--- On Mon, 3/11/08, Shiva Shankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: Shiva Shankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: The Root of Untouchability
To: "C.K. Vishwanath" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "Rajan Gurukkal Gurukkal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Monday, 3 November, 2008, 3:19 PM
Contempt For Budhists As The Root Of Untouchability
By B. R. Ambedkar
THE Census Reports for India published by the Census Commissioner at the
interval of every ten years from 1870 onwards contain a wealth of information
nowhere else to be found regarding the social and religious life of the people
of India. Before the Census of 1910 the Census Commissioner had a column called
‘Population by Religion’. Under this heading the population was shown (1)
Muslims, (2) Hindus, (3) Christians, etc.
The Census Report for the year 1910 marked a new departure from the prevailing
practice. For the first time it divided the Hindus under three separate
categories, (i) Hindus, (ii) Animists and Tribal, and (iii) the Depressed
Classes or Untouchables. This new classification has been continued ever since.
This departure from the practice of the previous Census Commissioners raises
three questions. First is what led the Commissioner for the Census of 1910 to
introduce this new classification. The second is what was the criteria adopted
as a basis for this classification. The third is what are the reasons for the
growth of certain practices which justify the division of Hindus into three
separate categories mentioned above.
The answer to the first question will be found in the address presented in 1909
by the Muslim Community under leadership of H.H. The Aga Khan to the then
Viceroy, Lord Minto, in which they asked for a separate and adequate
representation for the Muslim community in the legislature, executive and the
public services.
In the address there occurs the following passage: "The Mohamedans of
India number, according to the census taken in the year 1901 over sixty-two
millions or between one-fifth and one-fourth of the total population of His
Majesty’s Indian dominions, and if a reduction be made for the uncivilised
portions of the community enumerated under the heads of animist and other minor
religions, as well as for those classes who are ordinarily classified as Hindus
but properly speaking are not Hindus at all, the proportion of Mohamedans to the
Hindu Majority becomes much larger. We therefore desire to submit that under any
system of representation extended or limited a community in itself more numerous
than the entire population of any first class European power except Russia may
justly lay claim to adequate recognition as an important factor in the State.
"We venture, indeed, with Your Excellency’s permission to go a step
further, and urge that the position accorded to the Mohamedan community in any
kind of representation direct or indirect, and in all other ways effecting their
status and influence should be commensurate, not merely with their numerical
strength but also with their political importance and the value of the
contribution which they make to the defence of the empire, and we also hope that
Your Excellency will in this connection be pleased to give due consideration to
the position which they occupied in India a little more than hundred years ago
and of which the traditions have naturally not faded from their minds."
The portion italicised by me has a special significance. It was introduced in
the address to suggest that in comprising the numerical strength of the Muslims
with that of the Hindus the population of the animists, tribals and the
Untouchables should be excluded. The reason for this new classification of
'Hindus' adopted by the Census Commissioner in 1910 lies in this demand
of the Muslim community for separate representation on augmented scale. At any
rate this is how the Hindus understood this demand.
Interesting as it is, the first question as to why the Census Commissioner made
this departure in the system of classification is of less importance than the
second question. What is important is to know the basis adopted by the Census
Commissioner for separating the different classes of Hindus into (1) those who
were hundred per cent Hindus and (2) those who were not.
The basis adopted by the Census Commissioner for separation is to be found in
the circular issued by the Census Commissioner in which he laid down certain
tests for the purpose distinguishing these two classes. Among those who were not
hundred percent Hindus were included castes and tribes which:
(1) Deny the supremacy of the Brahmins. (2) Do not receive the Mantra from a
Brahmin or other recognized Hindu Guru. (3) Deny the authority of the Vedas.
(4) Do not worship the Hindu gods. (5) Are not served by good Brahmins as
family priests. (6) Have no Brahmin priests at all. (7) Are denied access to
the interior of the Hindu temples. (8) Cause pollution (a) by touch, or (b)
within a certain distance. (9) Bury their dead. (10) Eat beef and do no
reverence for the cow.
Out of these ten tests some divide the Hindus from the Animists and the Tribal.
The rest divide the Hindus from the Untouchables. Those that divide the
Untouchables from the Hindus are (2), (5), (6), (7), and (10). It is with them
that we are chiefly concerned.
For the sake of clarity it is better to divide these tests into parts and
consider them separately. This Chapter will be devoted only to the consideration
of (2), (5), and (6).
The replies received by the Census Commissioner to questions embodied in tests
(2), (5) and (6) reveal (a) that the Untouchables do not receive the Mantra from
a Brahmin; (b) that the Untouchables are not served by Brahmin priests at all;
and (c) that Untouchables have their own priests reared from themselves. On
these facts the Census Commissioners of all Provinces are unanimous.
Of the three questions the third is the most important. Unfortunately the
Census Commissioner did not realise this. For in making his inquiries he failed
to go to the root of the matter to find out: Why were the Untouchables not
receiving the Mantra from the Brahmin? Why Brahmins did not serve the
Untouchables as their family priests? Why do the Untouchables prefer to have
their own priests? It is the ‘why’ of these facts which is more important
than the existence of these facts. It is the ‘why’ of these facts which must
be investigated. For the clue to the origin of Untouchability lies hidden behind
it.
Before entering upon this investigation, it must be pointed out that the
inquiries by the Census Commissioner were in a sense one-sided. They showed that
the Brahmins shunned the Untouchables. They did not bring to light the fact that
the Untouchables also shunned the Brahmins. Nonetheless, it is a fact. People
are so much accustomed to thinking that the Brahmin is the superior of the
Untouchables and the Untouchable accepts himself as his inferior; that this
statement that the Untouchables look upon the Brahmin as an impure person is
sure to come to them as a matter of great surprise. The fact has however been
noted by many writers who have observed and examined the social customs of the
Untouchables. To remove any doubt on the point, attention is drawn to the
following extracts from their writings.
The fact was noticed by Abbe Dubois who says: "Even to this day a Pariah
is not allowed to pass a Brahmin Street in a village, though nobody can prevent,
or prevents, his approaching or passing by a Brahmin's house in towns. The
Pariahs, on their part will under no circumstances, allow a Brahmin to pass
through their paracherries (collection of Pariah huts) as they firmly believe it
will lead to their ruin."
Mr. Hemingsway, the Editor of the Gazetteer of the Tanjore District says:
"These casts (Parayan and Pallan or Chakkiliyan castes of Tanjore District)
strongly object to the entrance of a Brahmin into their quarters believing that
harm will result to them therefrom."
Speaking of the Holeyas of the Hasan District of Mysore, Captain J.S.F.
Mackenzie says: "Every village has its Holigiri as the quarters inhabited
by the Holiars, formerly agrestic serfs, is called outside the village boundary
hedge. This, I thought was because they were considered as impure race, whose
touch carries defilement with it."
Such is the reason generally given by the Brahmins who refuse to receive
anything directly from the hands of a Holiar, and yet the Brahmins consider
great luck will wait upon them if they can manage to pass through the Holigiri
without being molested. To this Holiars have a strong objection, and, should a
Brahmin attempt to enter their quarters, they turn out in a body and slipper
him, in former times, it is said, to death. Members of the other castes may come
as far as the door, but they must not enter the house, for that would bring the
Holiar bad luck. If, by chance, a person happens to get in, the owner takes care
to tear the intruder's cloth, tie up some salt in one corner of it, and turn
him out. This is supposed to neutralise all the good luck which might have
accrued to the trespasser, and avert any evil which ought to have befallen the
owner of the house.
What is the explanation of this strange phenomenon? The explanation must of
course fit in with the situation as it stood at the start, i.e., when the
Untouchables were not Untouchables but were only Broken Men. We must ask why the
Brahmins refused to officiate at the religious ceremonies of the Broken Men? Is
it the case that the Brahmins refused to officiate? Or is it that the Broken Men
refused to invite them? Why did the Brahmin regard Broken Men as impure? Why did
the Broken Men regard the Brahmins as impure? What is the basis of this
antipathy?
This antipathy can be explained on one hypothesis. It is that the Broken Men
were Buddhists. As such they did not revere the Brahmins, did not employ them as
their priests and regarded them as impure. The Brahmin on the other hand
disliked the Broken Men because they were Buddhists and preached against them
contempt and hatred with the result that the Broken Men came to be regarded as
Untouchables.
We have no direct evidence that the Broken Men were Buddhists. No evidence is
as a matter of fact necessary when the majority of Hindus were Buddhists. We may
take it that they were.
That there existed hatred and abhorrence against the Buddhists in the mind of
the Hindus and that this feeling was created by the Brahmins is not without
support.
Nilkant in his Prayaschit Mayukha a verse from Manu which says: "If a
person touches a Buddhist or a flower of Pachupat, Lokayata, Nastika and
Mahapataki, he shall purify himself by a bath."
The same doctrine is preached by Apararka in his Smriti. Vradha Harit goes
further and declares entry into the Buddhist Temple as sin requiring a
purificatory bath for removing the impurity.
How widespread had become this spirit of hatred and contempt against the
followers of Buddha can be observed from the scenes depicted in Sanskrit dramas.
The most striking illustration of this attitude towards the Buddhists is to be
found in the Mricchakatika. In Act VII of that Drama the hero Charudatta and his
friend Maitreya are shown waiting for Vasantasena in the park outside the city.
She fails to turn up and Charudatta decides to leave the park. As they are
leaving, they see the Buddhist monk by name Samvahaka. On seeing him, Charudatta
says: "Friend Maitreya, I am anxious to meet Vasantsena ... Come, let us
go. (After walking a little) Ah ! here's an inauspicious sight, a Buddhist
monk coming towards us. (After a little reflection) well, let him come this way,
we shall follow this other path. (Exit.)"
In Act VIII the monk is in the Park of Sakara, the King's brother-in-law,
washing his clothes in a pool. Sakara accompanied by Vita turns up and threatens
to kill the monk. The following conversation between them is revealing:
"Sakara: Stay, you wicked monk.
Monk: Ah! Here’s the king’s brother-in-law! Because some monk has offended
him, he now beats up any monk he happens to meet.
Sakara: Stay, I will now break your head as one breaks a radish in a tavern..
(Beats him).
Vita: Friend, it is not proper to beat a monk who has put on the saffron-robes,
being disgusted with the world.
Monk: (Welcomes) Be pleased, lay brother.
Sakara: Friend, see. He is abusing me.
Vita: What does he say?
Sakara: He calls me lay brother (upasaka). Am I a barber?
Vita: Oh! He is really praising you as a devotee of the Buddha.
Sakara: Why has he come here?
Monk: To wash these clothes.
Sakara: Ah! you wicked monk. Even I myself do not bathe in this pool; I shall
kill you with one stroke."
After a lot of beating, the monk is allowed to go. Here is a Buddhist monk in
the midst of the Hindu crowd. He is shunned and avoided. The feeling of disgust
against him is so great that the people even shun the road the monk is
travelling. The feeling of revulsion is so intense that the entry of the
Buddhist was enough to cause the exit of the Hindus. The Buddhist monk is on a
par with the Brahmin. A Brahmin is immune from death penalty. He is even free
from corporal punishment. But the Buddhist monk is beaten and assaulted without
remorse, without compunction as though there was nothing wrong in it.
If we accept that the Broken Men were the followers of Buddhism and did not
care to return to Brahmanism when it became triumphant over Buddhism as easily
as others did, we have an explanation for both the questions. It explains why
the Untouchables regard the Brahmins as inauspicious, do not employ them as
their priest and do not even allow them to enter into their quarters. It also
explains why the Broken Men came to be regarded as Untouchables. The Broken Men
hated the Brahmins because the Brahmins were the enemies of Buddhism and the
Brahmins imposed untouchability upon the Broken Men because they would not leave
Buddhism. On this reasoning it is possible to conclude that one of the roots of
untouchability lies in the hatred and contempt which the Brahmins created
against those who were Buddhist.
Can the hatred between Buddhism and Brahmanism be taken to be the sole cause
why Broken Men became Untouchables? Obviously, it cannot be. The hatred and
contempt preached by the Brahmins was directed against Buddhists in general and
not against the Broken Men in particular. Since untouchability stuck to Broken
Men only, it is obvious that there was some additional circumstance which has
played its part in fastening untouchability upon the Broken Men. What could that
circumstance have been? We must next direct our effort in ascertaining it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Excerpted from Chapter 9 of B.R. Ambedkar's 1948 work The Untouchables:
Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables? as reprinted in Volume 7 of Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches, published by Government of Maharashtra
1990. Copyright: Secretary, Education Department, Government of Maharashtra..)
More Articles By Ambedkar:
Broken Men, The Pre-Untouchables
Untouchability, The Dead Cow And The Brahmin
http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-ambedkarbudha050703.htm
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