The following was an appendix to a 1946 book ‘The Menace of Hindu Imperialism’.
Presented before the British Parliamentary Delegation to India by
‘Swami Dharma Theertha, B.A., LL.B., President, Hindu Missionary Society, S.N. Sevashram, Big Conjeeveram.
Members of the Delegation,
You have come to study the Indian situation and probably you are thinking that the Hindu Muslim differences form the crux of the problem. If you think so, you are on the wrong track. The problem at the core is neither Indian nor Hindu Muslim; it is almost cent per cent Hindu, and unless you grasp this fact you will return just as you came ‘without understanding what the trouble is am an ardent Hindu who has lived all his life in humble service and renunciation of all selfish interests. I wish to tell you what and where the main disease is:
The Hindus form roughly 75% of the population of this country; most of the other 25% are descendants of Hindus who escaped from the Hindu fold and sought refuge in Islam, Christianity and other religions. ‘Two sets of people leave Hinduism in a continuous stream: One, the oppressed, persecuted and degraded low castes who form the vast majority, and the other, those who abandon Hinduism disgusted with its Brahman domination, caste, idolatry and other superstitions. In the latter group are included not only Muslims and Christians but Sikhs, Brahmo Samajists, AryaSamajists, Buddhists, Atheists, etc. Thus is a few centuries more than 100 million have left Hinduism. Another 60 million Untouchables (Scheduled Castes) are panting to get out from Hindu slavery by any means. Only their age long helplessness, illiteracy and poverty stand in the way. In the heart of the Caste Hindu community in South India, a dynamic movement called the Dravidian Federation, aiming at secession from Hinduism, is sweeping the masses. So you will see that long, long before any Briton had set his foot on Indian soil a revolt was started against Hinduism which has and is gaining in momentum as the centuries pass. It is the natural, spiritual urge of a living people to get out of the darkness and shackles of medievalism to the light and freedom and modem life. The Hindu Muslim conflict is ‘only one manifestation of this countrywide agony of a deep moral struggle.
Britain has many great achievements to her credit in India, but she has utterly failed to facilitate the emancipation of an ancient people from the throes of the struggle to escape from their bondage to the soulless forms of a dead civilization the civilization of Brahman worship, idol worship, and caste and priest craft. Hindu society and Hindu religion as they are today are enemies of all progressive forces. They are an object of disgust and fear to all nonHindu who stand in dread of being engulfed by seething mass of 300 million of humanity still helplessly drifting towards their own annihilation.
All the chief political parties of India are agreed in regard to one thing their opposition to the Hindu party. The Muslims, the Untouchables, the Christians, the nonBrahmin, the Sikhs, and even the Congress all are united in their opposition to the Hindu party as such. The differences between the Congress and the Muslim League, the ‘Congress and the Untouchables, the Congress and the nonBrahmin party, are all different expressions of the common aversion of all the Hindu Rule, The antagonism is not based on any fundamental differences in their political ideologies, but on the inevitable constitution of the Congress as a body dominated by the Caste Hindus, No nonHindu, be he a Muslim, Christian or Sikh, nor a member of the Untouchable Classes, nor any self-respecting Hindu like the nonBrahmin of South India, can visualize without horror the prospect of a Caste Hindu ‘majority coming into political power again in India.. It is a calamity they would stake their all to prevent.
What is the cause of this Universal opposition to Hindu Rule? If say that Brahmanism or Caste Rule is at the root of all disunion and discord in India, you may not understand it. Even if you could understand, you would not readily believe it. I must explain the point in the light of a parallel history which you can more easily appreciate, vis., what has happened in Japan and may again happen if the incredible blunders of British Rule in India are reenacted by the Allies in that country. The ignoble attempt of Japan at World Domination and her more ignoble downfall are the necessary outcome of the pursuit of a rotten medieval culture hidden under a cloak of superficial modernism. Fortunately it seems that the Allies have recognized that the only way to prevent Japan rising again as a threat to world peace is to obliterate that barbarous culture and convert her people to the modem way of thinking and living:
(a) The pivot of Japanese national life was the Divine Emperor to whom all were bound in unquestioning submission and obedience, He Was the mysterious source of all law and power, responsible to no one on earth,
(b) Under the shadow of the Spiritual Authority of the Emperor Brew up a Military hegemony which exercised autocratic powers over every aspect of the life of the people.
(c) As mall exclusive group of rich families controlled the economic life of the country. It and the Military hegemony formed the left and right hand respectively of the immaculate Emperor.
(4) The Japanese people were bond slaves to this three headed Divine Govt. Individual freedom political, social, intellectual and spiritual was crushed under the paralyzing weight of a cleverly veiled Theocratic Capitalistic Militarism.
(e) The women were denied all freedom and opportunity to share the national life,
(A) Having enslaved the people morally and financially and tied them as dumb cattle to the wheels of imperialistic ambitions, it was easy for the Divine Govt of Japan to embark on the civilizing mission of world domination and lead the people to ultimate foreign subjection.
The Allies have succeeded for the present in averting the calamity of ‘a Japanese victory. But suppose they preserve intact the Divine Character of the Emperor, the autocratic power of the Military and Financial cliques and continue to feed the Japanese people on the old ideology of their race superiority, the superiority of their Emperor to the heads of other nations, their divine mission of world domination, state Shintoism, Hara-kiri and subjugation of women, their present victory shall have proved infructuous in another generation. As soon as the restraints, of foreign domination are removed Japan will rearm herself for revenge
The Indian problem is in all essentials the same as the Japanese but a hundredfold magnified.
Indian Hirohito’s Instead of one Hirohito who claims divine authority and superiority to all other human beings, there are in India ‘many millions of Brahman Hirohito’s who claim similar authority and superiority and have played with the destiny of the nation for many centuries as atrociously as the Japanese Emperor and brought about the same inevitable retribution abject subjection. In every village in India there is the divine Brahman with his citadel, the Temple, from where he spreads over the whole nation the death dealing tentacles of caste priest craft, superstitions and restrictions on the elementary human rights of all in the country. He proclaims the caste laws renewed and revised as it suits his interests and keeps the entire population perpetually divided, their self-respect crushed, sense of freedom destroyed, and trained hereditarily in body and mind to bear the yoke of humiliation and bondage in the name of ancestral Dharma, unique spiritual culture, Intrinsic superiority of the Hindu Race and Hindu way of life to every other culture and civilization in the world.
India’s Military Lords Under the spiritual authority of the Brahmans we have the many hundreds of Kshatriya Rajas or Indian Princes who constitute the sanction behind Brahmanical Theocracy. Brahman prestige and supremacy are faithfully preserved, caste laws and mercilessly enforced, the whole State or a considerable portion of is revenue dedicated to the Brahman or his temple and the people are kept in superstitious awe and submission to ancient ideologies by the Hindu Rajas whose self-preservation demands the preservation of Brahmanism.
India’s Financial Magnates. The Vaishyas or Banias were intended to be the financial backbone of Brahmanism and even today we find that Hindu capitalists throughout India are led by the nose by their Brahman Gurus, Purohits, Priests and Brahman sycophant secretaries. They are hand and glove with Brahmanism in every enterprise whether it is religion, commerce or politics. They place their resources at the disposal of every movement interested in preserving the castes, maintaining the Temples, Idols and their Priests, and in restoring Hindu Raj of the days of mythological Rama. In no other country is capitalism so abjectly wedded to all reactionary elements of the national life as in India, It is lavish in the cause of Idols, Temples, Sadhus, Mahatmas, Pilgrimages, Festivals, Sacrifices, Ancient Scriptures, Caste and other paraphernalia of Brahmanism, for which many crores of rupees are annually spent, but most miserly in regard to education, medical relief, uplift of the downtrodden, water supply, improvement of roads, scientific research, village reconstruction and other crying needs of the nation.
Morally Enslaved People. As in Japan, so in India, these three forces have successfully enslaved the entire Hindu population, and after nearly 2 centuries of British Rule they remain unredeemed from their slavery to Brahmanism. All the Hindus, except the few Brahman Hirohito’s, are by their inherited mental constitution happy to live in subjection and inferiority, which have become natural to them. True sense of freedom, true self respect, true spirit of human equality and citizenship, true sense of justice between man and man, all these are concepts which hang like ceremonial robes but do not touch the hearts of the caste minded Hindus, Sometimes the latter do not hesitate to stigmatize them as the gaudy labels of an alien civilization.
No Sense of Freedom. Human beings are not born in Hindu Society only Caste Creatures take birth in the land of the Hindus. Every Hindu is a Caste Creature as naturally and unalterably as a dog is dog or a pig is pig. To talk of human freedom as the birthright is lie in such a society. Born unfree, the Hindus live all their life in the bondage of caste. They tolerate with pride, the deprivation of the most elementary human right to study the scriptures, right to use public hotels, tanks, well, right to marry, right to choose a profession, etc. Caste denies the Hindu freedom in all these respects.
No True Self Respect. Self-Respect is impossible except for the Brahman at whose feet even the Ruling Princes prostrate themselves and who’s blessing every Hindu craves for success in this world and salvation in the next. Moral, nay, spiritual humiliation is the birthright of every nonBrahmin, and the Hindu Rajas rival their shameful submission to the exploiting priest and his idol,
Fellow Feeling and Common Citizenship Impossible. Divided into thousands of hereditary watertight castes and subcastes, without the freedom to associate in the common affairs of daily life, the Caste Hindus are doomed to eternal disunion, discord, and mutual distrust. They have no philosophy of unification or amalgamation, their fundamental concept of social organization is division into hereditary castes, expulsion of all recalcitrant persons from the Hindu fold and insulting refusal to admit any nonHindu to the fellowship of Hindu religion and society. The caste laws not only make the Hindu ‘castes mutually untouchable in many respects but they make the nonHindu, Muslims, Christians and others, damned untouchables in the sacred land of the Hindus. The Caste Order is thus a standing insult to all humanity, the most grievous moral and social wrong inflicted on ‘mankind,
Justice and Civic Responsibility. A caste minded Hindu can never be truly just to a person of another caste when the dispute is between a member of his own caste and one of another caste. The Brahmans who claim divinely ordained superiority and look upon all other human beings as inferior, form the most exclusive and most arrogant nation in the world and can never be just to a member of another caste. If they can.use their discretion they are certain to use it adversely to the others. There is a proverb in an Indian language which says that when a Brahman and a nonBrahmin were caught in a flood and were being drowned side by side, the former in his dying moments asked the latter ot to drink the same clear water that a Brahman drank but to stir it a little and drink the dirty water instead. The entire system of law and administration based on the recognition of the castes and the authority of the ancient books, with their cruel discrimination between man and man in every walk of life, is the ingenious creation of man hating, Brahman lawyers, judges, Pandits, philosophers, historians, journalists and others who exploited the presence of alien rulers whether they were ‘Arab, Moghul, Afghan or British, and cooperated with them in enslaving their countrymen to humiliating injustices and discriminations for the purpose of preserving their own hereditary superiority. Even today they are making use of the Hindu masses and prevent their unification. To the nonBrahmin, Brahman rule is more humiliating, and soul crushing than British Rule.
In the case of the Untouchable Classes there is no question of a choice between the Brahmans and the nonBrahmin. They hate and distrust all Hindus, They have no hope of ever recovering their human dignity so long as they are Hindus and subjected to Hindu Rule. Even the so called greatest man of the world, Mahatma Gandhi, has not succeeded in persuading the Hindus to perform so harmless and simple an act of decency as the throwing open of the temples to all Hindus for worship right which can be easily enforced by any policeman if the Govt makes up its mind to do it. So the Untouchable Classes can never expect the Hindus to do justice to them.
Hindu Muslim Fellowship. In the face of these and similar facts how can we dream of any mutual confidence between the Hindus and Muslims? They are bound to remain irreconcilable enemies so long as insulting caste exclusiveness is the badge worn by the Hindus. British Rule has awakened the self-respect and political consciousness of the otherwise backward Muslim masses and they require no other justification for opposing with their lives any attempt at establishing Hindu majority Rule. Hindus and Muslims are divided more markedly and irrevocably than any other 2 nations of the world. Muslims can at best offer to the Hindus such cooperation and fellowship as the Christians or Buddhists can offer, But Hindus can offer only untouchability to the Muslims in eating, drinking and marrying, in the temple, in the street, in the hotel or whatever the two come into personal contact.
Failure of British Rule. So, Sir, you will be mocking human intelligence if you talk of freedom and democracy among a caste minded people: The allies are crushing Nazism in Germany, and Shintoism and all allied institutions in Japan as a prelude to educating the peoples for freedom and cooperation with the other nations of the world, In India, Britain has been trying in a way to inculcate ideas of democracy and justice and establish some parliamentary institutions, but has all along kept intact Brahmanism, caste and their allied institutions which have always been the graveyard of all liberal movements from the time of the Buddha to the present age. Whether Britain did this a matter of policy or not, the fact cannot be disputed that the enforced peace which India has been enjoying under British Rule has prevented her liberation from theocratic tyranny, caste slavery, despotic rule of the Rajas and capitalistic exploitation resulting in groveling poverty, all of which have received added status and strength under British protection
Your Duty. If you want to flee from India in disgrace, admitting your failure to win over her people to the ways of modem civilization, and leave her to rearm herself to become another, but a hundredfold more powerful Japan in the future world, you have only to discuss with the Brahman or caste minded leaders of the Congress and establish a free India at once. But if you are really interested in emancipating the people of India and helping them to take their rightful place as comrades with the common people of the rest of the world, I should like to make the following suggestions for your earnest consideration:
(a) Ask every Hindu leader you meet if he is prepared to extend to ll Hindus in matters like eating, drinking worshiping, marrying, etc., the same freedom and equality that Christians, Muslims and Ruddhists give to their co religiousness,
(b) Ask him if he is prepared to abolish all State—recognition of caste for any purpose whatsoever.
(c) Ask him if he is willing to penalize and punish as an offence the public profession or practice or attributing of caste,
(A) Ask him if he would insist that every candidate for the State service should solemnly disown caste,
(e) Ask him if he would give to the non-Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others the same freedom and status as citizens as the followers of different religions enjoy in the free countries of the world in matters like eating, drinking, marrying, inheriting, adopting or giving up a religion, and use of temples, tanks, hotels, etc.,
Ask him if he would give women economic rights and freedom.
(g) Ask him if he would make special provision for the education, housing, removal of the disabilities of and raising to the level of the other communities, the untouchable classes who have been forcibly kept in degradation for many centuries,
(h) Ask him if he would agree to International Control of the Military for at least 25 years or until the United Nations are satisfied that the Hindus, Muslims and other peoples of India will live in peace.
(i) Ask him if he would agree to the abolition of the absolute rule of the hundreds of Indian Rajas and States and establishment of full responsible govt with ultimate power in the people to choose their own form of govt
(j) Ask him if he would completely secularize the State and all State activities so that hereafter political power shall not be used for propping up religion nor religion be permitted to interfere with the civic life of the people.
(Most of these questions may be put to Muslim leaders also).
If the answers to these questions are satisfactory let India have freedom on these conditions. If the answers are unsatisfactory, have the ‘courage to tell the world and India in unequivocal terms that Indians ‘are not yet fit for freedom. Britain has so far ignominiously failed to take steps for abolishing Brahmanism and caste, but has polished and strengthened their shackles unwittingly. Either she must undertake to finish the job of liberating the people from these influences in a specified period or hand over the Govt to International Trustees at once.
Tam prepared to substantiate the allegations herein if called upon to ee ‘and to help you in every way to understand the true situation in February,1 946, Yours in Service,
SWAMI DHARMA THEERTHA.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 19, 1990
