Santram BA (14 February 1887 – 31 May 1988), Dr Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 26 December 1956) and Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) are among the top personalities of modern Indian history. Santram BA may be much less talked about than Ambedkar and Gandhi, but he was one of those who fought untiringly against the Varna-caste system and devoted their entire life, writings and activities to that cause. During and even before the movement for freedom from British rule began in India, struggles against the Varna-caste system led by different people were underway in different parts of the subcontinent. The anti-caste discourse in the united Punjab (Punjab states of today’s India and Pakistan taken together) was led by the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal, one of whose leading lights was Santram BA.
Like Ambedkar and Gandhi, Santram BA, too, not only engaged in a long struggle, but also wrote prolifically. He wrote about 100 books. All three personalities launched their own periodicals. Santram BA brought out “Kranti” – an Urdu monthly – from 1929 to 1947. It was among the magazines that regularly carried articles on and by Ambedkar. It was also the first Urdu magazine to take note of Ambedkar. Each of the three personalities led their own organizations. Santram BA was one of the key leaders of Jat-Pat Todak Mandal, which was an offshoot of the Arya Samaj.
Gandhi was born into a Vaishya (Dwij) caste in Gujarat. Santram BA was born into a Kumhar (Shudra) family. He was born in Punjab and worked there. Though Ambedkar’s birthplace was Mhow in Madhya Pradesh, he was born into a Dalit family of today’s Maharashtra. Gandhi had imbibed belief in the greatness and the primacy of the Varna-caste system from his family and society. In his early days, he was not only a supporter of the Varna-caste system but also asserted that he belonged to the superior Aryan race. He considered non-Aryans as second-rate kafirs[1]. However, later, he gradually let go of the notion of racial superiority. Nevertheless, he continued to sing paeans to the caste system for a long time. In 1921, he wrote, “I believe that if Hindu Society has been able to stand, it is because it is founded on the caste system … To destroy caste system and adopt Western European social system means that Hindus must give up the principle of hereditary occupation, which is the soul of the caste system. Hereditary principle is an eternal principle. To change it is to create disorder.”[2] However, after 1930, he stopped defending the caste system. In his book ‘Annihilation of Caste’, Dr Ambedkar has highlighted this change in Gandhi.[3] But all his life, Gandhi continued to shower praises on the Varna system, which he believed was a great concept and a key achievement of Hinduism. Santram BA and Ambedkar both bitterly criticized Gandhi’s stand on the Varna system.
Santram BA and Ambedkar had not imbibed any idea of or belief in racial or Varna-caste superiority from their family or community. Both experienced the sting of the caste system in their childhood. There was no question of Gandhi facing caste-based humiliation. The autobiographies of the three leaders are a testimony to their diverse encounters with the caste system. Varna-caste finds little, if any, mention in Gandhi’s autobiography “My Experiments with Truth”. Ambedkar didn’t write a proper autobiography but his autobiographical work “Waiting for a Visa” graphically details the horrific humiliation and torture he endured as a result of his Dalit (untouchable) identity. Santram BA, in the initial chapters of his autobiography ‘Jeevan Ke Mere Anubhav’, says that he had to face casteist humiliation on many occasions. He writes, “I faced casteism in my student life. When I was admitted to a school in Ambala as a Grade 4 student, my caste was also mentioned against my name in the attendance register. My family was quite respected and influential in my village. As long as I lived there, I never felt that Kumhar was a low caste. But in those days, Ambala was a stronghold of people from Hoshiarpur who were diehard upholders of outdated ideas. My classmates used to tauntingly address me as ‘Kumhar’. And why wouldn’t they when a Mahatma and a great poet like Tulsidas has written: ‘Je varnashram Teli Kumhara, Swapach kirat kol kalwara’ [Teli, Kumhar, Chandal, Bhil, Kol and Kalwar who are from a lower Varna].”[4]
Santram BA has recalled many other occasions when he faced humiliation owing to his caste. Clearly, caste-based humiliation was an experienced reality for Santram BA and Ambedkar, while Gandhi could only sympathize with such people. This difference shaped their respective perceptions of the Varna-caste system and its horrors and it is visible in the discourse and the debate around Ambedkar’s text ‘Annihilation of Caste’.
Notably, none of the three pursued vocations assigned for their varna-caste. Even the occupations of their respective fathers were not in keeping with the Varna-based social order. Though Santram BA and Ambedkar did not pursue occupations ordained for Kumhars and Dalits respectively, they faced humiliation just because of the caste they were born into.
The Jat-Pat Todak Mandal invited Ambedkar to deliver the presidential address at their convention in Lahore in 1936. However, the Mandal did not entirely approve of the speech he proposed to deliver there. Ultimately, the convention was put off. Subsequently, Ambedkar had the speech published in the form of a book entitled ‘Annihilation of Caste’. He added two appendices in the second edition of the book. The first appendix includes three articles written by Gandhi and published in his periodical ‘Harijan’ that were a comment on the book. The third article contains a letter written by Santram BA, as a member of the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal, to Gandhi.[5] The second appendix is Ambedkar’s reply to Gandhi.
‘Annihilation of Caste’ foregrounds the differences between Ambedkar and Santram BA’s Jat-Pat Todak Mandal, while on the other hand, it also underlines some basic commonalities between the two. Santram BA wrote a letter to Gandhi, bitterly criticizing the latter’s comments on “Annihilation of Caste”. At his request, Gandhi published the letter in “Harijan”, alongside his equally sharp rebuttal.
A bitter and thought-provoking discussion and debate between the three followed on the Varna-caste system – the problem, underlying reasons and solutions. Despite grave differences between them, they took each other’s views and arguments seriously. Santram BA was closer to Ambedkar and was in complete disagreement with Gandhi’s construct that caste is bad but Varna system – the philosophy underlying it and its prescriptions on occupational rigidity – is good. In his letter to Gandhi, Santram BA emphasizes that if he (Gandhi) is an advocate of the Varna system and supports it, then his support for the caste system and untouchability is implicit because caste is born of the Varna system. He writes, “So when you advocate your ideal of imaginary Varnavyavastha they [Hindus] 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.”[6]
If the Varna system persists, caste can’t be annihilated. Santram BA’s stand matches that of Ambedkar, who had said without any ifs and buts that a person or an organization backing the Varna system could not oppose caste because an umbilical cord connected the two. They can’t be separated. In his “Annihilation of Caste”, while discussing the principles of the Arya Samaj, Ambedkar analyzes the relationship between Varna and caste, concluding that a supporter of the Varna system cannot launch a decisive struggle against the caste system. Ambedkar says that, on the contrary, such a stand serves to justify caste system and untouchability.
Santram BA was not in agreement with Gandhi’s notion that the Hindu scriptures are perfect but the caste system is wrong. He agreed with Ambedkar, as far as putting Hindu scriptures in the dock and brutally attacking them for advocating the Varna-caste system is concerned. Ambedkar talks of the need to “apply the dynamite”[7] to the Hindu scriptures. Gandhi defends the Hindu scriptures and talks of waging a war against untouchability and the caste system using the very same scriptures. Commenting on this, Santram BA writes, “To seek the help of the Shastras for the removal of untouchability and caste is simply to wash mud with mud.”[8] Clearly, Santram BA is scathing in his criticism of Gandhi. In his rebuttal, Gandhi is equally scathing of Santram BA’s ideas.
Nevertheless, Santram BA is not in agreement with Ambedkar on many issues. To begin with, he does not agree with Ambedkar’s contention that Hinduism and the Varna-caste system are dependent on each other for survival. He believed that Hinduism can be reformed to eliminate the Varna-caste system. Ambedkar, on the other hand, was firm in his belief that the Varna-caste system is the backbone of Hinduism and that one won’t survive without the other.
In this respect, Gandhi agreed with Ambedkar, though in a convoluted way. He also believed that Hinduism wouldn’t survive without the Varna system. He believed that accepting the Varna system was an essential condition for being a Hindu. Replying to Santram BA, Gandhi wrote, “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.”[9]
By posing this question to Santram BA, Gandhi reveals how they differ. The bone of contention is that Santram BA imagines a Hinduism without Varna and caste. He wants to free Hinduism from Varna and caste. Gandhi’s argument is that if Varna-caste and the scriptures backing them are removed from Hinduism, nothing will remain.
For Gandhi, the Varna system, purged of caste, was an advanced social order. Ambedkar, however, believed that the Varna system was the origin of caste and untouchability and that one couldn’t even think of eliminating the caste system and untouchability without uprooting the Varna system. There was an agreement between Santram BA and Ambedkar on this point but both Gandhi and Ambedkar insisted that Hinduism couldn’t survive without the Varna-caste system. But Santram believed it could, and he was working to achieve this state of Hinduism. We may say that he was exploring the middle path between the stands taken by Gandhi and Ambedkar.
The views of Santram BA and Gandhi converged on two other issues. They both believed that Hinduism could be reformed into an advanced religion for both the world and India. Gandhi wanted to purge Hinduism of both untouchability and the caste system, though earlier he had been a supporter of the caste system. Going a step further, Santram BA wanted to free Hinduism from both Varna and caste systems. In contrast to both these stands, Ambedkar considered the Varna-caste system the backbone and soul of Hinduism. Hence, he neither wanted Hinduism to live on nor himself wanted to remain in it. Santram BA and his Jat-Pat Todak Mandal – given their association with the Arya Samaj – had affection and reverence for the Vedas and wanted Ambedkar to at least spare the Vedas.
Like Gandhi, Santram BA and Jat-Pat Todak Mandal, too, believed in the preeminence of the Vedas. In the letter to Ambedkar, Har Bhagwan, as a representative of the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal, wrote that “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”[10]
Mind you, the request to spare the Vedas, came from the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal and not directly from Santram BA. Ambedkar, on the other hand, attacked the Vedas mercilessly and described them as the main source of Hinduism, Hindu philosophy and its social order.
Santram BA, Ambedkar and Gandhi – all three supported inter-caste marriages and inter-dining between members of different castes. They saw them as tools for dismantling the caste system. However, Ambedkar believed that these would not be enough for eliminating the caste system. He believed that if the caste system and untouchability were to be eliminated, the only way was to “apply the dynamite” to the Hindu scriptures. He used the phrase “apply the dynamite” in a metaphorical sense, meaning that the reverence with which Vedas are treated by the Hindus, the high place accorded to them and their acceptability should end.
The debate and discussion between Santram BA, Ambedkar and Gandhi on Varna, caste, Hindu scriptures and Hinduism is not simply history. The debate over how caste is related to Varna, how Varna-caste is related to Hinduism and how both are related to Hindu scriptures is still a matter of intense debate. Most of the Dwijs and the Savarnas believe in the greatness of Hinduism and Hindu scriptures and want to create “samrasta” (harmony) between different Varnas and castes. Gandhi was their principal voice in the past, and the RSS represents these sections today. The Ambedkarites, in contrast, want total annihilation of Varnas and caste. They believe that Hinduism and Hindu scriptures are nourishers of the Varna-caste system. They can’t imagine Hinduism without Varna and caste. They agree with Ambedkar’s assertion that Varna-caste is the very soul of Hinduism. There is also a third stream of thought which doesn’t take on Hinduism as a whole but only desires to see Varna-caste become history. Santram BA represented this stream in his time.
References
[1] Arundhati Roy, ‘The Doctor and the Saint’, an introduction to Annihilation of Caste by B.R. Ambedkar, The Annotated Critical Edition, Navayana, Delhi, 2014, p 67
[2] B.R. Ambedkar, ‘What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables’, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Government of Maharashtra, Vol 9, p 275
[3] B.R. Ambedkar, ‘Annihilation of Caste’, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Government of Maharashtra, Vol 1, p 92
[4] Santram BA, Mere Jeevan Anubhav, Santram BA Foundation, Shahjahanpur (Uttar Pradesh), 2021 (republished, first edition 1973), pp 18-19
[5] B.R. Ambedkar, ‘Annihilation of Caste’, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Government of Maharashtra, Vol 1, p 84
[6] Ibid
[7] Ibid, p 75
[8] Ibid, p 85
[9] Ibid
[10] Ibid, p 30
(Translated from the original Hindi by Amrish Herdenia)
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