CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC AS REGARDS THE POSITION OF GANDHI IN RELATION TO THE UNTOUCHABLES. TWO STARTING POINTS: "THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS" (Arundhaty Roy) and the movie GANDHI. Three points of view. Plenty of Sources.

1. Mahatma Gandhi
and The
“Untouchables”.
Subject: Language IV.
Teacher: Elda Patricia Moller
Jensen.
Student: Adela Pérez del Viso.
Date: September 25 2013.

2. Mahatma Gandhi
and The
“Untouchables”.

3. GANDHI and The
UNTOUCHABLES.

4. THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS.
•Village school for untouchable
children. (P.13).
•“Velutha wasn´t supposed to be a
carpenter”. (P.73)
•Relationship between Velutha and
Ammu. Ammu condemned by the
family
•Velutha, Vellya Pappen and Kutta
pen lived in a wretched hut, down
river from the Ayemenem house.
(P.78)

5. SECOND STARTING POINT:
THE MOVIE.
GOKULADA/CASTURBA.
4 KIDS. VASHIA.
BRAHMACHARIA (Aged 36)

6. SECOND STARTING POINT:
THE MOVIE.

7. ANALYSIS OF GANDHI´S
IDEAS, as regards
UNTOUCHABLES:
1.Some thoughts.
2.A saint ?
3.A traitor ?
4.Middle position.
Conclusion.

8. Gandhi´s origin

9. Gandhi´s thoughts
 In 1925: A “Panchama” should be seen as a
Sudra (Same work). Varna system´s
authenticity. (“The Collected Works of
Mahatma Gandhi (100 vols., Delhi.1958.260)
 1927: “In [my] conception of the law of
varna, no one is superior to any other.... A
scavenger or a latrine-sweeper: same status
as a Brahmin” (id. P.410).
 In the summer of 1934, three attempts
were made on Gandhi´s life.

10. Gandhi as a Saint.
 Harijans. (pros and cons)
 Six-day fast while imprisoned in
Jerwada Jail.
 Poona Pact as a result.
 1932: Separate electorates (benches)
under the new constitution.
 1933 21-day fast of self purification
and 1- year campaign.
 1933: three attempts against him.

11. Gandhi as a Dalit´s
traitor.
A PROTEST BANNER IN A RALLY.

12. Gandhi as a Dalit´s
traitor.
Bimrao Ramji Ambedkar.
1891 1956

13. Gandhi as a Dalit´s
traitor.
•Gandhi´s campaigne was noxious :
separate representatives.
•HARIJAN means “Children of God”:
paternalism
•SOCIALLY IMMATURE.
•UNDERMINING Dalit´s political RIGHTS.
•“Devious and untrustworthy“ Gandhi.
•In 1950: converted into Budhism.

14. •Born into the Vaishya caste, Gandhi insisted
he was able to SPEAK ON BEHALF of Dalits,
despite the presence of DALIT ACTIVISTS such
as Ambedkar.
•Ambedkar sought to remove the Dalits out of
the Hindu community, while Gandhi tried to
save Hinduism by exorcising untouchability.
•Ambedkar complained that Gandhi moved too
slowly; Hindu traditionalists said Gandhi was a
dangerous radical who rejected scripture
Gandhi as a Dalit´s
traitor.

15. OTHER CRITICS. Racism. Nazism.
• Many articles and books state Gandhi loved the Caste system
(VARNA) and that he was a racist.
•Gandhi lived in South Africa from 1893 to 1914. In 1906, he
joined the military with a rank of Sergeant-Major and actively
participated in the war against the blacks. (“The raw kaffir”).
•Grenier, Richard. The Gandhi Nobody Knows published in
Commentary March 1983; pages 59 to 72.
•Hug, Fazlul. Gandhi: Saint or Sinner? And its 2nd chapter "Gandhi's
Anti-African Racism“
•“One of Gandhi's major "achievements" in South Africa was to
promote racial segregation by refusing to share a post office door
with the black natives”.
•Greatest injustice against the struggle for liberation of black
people was the projection of Mahatma Gandhi as committed to a
cause against segregation. It is a fallacy
•“Mahatma Gandhi exposed” (a racist and a pedophile).

16. MIDDLE POSITION.
“CHANGES IN MAHATMA GANDHI’S VIEWS ON CASTE AND INTERMARRIAGE”
Mark Lindley (historian of modern India)
ABSTRACT: Gandhi’s views in regard to basic aspects of the caste
system changed in the last years of his life.
In the 1920s he had held that every Hindu “must follow the
hereditary profession” and that “prohibition of intermarriage”
between people of different varnas was “necessary for a rapid
evolution of the soul.”
But later he gradually became “a social revolutionist,” advocating
**intermarriage between Brahmins and Untouchables in order to
dismantle the caste system “root and branch,” and
**acknowledging that “When all become casteless, monopoly of
occupations would disappear.”
The changes were due in part to the influence of two opponents of
the caste system whose integrity he held in high regard: Ambedkar
and Gora.

17. CONCLUSION. QUOTE.

18. Arundhaty Roy: “The God of Small Things”.
“Gandhi, a racist and a pedofile”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIcSo10d
U2k
“Mahatma Gandhi hated black people!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeJQ1QX
T2Lc
“M.G.was one of Nazis greatest friends”.
telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ger
many/6140002
“Campaign against Untouchability”.
http://www.gandhism.net/gandhiandblacks.p
hp
Gandhian Institute and Research Foundation
Website.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandh
i
SOURCES

19. Gandhi and the Dalit controversy: The limits of
the moral force of an individual Miki Kashtan
February 27, 2012
Mark Lindley. “Changes in Mahatma Gandhi´s
views on Caste and Intermarriage”.
Ancient Civilization.
ttp://www.ushistory.org/civ/8b.asp
Stanley Wolpert. “Gandhi”. La Nación. 2003. P.
256.
SOURCES