. It is true
  that even in Europe the strong has not shrunk from the exploitation, nay the spoliation of
  the weak. But in Europe, the strong have never contrived to make the weak helpless against
  exploitation so shamelessly as was the case in India among the Hindus. Social war has been
  raging between the strong and the weak far more violently in Europe than it has ever been
  in
  India. Yet, the weak in Europe has had in his freedom of military
  service his physical weapon, in suffering his political weapon and in
  education his moral weapon. These three weapons for emancipation
  were never withheld by the strong from the weak in Europe. All these weapons were,
  however, denied to the masses in India by Chaturvarnya. There cannot be a more degrading
  system of social organization than the Chaturvarnya. It is the system which deadens,
  paralyses and cripples the people from helpful activity. This is no exaggeration. History
  bears ample evidence. There is only one period in Indian history which is a period of
  freedom, greatness and glory. That is the period of the Mourya Empire. At all other times
  the country suffered from defeat and darkness. But the Mourya period was a period when
  Chaturvarnya was completely annihilated, when the Shudras, who constituted the mass of the
  people, came into their own and became the rulers of the country. The period of defeat and
  darkness is the period when Chaturvarnya flourished to the damnation of the greater part
  of the people of the country.
  

• XVIII

  Chaturvarnya is not new. It is as old as the Vedas. That is one of the reasons why we are asked
  by the Arya Samajists to consider its claims. Judging from the past as a system of social
  organization, it has been tried and it has failed. How many times have the Brahmins
  annihilated the seed of the Kshatriyas! How many times have the Kshatriyas annihilated the
  Brahmins! The Mahabharata and the Puranas are full of incidents of the strife between the
  Brahmins and the Kshatriyas. They even quarreled over such petty questions as to who
  should salute first, as to who should give way first, the Brahmins or the Kshatriyas, when
  the two met in the street. Not only was the Brahmin an eyesore to die Kshatriya and the
  Kshatriya an eyesore to the Brahmin, it seems that the Kshatriyas had become tyrannical
  and the masses, disarmed as they were under the system of Chaturvarnya, were praying
  Almighty God for relief from their tyranny. The Bhagwat tells us very definitely that
  Krishna had taken Avtar for one sacred purpose and that was to annihilate the Kshatriyas.
  With these instances of rivalry and enmity between the different Vurnas before us, I do not understand how any one
  can hold out Chaturvarnya as an ideal to be aimed at or as a pattern, on which the Hindu
  Society should be remodelled.

  XIX

  I have dealt with those, who are without you
  and whose hostility to your ideal is quite open. There appear to be others, who are
  neither without you nor with you. I was hesitating whether I should deal with their point
  of view. But on further consideration I have come to the conclusion that I must and that
  for two reasons. Firstly, their attitude to the problem of caste is not merely an attitude
  of neutrality, but is an attitude of aimed neutrality. Secondly, they probably represent a
  considerable body of people. Of these, there is one set which finds nothing peculiar nor
  odious in the Caste System of the Hindus. Such Hindus cite the case of Muslims, Sikhs and
  Christians and find comfort in the fact that they too have castes amongst them. In
  considering this question you must a.t the outset bear in mind that nowhere is human
  society one single whole. It is always plural.
  In the world of action, the individual is one limit and society the other. Between them
  lie all sorts of associative arrangements of lesser and larger scope, families,
  friendship, co-operative associations, business combines, political parties, bands of
  thieves and robbers. These small groups are usually firmly welded together and are often
  as exclusive as castes. They have a narrow and intensive code, which is often anti-social.
  This is true of every society, in Europe as well as in Asia, The question to be asked in
  determining whether a given society is an ideal society ; is not whether there are groups
  in it, because groups exist in all societies. The. questions to be asked in determining
  what is an ideal society are : How numerous and varied are the interests which are
  consciously shared by the groups ? How full and free is the interplay with other forms of
  associations ? Are the forces that separate groups and classes more numerous than the
  forces that unite ? What social significance is attached to this group life ? Is its
  exclusiveness a matter of custom and convenience or is it a matter of religion ? It is in
  the light of these questions that one must decide whether caste among Non-Hindus is the
  same as caste among Hindus. If we apply these considerations to castes among Mohammedans,
  Sikhs and Christians on the one hand and to castes among Hindus on the other, you will
  find that caste among Non-Hindus is fundamentally different from caste among Hindus.
  First, the ties, which consciously make the Hindus hold together, are non-existent, while
  among Non-Hindus there are many that hold them together. The strength of a society depends
  upon the presence of points of contact, possibilities of interaction between different
  groups which exist in it. These are what Carlyle calls ” organic filaments ” i.e. the elastic threads which help to bring the
  disintegrating elements together and to reunite them. There is no integrating farce among
  the Hindus to counteract the disintegration caused by caste. While among the Non-Hindus
  there are plenty of these organic filaments which bind them together. Again it must be
  borne in mind that although there are castes among Non-Hindus, as there are among Hindus,
  caste has not the same social significance for Non-Hindus as it has for Hindus. Ask
  Mohammedan or a Sikh, who he is? He tells you that he is a Mohammedan or a Sikh as the
  case may be. He does not tell you his caste although he has one and you are satisfied with
  his answer. When he tells you that he is a Muslim, you do not proceed to ask him whether
  he is a Shiya or a Suni; Sheikh or Saiyad ; Khatik or Pinjari. When he tells you he is a
  Sikh, you do not ask him whether he is Jat or Roda ; Mazbi or Ramdasi. But you are not
  satisfied, if a person tells you that he is a Hindu. You feel bound to inquire into his
  caste. Why ? Because so essential is caste in the case of a Hindu that without knowing it
  you do not feel sure what sort of a being he is. That caste has not the same social
  significance among Non-Hindus as it has among Hindus is clear if you take into
  consideration the consequences which follow breach of caste. There may be castes among
  Sikhs and Mohammedans but the Sikhs and the Mohammedans will not outcast a Sikh or a
  Mohammedan if he broke his caste. Indeed, the very idea of excommunication is foreign to
  the Sikhs and the Mohammedans. But with the Hindus the case is entirely different. He is
  sure to be outcasted if he broke caste. This shows the difference in the social
  significance of caste to Hindus and Non-Hindus. This is the second point of difference.
  But there is also a third and a more important one. Caste among the non-Hindus has no
  religious consecration; but among the Hindus most decidedly it has. Among the Non-Hindus,
  caste is only a practice, not a sacred institution. They did not originate it. With them
  it is only a survival. They do not regard caste as a religious dogma. Religion compels the
  Hindus to treat isolation and segregation of castes as a virtue. Religion does not compel
  the Non-Hindus to take the same attitude towards caste. If Hindus wish to break caste,
  their religion will come in their way. But it will not be so in the case of Non-Hindus. It
  is, therefore, a dangerous delusion to take comfort in the mere existence of caste among
  Non-Hindus, without caring to know what place caste occupies in their life and whether
  there are other ” organic filaments “, which subordinate the feeling of caste to
  the feeling of community. The sooner the Hindus are cured of this delusion the butter.

  The other set denies that caste presents any
  problem at all for the .Hindus

  to consider. Such Hindus seek comfort in the
  view that the Hindus have survived and take this as a proof of their fitness to survive.
  This point of view is well expressed by Prof. S. Radhakrishnan in his Hindu view of life. Referring to Hinduism he
  says, ” The civilization itself has not, been a short-lived one. its historic records
  date back for over four thousand years and even then it had reached a stage of
  civilization which has continued its unbroken, though at times slow and static, course
  until the present day. It has stood the stress and strain of more than four or five
  millenniums of spiritual thought and experience. Though peoples of different races and
  cultures have been pouring into India from the
  dawn of History, Hinduism has been able to maintain its supremacy and even the
  proselytising creeds backed by political power have not been able to coerce the large
  majority of Hindus to their views. The Hindu culture possesses some vitality which seems
  to be denied to some other more forceful current . It is no more necessary to dissect
  Hinduism than to open a tree to see whether the sap still runs.” The name of Prof.
  Radhakrishnan is big enough to invest with profundity whatever he says and impress the
  minds of his readers. But I must not hesitate to speak out my mind. For, I fear that his
  statement may become the basis of a vicious argument that the fact of survival is proof of
  fitness to survive. It seems to me that the question is. not whether a community lives or
  dies ; the question is on what plane does it live. There are different modes of survival. But all are not equally
  honourable. For an individual as well as for a society, there is a gulf between merely
  living and living worthily. To fight in a battle and to live in glory is one mode. To beat
  a retreat, to surrender and to live the life of a captive is. also a mode of survival. It
  is useless for a Hindu to take comfort in the fact that he and his people have survived.
  What he must consider is what is the quality of their survival. If he does that, I am sure
  he will cease to take pride in the mere fact of survival. A Hindu’s life has been a life
  of continuous defeat and what appears to him to be life everlasting is not living
  everlastingly but is really a life which is perishing everlastingly. It is a mode of
  survival of which every right-minded Hindu, who is not afraid to own up the truth, will
  feel ashamed.

  XX

  There is no doubt; in my opinion, that unless
  you change your social order you can achieve little by way of progress. You cannot
  mobilize the community
  either for defence or for offence. You cannot build anything on the foundations of
  caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you
  will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole.

  The only question that remains to be considered
  is—How to bring about the reform of the Hindu
  social order ? How to abolish caste ? This is a question of supreme importance. There
  is a view that in the refarm of caste, the first step to take, is to abolish sub-castes.
  This view is based upon the supposition that there is a greater similarity in manners and
  status between sub-caste than there is between castes. I think, this is an erroneous
  supposition. The Brahmins of Northem and Central India are socially of lower grade, as
  compared with the Brahmins of the Deccan and Southern India. The former are only cooks and
  water-carriers while the latter occupy a high social position. On the other hand, in
  Northern India, the Vaishyas and Kayasthas are intellectually and socially on a par with
  the Brahmins of the Deccan and Southern India. Again, in the matter of food there is no
  similarity between the Brahmins of the Deccan and Southern India, who are vegetarians and
  the Brahmins of Kashmir and Bengal who are non-vegetarians. On the other hand, the
  Brahmins of the- Deccan and Southern India have more in common so far as food is concerned
  with such non-Brahmins as the Gujaratis, Marwaris, Banias and Jains. There is no doubt
  that from the standpoint of making the transit from one caste to another easy, the fusion
  of the Kayasthas of Northern India and the other Non-Brahmins of Southern India with the
  Non-Brahmins of the Deccan and the Dravid country is more practicable than the fusion of
  the Brahmins of the South with the Brahmins of the North. But assuming that the fusion of
  sub-Castes is possible, what guarantee is there that the abolition of sub-Castes will
  necessarily lead to the abolition of Castes ? On the contrary, it may happen that the
  process may stop with the abolition of sub-Castes. In that case, the abolition of
  sub-Castes will only help to strengthen the Castes and make them more powerful and
  therefore more mischievous. This remedy is therefore neither practicable nor effective and
  may easily prove to be a wrong remedy. Another plan of action for the abolition of Caste
  is to begin with inter-caste dinners. This also, in my opinion, is an inadequate remedy.
  There are many Castes which allow inter-dining. But it is a common experience that
  inter-dining has not succeeded in killing the spirit of Caste and the consciousness of
  Caste. I am convinced that the real remedy is inter-marriage. Fusion of blood can alone
  create the feeling of being kith and kin and unless this feeling of kinship, of being
  kindred, becomes paramount the separatist feeling—the feeling of being
  aliens—created by Caste will not vanish. Among the Hindus inter-marriage must
  necessarily be a factor of greater force in social life than it need be in the life of the
  non-Hindus. Where society is already well-knit by other ties, marriage is an ordinary
  incident of life. But where society cut asunder, marriage as a binding force becomes a
  matter of urgent necessity. The real remedy for
  breaking Caste is inter-marriage. Nothing else will serve as the solvent of Caste.
  Your Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal has adopted this line of attack.

  It is a direct and frontal attack, and I
  congratulate you upon a collect diagnosis and more upon your having shown the courage to
  tell the Hindus what is really wrong with them. Political tyranny is nothing compared to
  social tyranny and a reformer, who defies society, is a much more courageous man than a
  politician, who defies Government. You are right in holding that Caste will cease to be an
  operative farce only when inter-dining and inter-marriage have become matters of common
  course. You have located the source of the disease. But is your prescription the right
  prescription for the disease ? Ask yourselves this question ; Why is it that a large
  majority of Hindus do not inter-dine and do not inter-marry ? Why is it that your cause is
  not popular ? There can be only one answer to this question and it is that inter-dining
  and inter-marriage are repugnant to the beliefs and dogmas which the Hindus regard as
  sacred. Caste is not a physical object like a wall of bricks or a line of barbed wire
  which prevents the Hindus from co-mingling and which has, therefore, to be pulled down.
  Caste is a notion, it is a state of the mind. The destruction of Caste does not therefore
  mean the destruction of a physical barrier. It means a notional change. Caste may be bad. Caste may lead
  to conduct so gross as to be called man’s inhumanity to man. All the same, it must be
  recognized that the Hindus observe Caste not because they are inhuman or wrong headed.
  They observe Caste because they are deeply religious. People are not wrong in observing
  Caste. In my view, what is wrong is their religion, which has inculcated this notion of
  Caste. If this is correct, then obviously the enemy, you must grapple with, is not the
  people who observe Caste, but the Shastras which
  teach them this religion of Caste. Criticising and ridiculing people for not inter-dining
  or inter-marrying or occasionally holding inter-caste dinners and celebrating inter-caste
  marriages, is a futile method of achieving the desired end. The real remedy is to destroy
  the belief in the sanctity of the Shastras. How
  do you expect to succeed, if you allow the Shastras
  to continue to mould the beliefs and opinions of the people ? Not to question the
  authority of the Shastras , to permit the people
  to believe in their sanctity and their sanctions and to blame them and to criticise them
  for their acts as being irrational and inhuman is a incongruous way of carrying on social
  reform. Reformers working for the removal of untouchability including Mahatma Gandhi, do
  not seem to realize that the acts of the people are merely the results of their beliefs
  inculcated upon their minds by the Shastras and
  that people will not change their conduct until they cease to believe in the sanctity of
  the Shastras on which their conduct is founded.
  No wonder that such efforts have not produced any results. You also seem to be erring in
  the same way as the reformers working in the cause of removing untouchability. To agitate
  for and to organise inter-caste dinners and inter-caste marriages is like forced feeding
  brought
  about by artificial means. Make every man and woman free from the
  thraldom of the Shastras , cleanse their minds of the pernicious
  notions founded on the Shastras, and he or she
  will inter-dine and inter-marry, without your telling him or her to do so.

  It is no use seeking refuge in quibbles. It is
  no use telling people that the Shastras do not
  say what they are believed to say, grammatically read or logically interpreted. What
  matters is how the Shastras have been understood
  by the people. You must take the stand that Buddha took. You must take the stand which
  Guru Nanak took. You must not only discard the Shastras,
  you must deny their authority, as did Buddha and Nanak. You must have courage to tell
  the Hindus, that what is wrong with them is their religion— the religion which has
  produced in them this notion of the sacredness of Caste. Will you show that courage ?
  

• XXI

  What are your chances of success ? Social
  reforms fall into different species. There is a species of reform, which does not relate
  to the religious notion of people but is purely secular in character. There is also a
  species of reform, which relates to the religious notions of people. Of such a species of
  reform, there are two varieties. In one, the reform accords with the principles of the
  religion and merely invites people, who have departed from it, to revert to them and to
  follow them. The second is a reform which not only touches the religious principles but is
  diametrically opposed to those principles and invites people to depart from and to discard
  their authority and to act contrary to those principles. Caste is the natural outcome of
  certain religious beliefs which have the sanction of the Shastras, which are believed to contain the command
  of divinely inspired sages who were endowed with a supernatural wisdom and whose commands,
  therefore, cannot be disobeyed without committing sin. The destruction of Caste is a
  reform which falls under the third category. To ask people to give up Caste is to ask them
  to go contrary to their fundamental religious notions. It is obvious that the first and
  second species of reform are easy. But the third is a stupendous task, well nigh
  impossible. The Hindus hold to the sacredness of the social order. Caste has a divine
  basis. You must therefore destroy the sacredness and divinity with which Caste has become
  invested. In the last analysis, this means you must destroy the authority of the Shastras and the Vedas.

  I have emphasized this question of the ways and
  means of destroying Caste, because I think that knowing the proper ways and means is more
  important than knowing the ideal. If you do not know the real ways and means, all your
  shots are sure to be misfires. If my analysis is correct then your task is herculean. You
  alone can say whether you are capable of achieving it.

  Speaking for myself, I see the task to be well
  nigh impossible. Perhaps you would like to know why I think so. Out of the many reasons,
  which have led me to take this view, I will mention some, which I regard much important.
  One of these reasons is the attitude of hostility, which the Brahmins have shown towards
  this question. The Brahmins form the vanguard of the movement for political reform and in
  some cases also of economic reform. But they are not to be found even as camp followers in
  the army raised to break down the barricades of Caste. Is there any hope of the Brahmins
  ever taking up a lead in the future in this matter? I say no. You may ask why ? You may
  argue that there is no reason why Brahmins should continue to shun social reform. You may
  argue that the Brahmins know that the bane of Hindu Society is Caste and as an enlightened
  class could not be expected to be indifferent to its consequences. You may argue that
  there are secular Brahmins and priestly Brahmins and if the latter do not take up the
  cudgels on behalf of those who want to break Caste, the former will. All this of course
  sounds very plausible. But in all this it is forgotten that the break up of the Caste
  system is bound to affect adversely the Brahmin Caste. Having regard to this, is it
  reasonable to expect that the Brahmins will ever consent to lead a movement the ultimate
  result of which is to destroy the power and prestige of the Brahmin Caste ? Is it
  reasonable to expect the secular Brahmins to take part in a movement directed against the
  priestly Brahmins ? In my judgment, it is useless to make a distinction between the
  secular Brahmins and priestly Brahmins. Both are kith and kin. They are two arms of the
  same body and one bound to fight for the existence of the other. In this connection, I am
  reminded of some very pregnant remarks made by Prof. Dicey in his English Constitution. Speaking of the actual
  limitation on the legislative supremacy of Parliament, Dicey says : ” The actual
  exercise of authority by any sovereign whatever, and notably by Parliament, is bounded or
  controlled by two limitations. Of these the one is an external, and the other is an
  internal limitation. The external limit to the real power of a sovereign consists in the
  possibility or certainty that his subjects or a large number of them will disobey or
  resist his laws. . . The internal limit to the exercise of sovereignty arises from the
  nature of the sovereign power itself. Even a despot exercises his powers in accordance
  with his character, which is itself moulded by the circumstance under which he lives,
  including under that head the moral feelings of the time and the society to which he
  belongs. The Sultan could not, if he would, change the religion of the Mohammedan world,
  but even if he could do so, it is in the very highest degree improbable that the head of
  Mohammedanism should wish to overthrow the religion of Mohammed ; the internal check on
  the exercise of the Sultan’s power is at least as strong as the external limitation.
  People sometimes ask the idle question, why the Pope does not introduce this or that
  reform? The true answer is that a revolutionist is not the kind of man who becomes a Pope
  and that a man who becomes a Pope has no wish to be a revolutionist.” I think, these
  remarks apply equally to the Brahmins of India and one can say with equal truth that if a
  man who becomes a Pope has no wish to become a revolutionary, a man who is born a Brahmin
  has much less desire to become a revolutionary. Indeed, to expect a Brahmin to be a
  revolutionary in matters of social reform is as idle as to expect the British Parliament,
  as was said by Leslie Stephen, to pass an Act requiring all blue-eyed babies to be
  murdered.

  Some of you will say that it is a matter of
  small concern whether the Brahmins come forward to lead the movement against Caste or
  whether they do not. To take this view is in my judgment to ignore the part played by the
  intellectual class in the community. Whether you accept the theory of the great man as the
  maker of history or whether you do not, this much you will have to concede that in every
  country the intellectual class is the most influential class, if not the governing class.
  The intellectual class is the class which can foresee, it is the class which can advise
  and give lead. In no country does the mass of the people live the life of intelligent
  thought and action. It is largely imitative and follows the intellectual class. There is
  no exaggeration in saying that the entire destiny of a country depends upon its
  intellectual class. If the intellectual class is honest, independent and disinterested it
  can be trusted to take the initiative and give a proper lead when a crisis arises. It is
  true that intellect by itself is no virtue. It is only a means and the use of means
  depends upon the ends which an intellectual person pursues. An intellectual man can be a
  good man but he can easily be a rogue. Similarly an intellectual class may be a band of
  high-souled persons, ready to help, ready to emancipate erring humanity or it may easily
  be a gang of crooks or a body of advocates of a narrow clique from which it draws its
  support. You may think it a pity that the intellectual class in India is simply another
  name for the Brahmin caste. You may regret that the two are one.; that the existence of
  the intellectual class should be bound with one single caste, that this intellectual class
  should share the interest and the aspirations of that Brahmin caste, which has regarded
  itself the custodian of the interest of that caste, rather than of the interests of the
  country. All this may be very regrettable. But the fact remains, that the Brahmins form
  the intellectual class of the Hindus. It is not only an intellectual class but it is a
  class which is held in great reverence by the rest of the Hindus. The Hindus are taught
  that the Brahmins are Bhudevas (Gods on earth) vernanam brahmnam guruh ! : The Hindus are taught that Brahmins alone
  can be their teachers. Manu says, “If it be asked how it should be with respect to
  points of the Dharma which have not been specially mentioned, the answer is that which
  Brahmins who are Shishthas propound shall doubtless have legal force.” :

  anamnateshu dharmehu katham syaditi
  chedbhveta !

  yam shishta brahnam bruyuh sa dharmah syadashnkitah !!

  When such an intellectual class, which holds
  the rest of the community in its grip, is opposed to the reform of Caste, the chances of
  success in a movement for the break-up of the Caste system appear to me very, very remote.

  The second reason, why I say the task is
  impossible, will be clear if you will bear in mind that the Caste system has two aspects.
  In one of its aspects, it divides men into separate communities. In its second aspect, it
  places these communities in a graded order one above the other in social status. Each
  caste takes its pride and its consolation in the fact that in the scale of castes it is
  above some other caste. As an outward mark of this gradation, there is also a gradation of
  social and religious rights technically spoken of an Ashta-dhikaras and Sanskaras. The higher the grade of a caste, the
  greater the number of these rights and the lower the grade, the lesser their number. Now
  this gradation, this scaling of castes, makes it impossible to organise a common front
  against the Caste System. If a caste claims the right to inter-dine
  and inter-marry with another caste placed above it, it is
  frozen, instantly it is told by mischief-mongers, and there are many Brahmins amongst such
  mischief-mongers, that it will have to concede inter-dining
  and inter-marriage with castes below it ! All are slaves of the Caste System. But all the slaves are
  not equal in status. To excite the proletariat to bring about an economic revolution, Karl Marx told them
  : ” You have nothing to
  lose except your chains.”
  But
  the artful way in which the social and religious rights are distributed
  among the different castes whereby some have more and some
  have less, makes the slogan of Karl Marx quite useless to excite the Hindus against the
  Caste System. Castes form a graded system of sovereignties, high and low, which are jealous of
  their
  status and which know that if a general dissolution came, some of them
  stand to lose more of their prestige and power than others do. You
  cannot, therefore, have a general mobilization of the Hindus, to use a military
  expression, for an attack on the Caste System.

  XXII

  Can you appeal to reason and ask the Hindus to
  discard Caste as being contrary to reason ? That raises the
  question : Is a Hindu free to follow his reason? Manu has laid down three sanctions to which every Hindu must
  conform in the matter of his behaviour vedah smritih sadacharah uvasy cha priyamatmanah Here
  there is no place for reason to play its part. A Hindu must follow either Veda, Smriti or Sadachar. He cannot
  follow anything else. In the first place how are the texts of the Vedas and Smritis to be
  interpreted whenever any doubt arises regarding their meaning ?
  On this important question the view of Manu is quite definite. He says :

  yovamanyet
  te moole hetushrashraya dwizah

  sa
  sadhubhirbahishkaryo nashtiko vedandikah

  According to this rule, rationalism as a canon
  of interpreting the
  Vedas and Smritis, is absolutely condemned. It is regarded to be as
  wicked as atheism and the punishment provided for
  it is ex-communication. Thus, where a matter is covered by the Veda or the Smriti,
  a Hindu cannot resort to rational thinking. Even when there is a conflict between Vedas and Smritis
  on matters on which they have given a positive injunction,
  the solution is not left to reason. When there is a
  conflict between two Shrutis, both are to be regarded as of equal
  authority. Either of them may be followed. No attempt is to be made to find out which of
  the two accords with reason. This is made clear by Manu:

  shrutidwadham tu
  yatra syaptatra dharvarvudhau smritau

  “When there
  is a conflict between Shruti
  and Sinriti , the Shruti must
  prevail.” But here too, no attempt must be made to find out which of the two accords
  with reason. This is laid down by Manu in the following Shloka :

  ya
  vedabahyah snrityo yashch kashch kridrishtah i

  sarvasta
  nishphalah prety tamonishtha hi tah smritah ii

  Again, when there is a conflict between two Smritis, the Manu-Smriti must prevail, but no attempt is to be made to find
  out which of the two accords with reason. This is the ruling given by Brihaspati:

  vedayatvopanibandhritavat
  pramanyam hi manoah smritah

  manvrthaviparita
  tu ya smritih sa na shashyate

  It is, therefore, clear that in any matter on
  which the Shrutis and Smritis have given a positive direction, a Hindu is
  not free to use his reasoning faculty. The same rule is laid down in the Mahabharat :

  puranam
  manvo dharmah sango vedashchikitsitam

  agasidhani
  chatvari na hantavyani hetubhih

  He must abide by their directions. The Caste
  and Varna are matters, which are dealt with by
  the Vedas and the
  Smritis and consequently, appeal to reason can
  have no effect on a Hindu. So far as Caste and Varna
  are concerned, not only the Shastras do not permit the Hindu to use his
  reason in the decision of the question, but they have taken care to see that no occasion
  is
  left to examine in a rational way the foundations of his belief in
  Caste and Varna. It must be a source of silent amusement to
  many a Non-Hindu to find hundreds and thousands of Hindus breaking Caste on certain
  occasions, such as railway journey and foreign travel and yet endeavouring to maintain
  Caste for the rest of their lives ! The explanation of this
  phenomenon discloses another fetter on the reasoning faculties of the Hindus. Man’s life
  is generally habitual and unreflective. Reflective thought, in the sense of active,
  persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form or knowledge in the
  light of the grounds that support it and further conclusions to which it tends, is quite
  rare
  and arises only in a situation which presents a dilemma—a
  Crisis-Railway journeys and foreign travels are really occasions of
  crisis in the life of a Hindu and it is natural to expect a Hindu to ask himself why he
  should maintain Caste at all, if he cannot maintain it at all times. But he does not. He
  breaks Caste at one step and proceeds to observe it at the
  next without raising any question. The reason for this
  astonishing conduct is to be found in the rule of the Shastras, which
  directs
  him to maintain Caste as far as possible and to undergo praynschitia
  when he cannot. By this theory of prayaschitta , the Shastras by
  following a
  spirit of compromise have given caste a perpetual lease of
  life and have smothered reflective thought which would have
  otherwise led to the destruction of the notion of Caste.

  There have been many who have worked in the
  cause of the abolition of Caste and Untouchability. Of those, who can be mentioned, Ramanuja,
  Kabir and others stand out prominently. Can you appeal to
  the acts of these reformers and exhort the Hindus to follow them ? It is true that Manu has
  included
  Sadachar (sadachar) as one of the sanctions along with Shruti and
  Smriti. Indeed, Sadachar has been given a higher place than Shastras :

  yaddwacharyate
  yen dharmya vadharmamev va

  deshasyacharanam
  nityam charitram tadwikirtatam

  according to this, sadachar, whether, it is dharmya or adharmya
  in accordance with Shastras
  or contrary to Shastras,
  must be followed. But what is the meaning of Sadachar ? If any one were to
  suppose that Sadachar means right or good acts i.e. acts of good and righteous men he would find
  himself greatly mistaken. Sadachar does not
  means good acts or acts of good men. It means ancient custom good or bad.
  The following verse makes this clear :

  yasmin deshe ya acharah parmpayakramagatah

  varnani kil sarvesham sa sadachar uchyate

  As though to warn people against the view that Sadachar means good acts or acts of good men and fearing that people
  might understand it that way and follow the acts of good men, the Smrities
  have
  commanded the Hindus in unmistakable terms not to follow even Gods in
  their good deeds, if they are contrary to Shruti, Smrili and Sadachar.
  This may
  sound to be most extraordinary, most perverse, but the. fact remains that na devacharitam charet is
  an injunction, issued to the Hindus by their Shastras. Reason and morality are
  the
  two most powerful weapons in the armoury of a Reformer. To deprive him
  of the use of these weapons is to disable him for action .How are you
  going to break up
  Caste, if people are not free to consider whether it accords with
  reason ? How are you going to
  break up Caste if people are
  not free to consider whether it accords with morality ? The
  wall built around Caste is impregnable and the material, of
  which it is built, contains none of the combustible stuff of reason and morality.
  Add to this the fact that inside this wall stands the army
  of
  Brahmins, who form the intellectual class, Brahmins who are the natural
  leaders of the Hindus, Brahmins who are there not as mere mercenary
  soldiers but as an army fighting
  for its homeland and you will get an idea why I think that breaking-up
  of Caste amongst the Hindus is
  well-nigh impossible. At any rate, it would take ages before a breach is
  made. But whether the doing of the deed takes time
  or whether it can be done quickly, you must not forget that if you wish to bring about &
  breach in the system then you have got to apply the
  dynamite to the Vedas
  and the Shastras,
  which deny any part to reason, to Vedas and Shastras, which deny
  any part to morality. You must destroy the Religion of the Shrutis and the Smritis. Nothing else will avail. This is my
  considered view of the matter.
  

• XXIII

  Some may not understand what I mean by
  destruction of Religion;
  some may find the idea revolting to them and some may find it revolutionary. Let me therefore explain my position. I do not know
  whether
  you draw a distinction between principles and rules. But I do. Not only
  I make a distinction but I say that this distinction is real and
  important. Rules are
  practical ; they are habitual ways of doing things according to prescription. But principles are
  intellectual; they are useful methods of judging things.
  Rules seek to tell an agent just what course of action to
  pursue. Principles do not prescribe a specific course of action. Rules, like cooking
  recipes, do tell just what to do and how to do it. A prinsiple,
  such
  as that of justice, supplies a main head by reference to which he is to
  consider the bearings of his desires and purposes, it guides him in his
  thinking by suggesting to him the important consideration
  which he should bear in mind. This difference between rules
  and principles makes the acts done in pursuit of them different in quality and in content.
  Doing what is said to be,
  good by virtue of a rule and doing good in the light of a principle are two different
  things. The principle may be wrong but the act is conscious and responsible. The rule may be right but the act is mechanical. A
  religious act may not be a correct act but must at least be a responsible act. To permit
  of this responsibility, Religion must mainly be a
  matter of principles only. It cannot be a matter of rules.
  The moment it degenerates into rules it ceases to be Religion, as it kills responsibility
  which is the essence of a truly religious act. What is this
  Hindu Religion ? Is it a set of principles or is it a code of rules ?
  Now the Hindu Religion, as contained in the Vedas
  and the Smritis, is nothing but a mass of
  sacrificial, social, political and sanitary rules and regulations, all mixed up. What is
  called Religion by the Hindus is nothing but a multitude of commands and prohibitions. Religion, in the
  sense of spiritual principles, truly universal, applicable to all races, to all countries,
  to all times, is not to be found in them, and if it is, it does not form the governing
  part
  of a Hindu’s life. That for a Hindu, Dharma means commands and
  prohibitions is clear from the way the word Dharma is used in Vedas and
  the Sinritis and understood by the commentators.
  The word Dharma as used in the Vedas in most
  cases means religious ordinances or rites. Even Jaimini in his Purva-Mimansa
  defines Dharma as “a desirable goal or result that is
  indicated by injunctive (Vedic) passages “.
  To put it in plain language, what the Hindus call Religion is really Law or at best
  legalized class-ethics. Frankly, I refuse to cull this code of ordinances, as Religion.
  The first evil of such a code of ordinances, misrepresented to the people as Religion, is
  that it tends to deprive moral life of freedom and spontaneity
  and to reduce it (for the conscientious at any rate) to a more or less
  anxious and servile conformity to externally imposed rules.
  Under it, there is no loyalty to ideals, there is only conformity
  to commands. But the worst evil of this code of ordinances
  is that the laws it contains must be the same yesterday, today and forever. They are
  iniquitous in that they are not the same for one class as
  for
  another. But this iniquity is made perpetual in that they are
  prescribed to be the same for all generations. The objectionable
  part of such a scheme is not that they are made by certain persons
  called Prophets or Law-givers. The objectionable part is that this code has been invested
  with the character of finality and fixity. Happiness notoriously varies with the
  conditions and circumstances of a person, as well as with
  the conditions of different people and epochs. That being the case, how can humanity
  endure
  this code of eternal laws, without being cramped and without being
  crippled ? I have, therefore, no hesitation in saying that such a
  religion must be destroyed and I say, there is nothing irreligious in working for the destruction of such a religion.
  Indeed I hold that it is your bounden duty to tear the
  mask, to remove the misrepresentation that as caused by misnaming this Law as Religion.
  This is an essential step for you. Once you clear the minds of the people of this
  misconception and enable them to realize that what they are told as Religion is not
  Religion but that it is really Law, you will be in a position to urge for its amendment or
  abolition. So long as people look upon it as Religion they will not be ready for a change,
  because the idea of Religion is generally speaking not associated with the idea of change.
  But the idea of law is associated with the idea of change
  and when people come to know that what is called Religion
  is really Law, old and archaic, they will be ready for a change, for people know and
  accept that law can be changed.

  XXIV

  While I condemn a Religion of Rules, I must not be understood to hold the opinion that there is
  no necessity for a religion. On the contrary, I agree with Burke when he says that, “
  True religion is the foundation of society, the basis on which all true Civil Government
  rests, and both their sanction.” Consequently, when I urge that these ancient rules
  of life be annulled, I am anxious that its place shall be taken by a Religion of
  Principles, which alone can lay claim to being a true Religion. Indeed, I am so convinced
  of the necessity of Religion that I feel I ought to tell you in outline what I regard as
  necessary items in this religious reform. The following in my opinion should be the
  cardinal items in this reform : (
  1 ) There should be one and
  only one standard book of Hindu Religion, acceptable to all Hindus and recognized by all
  Hindus. This of course means that all other books of Hindu
  religion such as Vedas, Shastras and Puranas, which are treated as sacred and
  authoritative, must by law cease to be so and the preaching of any doctrine, religious or
  social contained in these books should be penalized. (2) It should be better if priesthood
  among Hindus was abolished. But as this seems to be impossible, the priesthood must at
  least cease to be hereditary. Every person who professes to be a Hindu must be eligible
  for being a priest. It should be provided by law that no Hindu shall be entitled to be a
  priest unless he has passed an examination prescribed by the State and holds a sanad from the State
  permitting him to practise. (3) No ceremony performed by a priest
  who does not hold a sanad shall be deemed to be
  valid in law and it should be made penal for a person who
  has no sanad to officiate as a priest. (4) A
  priest
  should be the servant of the State and should be subject to the
  disciplinary action by the State in the matter of his morals,
  beliefs and worship, in addition to his being subject along with other citizens to the
  ordinary law of the land. (5) The number of priests should be limited by law according to
  the requirements of the State as is done in the case of the I.C.S.
  To some, this may sound radical. But to my mind there is nothing revolutionary in this.
  Every profession in India is regulated. Engineers must show proficiency, Doctor must show
  proficiency, Lawyers must show proficiency, before they are allowed to practise their
  professions. During the whole of their career, they must not only obey the law of the
  land, civil as well as criminal, but they must
  also obey the special code of morals prescribed by their respective professions. The
  priest’s is the only profession where proficiency is not required. The profession of a
  Hindu priest is the only profession which is not subject to any code. Mentally a priest
  may be an idiot, physically a priest may be suffering from a foul disease, such as
  syphilis or gonorrheae, morally he may be a wreck. But he
  is fit to officiate at solemn ceremonies, to enter the sanctum sanctorum
  of a Hindu temple and worship the Hindu God. All this
  becomes
  possible among the Hindus because for a priest it is enough to be born
  in a priestly caste. The whole thing is abominable and is
  due to the fact that the priestly class among Hindus is
  subject neither to law nor to morality. It recognizes no duties. It knows only of rights
  and
  privileges. It is a pest which divinity seems to have let loose on the
  masses for their mental and moral degradation. The priestly class
  must be brought under control by some such legislation as I have outlined above. It will
  prevent it from doing mischief and from misguiding people. It will democratise it by
  throwing it open to every one. It will certainly help to kill the Brahminism and will also
  help to kill Caste, which is nothing but Brahminism incarnate. Brahminism
  is the poison which has spoiled Hinduism. You will succeed in saving Hinduism if you will
  kill Brahminism. There should be no opposition to this reform from any quarter. It should
  be welcomed even by the Arya Samajists,
  because this is merely an application of their own doctrine of guna-karma.

  Whether you do that or you do not, you must give a new doctrinal
  basis to your Religion—a basis that will be in
  consonance
  with Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, in short, with Democracy. I am
  no authority on the subject. But I am told that for such religious
  principles as will be in consonance with Liberty, Equality and
  Fraternity it may not be necessary for you
  to borrow from foreign sources and that you could draw for such principles on the Upanishads. Whether
  you could do so without a complete remoulding, a considerable scraping
  and
  chipping off the ore they contain , is more than I can say. This means a
  complete change in the fundamental notions of life-it means a complete
  change in the
  values of life. It means a complete change in outlook and in attitude towards
  men and things. It means conversion but if you do not. like
  the word, I will say, it means new life. But a
  new life cannot enter a body that is dead. New life can center only in a new body. The
  old body must die before a new body can come into existence and a new life can enter into it. To put it simply: the old
  must cease to be operative before the new can begin to enliven and to pulsate. This is what I meant when I said you
  must discard the authority of the Shastras and destroy the religion of the Shastras.

  XXV

  I have kept you too long. It is time I brought this address to a
  close. This would have been a convenient point for me to have stopped.
  But this would probably be my last address to a Hindu audience on a
  subject vitally concerning the Hindus. I would therefore like, before I
  close, to place before the
  Hindus, if they will allow me, some questions which I regard as vital and invite them seriously to consider the same.

  In the first place, the Hindus must consider whether it
  is sufficient to take the placid view of
  the anthropologist that there is nothing to be said about
  the beliefs, habits, morals and outlooks on life, which obtain among the different
  peoples of the world except that they often differ ; or whether it is not necessary to make
  an attempt to find out what kind of morality, beliefs,
  habits and outlook have worked best and have enabled those
  who possessed them to flourish, to go strong, to people the earth and to have dominion over
  it. As is observed by Prof. Carver,
  ” Morality and religion, as the organised expression of moral approval and
  disapproval, must be regarded as factors in the struggle
  for existence as truly as are weapons for offence and
  defence, teeth and claws, horns and hoofs, furs and
  feathers. The social group, community, tribe or nation,
  which develops an unworkable scheme of morality or within
  which
  those social acts which weaken it and unfit it for survival, habitually
  create the sentiment of approval, while those which would strengthen
  and
  enable it to be expanded habitually create the sentiment of
  disapproval, will eventually be eliminated. It is its
  habits of approval or disapproval (these are the results of religion
  and morality) that handicap it, as really as the possession
  of two wings on one side with none on. the other will handicap the colony of flies. It would be as futile in the one case as
  in the other to argue, that one system is just as good as
  another.” Morality and religion, therefore, are not mere matters
  of likes and dislikes. You
  may dislike exceedingly a scheme of morality, which, if universally practised
  within a nation, would make that nation the strongest
  nation
  on the face of the earth. Yet in spite of your dislike such a nation
  will become strong. You may like exceedingly a scheme of morality and an
  ideal of justice, which if universally practised within a nation, would
  make it enable to hold its own in the struggle
  with other nations. Yet in spite of your admiration this nation will eventually disappear. The Hindus
  must, therefore, examine their religion
  and then morality in terms
  of their survival value.

  Secondly, the Hindus must consider
  whether they should conserve the whole of their social
  heritage or select what is helpful and transmit to future
  generations only that much and no more. Prof, John Dewey., who was my teacher and to
  whom I owe so much, has said :
  ” Every society gets
  encumbered with what is trivial, with dead wood from the
  past,
  and with what is positively perverse… As a society becomes more
  enlightened, it realizes that it is responsible not to conserve and
  transmit, the whole of its existing
  achievements, but only such as make for a better future
  society.” Even Burke in spite of the vehemence with which he opposed the principle
  of
  change embodied in the French Revolution, was compelled to admit that ”
  a State without the means of some change is without the means of its
  conservation.
  Without such means it might even
  risk the loss of that part
  of
  the constitution which it wished the most religiously to preserve, ‘’
  What Burke said of a State applies equally to a society.

  Thirdly, the Hindus must consider whether they must not
  cease to
  worship the past as supplying its ideals. The beautiful effect of this
  worship of the past are best summed up by Prof. Dewey
  when he says : ” An individual can live
  only in the present. The present is not just something which comes after the past ; much less something produced
  by it. It is what life is in leaving
  the past behind it. The study
  of past products will not
  help us to understand the present. A knowledge of the past
  and its heritage is of great significance when it enters into the present, but not otherwise. And the mistake of making
  the-records and remains of the
  past the main material of
  education is that it tends
  to make the past a rival of the present and the present a
  more or less futile imitation of the past.” The principle,
  which makes little of the present
  act of living and growing, naturally looks upon the present
  as empty and upon the future
  as remote. Such a principle is inimical to progress and is
  an hindrance to a strong and a steady current of life.

  Fourthly, the Hindus must consider whether the time has
  not come for them to recognize that there is nothing fixed,
  nothing
  eternal, nothing sanatan; that everything is changing, that change is
  the law of life for individuals as well as for society.
  In a changing society, there must be a constant revolution of old values and the Hindus must
  realize that if there must
  be standards to measure the acts of men there must also be
  a readiness to revise those standards.
  

• XXVI

  I have to confess that this address has become
  too lengthy.
  Whether this fault is compensated to any extent by breadth or depth is a
  matter for you to judge. All I claim is to have told you candidly my
  views. I have little
  to recommend them but some study and a deep concern in your
  destiny. If you will allow me to say, these views are the views of a man, who has been no tool of
  power, no flatterer of greatness. They come from one,
  almost the whole of whose public exertion has been one continuous struggle for liberty for
  the
  poor and for the oppressed and whose only reward has been a continuous
  shower of calumny and abuse from national journals and
  national leaders, for no other reason except that I refuse to join with them in performing
  the miracle—I will not say trick—of liberating
  the oppressed with the gold of the tyrant and raising the poor with the cash of the rich.
  All this may not be enough to commend my views. I think they are not likely to alter
  yours. But whether they do or do not, the responsibility is entirely yours. You must make
  your efforts to uproot Caste, if not in my way, then in
  your way. I am sorry, I will not be with you. I have decided to change. This is not the
  place for giving reasons. But even when I am gone out of
  your fold, I will watch your movement with active sympathy
  and you will have my assistance for what it may be worth.
  Yours is a national cause. Caste is no doubt primarily the breath of the Hindus. But the
  Hindus have fouled the air all over and everybody is infected, Sikh, Muslim and Christian.
  You, therefore, deserve the support of all those who are suffering from this infection,
  Sikh, Muslim and Christian. Yours is more difficult than the other national cause, namely
  Swaraj. In the fight for Swaraj you fight with the whole nation on your side. In this, you
  have to fight against the whole nation and that too, your
  own. But it is more important than Swaraj. There is no use having Swaraj, if you cannot
  defend it. More important than the question of defending Swaraj is the question of defending the Hindus under the
  Swaraj. In my opinion only when the Hindu Society becomes a casteless society that it can
  hope to have strength enough to defend itself. Without such
  internal strength, Swaraj for Hindus may turn out to be only a step towards slavery.
  Good-bye and good wishes for your success.

  APPENDIX I

  A
  VINDICATION OF CASTE BY MAHATMA GANDHI

  (A Reprint of his Articles in the ” Harijan “)

  Dr.
  Ambedkar’s Indictment I

  The readers will
  recall the fact that Dr. Ambedkar was to have presided last
  May at the annual conference of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal of Lahore. But the conference itself was cancelled
  because Dr. Ambedkar’s address was found by the Reception
  Committee to be unacceptable. How far a Reception Committee is justified in rejecting a
  President of its choice because of his address that may be
  objectionable to it is open to question. The Committee knew Dr. Ambedkar’s
  views on caste and the Hindu scriptures. They knew also that he had in unequivocal terms
  decided to give up Hinduism. Nothing less than the address
  that Dr. Ambedkar had prepared was to be expected from him.
  The committee appears to have deprived the public of an opportunity of listening to the original views of a man, who has carved
  out for himself a unique position in society. Whatever label he wears in future, Dr.
  Ambedkar is not the man to allow himself to be forgotten.

  Dr. Ambedkar was not going to be beaten by the
  Reception Committee. He has answered their rejection of him by publishing the address at
  his own expense. He has priced it at 8 annas, I would suggest a reduction to 2 annas or at
  least 4 annas.

  No reformer can ignore the address. The
  orthodox will gain by
  reading it. This is not to say that the address is not open to
  objection. It has to be read only because it
  is open to serious objection. Dr. Ambedkar is a challenge to Hinduism. Brought up as a
  Hindu,
  educated by a Hindu potentate, he has become so disgusted with the
  so-called Savarna Hindus for the treatment that he and his people have
  received at their hands that he proposes to leave not only them but the very religion that
  is his and their common heritage. He has transferred to that religion, his disgust against
  a part of its professors.

  But this is not to be wondered at. After all, one can only judge a system or
  an institution by the conduct of its representatives. What
  is more. Dr. Ambedkar found that the vast majority of Savarna Hindus had not only
  conducted themselves inhumanly against those of their fellow religionists,
  whom they classed as untouchables, but they had based their conduct on the authority
  of their scriptures, and when he began to search them he had found ample warrant for their
  beliefs in untouchability and all its implications. The
  author of the address has quoted chapter and verse in proof of his three-fold indictment—inhuman conduct itself, the unabashed
  justification for it on the part of the perpetrators, and
  the subsequent discovery that the justification was warranted by their scriptures.

  No Hindu who prizes his faith above life itself can afford to underrate the
  importance of this indictment. Dr Ambedkar is not alone in his disgust
  He
  is its most uncompromising exponent and one of the ablest among them.
  He is certainly the most irreconcilable among them. Thank God, in the
  front rank of the
  leaders, he is singularly alone and
  as yet but a representative of a very small minority. But
  what he says is voiced with more or less vehemence by many leaders belonging to the depressed classes. Only
  the
  latter, for instance Rao Bahadur M. C. Rajah and Dewan Bahadur
  Srinivasan, not only do not threaten to give up Hinduism but find
  enough warmth in it to compensate for the shameful
  persecution to which the vast mass of Harijans are exposed.

  But the fact of many leaders remaining in the Hindu fold
  is no warrant for disregarding what Dr. Ambedkar has to
  say. The Savaraas have to
  correct their belief and their
  conduct. Above all those who are by their learning and influence among the Savarnas
  have to give an authoritative interpretation of the scriptures. The
  questions that Dr. Ambedkar’s indictment suggest are :

  (1) What are the
  scriptures ?

  (2) Are all the printed texts to be regarded as an integral part of them or is any part of them to be rejected as unauthorised
  interpolation ?

  (3) What is the
  answer of such accepted and expurgated scriptures on the
  question of untouchability, caste,
  equality of status, inter-dining and intermarriages ? (These
  have been all examined by Dr. Ambedkar in his address.)

  I must reserve for the
  next issue my own answer to these questions and a statement
  of the (at least some) manifest flaws in Dr. Ambedkar’s
  thesis

  (Harijan, July II, 1936)

  II

  The Vedas, Upanishads,
  Smritis and Puranas including Ramayana and Mahabharata are the Hindu Scriptures.
  Nor is this a finite list.
  Every age or even. generation has added to the list. It follows, therefore, that everything printed or even found
  handwritten is not scripture. The Smrities for instance-contain much that can never be
  accepted
  as the word of God. Thus. many of the texts that Dr. Ambedkar quotes
  from the Smritis cannot be accepted as authentic. The scriptures,
  properly so-called,
  can only be concerned with eternal varieties and must
  appeal to any conscience i.e. any heart whose eyes of understanding are
  opened.
  Nothing can be accepted as the word of God which cannot be tested by
  reason or be capable of being spiritually experienced. And even when you
  have an expurgated edition of the scriptures, you will need their interpretation. Who is
  the best interpreter? Not learned men surely. Learning
  there must be. But religion does not live it. It lives in the experiences of its saints
  and seers, in their lives and sayings. When all the most
  learned
  commentators of the scriptures are utterly forgotten, the accumulated
  experience of the sages and saints will abide and be an inspiration
  for ages to come.

  Caste has nothing to do with religion. It is a custom whose origin
  I do not know and do not need to know for the satisfaction of my spiritual hunger. But I
  do know that it is harmful both to spiritual and national growth. Varna and Ashrama are
  institutions which have nothing to do with castes .The law of Varna teaches us that we have each one of us to
  earn our bread by following the ancestral calling. it defines not our rights but our duties. It necessarily has
  reference to callings that are conducive to the welfare of
  humanity and to no other. It also follows that there is no
  calling too low and none too high. Ail are good, lawful and
  absolutely equal in status. The callings of a Brahmin— spiritual teacher—-and a scavenger are equal, and their due performance
  carries equal merit before
  God and at one time seems to have carried identical reward
  before man. Both were entitled to their livelihood and no more. Indeed
  one traces even now in the villages the faint lines of this
  healthy operation of the law. Living in Segaon with its
  population of 600, I do not find a great disparity between
  the earnings of different tradesmen including
  Brahmins. I find too that real Brahmins are to be found even in these degenerate days who
  are living on alms freely
  given to them and are giving freely of what they have of spiritual treasures. It would be wrong
  and improper to judge the law of Varna by its
  caricature in the lives of men who profess to belong to a Varna, whilst they openly commit a breach of its
  only operative rule. Arrogation
  of a superior status by and of the Varna over another is a denial
  of the law. And there is nothing in the law of Varna to warrant a belief in untouchability. (The essence of
  Hinduism is contained in its enunciation of one and only
  God as Truth and its bold acceptance of Ahimsa as the law of the human family.)

  I am aware that my interpretation of Hinduism
  will be disputed by many besides Dr. Ambedkar. That does not affect
  my position. It is an interpretation by which I have lived
  for nearly half a century
  and according to which I have endeavoured to the best of my
  ability to regulate my life.

  In my opinion
  the profound mistake that Dr. Ambedkar
  has made in his address is to pick out the texts of
  doubtful authenticity and value and the state of degraded Hindus who are no fit specimens of the faith they so woefully
  misrepresent. Judged by the standard applied by Dr. Ambedkar, every
  known living faith will probably fail.

  In his able address, the learned Doctor has
  over proved his case. Can a religion that was professed by Chaitanya,
  Jnyandeo, Tukaram, Tiruvailuvar, Rarnkrishna Paramahansa,
  Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Maharshi
  Devendranath Tagore, Vivekanand
  and host of others who might be easily mentioned, so utterly devoid of merit as is made
  out in Dr. Ambedkar’s address ?
  A religion has to be judged not by it’s worst specimens but
  by the best it might have produced. For that and that alone
  can be used as the standard to aspire to, if not to improve
  upon. (Harijan,
  July 18, 1936)

  III

  VARNA VERSUS CASTE

  Shri Sant Ramji of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal of Lahore
  wants me to publish the following: ” I have read your
  remarks about Dr. Ambedkar and the Jat-Pat-Todak

  Mandal, Lahore. In that connection I beg to
  submit as follows :

  ” We did
  not invite Dr. Ambedkar
  to preside over our conference because he belonged to the Depressed Classes, for we do not
  distinguish between a touchable and an untouchable Hindu.
  On the contrary our choice fell on him simply because his diagnosis of the fatal disease
  of the Hindu community was the same as ours, i.e.
  he too was of the opinion that caste system was the root cause of the disruption and
  downfall of the Hindus. The subject of the Doctor’s thesis for Doctorate being caste
  system, he has studied the subject thoroughly. Now the object of our conference was to
  persuade the Hindus to annihilate castes but the advice of a non-Hindu in social and
  religious matters can have no effect on them. The Doctor in the supplementary portion of
  his address insisted on saying that that was his last speech as a Hindu, which was
  irrelevant as well as pernicious to the interests of the conference. So we requested him
  to expunge that sentence for he could easily say the same thing on any other occasion. But
  he refused and we saw no utility in making merely a show of our function. In spite of all
  this, I cannot help praising his address which is, as far as I know, the most learned
  thesis on the subject and worth translating into every vernacular of India.

  Moreover, I want to bring to your notice that
  your philosophical difference between Caste and Varna is too subtle
  to be grasped by people in general, because for all
  practical purposes in the Hindu society Caste and Varna
  are one and the same thing, for the function of both of them is one and the same i.e. to restrict inter-caste
  marriages and inter-dining. Your theory of Varnavyavastha is
  impracticable in this age and there is no hope of its revival in the near future. But
  Hindus are slaves of caste and do not want to destroy it. So when you advocate your ideal
  of imaginary Varnavyavastha they find
  justification for clinging to caste. Thus you are doing a great disservice to social
  reform by advocating your imaginary utility of division of Varnas, for it creates hindrance in our way. To
  try to remove untouchability without striking at the root
  of Varnavyavastha is simply to treat the outward
  symptoms of a disease or to draw a line on the surface of
  water. As in the heart of their hearts dvijas do not want to give social equality to
  the so-called touchable and untouchable Shudras, so they refuse to break caste, and give liberal
  donations for the removal of untouchability, simply to
  evade the issue. To seek the help of the Shastras for the removal of untouchability and
  caste is simply to wash mud with mud.”

  The last paragraph of the letter surely cancels
  the first. If the Mandal rejects the help of the Shastras, they do exactly what Dr. Ambedkar does, i.e.
  cease to be Hindus. How then can they object to Dr. Ambedkar’s
  address merely because he said that that was his last
  speech as a Hindu ? The position appears to be wholly
  untenable especially when the Mandal, for which Shri Sant Ram claims to speak, applauds the whole argument of Dr.
  Ambedkar’s address.

  But it is pertinent to ask what the Mandal
  believes if it rejects the Shastras. How can a
  Muslim remain one if he rejects the Quran ,or a Christian remain Christian if he rejects the Bible ? If Caste and Varna
  are convertible terms and if Varna is an integral part of the Shastras which define Hinduism, I do not know how a
  person who rejects Caste i.e. Varna can call
  himself a Hindu.

  Shri Sant Ram likens the Shastras to mud. Dr. Ambedkar has not, so far as
  I remember, given any such picturesque name to the Shastras. I have certainly meant when I have said
  that if Shastras support the existing
  untouchability I should cease to call myself a Hindu. Similarly, if the Shastras support caste as we know it today in all
  its hideousness, I may not call myself or remain a Hindu since I have no scruples about
  interdining or intermarriage. I need not repeat my position
  regarding Shastras
  and their interpretation. I venture to suggest to Shri Sant Ram that it is the only
  rational and correct and morally defensible position and it has ample warrant in Hindu
  tradition.

  (Harijan, August 15,1936)
  

• APPENDIX II

  A REPLY TO THE MAHATMA BY DR.
  B. R. AMBEDKAR

  I appreciate greatly the honour done me by the Mahatma
  in taking notice in his Harijan
  of the speech on Caste which I had prepared for the Jat Pat Todak Mandal. From a perusal of his
  review
  of my speech it is clear that the Mahatma completely dissents from the
  views I have expressed on the subject of Caste. I am not in the habit of
  entering into controversy with my opponents unless there are special
  reasons which compel me to act otherwise. Had
  my opponent been some mean and obscure person I would not have pursued him. But my
  opponent being the Mahatma himself I feel I must attempt to
  meet the case to the contrary which he has sought to put
  forth. While I appreciate the honour he has done me, I must
  confess to a sense of surprize
  on finding that of all the persons the Mahatma should accuse me of a desire
  to seek publicity as he seems to do when he suggests that in publishing
  the undelivered speech my object was to see that I was not “
  forgotten “. Whatever the Mahatma
  may choose to say my object in publishing the speech was to
  provoke the Hindus to think and take stock of their
  position. I have never hankered for publicity and if I may say so, I have more of it than I wish or
  need. But supposing it was out of the motive of gaining publicity that I printed the
  speech who could cast a stone at me ? Surely not those, who
  like the Mahatma live in glass houses.

  II

  Motive apart, what has the Mahatma to say on the question raised by
  me in the speech ? First of all any one who reads my speech will realize
  that
  the Mahatma has entirely missed the issues raised by me and that the issues he has raised
  are
  not the issues that arise out of what he is pleased to call my
  indictment of the Hindus. The principal points which I have tried to
  make
  out in my speech may be catalogued as follows : (1) That caste has ruined the
  Hindus ; (2) That the reorganization of the Hindu society
  on the basis of Chaturvarnya is impossible because the Varnavym’astha is
  like a leaky pot or like a man running at the nose. It is incapable of sustaining itself
  by its own virtue and has an inherent tendency to degenerate into a caste system unless
  there is a legal sanction behind it which can be enforced against every one transgressing his Varna ; (3) That the
  reorganization of the Hindu Society on the basis of Chaturvarnya is harmful, because the
  effect of the Varnavyavastha is to degrade the masses by denying them
  opportunity to acquire knowledge and to emasculate them by denying them the right to be
  armed ; (4) That the Hindu society must be reorganized on a religious basis which would recognise the
  principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity ; (5) That
  in
  order to achieve this object the sense of religious sanctity behind
  Caste and Varna must be destroyed ; (6) That the sanctity of Caste and
  Varna can be destroyed only by discarding the
  divine authority of the Shastras.
  It will be noticed that the questions raised by the Mahatma
  are absolutely beside the point and show that the main
  argument of the speech was lost upon him.

  Ill

  Let me examine the substance of the points made
  by the Mahatma. The first point made by the Mahatma is that the texts cited by me are not
  authentic. I confess I am no authority on this matter. But I should like to state that the
  texts cited by me are all taken from the writings of the
  late Mr. Tilak who was a recognised authority on the
  Sanskrit language and on the Hindu Shastras. His
  second point is that these Shastras should be interpreted not by the learned
  but the saints and that, as the saints have understood them, the Shastras do not support Caste and Untouchabilty. As regards the
  first point what I like to ask the Mahatma is what does it
  avail
  to any one if the texts are interpolations and if they have been
  differently interpreted by the saints ? The masses do not make any
  distinction between texts which
  are genuine and texts which are interpolations. The masses do not know what the texts are.
  They are too illiterate to know the contents of the Shastras. They have believed what they have been told and
  what they have been told is that the Shastras do enjoin as
  a religious duty the observance of Caste and Untouchability.

  With regard to the
  saints, one must admit that howsoever different and elevating their teachings may have
  been as compared to those of the merely learned they have been lamentably
  ineffective. They have been ineffective for two reasons. Firstly, none of the saints
  ever attacked the Caste System. On the contrary, they were
  staunch believers in the System of
  Castes. Most of them lived and died. as members of the castes
  which they respectively belonged. So passionately attached
  was Jnyandeo to his status as a Brahmin that when the Brahmins of Paithan would not admit him to
  their fold he moved heaven and earth to get his status as a Brahmin recognized by the Brahmin fraternity.
  And even the saint Eknath who now figures in the film ” Dharmatma ” as a hero for having shown courage to touch the
  untouchables and dine with them, did so not because he was
  opposed to Caste and Untouchability
  but because he felt that the pollution caused thereby could be washed away by a bath in
  the sacred waters of the river
  Ganges.* [f1]The saints have never according to my study carried on a
  campaign against. Caste and Untouchability.
  They were not concerned with
  the struggle between men. They were concerned with the relation between man and God. They did not preach that all men
  were equal. They preached that all
  men were equal, in the eyes of God a very different and a very innocuous proposition which
  nobody can find difficult to preach or dangerous to believe in. The second reason why the
  teachings of the saints proved ineffective was because the masses have been taught that a
  saint
  might break Caste but the common man must not. A saint therefore never
  became an example to follow. He always remained a pious
  man to be honoured. That the masses have remained staunch believers in Caste and Untouchability shows that the
  pious lives and noble sermons of the saints have had no effect on their life and conduct
  as against the teachings of the Shastras. Thus it can be a matter of no
  consolation that there were saints or that there is a Mahatma
  who understands the Shastras
  differently from the learned few or ignorant many. That the masses hold different view of
  the Shastras is fact which should and must be
  reckoned
  with. How is that to be dealt with except by denouncing the authority
  of the Shastras, which continue to govern their conduct,
  is a question which the Mahatma has not considered. But whatever the plan the Mahatma puts
  forth as an effective means to free the masses from the teachings of the Shastras, he must accept that the pious life led
  by one good Samaritan may be very elevating to himself but
  in India, with the attitude the common man has to saints
  and to Mahatmas—to honour but not to follow—one
  cannot make much out of it.

  IV

  The third point made by the Mahatma is that a
  religion professed by Chaitanya, Jnyandeo,
  Tukaram, Tiruvalluvar, Rarnkrishna Paramahansa etc.
  cannot be devoid of merit as is made out by me and that a religion has to be judged not by
  its worst specimens but by the best it might have produced.
  I agree with every word of this statement. But I do not quite understand what the Mahatma
  wishes to prove thereby. That religion should be judged not by its worst specimens but by
  its best is true enough but does it dispose of the matter ?
  I say it does not. The question still remains—why the worst
  number so many and the best so few ? To my mind there are
  two conceivable answers to this question : ( 1 ) That the worst by reason of some original perversity of theirs are morally
  uneducable and are therefore incapable of making the remotest approach to the religious ideal. Or (2) That the
  religious ideal is a wholly wrong ideal which has given a wrong moral twist to the lives
  of the many and that the best have become best in spite of the wrong ideal—in fact by
  giving to the wrong twist a turn in the right direction. Of these two explanations I am
  not prepared to accept the first and I am sure that even the Mahatma will not insist upon
  the contrary. To my mind the second is the only logical and reasonable explanation unless
  the Mahatma has a third alternative to explain why the
  worst are so many and the best so few. If the second is the
  only explanation then obviously the argument of the Mahatma that a religion should be
  judged by its best followers carries us nowhere except to pity the lot of the many who
  have gone wrong because they have been made to worship wrong ideals.

  V

  The argument of the Mahatma
  that Hinduism would be tolerable if
  only many were to follow the example of the saints is fallacious for
  another reason. [f.2] By citing the names of such illustrious persons
  as Chaitanya etc. what the Mahatma
  seems to me to suggest in its broadest and simplest form is that Hindu society can be made
  tolerable and even happy without any fundamental change in its structure
  if all the high caste Hindus can be persuaded to follow a high standard of morality in
  their dealings with the low caste Hindus. I am totally opposed to this kind of ideology. I
  can respect those of the caste Hindus who try to realize a
  high social ideal in their life. Without such men India would be an uglier and a less
  happy place to live in than it is. But nonetheless anyone
  who relies on an attempt to turn the members of the caste Hindus into better men by improving
  their personal character is in my judgment wasting his energy and bugging an illusion. Can personal character make the maker of
  armaments a good man, i.e. a man who will sell shells that will not burst and gas
  that will not poison ? If it cannot, how can you accept
  personal
  character to make a man loaded with the consciousness of Caste, a good
  man, i.e. a man who would treat his fellows as his
  friends and equals ? To be true to himself he must deal
  with his fellows either as a superior or inferior according
  as the case may be; at any rate, differently from his own
  caste fellows. He can never be expected to deal with his
  fellows
  as his kinsmen and equals. As a matter of fact, a Hindu does treat all
  those who are not of his Caste as though they were aliens, who
  could be discriminated against with impunity and against whom any fraud or trick may be
  practised without shame. This is to say that there
  can
  be a better or a worse Hindu. But a good Hindu there cannot be. This is
  so not because there is anything wrong with his personal
  character. In fact what is wrong is the entire basis of his relationship to his fellows.
  The best of men cannot be moral if the basis of relationship between them and their
  fellows is fundamentally a wrong relationship. To a slave his master
  may be better or worse. But there cannot be a good master. A good man cannot be a master
  and a master cannot be a good man. The same applies to the relationship between high caste
  and low caste. To a low caste man a high caste man can be better
  or worse as compared to other high caste men. A high caste man cannot be a good man in so
  far as he must have a low caste man to distinguish him as high caste man. It cannot be
  good to a low caste man to be conscious that there is a high caste man above him. I have
  argued in my speech that a society based on Varna
  or Caste is a society which is based on a wrong relationship. I had hoped that the Mahatma
  would attempt to demolish my argument. But instead of doing that he has merely reiterated
  his belief in Chaturvarnya without disclosing the ground on
  which it is based.
  

• VI

  Does the Mahatma
  practise what he preaches ? One does not like to make
  personal reference in an argument which is general in its
  application. But when one preaches a decline and holds it as a dogma there is a curiosity to know how
  far he practises what he preaches. It may be that his failure
  to practise is due to the ideal
  being too high. to be attainable; it may be that his
  failure to practise is due to the innate hypocrisy of the man. In any case he exposes his
  conduct to examination and I must not be blamed if I asked
  how far has the Mahatma attempted to realize his ideal in
  his own case. The Mahatma is a Bania
  by birth. His ancestors had abandoned trading in favour of ministership which is a calling
  of the Brahmins. In his own life, before he became a
  Mahatma, when occasion came for him to choose his career he
  preferred law to scales. On abandoning law he became half saint and half politician. He
  has never touched trading which is his ancestral calling. His youngest
  son—I take one who is a faithful follower of his father—born a Vaishya has married a Brahmin’s daughter and has chosen to
  serve
  a newspaper magnate. The Mahatma is not known to have condemned him for
  not following his ancestral calling. It may be wrong and uncharitable
  to judge an ideal by its worst specimens. But surely the Mahatma as a specimen has no better and if he even fails to
  realize the ideal then the
  ideal must be an impossible ideal quite opposed to the
  practical instincts of man. Students of Carlyle know that
  he often spoke on a subject before he thought about it. I wonder whether such has not been
  the case with the Mahatma in regard to the subject matter
  of Caste. Otherwise certain
  questions which occur to me would not have escaped him.
  When can a calling be deemed to have become an ancestral
  calling so as to make it binding on a man ? Must man follow
  his ancestral calling even
  if
  it does not suit his capacities, even when it has ceased to be
  profitable ? Must a man live by his ancestral calling even if he finds
  it to be immoral ? If
  every one must pursue his ancestral calling then it must follow that a man must. continue
  to be a pimp because his grandfather was a pimp and a woman must continue to be a
  prostitute because her grandmother was a prostitute. Is the
  Mahatma prepared to accept the logical conclusion of his doctrine ? To me bis ideal of following
  one’s ancestral calling is not only an impossible and
  impractical ideal, but it is also morally an indefensible ideal. VII

  The Mahatma sees great virtue in a Brahmin
  remaining a Brahmin all his life. Leaving aside the fact there are many Brahmins who do
  not like to remain Brahmins ail their lives. What can we
  say
  about those Brahmins who have clung to their ancestral calling of
  priesthood ? Do they do so from any faith in the virtue of the principle
  of ancestral calling or do they do so from motives of
  filthy lucre ? The Mahatma
  does not seem to concern himself with such queries. He is satisfied that these are “
  real Brahmins who are living on alms freely given to them and giving freely what they have of spiritual treasures “.
  This is how a hereditary Brahmin priest appears to the Mahatma—a
  carrier of spiritual treasurers. But another portrait of the hereditary Brahmin can also be drawn. A Brahmin
  can be a priest to Vishnu—the God of Love. He can be a priest to Shankar—the God. of Destruction.
  He can be a priest at Buddha Gaya
  worshipping Buddha—the greatest teacher of mankind who
  taught the noblest doctrine of Love. He also can be a
  priest
  to Kali, the Goddess, who must have a daily sacrifice of an animal to
  satisfy her thirst for blood ; He will be a priest of the temple
  of Rama—the Kshatriya
  God! He will also be a priest
  of the Temple of Parshuram,
  the God who took Avatar to destroy the Kshatriyas ! He can be a priest to Bramha, the Creator of
  the world. He can be a priest to a Pir whose God Allah will
  not brook the claim of Bramha to share his spiritual
  dominion over the world ! No
  one can say that this is a picture which is not true to life. If this is a true picture
  one does not know what to say of this capacity to bear loyalties
  to Gods and Goddesses whose attributes are so antagonistic that no honest man can be a
  devotee to all of them. The Hindus rely upon this extraordinary phenomenon as evidence of
  the greatest virtue of their religion—namely
  its catholicity, its spirit of toleration. As against this
  facile view, it can be urged that what is toleration and catholicity may be really nothing more
  creditable than indifference or flaccid latitudinarianism.
  These two attitudes are hard to distinguish in their outer
  seeming. But they are so vitally unlike in their real quality that no one who examines
  them closely can mistake one for the other. That a man is ready to render homage to many
  Gods and Goddesses may be. cited as evidence of his tolerant spirit.. But can it not also be evidence of insincerity born of a
  desire to serve the times ? I am sure that this toleration
  is merely insincerity. If this view is well founded, one may ask what spiritual treasure
  can there be with a person who is ready to be a priest and a devotee to any deity which it
  serves his purpose to worship and to adore ? Not only must
  such a person be deemed to be bankrupt of all spiritual treasures but for him to practice
  so elevating a profession as that of a priest simply
  because it is ancestral, without faith, without belief,
  merely as a mechanical process handed down from. father to son, is not a conservation of virtue; it is really the
  prostitution of a noble profession which is no other than the service of religion.

  VIII

  Why does the Mahatma
  cling to the theory of every one following his or her
  ancestral calling ? He gives
  his reasons nowhere But there must be some reason although he does not cars to avow it.
  Years ago writing on “
  Caste versus
  Class ” in his Young
  India he argued that Caste System was better than Class System on the ground that
  caste was the best possible adjustment of social stability. If that be the reason why the
  Mahatma clings to the theory of every one following his or her ancestral calling, then he
  is clinging to a false view of social life. Everybody wants social stability and some
  adjustment must be made in the relationship between individuals and classes in order that
  stability may be had. But two things, I am sure nobody wants.
  One thing nobody wants is static relationship, something that is unalterable, something
  that is fixed for all times. Stability is wanted but not at
  the cost of change when change is imperative. Second thing nobody wants is mere
  adjustment.
  Adjustment is wanted but not at the sacrifice of social justice. Can it
  be said that the adjustment of social relationship on the basis of
  caste i.e. on the basis
  of each to his hereditary calling avoids these two evils ?
  I am convinced that it does not. Far from being the best possible adjustment I have no
  doubt that it is of the worst possible kind inasmuch as it
  offends against both the canons of social adjustment—namely fluidity and equity.

  IX

  Some might think that the Mahatma has made much progress inasmuch as he now only
  believes in Varna and docs not believe in Caste.
  It is true that there was a time when the Mahatma was a full-blooded and a blue-blooded Sanatani Hindu. He believed
  in the Vedas, the
  Upanishads, the Puranas and all that
  goes by the name of Hindu scriptures and therefore in avatars and rebirth. He believed in Caste and
  defended it with the vigour of the orthodox. He condemned the cry for inter-dining, inter-drinking
  and inter-marrying and argued that restraints about inter-dining to a great extent “
  helped
  the cultivation of will-power and the conservation of certain social
  virtue “. It is good that he has repudiated this sanctimonious
  nonsense and admitted that caste ” is harmful both to
  spiritual and national growth,” and may be, his son’s marriage outside his caste has
  had something to do with this change of view. But has the
  Mahatma
  really progressed ? What is the nature of the Varna for which the
  Mahatma stands ? Is it the Vedic conception as commonly understood and
  preached by Swami Dayanaad Saraswati and his followers, the Arya
  Samajists ? The essence of
  the Vedic
  conception of Varna is the pursuit of a
  calling which is appropriate to one’s natural aptitude. The essence of the Mahatma’s conception of Varna
  is the pursuit of ancestral calling irrespective of natural aptitude. What is the
  difference between Caste and Varna as understood
  by
  the Mahatma? I find none. As defined by the Mahatma, Varna becomes
  merely a different name for Caste for the simple reason that it is the
  same in essence—namely pursuit of ancestral calling. Far from
  making progress the Mahatma has suffered retrogression. By putting this interpretation
  upon the Vedic conception of Varna he has really made ridiculous what was
  sublime. While I reject the Vedic Varnavyavastha for reasons given in the speech I must
  admit that the Vedic theory of Varna as interpreted by Swami Dayanand and some others is a sensible and an inoffensive
  thing. It did not admit birth as a determining factor in fixing the place of an individual
  in society. It only recognized worth. The Mahatma’s view of Varna
  not only makes nonsense of the Vedic
  Varna but it makes it an abominable thing. Varna
  and Caste are two very different concepts. Varna
  is based on the principle of each according to his worth-while Caste is based on the
  principle of each according to his birth. The two are as distinct
  as chalk is from cheese. In fact there is an antithesis between the two. If the Mahatma believes as he does in every
  one following his or her ancestral calling, then most certainly he is advocating the Caste
  System and that in calling it the Varna System
  he is not only guilty of terminologicale inexactitude, but he is causing confusion worse confounded. I am sure that
  all
  his confusion is due to the fact that the Mahatma has no definite and
  clear conception as to what is Varna and what is Caste and as to the
  necessity of
  either for the conservation of Hinduism. He has said and
  one hopes that he will not find some mystic reason to
  change
  his view that caste is not the essence of Hinduism. Does he regard
  Varna as the essence of Hinduism ? One cannot as yet give any
  categorical answer. Readers of
  his article on ” Dr. Ambedkar’s
  Indictment ” will answer “
  No “. In that article he does not say that the dogma
  of Varna is an essential
  part of the creed of Hinduism. Far from making Varna
  the essence of Hinduism he says ” the essence of
  Hinduism is contained in its enunciation of one and only God as Truth and its bold
  acceptance
  of Ahimsa as the law of the human family ” But the readers of his
  article in reply to Mr. Sant Ram will say ” Yes “. In that article he
  says “
  How can a Muslim remain one if he rejects the Qurtan, or a Christian remain
  as
  Christian if he rejects the Bible ? If Caste and Varna are convertible
  terms and if Varna is an integral part of the Shastras which
  define Hinduism I do not know how a person who rejects Caste, i.e. Varna can call himself a Hindu ? ” Why this prevarication
  ? Why does the Mahatma hedge ? Whom does he want to
  please
  ? Has the saint failed to sense the truth ? Or does the politician
  stand in the way of the Saint ? The real reason why the Mahatma is
  suffering from this
  confusion is probably to be traced to two sources. The first is the temperament of the
  Mahatma.
  He has almost in everything the simplicity of the child with the
  child’s capacity for self-deception. Like a child he can believe in
  anything he wants to
  believe. We must therefore wait till such time as it pleases the Mahatma to abandon his faith in Varna
  as it has pleased him to abandon his faith in Caste. The second source of confusion is the
  double role which the Mahatma wants to play—of a Mahatma and a Politician. As a
  Mahatma he may be trying to spiritualize Politics. Whether he has succeeded in it or not
  Politics have certainly commercialized him. A politician must know that Society cannot
  bear the whole truth and that he must not speak the whole truth;
  if he is speaking the whole truth it is bad for his politics. The reason why the Mahatma
  is always supporting Caste and Varna is because
  he is afraid that if he opposed them he will lose his place in politics. Whatever may be
  the source of this confusion the Mahatma must be told that
  he is deceiving himself and also deceiving the people by preaching Caste under the name of Varna.

  X

  The Mahatma says that the standards I have
  applied to test Hindus
  and Hinduism are too severe and that judged by those standards every
  known living faith will probably fail. The complaint that my standards
  are high may be true. But the question is not whether they
  are high or whether they are low. The question is whether they are the right standards to
  apply. A People and their Religion must be judged by social
  standards based on social ethics. No other standard would
  have any meaning if religion is held to be a necessary good
  for the well-being of the people. Now I maintain that the standards I have applied to test
  Hindus and Hinduism are the most appropriate standards and that I know of none that are
  better. The conclusion that every known religion would fail
  if tested by my standards may be true. But this fact should not give the Mahatma as the
  champion of Hindus and Hinduism a ground for comfort any more than the existence of one madman should give
  comfort to another madman or the existence of one criminal should give comfort to another
  criminal. I like to assure
  the Mahatma that it is not the mere failure of the Hindus
  and Hinduism which has produced in me the feelings of disgust and contempt with which. I am charged. I realize that the world
  is
  a very imperfect world and any one who wants to live in it must bear
  with its imperfections. But while I am. prepared to bear with the
  imperfections and shortcomings of the society in which I may be destined to labour, I feel I should not consent to
  live in a society which cherishes wrong ideals or a society which having right ideals will not consent to
  bring
  its social life in conformity with those ideals. If I am disgusted with
  Hindus and Hinduism it is because I am convinced that they
  cherish wrong ideals and live
  a wrong social life. My quarrel with Hindus and Hinduism is
  not over the imperfections of their social conduct. It is much more fundamental. It is
  over their ideals.

  XI

  Hindu society seems to me to stand in need of a moral regeneration
  which it is dangerous to postpone. And the question is who can
  determine and control this
  moral regeneration ? Obviously only those who have
  undergone an intellectual regeneration and those who are
  honest enough to have the courage of their convictions born
  of intellectual emancipation. Judged by this standard the Hindu leaders who count are in
  my opinion quite unfit for
  the task. It is impossible to say that they have undergone the preliminary intellectual regeneration. If they had
  undergone an intellectual regeneration
  they would neither delude themselves in the simple way of
  the untaught multitude nor would they take advantage of the
  primitive
  ignorance of others as one sees them doing. Notwithstanding the
  crumbling state of Hindu society these leaders will nevertheless
  unblushingly appeal
  to ideals of the past which have in every way ceased to have any connection with the present ; which
  however suitable they might
  have been in the days of their origin have now become a warning
  rather than a guide. They still have a mystic respect for the earlier forms which make them disinclined—nay opposed to
  any examination of the foundations of their Society. The Hindu
  masses are cf course
  incredibly heedless in the formation of their beliefs. But so are the Hindu leaders. And what is worse is that.
  These Hindu leaders become filled with an illicit passion
  for their beliefs when any
  one proposes to rob them of their companionship. The Mahatma. is no exception. The Mahatma
  appears not to believe in thinking He prefers to follow the
  saints. Like a conservative with his reverence for consecrated notions
  he is afraid that if he once starts thinking, many ideals
  and institutions to which lie clings
  will be doomed. One must sympathize with him. For every act of independent thinking puts some
  portion of apparently stable world
  in peril. But it is equally
  true that dependence on saints
  cannot lead us to know the truth. The saints are after
  all
  only human beings and as Lord Balfour said , ” the human mind is no
  more a truth finding apparatus than the snout of a pig “. In so far as
  he does think,
  to me he really appears to be prostituting his intelligence
  to find reasons for supporting this archaic social
  structure of the Hindus. He is the most influential apologist of it and therefore the worst enemy of the Hindus.

  Unlike the Mahatma there are Hindu leaders who
  are not content merely to believe and follow. They dare to
  think, and act in, accordance with the result of their
  thinking. But unfortunately they are either a dishonest lot
  or an indifferent lot when it comes to the question of
  giving right guidance to the mass of the people. Almost every Brahmin has
  transgressed the rule of Caste. The number of Brahmins who sell shoes is far greater than those who practise priesthood. Not
  only have the Brahmins given up their ancestral calling of
  priesthood for trading but they have entered trades which, are prohibited to them by the Shaslras. Yet how
  many
  Brahmins who break Caste every day will preach against Caste and
  against the Shastras ? For one honest Brahmin preaching against Caste
  and Shastras because
  his practical instinct and moral conscience cannot support a conviction in them, there are
  hundreds who break Caste and trample upon the Shastras
  every
  day but who are the most fanatic upholders of the theory of Caste and
  the sanctity of the Shastras. Why this duplicity ? Because they feel
  that if the masses are emancipated from the yoke of Caste they would be
  a menace to the power and prestige of the Brahmins as a class. The dishonesty of this intellectual class who would deny
  the masses the fruits of their thinking is a most
  disgraceful phenomenon.

  The Hindus in
  the words of Mathew Arnold are “
  wandering between two worlds, one dead, the other powerless to be born “. What
  are they to do ? The Mahatma
  to ‘whom they appeal for
  guidance does not believe in thinking and can therefore give no guidance which can be said to stand the test of
  experience. The intellectual classes to whom the masses
  look for guidance are either too dishonest or too indifferent
  to educate them in the right direction. We are indeed witnesses to a great tragedy. In the
  face of this tragedy all one can do is to lament and say—such be thy Leaders, O! Hindus.

AYAWATI On March 21

I have been a victim of the misuse of CBI. Be it BJP or Congress, both have misused CBI

New low for the CBI

Given its regime-sensitive approach to politically sensitive cases in the last two decades, this is hardly a surprise.

In this period, it probed cases involving Rajiv Gandhi
in the Bofors scandal and the HDW submarine bribery case, P V Narasimha
Rao in the JMM bribery scandal and the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case; L
K Advani in the Babri demolition case; Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Lalu Prasad and several Union ministers and leaders in the Jain hawala case.

The Bofors scandal, dealing with the purchase of field guns, boomed for
more than two decades in the political arena before it got buried by
the Delhi High Court in 2005. This was when it quashed charges against
the only available accused, the Hinduja brothers.

The CBI
had named Rajiv Gandhi in its 1999 charge sheet during the NDA regime.
It also detailed Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi’s role and his
unhindered access to the PM’s residence.

Although CBI was
castigated by HC for going on a wild goose chase and spending over Rs
250 crore of taxpayers’ money, the agency awaited the UPA government’s
nod, which never came. The judgment attained finality and the Bofors
ghost was exorcised after 20 years.

The kickback case in the
HDW deal signed during Rajiv’s rule was registered in 1987. This was
when V P Singh was PM. Many of the accused named in the FIR had been
mentioned in the Bofors FIR. But investigations were closed in 2005.

Rao came close to getting arrested in the Lakhu Bhai Pathak case,
despite CBI not naming him in the charge sheet. It named godman’
Chandraswami and his aide, Mamaji’ K N Agrawal. The trial court made the
former PM a co-accused after it found evidence of Pathak allegedly
handing over money to Chandraswamy on Rao’s assurance . But, there
wasn’t enough to nail Rao or others who were acquitted in 2003. CBI
never went in appeal.

The real scare for Rao came in the JMM
case where it was clear that his government survived a Parliament floor
test in 1993 by buying MPs’ votes. The CBI’s reluctance to stay the
course and inhibition showed by the courts resulted in Rao’s acquittal.

The CBI took up the Babri Masjid case and named 22 top rightwing
leaders, including Advani, who became deputy PM seven years later. In
2010, Allahabad HC discharged Advani and others from conspiracy charges.
Much after the expiry of the time limit for filing an appeal, CBI moved
SC. When the court wanted to know the reasons for delay, it filed an
affidavit which showed how it was acting under the then home minister’s
guidance. More than two decades since, the case is nowhere near
completion.

The Jain hawala case, in which leaders from across the political
spectrum were charged by CBI for allegedly receiving ‘political
donations’ , is an example of how not to carry out investigations. In
none of the cases, the CBI could sustain its charge sheet.

Coalgate: Dark clouds hover above Ashwani Kumar, PMO

NEW DELHI: The
Supreme Court’s admonition of the government and the CBI for changing
the status report on investigations into ‘Coalgate’ left Congress
red-faced, lengthening the shadow of ’scams’ over the UPA dispensation
and raising the political cost of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s
affection for his law minister Ashwani Kumar.

As
the court rebuked the argument that the law minister was entitled to
vet the status report, Congress circles were almost unanimous in
acknowledging that Kumar was precariously perched with party general
secretary Janardan Dwivedi saying the court’s views would be respected.
He said Congress “was not one of those who praise the court when
decisions are in our favour and criticize it when the verdict is against
us. We respect the courts”.

There was recognition also
of the growing political risks for Congress from the court hearing, with
Dwivedi candidly acknowledging the setback. “Of course, it is not a
pleasant comment for any dispensation,” he said.

Unlike the
PM’s assertion on Saturday ruling out the law minister’s resignation,
Dwivedi seemed to recognize the fragility of Kumar’s tenure in the
government. “As far as the comments of the SC are concerned, I believe
the final opinion is yet to come and once it comes, an appropriate
decision can be taken,” he said.

In fact, the PM’s own reaction
to the severe strictures from the court on Tuesday did not appear to
shut the door on any possibility. “I have not studied the Supreme
Court’s observations. Whatever action is called for will be taken after
studying it,” Singh said.

Congress sources, however, seemed to
feel that Singh, who handpicked Kumar for the law ministry, will have to
act proactively to stop the creeping shadow of Coalgate from reaching
PMO’s gates.

Party circles have consistently seen what one
source called the law minister’s “diligent proof reading” of CBI’s
status report through the prism of his loyalty to Singh.

“He
(Kumar) looks far more vulnerable than he seemed on April 26 when the
CBI admitted to the court that it was made to show the Coalgate status report to the law ministry along with others,” a senior Cabinet minister said.

CBI’s probe covers the allocation of coal blocks made during the period
when the PM held charge of the coal ministry, and party circles feel
that the law minister must have felt it necessary to cushion the PMO
against any potential source of embarrassment.

However, with
the endeavour boomeranging on the minister and the government as a
whole, Congress circles feel the party leadership must move swiftly to
cap the flames from spreading further.

Party sources maintained
that the initiative for this has to come from the PM himself, as none
in the party will be comfortable broaching the subject with him. Kumar
had a meeting with the PM in the evening.

Senior party leaders
see the severity of the judicial reproach as something which can goad
the PM to let go of Kumar if only for his own sake.

Significantly, the court on Tuesday vowed to go beyond the nature of
changes in the status report to find out who carried those out and to
what end: a resolve which seemed to heighten the sense of urgency in
Congress about putting a lid on the politically haemorrhaging
controversy.

Law minister wrong in vetting coalgate report: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday virtually rejected government’s argument that the law minister
was entitled to supervise the drafting of CBI’s report on its
investigations into Coalgate, saying the assertion ran contrary to its
1997 judgment in the Vineet Narain case.

Upset by law minister Ashwani Kumar,
who is not the supervising minister for CBI, summoning and correcting
the agency’s probe status report in the coal scam case, a bench of
Justices R M Lodha, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph cited the 1997
judgment to stress that only the supervising ministry could give broad
policy directions to the CBI regarding a class of cases and seek updates
on the progress of investigation.

“This is being misconstrued
to interfere with the investigation,” the bench said, virtually rebuking
government’s defence that Kumar as law minister was legally competent
to go through CBI’s report and suggest changes.

The CBI reports to the department of personnel and training whose overall charge is with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The bench also said the 1997 judgment allowing the ministry supervising
the CBI to give broad policy directions in certain cases and seek
status of probe did not extend to a case where government functionaries
themselves were the accused.

“How does one reconcile this with
the investigation into allegations against government functionaries?
Does the minister have power to call for progress in investigation? This
frustrates the very purpose,” the bench said.

Ironically, it
was the frustration over the political executive’s moves to scuttle the
probe into cases involving political bigwigs which led the SC in the
1997 judgment to define who among the ministers should have a
supervisory role vis-a-vis the CBI.

While dealing with Vineet
Narain’s PIL, the court realized that mafia and crime syndicates thrived
because of reluctance of law enforcing agencies - police, CBI and
Enforcement Directorate — to act against them because they feared
retributive action from political executive.

As a first step,
the court had desired to free the investigating agencies from the
clutches of political executives, but the then attorney general had put
up a caveat in the form of a note from an individual Union Cabinet
minister. The minister had requested the court to keep in mind the fact
that “ultimate responsibility for functioning of these agencies to
Parliament is that of the concerned minister”.

The
court said it had never intended to dilute the in-charge minister’s
general power to review working of the agencies and give broad policy
directions regarding their functioning.

“However, all the
powers of the minister are subject to the condition that none of them
would extend to permit the minister to interfere with the course of
investigation and prosecution in any individual case and in that respect
the concerned officers are to be governed entirely by the mandate of
the law and statutory duty cast upon them,” the court had said.

After referring to the Vineet Narain judgment, the bench of Justices
Lodha, Lokur and Joseph said the primary task now was to free the CBI
from the clutches and crutches of political executive and bureaucrats
and restore its past glory.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan,
appearing for petitioner NGO Common Cause, said the two-year fixed
tenure for the CBI director to make him independent of the political
executive too had been subverted by the governments, which lured the CBI
chief with post-retirement gubernatorial posts to make him pliant.


The bench said, “We have to bring clarity in certain paragraphs of the
Vineet Narain judgment. What actually was meant to be achieved but what
has it been understood (by the political class).”

Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP), Mayawati, has charged the Election Commission with
perpetrating a culture of caste bias after she was recently frisked in
poll-bound Karnataka which means that BSP treading on the right path.
This is not tolerated by the manuvadis which believes in 1st,2nd,3rd,4th
rate athmas (souls) and that the SC/STs have no soul and they can
indulge in all sorts of discrimination. But the Buddha never believed in
any soul. He said all are equal. That is the reason why Dr.B.R.
Ambedkar wanted all discriminated people to return back to Buddhism for
self respect, peace, welfare and happiness. The discriminative and
source of bias of EC instead of freezing the National Flower Lotus and
religious Hand symbol used by gods’ pedestals, astrologers and Islam and
draping all the symbols and statues of UPA and NDA ruling in the Center
and Karnataka State as done in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections for
level playing field in indulging in such discriminative source of bias
in order to save UPA and NDA’s sagging image because of corruption,
inflation, in human and non development of the nation. The EC must also
make public the open source code of EVMs which they will not do to
protect the casteist and communal UPA and NDA who support the corporates
and the biased media who are responsible of high inflation and lack of
drinking water, uninterrupted power supply social boycott of the
downtrodden. that is the reason for the British parliament’s decision to
recognize the existence of caste alongside race as a form of
discrimination and sources of bias should be equated. All Democratic
countries, fearless media and UN to support Bahujan Samaj Party to
acquire the MASTER KEY for peace, welfare and happiness by distributing
the wealth of the country equally among all sections of the society
including SC/ST/OBC/Minorities and Poor Upper castes to attain Eternal
Bliss as Final Goal, since all the ruling parties such as UPA, NDA and
other regional parties believing in athmas failed to do so. It must give
a strong push to portray caste as a global phenomenon like race,and it
should be a subject of policy at international fora like the United
Nations.

Casteism equal to racism? UK law holds key

Cash-for-vote scam

The MPs would have informed the law
enforcement agency and that the accused had twin objectives of
conducting the sting and also taking the illegal gratification. All the
accused have been booked under various provisions of the Prevention of
Corruption Act and for criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code.

The court was hearing the arguments on framing of charges in the cash-for-vote scam
of 2008 to bribe the MPs ahead of the trust vote in which former
Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, Sudheendra Kulkarni, BJP leader L K
Advani’s former aide, BJP MP Ashok Argal, Suhail Hindustani and Sanjeev
Saxena — Amar Singh’s former aide — are all have been named accused.

The case was registered in
2009 on recommendation by a Parliamentary panel that had probed the
scam. The first charge sheet in the matter was filed in August 2011 in
which all but Argal were named as the accused. Police had accused Amar
Singh and Kulkarni of “conspiring” and “masterminding” the scam to bribe
some MPs ahead of the July 22, 2008, confidence vote in the Lok Sabha.

All the accused have been booked under various provisions of the
Prevention of Corruption Act and for criminal conspiracy under the
Indian Penal Code. The case was registered in 2009 on recommendation by a
Parliamentary panel that had probed the scam.

Mayawati again demands imposition of President’s Rule in UP

New Delhi: BSP supremo
Mayawati on Thursday made a fresh demand for imposition of President’s
rule in Uttar Pradesh in the wake of the controversial remarks made by
some ministers in the Akhilesh Yadav government.

“What more evidence can one look for after this. These kind of
incidents (minister’s remarks) coming to light after our letter to the
Governor vindicates our position. The Governor should not delay action
any further and recommend President’s Rule in the state,” she told
reporters outside Parliament.

Mayawati had last week met Governor B L Joshi and asked him to recommend
President’s rule claiming there was a constitutional crisis in the
state due to poor law and order situation.

UP Textile Minister Shiv Kumar Beria had yesterday triggered a
controversy by saying that no policeman can do anything without his
orders while Social Welfare Minister Ram Murti Verma said no power can
stop crimes in the state and they would continue to happen.

Asked about the reported incursion by China in Ladakh, she said,
“Centre should be serious and timely action should be taken or else the
situation could deteriorate”.

Congress has been ruling
in the Centre and States for more than 60 years.Why did they not give
rice for Re.1 per Kg all these years. First of all have they made
education free as directed in the Constitution? Leave alone promising
free laptops can they promise to give Internet connections which costs
Rs1000/- per month to all these laptops. Students will only sell these
laptops as they did in Uttar Pradesh.Congress or the BJP never even
attempted to distribute healthy seeds, land to the tillers and
uninterrupted irrigation to the farmers. Government loans were not given
to youths to start their own trade and business. Government servants
were corrupt and were not asked by these parties to be loyal and
efficient for their good governance. Hence

The Only Hope of the Nation is Elephant of BSP!

People are just fed up
with Congress, other regional parties JDS, BSR, KJP and BJP!

After 15 opposition members of the 2G JPC told Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar they had no confidence in its chairman P.C. Chacko, the Congress members  demanded three BJP MPs be removed from the panel or debarred from voting due to conflict of interest.
“We have urged the speaker to remove three BJP members - Ravi Shankar Prasad, Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh
- from the JPC or debar them from voting as they were either telecom
ministers or were part of a group of ministers on the issue during the
NDA rule (1998-2004) and there would be a conflict of interest if the
draft report would be discussed and finalised in their presence,”

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members are miffed as the draft report
states the government incurred losses worth over Rs.40,000 core during
the NDA rule under then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

If
a Scheduled Caste does some thing it is called wrong doing and punished
and if non-Scheduled Castes does the same mistake it is just an error
and escapes. This is un-Constitutional but it is the law of manu where
errorists are allowed to escape.

Congress has been ruling
in the Centre and States for more than 60 years.Why did they not give
rice for Re.1 per Kg all these years. First of all have they made
education free as directed in the Constitution? Leave alone promising
free laptops can they promise to give Internet connections which costs
Rs1000/- per month to all these laptops. Students will only sell these
laptops as they did in Uttar Pradesh.Congress or the BJP never even
attempted to distribute healthy seeds, land to the tillers and
uninterrupted irrigation to the farmers. Government loans were not given
to youths to start their own trade and business. Government servants
were corrupt and were not asked by these parties to be loyal and
efficient for their good governance. Hence

These
PAID NEWS medias have no self respect. For the sake of advertisement
they violate law of the land and conduct Pre-Poll surveys. Napolean had
once said that he can face two battalions but not two scribes.All
surveys are bull shit.

This
time many voters may not go for voting as they are fed up with BJP,
Congress, JDS, KJP, BSR because they are all chips of the old coal and
iron blasts and vultures of the same feather flocking together who feed
on the dead bodies of farmers. If again elected these vultures may even
feed on the dead bodies of urbanites because of the ever increasing high
inflation.

The petition said around 6,000 people have been rendered homeless after
their houses were razed by the developer.

Now, candidates launch direct transfer scheme for voters.

It is another innovation from Karnataka that will revolutionise
electoral politics. If the results of the 2008 elections taught
politicians how to circumvent the anti-defection law through Operation
Kamala, 2013 elections have thrown up a direct cash transfer scheme for
bribing voters.

Outgoing Congress MLA for Kanakapura D.K. Shivakumar tops the Midas
charts, followed by two more party colleagues — Priya Krishna and
Santosh Lad.

Congress’ ‘most eligible bachelor’ is worth over Rs 900 cr in the fray from
Govindrajnagar segment. His wealth was
declared at Rs 765 crore in the 2009 Assembly bypoll son of realtor-politician  who is a sitting MLA from Vijayanagar here.

Up-scale

As many as 57 Congress MLAs, although out of power, reported an average
asset rise of Rs. 13 crore (60 per cent) each. The Janata Dal (Secular)
has reported an average increase of Rs. 11 crore (198 per cent) in
assets of each of its MLAs.

For the Bharatiya Janata Party, its 73 MLAs became 132 per cent richer at an average increase of Rs. 6 crore each.

Other notables are Appachu Ranjan of BJP (Madikeri) whose assets have
grown from Rs. 18.2 lakh to Rs.10.65 crore, excluding the undeclared
value of his six vehicles, jewellery and immoveable property; and S.
Raghu, also of BJP, (C.V. Raman Nagar) from 72.8 lakh to Rs. 31.64 crore
in five years.

Deputy Chief Minister K.S. Eshwarappa owns assets worth
Rs. 4.8 crore, while his wife, Jayalakshmi, owns assets worth Rs. 2.47
crore.

Advani is accused of taking money from Yeddyurappa

The ADR-EW team said that this year, 42 of the 48 MLAs with criminal records have returned to the polls.

Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar may find
himself in a spot when the CBI files its affidavit in the Supreme Court
on whether the coalgate report was vetted by the Law Ministry and the
PMO.

Calling
coal mine allocations done in 1993 to 2010 as “unauthorised and
illegal”, a Parliamentary panel on Tuesday suggested scrapping of mines
that have not started production.

The Committee
said it was “astonished” to find that although 195 blocks with 44.23
billion tonnes of reserves were allotted, no estimates for the value of
coal extracted was made by the government. It stressed the need for
introducing a proper mechanism for correct evaluation.

BJP looted Karnataka

Ruling BJP in Karnataka,is accused of “looting” the
state that it would lose the May 5 Karnataka assembly polls.

VVIP chopper deal: CBI freezes bank account of ex-IAF chief

VVIP Helicopter deal 4000 crore scam

Rajasthan stone quarry scam

Farm loan waiver scam

Dental Multicrore scam

The Great Thorium Robbery ?????????? Crores

DLF- Vadra Scam

Coal block allotment scam Rs. 186000 crores

Adarsh Scam - shameless, unpatriotic scam where politicians were
allotted the houses meant for Kargil Martyrs in Jokelal State of Maharashtra.

2G Spectrum Scam 2008 Rs. 176000
crores

Granite stone scam (TN) - 18,000 crores

CWG

S-Band Scam

People
always Lie in pre-polls. Indian voters never give a right answer who
they voted they would adjust to your convenience. Media and money power
did not work in the concluded Urban Elections. Congress won because of
the absence of BSP and the ELEPHANT symbol was not alotted to any
candidate. Now BSP along with SDPI and former Chairman od Backward Class
Commission will do the trick.

So now should looting continue here in cash rich state with the id of the greedy media ?

The BJP has had a history of appropriating figures that had no
ideological linkage with it and were at times even opposed to it. From
Mahatma Gandhi to Bhagat Singh to Vivekananda and BR Ambedkar, the party
has tried to piggyback onto the legacies of many.

[Attachment(s) from Ravinder Singh included below]

LOOT INDIA SIGNALS by Vajpayee, Jaitley,
Yashwant, Mahajan+

April26, 2013

 

Within hours of taking over
power in 1999 Vajpayee Jaitley, Yashwant, Mahajan and others gave
LOOT INDIA SIGNALS. In my earlier message I had given list of Ten Sins of BJP
NDA that I am repeating here again – just 10 lines explain the MEGA LOOT.

 

Arun Jaitley had grossly
misled people of India
on 2G Issue.

 

LOOT INDIA
SIGNAL No.1 – NDA gave all Different
and Competing Technologies to just Four Major operators – Airtel, Tata, Reliance
and ESSAR-Hutch (Vodafone).

 

Buy 1 Get 10 Scheme

 

Along with 2G GSM license
NDA gave 2G CDMA, WLL, Local Copper Line Phones, Broad Band, Internet, DTH, IPTV,
Optic Fiber, VoIP, WIFI, Blue Tooth etc all practically free.

 

Rs.8 Per Capita Real License Fee 

 

LOOT
INDIA SIGNAL No. 2 -  Even as Rs.1600 crores with other Free Ten Services comes
to say Rs.160 crores – License fee for 4-5 All India 2G comes to just Rs.800
crores or Rs. 8 Per Capita.

 

Rs. 5 Per Minute Local Call Charges

 

LOOT INDIA SIGNAL No. 3 -  In 2006-07 I was charged Rs.550 to Rs.850 for
100 minutes to 140 minute local calls including few minutes to Chandigarh within 250 km
zoning. After new players were introduced in 2008 call rates fell to 0.30p to
0.40p per minute that have now doubled after cancellation of licenses of new 2G
operators.

 

Rs.4800 crores for 4G 20 Mhz Band

 

http://www.ril.com/downloads/pdf/PR110620102.pdf

LOOT INDIA
SIGNAL No. 4 -  RIL paid
Rs.4800 crores for 4G 20 Mhz Spectrum that is capable of over 100 mbps data
speed and providing 2G, 3G, 4G services Voice & Data, Broadband, TV and
other services. Thus is cheap comparing with 2G.

 

$400b Imported Hardware for Telecom & IT
Services

 

LOOT INDIA
SIGNAL No. 5 -  95% of the
Hardware and Software for Telecom and IT services were imported. NDA didn’t
promote INDIGENOUS TECHNOLOGIES.

 

NDA Promoted 4-5 Companies & CARTELS

 

LOOT INDIA
SIGNAL No. 6 -  NDA in
allowing 4-5 Companies all Telecom and IT Services. Restricting Companies to
either Optic Fiber services or Wireless Technologies or Copper Wire
Technologies India could have Indigenous Hardware Production and ensure healthy
competition.

Poor Quality of Service

 

LOOT INDIA
SIGNAL No. 7 -  Except DTH
Quality of All Other Services are Very Poor.

 

NEGLIGIBLE PUBLIC EQUITY IN TELECOMS

 

LOOT INDIA
SIGNAL No. 8 -  Vajpayee
Jaitley, Yashwant, Mahajan+ Allowed Four or Five Families All The Telecom &
IT Services is already explained but ALSO ALLOWED THESE COMPANIES TO THEIR
EQUITY HOLDINGS TO OVER 50% to 80%.

 

CHIT FUNDS, MONEYLENDING, PROMOTING

TRADERS & CORPORATE EXTORTIONS

 

LOOT INDIA
SIGNAL No. 9 -  NDA Denied
Bank Credits to Farmers, MSMEs but Promoted Traders, Moneylenders and
Corporate.

 

When public lost opportunities of Investing in IPOs and acquiring Equity
as Investments – public were made to Invest in Chit Funds, Deposit with
Moneylenders and Satta Bazaar to realize additional Income.

 

Ravinder Singh

Progressindia008@yahoo.com

 

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/1036316.aspx

We need better signal

April 02, 2013

 

India’s telecom sector was a showcase for the success of
economic reforms. When the government opened up the sector in 1994-95 to
private enterprise there were many sceptics of the private sector being put in
control of communications. Within years every critic was proved wrong.

Public sector monopoly had led to a sluggish growth of the sector. India’s
tele-density at the time of opening out was 0.8%. Less than one out of every
100 people had access to a telephone. Contrary to popular perception, mobile
telephones proved to be a boon for the common and weaker sections.

It hugely improved India’s
tele-density. The waiting list became a part of history. Costs were radically
slashed down; linemen were no longer required. Most Indians felt better
connected.

 

There were apparent mistakes
made in the initial years — though made honestly. The licence fees regime could
only ensure costlier telephony. The National Telecom Policy 1999, formulated by
the NDA government, corrected these mistakes. The switch to revenue sharing
reduced the cost to the operator and increased the volumes substantially.

The increased volumes ensured much larger revenue to the government and cheaper
services to the consumers. Technology began to converge between basic
telephony, limited mobility and full mobility. This led to the universal access
licence which was common to both, the basic and mobile services.

 

Telecom became the most
visible face of the success of economic reforms. They attracted investments,
increased employment and India
became the fastest growing telecom economy in the world offering cheaper
services.

The UPA government inherited this success story of telecom in 2004 and could
only make it better. Regrettably, the entire enthusiasm inherent in the success
story has disappeared. Though services have substantially expanded, there are
no takers for the spectrum auctions now.

Fresh investors are reluctant to look at this sector and those who have
invested in the sector must be regretting the environment in which they
function despite having earned profits. How did this success story turn
sour? 

 

The Prime Minister initially
gave the responsibility of the telecom department to a minister who apparently
had a conflict of interest. Criminal cases against the first telecom minister
of the UPA are under investigation.

After he was dropped, his successor from the same party, the DMK, decided to
run havoc with the department. In 2007-08, spectrum was allocated at rates
determined by the market mechanism of auction in 2001. The sector had hugely
expanded in seven years and the value of the spectrum had substantially
increased.

Despite being cautioned that the price determined at the time of allocation be
freshly undertaken, either through auction or through indexing, he decided to
allot the spectrum at a rate much less than the market prices. The mode of
allocation was conspiratorial. The goal post was altered halfway through.

The criteria of first-come-first-served was changed to those who pay the entry
fees ahead of others. This information appears to have been leaked out to the
most favoured applicants. The result was disastrous.

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India shattered confidence in the
credibility of governmental functioning. The CBI had to file chargesheets where
the minister, civil servants and investors were all arrested. The Supreme Court
took the extraordinary step of cancelling the licenses. The biggest success
story of economic reforms had now become a monumental scam.

 

A third minister was
appointed to look after the telecom department. He wanted to get sadistic
delight out of the fact that scams were not new to the telecom sector under the
UPA government.

He, therefore, selected a judge of his choice to ‘unearth’ an NDA scam. The
judge’s report was sent to the CBI. The CBI has now filed a chargesheet in the
court. The essence of the CBI case relates to the spectrum user charges. When
the service expands, the operators need extra spectrum.

Under the NTP 1999, additional spectrum charges are to be paid for through
revenue sharing. The policy framed in 2001-02 was that on 4.4 MHz, the initial
start up spectrum, a 2% user charge would be paid; up to 6.2 MHz, a 3% user
charge will be paid, and for the entire slab from 6.2 MHz to 10 MHz, the charge
would be 4%. The entire allegation against the NDA is as to why the slab between
6.2 MHz and 10 MHz was not broken in two, and between 8 MHz to 10 MHz, why an
extra 1% charge was not levied.

 

The spectrum user charges
are a tariff fixation. Tariff fixation is an executive function. The executive
at a given point of time considers various factors while increasing or reducing
tariff or while determining the size of the slabs on which a particular tariff
is charged. There is no scientific rationale on which this can be done.

Tariffs are fixed on a commercial assessment of the market conditions. The
underlying consideration has to be the promotion of the sector. An
administrator may well feel that lower tariff can reduce costs and increase the
volumes and hence benefit both, the sector and revenues.

In this case, slabs could have been fixed keeping in mind the parity between
the basic and limited mobility. Subsequent reports of the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India appear to have accepted the principle on which these tariffs
were fixed.

If tariff fixation becomes a ground for invoking the Prevention of Corruption
Act, clauses such as causing wrongful loss to revenue, every finance minister
who reduces the customs or excise duty in the Budget may be subject to such an
accusation.

The CBI chargesheet names my then colleague, Pramod Mahajan, as a conspirator
in tariff fixation. Since he is no more, he obviously cannot be prosecuted. As
a member of the then government, I feel obliged, after examining the charge
against him, to suggest that the charge is absolutely ill-founded and baseless.

The telecom story is a case
where the UPA government and the prime minister have a lot to introspect.
Having inherited a showcase success story, the first minister appointed by the
UPA conflicted his personal interest with that of the sector.

His successor got trapped in his own shenanigans. The third minister set out to
teach the NDA a lesson. Former civil servants and investors have become his
victims. In the process he has damaged the sector, further adding to its
instability.

Oustees petition poll candidate Garudachar

The evicted residents of Economically Weaker Sections
(EWS) shantytown in Ejipura, accompanied by citizens and rights
activists, delivered a petition with more than 11,000 signatures,
demanding their housing rights.

The signatures were
collected through an online campaign. The petition was handed over to
Uday Garudachar, managing director of Maverick Holdings Pvt. Ltd., at
his office in Garuda Mall here. The developer has entered into a
public-private partnership (PPP) with the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara
Palike (BBMP) to construct a housing complex and a commercial complex on
the 15 acre 22 guntas of prime land in Ejipura.

Demanding
that the PPP be scrapped, the residents wanted the entire land to be
used solely for a housing project for all those who have been evicted.
The petition said around 6,000 people have been rendered homeless after
their houses were razed by the developer. The residents, the petition
stated, helplessly watched the bulldozers demolishing their houses.

It
also stated that the land was originally allotted and legally meant for
building houses for citizens belonging to lower socioeconomic groups.
Even months after their homes were demolished, the evicted residents
have not been rehabilitated, rights activists pointed out. After being
rendered homeless, many citizens have lost their livelihood and children
have dropped out from schools, while senior citizens were most
affected.

Pointing out that Mr. Garudachar was now
contesting from Chickpet Assembly constituency on a BJP ticket, Karthik
Ranganathan, one of the activists, said: “As somebody aspiring to become
an elected representative, we hope that Mr. Garudachar will realise
that thousands of people do not approve of this project. The PPP should
be scrapped.”

Shweta, activist, said the evicted
residents had been issued biometric cards by the BBMP. They possessed
voters’ identity card and ration cards. “They are rightful residents of
the area. Why were they not consulted before by either the BBMP or the
developer?” Earlier, when the residents and activists went to the mall
to meet Mr. Garudachar, they were refused entry. After a lot of
convincing, the mall management allowed a few people inside. Even after
the petition was handed over to Mr. Garudachar, the management refused
to take any questions from presspersons.

Now, candidates launch direct transfer scheme for voters

The richie rich MLAs

Whether they nurtured the turfs that elected them to the State Assembly
in 2008 or not, there is no doubt that most of the outgoing MLAs tended
their own nest eggs exceptionally well.

Now 179 of them are back in the fray, each richer by an average of Rs.
9.27 crore or 88 per cent in the last five years, their ‘mission’
apparently unaccomplished.

Note the way the wealth of some of the re-contesting MLAs has zoomed as
their mandatory declarations show and as analysed by the Association for
Democratic Reforms-Karnataka Election Watch:

Outgoing Congress MLA for Kanakapura D.K. Shivakumar tops the Midas
charts, followed by two more party colleagues — Priya Krishna and
Santosh Lad.

Up-scale

As many as 57 Congress MLAs, although out of power, reported an average
asset rise of Rs. 13 crore (60 per cent) each. The Janata Dal (Secular)
has reported an average increase of Rs. 11 crore (198 per cent) in
assets of each of its MLAs.

For the Bharatiya Janata Party, its 73 MLAs became 132 per cent richer at an average increase of Rs. 6 crore each.

Other notables are Appachu Ranjan of BJP (Madikeri) whose assets have
grown from Rs. 18.2 lakh to Rs.10.65 crore, excluding the undeclared
value of his six vehicles, jewellery and immoveable property; and S.
Raghu, also of BJP, (C.V. Raman Nagar) from 72.8 lakh to Rs. 31.64 crore
in five years.

Reverse flow?

There are exceptions too. C.T. Ravi, B.K. Sangameshwar and Bagali
Sarvabhoum are among eight MLAs who said their assets fell below what
they owned in 2008, observed founder member of ADR and National Election
Watch, Trilochan Sastry, at a news conference here on Tuesday.

According to the 2013 affidavit filed before the State Chief Electoral
Officer, Mr. Ravi has declared 54 per cent drop in his wealth from Rs.
7.85 crore in 2008 to Rs. 3.59 crore. Dr. Sarvabhoum is down to Rs. 3.94
crore (earlier Rs. 8.02 crore) and Mr. Sangameshwar from Rs. 5.83 crore
to Rs. 1.66 crore.

Criminal records

The ADR-EW team said that this year, 42 of the 48 MLAs with criminal records have returned to the polls.

After hate speech row, K S Eshwarappa booked again for inducing voters

Close on the heels of the Election Commission reprimanding Deputy
Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa for violating the model code of conduct in
connection with his alleged hate speech and asked him to be cautious in
future, an FIR has now been filed against him for offering ‘large
amounts’ during ‘arti’ performed by women during his electioneering for
the Karnataka Assembly elections in parts of Shimoga.

“An FIR was lodged yesterday against Eshwarappa for offering
large amounts during ‘arti’.There is video recording and evidence. An
inquiry is on”, Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha told
reporters here this evening.

The act by Eshwarappa, who holds the Rural Development and
Panchyat Raj and Revenue portfolios in the Jagadish Shettar cabinet, and
a former BJP state unit President, allegedly amounts to inducing
prospective voters, EC officials said.

Eshwarappa, seeking re-election from Shimoga, had been booked for
allegedly inciting communal feelings and promoting hatred and ill-will
between different classes in society in a speech on April nine while
campaigning.

Meanwhile, he was today granted anticipatory bail by a local
court in Shimoga on his petition fearing arrest in connection with an
FIR against him for the alleged hate speech.

The relief from the court came on a personal bond of Rs 25,000
and an undertaking that he would follow the Election Code of Conduct for
the May 5 Assembly polls strictly and not make any inflammatory public
speech.

Eshwarappa’s assets worth Rs. 4.8 crore

Deputy Chief Minister K.S. Eshwarappa owns assets worth
Rs. 4.8 crore, while his wife, Jayalakshmi, owns assets worth Rs. 2.47
crore.

During the 2008 Assembly elections, Mr.
Eshwarappa had declared that the total value of the assets in his
possession was Rs. 3.47 crore and his wife owned assets worth Rs. 68.33
lakh.

In the affidavit furnished along with the
nomination papers, Mr. Eshwarappa declared that he has four cases
pending in various courts in the State. He is facing a probe by the
Lokayukta police in a disproportionate assets case. A case was booked
against him under Sections 153(A), 295(A) and 298 of Indian Penal Code
and under column 125 of Representation of People Act on charges of
delivering an inflammatory speech at a programme held in the city
recently.

Mr. Eshwarappa declared Rs. 1,58,22,833 as
movable assets that includes Rs 50,000 cash, Rs. 42,06, 623 deposited in
various banks, Rs. 99,16,210 invested in various companies and Rs. 10
lakh invested in insurance bonds. He has 300 gm gold and two kg silver,
the total value of which is estimated to be Rs. 6.5 lakh.

His
immovable assets valued at Rs. 3,22,50,000 include 1.31 acres of
agriculture land in Nidige village valued at Rs 10 lakh, a house at
S.P.M. Road in the city valued at Rs 20 lakh. The present approximate
market value of the non-agriculture land he owns is Rs. 67,50,000. He
has joint claims along with his son over a commercial building in the
city valued at Rs 1 crore and a residential building in Bangalore valued
at Rs 75 lakh. He jointly owns a residential building with his wife in
the city valued at Rs 50 lakh. Ms. Jayalakshmi owns Rs. 1,84,96,128 as
movable assets, including Rs. 30,000 cash in hand and Rs. 1,73,39,522
invested in various companies. She owns 500 gm gold and 5 kg silver the
total value of which is Rs 11.25 lakh.

She has joint claim with her husband over non-agriculture land and a residential building in the city.

Mr.
Eshwarappa declared that he borrowed Rs. 74,41,073 as loan from various
sources while the financial liabilities of his wife stood at Rs.
68,52,694.

Congress’ ‘most eligible bachelor’ is worth over Rs 900 cr in the fray from
Govindrajnagar segment. His wealth was
declared at Rs 765 crore in the 2009 Assembly bypoll son of realtor-politician  who is a sitting MLA from Vijayanagar here.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s
(BJP) decision to keep its tainted MLAs from contesting in the upcoming
elections has reportedly turned out to be blessing in disguise for their
aides.

The party has decided not
to give ticket to its former minister Katta Subramanya Naidu accused of
corruption, tainted MLA Y Sampangi and Krishnaiah Setty facing land scam
charges, as per a report.

Jagadish Kumar, special officer for Naidu, will now represent Naidu’s
constituency Hebbal. Similarly, Venkatesh Gowda, a close aide of Setty
will now contest from Malur instead of the sitting MLA, the report
states.

Sampangi’s mother has also reportedly been given the ticket to contest from KGF

“All in the family”
sounds familiar if one looks at candidates of the May five Assembly
Elections in Karnataka - brothers, children of prominent politicians,
relatives and even father-son.

Take for example, senior Congress leader and former Union Railway
Minister Jaffer Sharief. His son-in-law, is seeking
re-election from Raichur.

Sharief has managed to get ticket for his grand-son, a political novice, in Hebbal segment of the city.

In Soraba in Shimoga district, sons of former Chief Minister late S
Bangarappa -  who are bitter political
rivals, are crossing swords again.

The father-son, the sitting
MLAs, have entered the fray from neighbouring segments of Vijayanagara
and Govindrajnagar in the city.

Union Labour and Employment Minister M Mallikarjuna Kharge has succeeded
in getting ticket for his son,from Chittapur, as also former
Chief Minister N Dharam Singh (Congress) for his son from
Jewargi.

The Congress has also given tickets to Jarkiholi brothers - to contest from Yemkanmardi and Gokak, respectively, while
their another brother, who is Minister for Municipal
Administration, has sought re-election on BJP ticket from Arabhavi.

Many multi-millionaires to contest polls in Karnataka

The much-awaited assembly
elections in Karnataka will see several multi-millionaire candidates
from political parties, including the ruling BJP, Congress and JD-S,
contesting against each other in the upcoming polls.

As per reports, several super-rich candidates have been given party
ticket this time making the crucial electoral exercise in the southern
state an interesting affair to watch.

As per reports, JD-S Karnataka unit chief and former chief minister and his wife , who will contest the May 5 Assembly
elections, have together declared assets worth Rs 123 crore.

A JD-S candidate, topped the list of rich candidates in the fray this year.

He has declared assets worth Rs 150.58 crore.

The JD-S is headed by former Prime Minister, who filed his nominations from Yeshvanthpur in Bangalore.

His son, and his wife are contesting from Ramanagaram and Channapatna respectively.

Tourism Minister of the BJP who has assets worth over Rs. 104 crore.

A car freak, contesting from Vijaynagar from mine-rich
Bellary district is stated to possess 25 vehicles including Bentleys,
Mercedes Benzes and Tatra trucks.

He  wears two hats, that of an editor of a newspaper, Ananda Karnataka Daily and a mining baron.

Congress treasurer, who runs a string of
educational institutions in Davanagere and is contesting from Davangere
South, has assets worth over Rs. 67 crore in contrast to his party
president  whose total assets declared are worth Rs. 3.87
crore.

A Congress contesting from Sarvagnanagar, has assets
worth Rs. 26.82 crore. Congress has also fielded its councillor from
city corporation,  from Hoodi ward in K R Puram constituency
whose total worth is also over Rs. 26 crore.

As against this, former Chief Minister and Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP)
founder, has declared his assets to be Rs. 5.96 crore,
which is about Rs three crore more than the assets declared by him in
2008 assembly polls, who had to resign as Chief Minister after the Karnataka
Lokayukta indicted him in illegal mining, had to spend some time in
jail in a graft case.

The lingayat strongman’s close aide, (KJP) contesting
from Sorab in Shimoga district, has declared his assets to be worth Rs.
3.52 crore.

Industries Minister, facing corruption cases before
Lokayukta court, has declared his assets at Rs. 28.14 crore. Nirani is
contesting from Bilagi constituency in Raichur district.

Infrastructure strained in Bengaluru

All  areas in the city, residents of all the  wards under BBMP Assembly constituencies  have to put up with problems such
as glacially paced infrastructure works, poor roads, congested
footpaths, garbage and increasing commercialisation.

Bengaluru
which was called as the Puniya Bhoomi is home to people belonging to
lower socioeconomic groups, middle class and upper middle class.

Residents, not entirely comfortable with the commercialisation of their
once tranquil localities, complain that it has brought with it associated
problems such as increasing traffic and pollution. The inordinate delay
in infrastructure projects is only compounding the traffic problems.

Several old-timers are troubled with the increasing commercialisation.
“There are malls coming up and taking away business from the small
traders. This has upset the entire economy. With
the boom in real estate and increasing commercialisation, the very
fabric of areas that was once pensioners’ paradise is changing.

Waste management

People are  disappointed with the failure to make Bengaluru a
model city in solid waste management. “When the garbage crisis erupted,
there was enthusiasm initially to solve the problem. The citizens were
also ready to pitch in; but nothing concrete was achieved.”

The end result is that garbage continues to be dumped at the black spots.

Security issues

lack of security is a major concern.

While the middle and upper middle class residents are worried about
security, aspect, more immediate worries plague those belonging to lower
socioeconomic groups here. Drinking water and lack of immediate access
to public toilets are bugbears for them.

Women from many 
localiies have to walk nearly half a km with buckets of water to
relieve themselves, while areas
where people belonging to middle and upper middle class reside get all
the attention, those populated by the poor are often ignored. Many slums
have been demolished to make way for rich business men and traders.

Advani accused of taking money from Yeddyurappa

BANGALORE:
BJP leader L.K. Advani had taken money from erstwhile Karnataka chief
minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to allow him to remain in office after
corruption scandals involving him surfaced, Yeddyurappa’s Karnataka
Janata Party (KJP) alleged Monday

“I have
documents and will release them at the appropriate time,” V. Dhananjaya
Kumar, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and junior central
minister in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at
New Delhi, told reporters here.

Dhananjaya
Kumar, the KJP’s spokesman, made the claim a day after Advani
indirectly attacked Yeddyurappa for tarnishing BJP’s image by indulging
in corruption.

“Advani
has no moral right to criticize Yeddyurappa as he had used his children
to threaten Yeddyurappa and extract money to allow him to remain in
office,” Dhananjaya Kumar alleged.

He said several central BJP leaders were known to take money from party chief ministers.

D.V. Sadananda Gowda said “if he proves the allegations, we will shut down BJP in Karnataka”.

• 
• 
• 

EC pulls up Eshwarappa for hate speech

The Election Commission on Tuesday reprimanded Deputy
Chief Minister K.S. Eshwarappa for hate speech at a meeting in Shimoga
on April 9.

Mr. Eshwarappa is the BJP candidate in Shimoga Assembly constituency for the May 5 polls.

“The
perusal of your impugned statement leaves no one in doubt that the same
has the effect of inciting communal feelings and promoting hatred and
ill-will between different classes of citizens of India, in a surcharged
election atmosphere, which is prohibited under the model code of
conduct. Now, therefore, the commission has decided to reprimand you for
having made the above provocative statement in violation of the model
code of conduct and has cautioned you to be careful in future,” the
Election Commission said.

It rejected Mr.
Eshwarappa’s reply to its notice, quoting a judgment of the Karnataka
High Court, wherein he had claimed that the model code of conduct would
come into force from the day of notification of the election (issued on
April 10) and not the date of announcement of polls (March 20). The
Election Commission quoted a verdict of the Supreme Court to justify its
stand on the date when the poll code would come into effect.

Criminal case filed against Eshwarappa for “hate speech”

Days after making an alleged “hate speech” against a
minority community, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister K.S. Eshwarappa was
slapped with a criminal case on Friday after electoral officials issued
directions for it.

The case was registered and an FIR
filed as per the directions of chief of Flying Squad of poll code
enforcement for the May five Assembly elections at the order of Deputy
Commissioner and District Electoral Officer Vipul Bansal.

Cases
under IPC sections as also under Representation of People Act have been
booked after the squad submitted the video recording of Mr. Eswarappa’s
speech at a conference on Sunday, police said.

A
local court on Wednesday had admitted a complaint against Mr. Eshwarappa
for making a “hate speech” on a complaint by the President of minority
cell of the district Congress, Sayad W Addu, who accused him of
“instigating” a particular community against others and violating the
code of conduct.

Congress and a number of individuals
had filed complaints with district authorities and returning officer
against Mr. Eshwarappa for alleged violation of the model code of
conduct and instigating communal hatred.

If the case is proved, Mr. Eshwarappa has to face a jail term of three years.

Law Minister Ashwani Kumar in deep trouble

New Delhi: Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar may find
himself in a spot when the CBI files its affidavit in the Supreme Court
on whether the coalgate report was vetted by the Law Ministry and the
PMO.

Sources said that Kumar had made substantive changes in the
content in order to protect the PMO and the government. The CBI is
likely to take a stand that while the changes were indeed recommended,
the investigative agency did not incorporate them, sources said.

In
doing so, the CBI may put forth its original report and the changes
recommended. The court had made it clear that the report must be
submitted only to it in a sealed cover.  If the Law Ministry had stepped
in, it may lead to contempt of court.  

If the CBI tells the
court that changes were recommended, Kumar may not be able hold on to
his seat. The government will have no option but to sacrifice him in
order to cap the anger in Parliament.

The Law Minister had taken a
stand that he just corrected the English and certain grammatical
errors. But the BJP hit back asking the minister if he was an English
professor or the country’s Law Minister. Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar
Prasad said this was the first time in Parliamentary history when a
minister is found `correcting’ the English language of India’s premier
investigating agency.

Sources also said that the CBI may tell the
court that the Law Minister’s proposed changes were sent to the Prime
Minister’s Office. However, the PMO did not send a formal reply. But
following Kumar’s letter, CBI officials did meet senior officers at the
PMO. The question being asked is why did the meeting take place,
especially in the backdrop of the controversial recommendations of the
Law Ministry.

The PMO has dismissed the meeting as a routine one. But this stand is unlikely to hold much water.

The
BJP and the Left have now demanded the resignation of the Law Minister
and the Prime Minister for trying to influence a crucial investigation.

The
issue rocked both Houses of Parliament leading to a series of
adjournments. The possibility of a washout of the brief session looks
almost certain.

In a  related development, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh had a meeting with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The details of
the talks were not made available, but coming as it is in the backdrop
of the coalgate scam, the meeting assumes significance. 

Scrap coal mines not in production: Parliamentary Panel

VVIP chopper deal: CBI freezes bank account of ex-IAF chief

CBI has frozen bank accounts of former Indian Air Force chief S P
Tyagi and other Indians named as accused for allegedly receiving
kickbacks in the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP helicopter deal.

Agency sources said here today that “certain bank accounts of all the Indian accused” named in the FIR have been frozen by CBI.

The bank accounts of Indian companies named in the alleged scam
– Aeromatrix Info Solutions Private Limited and IDS Infotech — have
already been frozen by the agency, they said.

The sources said bank accounts of Tyagi’s cousins — Sanjeev
alias Julie, Rajeev alias Docsa and Sandeep — have also been frozen as
part of the investigation.

Other Indians named in the FIR whose accounts have been frozen by
the agency include former Union Minister Santosh Bagrodia’s brother
Satish Bagrodia, who is also Chairman of IDS Infotech, the company’s
Managing Director Pratap Aggarwal, Aeromatrix CEO Praveen Bakshi and
legal advisor Gautam Khaitan, the sources said.

CBI in its FIR has booked all the accused under the provisions of
the IPC relating to cheating and criminal conspiracy and the Prevention
of Corruption Act.

Tyagi is the first chief of the Indian Air Force to be named in a corruption or criminal case by CBI.

CBI has alleged that during his tenure as Air Chief, Tyagi and
“with his approval” the Air Force “conceded to reduce the service
ceiling for VVIP helicopters from 6,000 meters to 4,500 meters as
mandatory to which it was opposing vehemently on the grounds of security
constraints and other related reasons”.

According to the FIR, “Haschke Guido and Gerosa Carlo (middlemen)
managed to send € 5.6 million through Mohali-based IDS Infotech and
Chandigarh-based Aeromatrix Info Solutions Private Limited to India and
kept the remaining amount out of about €24.30 million received from
AgustaWestland with themselves in the account of IDS Tunisia.”

https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/13e396080c983ea7

Every well-informed schoolchild knows this is rising India’s Age of Uninterrupted Scams.

Devas gets preferential allocation of ISRO’s spectrum Bangalore firm had signed lease pact with space agency’s commercial arm Antrix in 2005. Madhumathi D.S. Thomas K. Thomas, Bangalore/ New Delhi, May 30 At a time when telecom operators are aggressively bidding in crores of rupees for acquiring spectrum, a little-known company in Bangalore, Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd, has got preferential allocation of air waves controlled by the Indian Space Research Organisation by virtue of an agreement the two signed five years ago. Devas has been allocated bulk capacity of 10 transponders on not one, but at least two forthcoming satellites, the space agency has confirmed in a communication to Business Line. An agreement to this effect was signed in January 2005 between Devas and ISRO’s commercial arm, Antrix Corporation, it said. As a result, starting mid-2011, Devas can commercially tap an undisclosed extent of the S-band spectrum (or the 2.5Ghz frequency) that is in ISRO’s control. It would use it for the life-term of the two successive satellites for what ISRO described as ‘IP-based multimedia services’ — to provide video, voice and text from mobile platforms such as cars and trains. The company’s business plan involves hybrid — or a mix of satellite and terrestrial — operations. “The agreement to lease capacity was signed by Antrix in January 2005. Capacity on 10 transponders has been leased [on each satellite]. The lease is over the life-time of the satellite, which is normally 12 years,” ISRO said in response to queries from this newspaper. It, however, did not say how much spectrum has been given in the coveted S-band segment; nor how much Devas would pay for it. The first satellite, GSat-6 (Insat-4E), is being built by ISRO at around Rs 260 crore and is due to be flown later this year. ISRO holds 80 Mhz of spectrum in the 2.5-2.69-gigahertz space — a golden band that broadband wireless access operators covet worldwide. This would be the first time a private commercial player would be sharing the quota allocated to ISRO decades ago. The space agency said that in line with the National Frequency Allocation Plan (NFAP), it has rights to use the designated frequencies for satellite-based services. However, a Delhi-based person of authority connected with matters of frequency spectrum allocation, whom Business Line contacted, observed that according to the NFAP, satellite bandwidth cannot be given away selectively to a single commercial entity; any available opportunity should be thrown open to industry at large. (A few years ago, that is how ISRO/Antrix allowed licensed direct-to-home broadcasters and VSAT operators to use its new Ku band and the older C band.) Also, the Government is still debating if it should permit terrestrial services in the said S-band. Asked about other private commercial players for the digital multimedia space, ISRO replied that it was open to giving such capacity to anyone who sought it. “If such proposals are received, they will be considered by ISRO/Antrix.” Telecom industry players, who are scrounging for bandwidth, are raising eyebrows over the contract between Antrix and Devas. “How does only Devas get so much bandwidth when other players like us have been asking for capacity,” asked an industry person who did not wish to be named. Devas was founded in 2004. Its Chairman and Director, Dr M.G. Chandrasekhar, is a former ISRO veteran and its erstwhile Scientific Secretary. In July 2008, Deutsche Telekom AG bought 17 per cent stake in Devas for $75 million (around Rs 318 crore then). Reports say private equity firm Columbia Capital and Telcom Ventures hold 49 per cent stake. The commercial details of the Devas-ISRO pact were not shared. “The lease charges are comparable to what ISRO gets from leasing capacity on its other INSAT satellites,” the space agency said. The Ku band, for example, was leased to Tata Sky, Bharti, Sun. Reliance ADAG, and other DTH licensees at roughly Rs 5 crore a transponder a year. Lease of 10 transponders on GSat-6 for 12 years would roughly fetch Rs 600 crore. “The Government generated nearly Rs 70,000 crore from 3G auctions [for a total bandwidth of 20 megahertz],” noted another industry person. Another question dogging telecom circles is whether Devas Multimedia Ltd is using the ISRO platform to get a backdoor entry into the telecom space. Devas has only an Internet service provider’s (ISP) licence. Its portfolio of services includes streaming video, audio and data as well as Web access, infotainment and social applications. Little else was shared about the nature, validity of the licence and whether it allows commercial services. ISRO merely said Devas earlier got a temporary experimental licence from the Wireless Planning and Coordination Wing for the testing phase. The outcome was not known. (This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated May 31, 2010)

BANGALORE/NEW DELHI, February 7, 2011 The Hindu CAG goes after another spectrum deal Madhumathi D. S., Thomas K. Thomas Preliminary estimates point to loss of more than Rs. 2,00,000 crore; Department of Space, ISRO under scanner Hard on the heels of its explosive investigations of the 2G spectrum allotments made in 2008 by the Department of Telecommunications, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has started inquiries into a 2005 agreement between the Indian Space Research Organisation’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd. and Devas Multimedia Private Ltd. The agreement relates to ISRO’s launching of two satellites for Devas but automatically bestows on the latter a large hidden benefit: unbridled use of 70 MHz of the scarce S-band spectrum over a 20-year period. ISRO is under the Department of Space (DoS), which is directly in the Prime Minister’s charge. Business Line learns that according to preliminary CAG estimates, this spectrum largesse to a private customer could have caused the exchequer a loss in excess of Rs. 2 lakh crore. According to the contract with Devas, Antrix would have earned $11 million a year per satellite for 12 years. By comparison, the presumptive loss incurred in the allocation of 2G spectrum by the DoT, as estimated by the CAG, is Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Under the deal, Devas Multimedia is to get access to 70 Mhz of broadband spectrum in the 2500 Mhz band. This was once used by Doordarshan to deliver programmes by satellite to all parts of the country but is now considered to be of enormous commercial value for high-speed, terrestrial mobile communications. In 2010, the Union government got nearly Rs. 67,719 crore from the auction of just 15 Mhz of similar airwaves for 3G mobile services. Devas Multimedia is a company in which Deutsche Telekom is a minority equity stakeholder. Dr. M.G. Chandrasekhar, Devas Multimedia Chairman, is a former Scientific Secretary at ISRO. Although the Space Commission in July 2010 strongly objected to the contract and recommended that it be scrapped, this has not happened. However, Devas Multimedia has been given some spectrum to conduct trials. According to the contract, copies of which are available with Business Line and The Hindu, Devas Multimedia is entitled to get a total of 70 Mhz of the S-band spectrum on lease for 20 years. The contract requires ISRO to build and launch two communications satellites - GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A - at a further cost of Rs 2,000 crore. Devas Multimedia will get to use 10 transponders on each of the satellites. The CAG is reported to have asked for an explanation from the DoS on the preferential allocation of S-band spectrum without DoS/Antrix going through a competitive bidding process; on diverting public resources out of ISRO’s budget towards two customer-specific satellites for Devas Multimedia; and misinforming regulators about the project’s financial aspects and its full commercial implications. The contract, unlike others ISRO has signed in the past, places no restrictions on Devas Multimedia for onward lease of spectrum. On May 31, 2010, Business Line first reported the preferential maiden allotment of S-band spectrum to Devas Multimedia, which planned to launch digital satellite multimedia broadcast services (D-SMB) in India using that space infrastructure. It is the first time the S-band, which ranges from 2500 to 2690 Mhz, has been opened up to the private sector. And this has been done on the quiet. CAG’s concerns over deal ● S-band spectrum was allocated without inviting competitive bids ● Organisational control systems were not followed ● The Prime Minister’s Office, the Cabinet, and the Space Commission have not been properly informed about the contract details, including the underestimation of ISRO’s costs ● Public resources were diverted to build two customer-specific satellites ● Devas Multimedia’s terms deviate from those in past commercial contracts of ISRO/Antrix   NEW DELHI/BANGALORE, February 7, 2011The Hindu What’s the big deal about S-band? Thomas K. Thomas, Madhumathi D. S. Globally 2.5 Ghz band is used for 4G services and is worth billions of dollars The S-band spectrum, which is part of the Devas-ISRO deal, is extremely valuable for mobile broadband services, in terms of usage as well as money. The frequency, also known as 2.5 Ghz band, is globally used for providing mobile broadband services using fourth generation technologies such as WiMax and Long Term Evolution (LTE). This frequency band is unique because it has a substantial amount of spectrum (190 MHz) that can be put to use for mobile services. All other spectrum bands up to 3.5 GHz include significantly smaller amounts of spectrum for terrestrial mobile communication, or are not available. In India, of the 190 Mhz, the Department of Space was given 150 Mhz - 30 years ago - for Broadcast Satellite Service and Mobile Satellite Service. Twenty Mhz was recently given to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd for offering broadband spectrum. BSNL and MTNL were asked to pay Rs. 12,847 crore for their 20 Mhz. But Devas is getting access to 70 Mhz in the same band for just over Rs. 1,000 crore. Bonanza Globally, this frequency band has been put up for auction in many countries and has fetched governments billions of dollars. In 2009, three operators together paid $HK 1.53 billion for 90 MHz of radio spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band. A few months ago, Finland-based mobile operator TeliaSonera launched 4G mobile services based on LTE technology in this band. Operators in several other countries such as Brazil and South Africa are on the verge of using the S-band after the World Radiocommunications Conference 2000, held under the aegis of the International Telecommunication Union, designated the 2.5 Ghz band for mobile services. Harmonious usage The usability of spectrum depends on how harmonious it is with global usage. That is because mobile device makers and network equipment manufacturers can focus on developing products for a specific radio frequency for every country. If each country were to have its own plan for using spectrum, then telecom networks and devices would become very complex and expensive. So if most countries are moving towards adopting 2.5 Ghz for telecom services, India will lose out if the satellite agency continues to hold on to it. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has already recommended that it would like to review the usage of this frequency band by the incumbents and refarm it for commercial mobile services.   New Delhi, February 8, 2011 What the PMO claims and what the facts are Business Line Bureau PTI Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during an international meet in New Delhi on Monday. The PMO said that it had not taken any decision to allocate ‘space segment’ in the S-band spectrum to Antrix Corporation or Devas Multimedia. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Tuesday said in a brief statement that it had not taken any decision to allocate ‘space segment’ (wireless radio frequency under the control of the Department of Space) in the S-band spectrum to Antrix Corporation or Devas Multimedia Private Limited. The statement claimed that the question of any revenue loss did not arise; reports to that effect were without basis in fact. The PMO was responding to reports that appeared in The Hindu and Business Line on Monday, and in other media outlets on Tuesday, which referred to the contract entered into between Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO, and the Bangalore-based Devas engaged in developing multimedia and information services via satellites. The reports had pointed out that the equivalent of about Rs. 500 crore for which the agreement for the lease of transponder capacity was entered into was grossly short of what the initial estimates from the audit carried out by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General had suggested. The 3G auction of radio frequencies available with the Department of Telecommunications had offered a clear benchmark. But an analysis of the Antrix-Devas agreement throws up pointers that are at variance with the contention of the PMO. According to the terms of contract made in January 2005, Antrix represented that it has the power to enter into and perform this Agreement (the agreement to deliver space segment communication capacity). The contract was to deliver to Devas a leased capacity on the primary satellite, five transponders of 8.1 MHz each and another five transponders of 2.7 MHz capacity, within a period of 36 months (including a grace period of six months). In satellite communications the grant of transponder is tantamount to allocation of spectrum, as they are designed to work at specific frequency bands. In this case, as and when the transponders are allotted in the S-Band, it follows that spectrum in the 2500 MHz band would be allotted. This is akin to the way DTH operators are given transponders for broadcasting. When a Tata Sky, Dish TV or other DTH operator is offered a transponder, it is essentially offered frequency in the Ku band, which is a different set of radio frequencies. Termination clause The Government has also contended that there is no revenue loss from the legal arrangement between Antrix and the private company. The extent of revenue foregone may be open to interpretation. However, for the government to contend that there is no financial loss whatsoever is clearly at variance with the financial penalties that Antrix is liable to pay out, and hence, by extension, the government, for any default in the timely delivery of promised transponder capacities.   New Delhi, February 8, 2011 The Hindu Antrix-Devas S-band deal headed for annulment Sandeep Joshi, P. Sunderarajan ISRO Chairman claims decision to scrap contract was taken in July 2010, admits ISRO did not inform government of exclusive use of two satellites by Devas; PMO claims ‘no revenue loss’ The controversy-ridden S-band deal between the Indian Space Research Oragnisation’s commercial arm, Antrix Corporation, and Devas Multimedia Private Limited is heading for annulment, the Government of India indicated on Tuesday. With the Opposition demanding a probe into allegations that high-value S-band spectrum worth an estimated Rs 2 lakh crore had been made freely available by ISRO to the Bangalore-based private company, the Manmohan Singh government on Tuesday went into damage control mode. Two top space officials were fielded to deny there was any “dilly-dallying'’ in terminating the agreement while the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement of double denial. The PMO claimed that “no decision was taken by the Government to allocate space segment using S-band spectrum to Antrix or Devas” and “hence, the question of revenue loss does not arise.” “The decision to scrap the contract was taken in July 2010 itself by the Space Commission following an internal review by ISRO…currently consultations are on at various levels of the government and a decision on the issue would be taken soon,” K. Radhakrishnan, the ISRO Chairman and Secretary in the Department of Space, told journalists here. Denying any revenue loss to the government from the use of spectrum, Dr. Radhakrishnan, however, said there was a possibility of financial implications when the deal was annulled. “We will ensure that the government does not incur any damages,” he added. Asked why the deal, which was highlighted in a detailed expose published in The Hindu and Business Line on Monday, was being scrapped, Dr. Radhakrishnan said the two satellites - GSAT 6 and GSAT 6A - ISRO was planning to launch were primarily intended to be used by Devas Multimedia, a firm headed by former Scientific Secretary at ISRO, M.G. Chandrasekhar. The ISRO chief conceded that Devas Multimedia was to utilise 90 per cent of the capacity of the two satellites that would use 70 MHz of S-band spectrum. However, ISRO later decided that the two satellites and the spectrum were needed to meet India’s strategic needs and societal services like education, healthcare, communication, and disaster management. Dr. Radhakrishnan, who addressed the media along with Planning Commission Member (Science) and former DoS Secretary and ISRO head K. Kasturirangan, admitted that ISRO did not inform the government that the two new satellites were planned for exclusive use of Devas Multimedia. “One point that was not explicitly mentioned [to the Union Cabinet] was that GSAT 6 and GSAT 6A satellites are going to be predominantly used for a novel and commercial application developed by Devas Multimedia in association with global experts,” he said. “Ideally we should have informed the government about it…an internal review is as to why it was not mentioned to the government,” the ISRO Chairman stated, adding that action would be initiated against the guilty. Asked why no competitive bidding took place for the use of satellite, Dr. Radhakrishnan contended that what Devas Multimedia was developing was a new application and there were no other player. “When the dialogue started with Devas Multimedia in 2003, it was an emerging scenario and a new application was being developed…as there was no other players, hence no bidding.” Asked whether the Prime Minister was aware of the Antrix-Devas deal, he answered that the contract was finalised by the Antrix Board and he had taken the matter up to the Space Commission. “After the decision [to annul the deal was made],” he disclosed, “I broached the matter with the Prime Minister, who is our Minister in-charge and that is how the PMO issued a press statement today.” Earlier in the day, the PMO issued the following statement: “This office has seen reports alleging loss of Government revenue in a contract entered into by Antrix and Devas Multimedia Pvt. Ltd. due to lease of space segment capacity which would use S-band spectrum. The Comptroller and Auditor General’s office and the Department of Space have already issued statements stating the factual position on the matter. It is further clarified that no decision has been taken by the Government to allocate space segment using S-band spectrum to Antrix or Devas. Hence, the question of revenue loss does not arise and any such reports are without basis in fact.” Meanwhile, Union Law Ministry sources told The Hindu that as early as July 2010, the government was advised to terminate the agreement by Additional Solicitor-General Mohan Parasaran.   CHENNAI, February 9, 2011The Hindu Many former officials now with Devas Special Correspondent Several former technocrats of government agencies, especially the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), are associated with Devas Multimedia, which is now at the centre of a controversy over its 2005 agreement with the country’s space agency. A look at the profile of officials in the top management of Devas, its board of directors and its panel of advisors shows that the Bangalore-based company has brought together communications engineers and other experts formerly employed by ISRO, the Department of Telecommunications and formerly state-run Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL). Besides its Chairman M.G. Chandrasekhar, who joined ISRO in 1973 and later became its Scientific Secretary and member, Apex Management Council, the company’s Chief Technology Officer D. Venugopal and Associate President, Business Development and Marketing, Mukund Rao, had been in ISRO in different capacities. Its Board includes Kiran Karnik, former president of NASSCOM, who has served ISRO in various positions for 20 years, according to Devas Multimedia’s website. Two of the company’s Senior Advisors - Jai Singh and K. Narayanan - had also held senior positions in ISRO in the past. B.K. Synghal, a Senior Advisor, is a former Managing Director of VSNL, while another, R.N. Agarwal, was a Wireless Advisor in the Department of Telecommunications. Mr. Chandrasekhar, according to the website, “joined ISRO in 1973 and held various techno-managerial positions and played a key role in developing IRS (Indian Remote Sensing satellite series) and INSAT (Indian National Satellite) programmes and operating its fleet of satellites.” He was also Managing Director of WorldSpace India, a pioneer in digital satellite radio services. Mr. Venugopal, it says, was Deputy Director, Satellite Communication Programme, in ISRO headquarters from 1989 to 1998. He had earlier been a System Engineer in ISRO’s Space Application Centre. Still earlier, he was Deputy Engineer-in-charge at VSNL. Mr. Rao was associated with the National Natural Resources Management System, an inter-agency programme aimed at optimising use of natural resources based on remote sensing data. Its secretariat is in ISRO headquarters. Among the Devas advisors, both Mr. Jai Singh and Mr. Narayanan were directors of ISRO’s satellite communications programme. Mr. Singh was the first programme director for INSAT and had also been Director, Spectrum Management. Mr. Narayanan was “closely associated with INSAT since its inception,” according to the website. Besides Mr. Chandrasekhar and Mr. Venugopal, other Directors on the Devas Multimedia board are its president and CEO Ramachandran Viswanathan, who had been Managing Director of Forge Advisers, a strategic consultancy, and a senior official with WorldSpace and broadband internet company Cidera; Rajendra Singh, Chairman and CEO of Telcom Ventures; Arun Gupta of Columbia Capital; Kevin Copp of Deutsche Telekom AG; Mr. Karnik, A. Murugappan, an investment banking consultant; and Gary Parsons and Larry Babbio, both associated with telecom companies abroad. V.R. Katti, ISRO’s Geosat Programme Director, is the nominee of ISRO and Antrix Corporation, its commercial arm, on the Devas Board, which also includes Shyam Tandon, an educationist, and Sameer Karwa, an industrialist.   February 10, 2011 The Hindu Behind the S-band spectrum scandal Every well-informed schoolchild knows this is rising India’s Age of Uninterrupted Scams. No government before the present United Progressive Alliance regime has had to deal with such a dizzying succession of exposés of corruption scandals - 2G spectrum, the Commonwealth Games, Adarsh Housing, money laundering, and the rest that have come tumbling out. The latest in the series is the Indian Space Research Organisation’s deal - hatched in secret and sought to be covered up over a period of six years - to launch two customer-specific satellites and give away 70 MHz of high-value S-band for unfettered commercial exploitation at a scandalously low price of just over Rs 1000 crore to a private company, Devas Multimedia Private Limited. The transaction and its implications were first exposed by Business Line, the business daily of The Hindu group, in a detailed report published on May 31, 2010. Despite Telecommunications Minister Kapil Sibal’s defence of the indefensible, enough is known about the 2G spectrum allocation scam to place it at the top of the list of independent India’s corruption scandals. But what is the essence of the S-band spectrum deal concluded in January 2005 between ISRO’s commercial arm, Antrix Corporation, and Devas Multimedia which, it turns out, was born of an incestuous relationship with India’s space programme? The agreement (the full text is available under Resources at www.thehindu.com) relates to two customer-specific satellites, GSat-6 and GSat 6-A, which ISRO is contractually committed to design, build, and launch in order to make available to Devas the S-band spectrum for commercialising a range of multimedia, broadband services across India. What is special about the S-band, which is defined as radio waves with frequencies that range from 2 GHz to 4 GHz? According to “The 2.6 GHz Spectrum Band: Unique Opportunity to Realize Global Mobile Broadband,” a 2009 report prepared for the GSM Association: “As mobile voice and data traffic increases, wireless operators around the world will require additional spectrum. However, as a finite public commodity, few bands remain available for new allocation to mobile wireless services and even fewer exist for global harmonisation of wireless spectrum assets. The 2.6 GHz band is one exception. The 2.6 GHz band (2500-2690 MHz), sometimes also referred as the 2.5 GHz band, was allocated by the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) in 2000 for terrestrial mobile communications services. The band provides an opportunity to meet rapidly rising demand for capacity to deliver mobile broadband services on a widespread, common basis across the world.” Armed with secret knowledge of what ISRO could do for it by launching customer-specific satellites to make available at a throwaway price a large chunk of S-band spectrum, Devas Multimedia - a venture founded in 2004 at the initiative of former officials of the Indian space programme and involving foreign investors - thought it had struck gold. In July 2008, it even sold a 17 per cent stake to Deutsche Telecom AG for $ 75 million (around Rs. 318 crore at the time) and over the next year was clearly looking forward to a time of unrivalled growth in valuation. According to a preliminary estimate by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, whose search for the relevant documents within the Department of Space has been actively obstructed, the presumptive loss of revenue to the government in the event of the Antrix-Devas deal going through now would exceed two lakh crore rupees (approximately $44.4 billion). ISRO and the Department of Space have scored many successes and enjoyed a good, clean reputation over the decades. Fortunately, in late 2009 some outraged insiders blew the whistle on the secret deal - so secret that ISRO’s chief, K. Radhakrishnan, had to admit at a press conference on February 8, 2011 that for reasons that were being “reviewed” internally, ISRO failed “explicitly” to inform the Union Cabinet that GSat-6 and GSat-6A were customer-specific satellites that would be “predominantly used for a novel and commercial application developed by Devas Multimedia in association with global experts.” Towards the end of 2009, thanks to the whistle-blowers and perhaps not unrelated to the stink raised by the 2G spectrum allocation scandal, a view began to form at the top levels of ISRO that the Antrix-Devas deal must be annulled. The Space Commission also wanted the deal to be annulled and the Prime Minister was informed on an indeterminate date. But nothing much happened until Business Line published its report in May 2010, which the CAG followed up conscientiously despite the bureaucratic hurdles placed in its path. Among the concerns registered by the CAG in its process of enquiry were the following: S-band spectrum was being given away without inviting competitive bids; organisational control systems were not followed; the Prime Minister’s Office, the Cabinet, and the Space Commission were not properly informed about the contract details; public resources were being diverted to building two customer-specific satellites; and the contract terms deviated from the terms of previous contracts entered into by ISRO and Antrix. To cut the story short, the publication of the results of the special Business Line investigation, backed up by documents and other reliable evidence, in The Hindu and Business Line has brought the CAG’s commendable efforts to light - and placed the nature, scale, and modalities of the S-band spectrum scandal on the public agenda. True to form, those at the receiving end have questioned the accuracy of the media reports or suggested they are overblown. It is a matter of satisfaction that the deal now seems to be heading for annulment - but no thanks to due diligence and oversight by a central government whose procrastination, lack of transparency, obfuscation, and indeed delinquency in this affair have shocked the nation.

Antrix-Devas S-band spectrum deal scrapped PTI Business Line New Delhi, Feb 17:  The controversial S-Band spectrum deal between ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix and private firm Devas Multimedia was scrapped on Thursday. The decision to annul the deal was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the basis of a recommendation from the Space Commission. The annulment comes in the wake of a raging controversy over the deal for handing over 70 Mhz of S-Band spectrum to the private firm for Rs 1,000 crore on which the CAG has already initiated action. According to certain estimates, this deal may have resulted in a loss of Rs 2 lakh crore to the exchequer. After news reports about the possible revenue loss appeared, the Government and ISRO said the project was already under review and action has been initiated for termination of the contract. The Prime Minister said yesterday that the deal had never been operationalised and rejected suggestions that his office had held “backroom” talks with Devas after the Space Commission’s decision to scrap the deal. He had said that if there has been delay in scrapping the deal, this has been “only procedural”. Devas Multimedia had yesterday termed as “disturbing and inappropriate” the government’s “unilateral” decision to terminate the agreement and threatened to take legal action. It said the government had reached the decision “without due investigative process and without following the principles of natural justice”.   Antrix-Devas S-band deal: All eyes now on panel report Our Bureau BL Bangalore, March 9:  A month to this day since the two-member high-powered review committee on the Antrix-Devas Multimedia contract was formed by the Prime Minister’s Office, the attention is now on what the panel has to say about the issue. Informed sources said the committee was due to finalise and submit the report by March 9 or 10. One of the panel members declined to confirm this, saying the report was meant for the PMO. On February 9, the PMO had appointed Planning Commission member, Mr B.K. Chaturvedi, and Space Commission member and aerospace scientist, Dr Roddam Narasimha, and given them a month’s time to look into any irregularities in the contract. The contract between ISRO’s arm Antrix Corporation and Devas Multimedia Private Ltd was signed on January 2005, but the Centre annulled it amidst controversy over its procedural, financial aspects and the access to the S-band spectrum to the private company. The panel was mandated to review the technical, commercial, procedural and financial aspects of the agreement; whether procedures and approval processes were followed by Antrix and the Department of Space; and to suggest improvements and changes. According to the agreement, ISRO was to build and launch two successive S-band communications satellites for commercial multi-media services by Devas. The Centre annulled the deal last month saying it was heavily tilted in favour of the private company and also said it would keep the precious S-band spectrum for Government and security agencies. The issue has also come under the scanner of the CAG.

On S-Band Spectrum Scam Date:  11 February 2011 The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement: On The S-band Spectrum Scam The Business Line-Hindu newspapers have exposed the S-band spectrum deal involving the ISRO Company Antrix and a private company, Devas Multimedia. By this agreement, the private company was to get access to high quality spectrum of 70 MHz through the launching of two custom-made satellites. The presumptive loss of revenue to the government would have been atleast Rs. 2 lakh crores. Faced with this exposure, the UPA government has resorted to the now familiar pattern when confronted with largescale scams and corruption. It has sought to underplay the extent of wrongdoing, claim that the agreement has not been implemented and obfuscate the issues involved. A number of questions remain unanswered in this affair which falls under the purview of the Department of Space, which is directly under the Prime Minister. How is it that the Cabinet gave clearance for launching the first satellite in December 2005 which is meant solely for the purpose of the private company? Why the agreement was not cancelled when the contract was found to be inappropriate and the Space Commission wanted it annulled in July 2010? Why is it that the government did not act even after the Additional Solicitor General had recommended that the termination of the agreement be a Government decision? The latest decision by the Prime Minister to constitute a two-member committee to “review” the agreement is highly questionable. What is the necessity for a “review” when already the contract has been found to be unjustified and needs to be annulled? The persons appointed – a former Cabinet Secretary and a member of the Space Commission –were both involved in the processing of the deal. The intention seems to be to keep this as an in-house matter. The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands an independent time-bound high-level enquiry by a retired judge of the Supreme Court. There are media reports of the obstructions faced by the Comptroller and Auditor General in examining the contract. The CAG should be able to examine fully all the relevant papers regarding the agreement. The people of the country will not be satisfied till all the facts about this dubious deal are uncovered and the guilty brought to book.

S-Band spectrum scandal - entire story and details All about the 2lakh crore S-Band Spectrum Scandal where ISRO signed a deal with private company, Devas Multimedia Private Limited As the UPA government under Prime Minister Manmahon Singh tries to get over the mega 2G spectrum scam, comes yet another big scandal, from the Government’s own organization ISRO(Indian Space Research Organisation). The expected loss to the Indian Government due to the signing of this deal is expected to reach upto Rs. 2 lakh crores. S-Band Spectrum Scandal In January,2005 Antrix Corporation(part of ISRO) and Devas Multimedia, a private company signed a deal which was kept completely secret from the Indian Government as well as the public. According to the deal, ISRO is committed to launch 2 satellites and provide as much as 70Mhz of S-band. The compensation paid by Devas for this job was about US$ 20 Million. The S-band is section in the electromagnetic spectrum which is useful for the Mobile and radio communications. According to the CAG(Comptroller and Auditor General of India) reports, the expected loss of Revenue to the Government due to this secret deal would reach upto Rs. 2 lakh crores. what is S-band? S-Band is a part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum. It ranges from frequencies 2GHz to 4GHz, according to IEEE. The 2.6GHz range(sometimes also named as 2.55GHz range) ranges from 2500MHz(2.5GHz) to 2690MHz(2.69GHz). This range is used by the organizations for communicating with the satellites. As mobile broadband technology has started to initiate using the 4G spectrum, it is most viable to use the 2.5GHz S-band for this technology. These 190MHz provide a huge range for broadband communication because of the width of the band. According to the deal, ISRO was committed to provide as much as 70MHz of this hugely precious 190MHz using the two satellites that were to be launched and maintained by ISRO. Antrix-Devas Agreement On 25th January,2005 an agreement was signed between Antrix(part of ISRO) and Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd. According to the Antrix-Devas Agreement 1. ISRO and Devas will work together to build, launch and use two satellites G-Sat6 and G-Sat7. 2. ISRO will lease S-band frequencies to Devas with as much as 50MHz frequency from G-Sat6 and upto 20MHz from G-Sat7 through various transponders 3. ISRO will provide the S-band to Devas within 3 years from the date of first installment. 4. The said frequency in S-band would be leased for a period of 12 years since the commencement of the agreement. 5. $US 20 million compensation in the form of reservation fees to be paid by Devas in three installments. allegations put forth by the CAG A few of the allegations which were put forth by the CAG regarding the Antrix-Devas Agreement 1. Distribution of the S-band 2.5Gz spectrum without any auction or bids. 2. Government of India, PMO and the Space Commission were not given the details of the satellites being customer specific and not being towards any public service. 3. Government funds would be utilized in construction and launching of the satellites as ISRO is essentially Government organization. 4. Had the distribution done through auctions, the estimated revenue the Government of India could generate would be close to 2 lakh crores. S-band scandal - Important timelines 2004 - Devas Multimedia was founded by officials of Space Commission 25th January,2005 - Secret agreement between Antrix and Devas signed July 2008 - Foreign investor Deutsche Telecom bought 17% shares of Devas Multimedia for US$75 million 2009 - ISRO insiders blew whistle regarding this mega scandal 31 May 2010 - With the help of CAG, Business Line (The Hindu daily) published the S-band scandal 8th February 2011 - ISRO chief K.Radhakrishnan addressed a press regarding the Antrix deal February 2011 - PMO issued press release stating that no decision was taken by Government of India in allocation of the S-band.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/scrap-all-coal-block-allocations-between-1993-and-2008-recommends-parliamentary-panel-report-sources-357614

Scrap all coal block allocations between 1993 and 2008, recommends parliamentary panel report: sources

New Delhi: Parliament
continues to witness fresh disruptions today as a united Opposition has
upped the ante over the twin controversies of 2G and coal scam. And in
what could provide it with fresh ammunition is a report by a standing
committee on allocation of coal blocks that is expected to be tabled
today. The report, sources say, is damning for the government as it
indicts the latter for irregularities in distribution of coal fields.

According
to sources, the report has recommended the cancellation of all coal
blocks allotted between 1993 and 2008. The recommendation is based on
the premise that procedure was not followed while granting coal blocks
to firms during this period. 

The report, sources say, has
pointed out that the allocation and supply of coal blocks between 1993
and 2004 was done in a “non-transparent” manner - several firms who
approached the Coal Ministry were “arbitrarily” given away coal blocks.
The report further goes to say that even though an advertisement was put
out calling for application of coal blocks between 2005 and 2006, no
bidding or auction was held. It has slammed the government for
distributing a precious natural resource in a “most unauthorized
manner”, which caused a loss of revenue.

The report, thus, may prove to be a fresh
headache for an already beleaguered government which is battling another
coal controversy, courtesy a CBI report. The latter’s report has
faulted the government for not verifying the credentials of private
firms who misrepresented financial and other records to land valuable
coal fields. The issue is sensitive for the government because for some
of those years, the Prime Minister held charge of the Coal Ministry.

The
investigating agency’s report on “Coal-gate” itself is also under the
scanner over allegations that it was reviewed by Law Minister Ashwani
Kumar before it was submitted to the Supreme Court last month.

http://www.scandalsinindia.co.in/political-scandals-in-india/commonwealth-games.htm

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-02-22/india/37241050_1_agustawestland-contract-and-integrity-pact-defence-ministry

VVIP helicopter scam: Defence ministry to decide on action after joint secretary, CBI reports