The
Untouchables are the weariest, most loathed and the most miserable people that
history can witness. They area spent and sacrificed
people. To use the language of Shelley they are—
" pale for weariness of climbing heaven, and gazing on earth, wandering
companionless Among the stars that have a different birth "
To put it in simple language the
Untouchables have been completely overtaken by a sense of utter frustration. As Mathew Arnold says[f1][f1] "life consists in the effort to affirm
one's own essence ; meaning by this, to develop
one's own existence fully and freely, to have
ample light and air, to be neither (. . . . . . .)[f2][f2] nor overshadowed. Failure to affirm ones own essence is simply another
name for frustration. Its non fulfilment of one's efforts to do the best, the withering of one's faculties, the
stunting of one's personality. "
Many people suffer such
frustrations in their history. But they soon recover from the blight and rise
to glory again with new vibrations. The case of
the Untouchables stands on a different footing.
Their frustration is frustration for ever. It is unrelieved by space or time.
In this
respect the story of the Untouchables stands in strange contrast with that of
the Jews.
Their captivity in Egypt was the
first calamity that visited the Jewish people. As the Bible says
Ultimately Pharaoh yielded. The
Jewish people escaped captivity and went to Cannan
and settled thee in the land flowing with milk and
honey.
The second calamity which
overtook the Jews was the Babylonian Captivity. (Some pages are missing—-ed.)
We can now explain why the
Untouchables have suffered frustration. They have no plus
condition of body and mind. They have nothing in their dull drab deadening past
for a hope of a rise in the future to feed upon. This is due to no fault of
theirs. The frustration which is their fate is the result of the unpropitious
social environment born out of the Hindu Social
Order which is so deadly inimical to their progress.
Their fate is entirely
unbearable. As Carlyle has said—
[Quote p. 201]
(Quotation not cited—ed.)
Some are thinking of
revolutions, even bloody revolutions to overthrow the Hindu Social Order. All
are saying what Cabli Williams once said—
[Quote p. 152 ]
(Quotation not cited—ed.)
Such is the degree of
frustration they feel
III
The Covenant with God may be
interpreted to mean in the language of Emerson a plus condition of mind and
body. As Emerson has said " Success is
constitutional-depends, on a plus condition of
mind and body—on power of work—on courage. Success goes invariably with a
certain plus or positive power: An ounce of Power must balance an ounce of weight."
If the Jews rose after their
first captivity, it was primarily because of their plus condition of mind and
body. This plus condition of mind and body can arise from two sources. It can
arise from reliance on God. God, if nothing else
is at least a source of power and in emergency man needs mental power, the plus
condition of mind and body which is necessary for success. There is therefore
nothing wrong in the suggestion that the Jews succeeded because of their
Covenant of God if it is interpreted in the right way.
IV
This plus condition of body and mind is also the
result of Social Environment, if the Environment is propitious. In a society
where there is exemption from restraint, a secured release from obstruction, in
a society where every man is entitled not only to the means of being, but also
of well-being, where no man is forced to labour so that another may abound in
luxuries, where no man is deprived of his right to cultivate his faculties and
powers so that there may be no competition with the favoured, where there is emphasis of reward by mento,
where there is goodwill towards all, (Further portion of this part is erased
and not legible—ed.)
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