BY THE
INDIAN SOCIAL CONGRESS
T 0 THE
BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION
TO INDIA
honorable ‘Members of the Delegation-
The Indian Social Congress stands for the freedom of the people of India as distinguished from the political freedom of the country from foreign domination. It de-.sires the latter freedom as ardently as any other -Indian, but wants in addition that the people of India as human beings shall be as free in their daily life as the peoples of the free countries of the world. This human freedom is now denied in India as a result of cruel customs and superstitions inherited from an unknown past, which the British Government has continued to preserve for reasons one ,cannot understand.
Denial of Human Rights
The ‘following are some instances of the denial of ‘elementary human rights:
- To be free-born is the most elementary and most fundamental of all rights of man. This is denied by the Hindus. The status and rights of a Hindu are determined .before his birth, and nothing thereafter can alter them.
- Even in such simple matters as eating and drinking Hindus cannot associate with Hindus, nor can Hindus and Muslims or Christians associate as equals.
- Freedom of marriage is denied on account of the restrictions imposed in the name of caste and creed, and numerous social customs, backed up by the State.
- Right to inheritance and succession is also interfered with by the enforcement of unreasonable traditions and ancient laws.
- Daily insult is offered to self-respecting persons, Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others by the observance of discrimination, exclusiveness and untouchability between man and man in public places, like the hotels, schools, colleges, Government offices, factories, railway stations, etc.
- These unjust discriminations are carried into every department of the administration of the country, educational institutions, law courts, registration offices, birth and death records, police records, selection to the public services, election to the local bodies and the legislatures.
- Women are denied their legitimate share of the benefits of civilization, their economic rights, their right to equal justice in married life, their right to State re cognition of the special service rendered to society by – motherhood; their personal freedom to move about like
other human beings without being caged in the Zenana or the Purdah.
- Freedom of religion and worship is also made practically impossible by unconscionable customs.
- As a result of all these State-recognized restraints: and divisions the people of India are cut up into thousands
of meaningless and exclusive groups in the name of caste and creed. The State both under the Indian Rajas and – the British Government has made it almost impossible
for the people to unite or become free by any ordinary – means. As things are, no Indian can assert his human rights without coming into conflict with the law and administration of the British in India.
- After subjecting the people of India to enforced social and religious disunion and injustice sanctified by solemn recognition by the British Empire, it is a cruel mockery to ask them to unite and present a united demand for freedom.
Responsibility of the British
We shall now explain how the British Government is morally responsible for the present tragic situation and why we are entitled to ask them to break with their own hands the chains they have forged, before India is set free.
(a) Ignorant people cling to false ideas, but a civilized.. Government must be found guilty if it recognises and enforces popular superstitions instead of leaving them to idea natural death. The “castes and sub-castes” of India, have no fact or principle underlying them. They are in every way unjust, cruel, unreasonable; they are even understandable, and the Hindu Law Corninittee appointed by the Government of India has found that it is impossible to clarify or define what caste is. There is no scientific, logical or moral basis for these divisions and taboos, which crush the very humanity of the people of India. The Government should have refused to give them a place in the common law of the land. The believer in caste should have been, asked to observe it to his heart’s content in his home No civilized Government in any part of the world would give its seal of sanction to such a foul custom, which by every canon of law and justice deserves to be suppressed.,
(b) Exclusiveness and untouchability in drinking and eating may be the custom of a senseless people, but when a Government allows such insulting practices in public places, such as licensed hotels and restaurants, railway’ stations, public offices, public tanks and wells, etc. by permitting reservation and special arrangements for the’ different castes and creeds, it deserves to be condemned,, especially in view of the fact that even private Institutions, like the Taj Mahal Hotel, Missionary Institutions..
Y.M.C.A, etc. successfully ignore the false prejudices of the people and cater to all classes of Indians without any discrimination.
(c) State recognition of the absurd caste system has
gone so far and so deep that under the British Rule every Hindu is allotted a caste in. his birth register, and usually
also a special corner in the cremation ground; no Hindu can get admission into a school or register a document or appear before a Court of Law without owning a caste; selection to the public services, election to the local bodies and the legislatures are based on its recognition; from birth to death, from the small village up to the Viceroy’s Council, for all practical purposes, the Hindu is obliged to own and profess a caste unless he is prepared to play the role of a martyr.
(d) A cage is a cage whether it is made of iron bars (or silk cloth. The Government should have openly dis-‘countenanced the practice of women being obliged to -move in public and attend public offices like courts, schools, hospitals, etc. caged in the Purdah. Let them either’ remain in the Zenana or come out as free men and women as they do elsewhere. But the British Government has solemnly sanctified the Purdah and the resulting slavery of the women by protecting the cruel sentiment -of selfish men.
(e) A common Government and a common citizen-ship which underlies it, demanded that the Government ,should have given to the people a common law of marriage and property rights and should have countenanced deviation from the common law only for exceptionally strong reasons. But the British administration of India has resulted in the creation of separate laws, authorities and Codes for all sorts of foolish groups of persons, who wanted them on the authority of scriptures of which few in the land knew anything before the British came. Britain has failed to establish ordinary civil rights freed from the interference of religion, its priests and scriptures. She has prevented the growth of civic life by lavishly bestowing State support on the claims of the priests and their ancient books.
(f) When a religious group or order or institution has reasonable definiteness and just basis for its membership, constitution and management, the Government may be justified in giving a minimum recognition; but when a, foreign Government make a fetish of recognising and protecting every alleged religious group and sect and institution, though their constitution, membership and management are involved in ambiguity, it perpetuates innumerable injustices; as for example—a) Many people are deprived of their right and freedom of religion and_ worship as in the case of non-Brahmans of the South and the untouchable classes. (2) Small, exclusive minorities acquire vested interests and exploit the masses, as for instance—the Brahmans and priests; (3) Huge public institutions involving many crores of rupees are mismanaged or misapplied or used for anti-social activities and exploitation of the people, as for example—the numerous temples and Moths scattered all over India. (4) People are deprived of their freedom to grow and reform their religious and social life as in India, where the Government forcibly maintains the status quo in these matters. (5) The public lose their right to manage their common funds and institutions for the common good when the State enforces privileges and discriminations. The Hindus have been terribly handicapped in this way. (6) Muslims, Christians and other non-Hindus cannot obtain legitimate legal status and rights as Hindus, though they may have in all honesty become Hindus in faith.. Numerous similar injustices are involved when the Government gives its sanction to the abuses of religion.
From one end of India to the other the people are religiously, socially and legally vivisected into thousands of groups. By all means let them observe their religious separateness in their homes and places of worship, but no Government ought to legalize unreasonable social separateness in such a way as to make it impossible for the people to unite for political ends. The present condition of India is that the Government by sanctifying foolish social distinctions has made unification and cooperation for political purposes virtually impossible.
Some Suggestions
The following suggestions indicate in what manner the British Government has erred in the past and can rectify its rhistakes if it is interested in liberating the people.
(a) Caste should be completely banned in, every sphere of public life as an arrangement opposed to all canons of law, justice, freedom and humanity.
(h) The Government should refuse to be a party to the observance of caste in private life and no right, private or public founded on caste, should receive State support.
(c) Caste or communal institutions of a public character, such as schools, Universities, hotels, restaurants, play-grounds, co-operative societies, etc. excepting the purely religious ones, should be prohibited.
(d) Caste or communal differences should not be recognised for purposes of appointment to the services or -election to the local bodies or the Legislatures.
(c) Disowning of caste ought to be a condition of ,eligibility for the public services and for election: to the public bodies.
(f) All religious institutions claiming any legal right or property should be forced to have an ascertainable constitution defining their membership and management, and in the absence of such constitution legal recognition and protection should be refused.
(g) The Government should not interfere in any way with the management of any purely religious institution. The State should be completely secular. Religion and its activities should be left to private effort.
(h) No fund or property other than what is necessary for the maintenance of religious worship and religious instruction shall be owned by any religious institution. Religion should not be allowed to become a vested interest in lay affairs.
(i) Women’s right to freedom, equality, and economic rights, should be recognised and all customs to the contrary should be discountenanced.
(j) The civic rights of all classes of the people should be lifted out of the interference of religion. Laws of marriage, inheritance and succession should be based on economic and social considerations and not on mere custom or the scriptures.
(k) Legislation of all kinds should be entirely on scientific and democratic principles uninfluenced by religious considerations.
(l) Religious institutions should confine their activity to the maintenance of worship and religious instruction and prevented from undertaking secular functions, such as, education, business, recreation, charity, medical aid, etc.; all these, if privately organised, shall be separated from religion and governed by the common law of the land.
(m) All those who have suffered by their cruel exclusion from progress and civilization in the past, such as the women and the untouchable classes, should be given special State protection until they come up to the level of the rest of the population in education, culture and economic well-being.
These freedoms and rights should be enforced in order that the people of India may be free, and also guaranteed by the Constitution of FREE INDIA.
5, Masson road,
Lahore,
26th January, 1946.
(Mrs.) K. L. RALLIA RAM,
General Secretary,
Indian Social Congress.
