Fallen Sisters

Fallen sisters

Though Mahatmaji was down to earth and very practical in all his thinking and approach, some of his ideals remained mere utopian, however he sincerely and honestly strived his best to achieve that goal in his lifetime.  His attempts to eradicate caste discrimination like untouchability, prostitution, drinking, corruption etc. were never materialized either in his time or even now.  Particularly what he told about ‘officiating only those at the altar of swaraji with a pure hand and a pure heart’ never went deep in our heart and thoughts.  Leaving the continuation of untouchability, prostitution and drinking, corruption, all those politicians who were supposed to follow his ideals miserably failed him and us.  Though he was an exception, politics cannot be done with any pure hands or pure heart not only in India but anywhere in the world, as we witness the way politicians consecrated themselves with a dirty hand and evil heart, though there were few exceptions always to this general rule.  Of course we get the political leaders as we deserve.  But the way it went to so low everywhere in the world, particularly in India it is a shame on us to call Mahatmaji as the FATHER of our nation.  Fortunately, he never lived long enough to see such a corrupt India, though we lost a noble Guru to guide us by living many more years.  If those so called ‘Fallen Sister’ [which is not a proper term to label them] because of their profession cannot become office-bearers in Congress Committees, what to say about the politicians who are worse than those ‘Suffering Sister’?  That’s why Doniger well said that, ‘…He [Gandhiji] had more success with the British than with his own people.’.@

121. OUR FALLEN SISTERS

Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none is so degrading, so shocking or so brutal as his abuse of the better half of humanity to me, the female sex, not the weaker sex. It is the nobler of the two, for it is even today the embodiment of sacrifice, silent suffering, humility, faith and knowledge. A woman’s intuition has often proved truer than man’s arrogant assumption of superior knowledge. There is method in putting Sita before Rama and Radha before Krishna. Let us not delude ourselves into the belief, that this gambling in vice has a place in our evolution because it is rampant and in some cases even state-regulated in civilized Europe. Let us not also perpetuate the vice on the strength of Indian precedents. We should cease to grow the moment we cease to discriminate between virtue and vice, and slavishly copy the past which we do not fully know. We are proud heirs to all that was noblest and best in the by-gone age. We must not dishonour our heritage by multiplying past errors. In a self-respecting India, is not every woman’s virtue as much every man’s concern as his own sister’s ? Swaraj means ability to regard every inhabitant of India as our own brother or sister.

(p.225)

…These sisters told me they earned as much as two rupees per day. But then they admitted, that they had many things needed to pander to man’s lust, which they could discard when they took to spinning and weaving, reverting to a natural life. By the time I had finished with my interviews, they knew without my telling them, why they could not be office-bearers in Congress Committees if they did not give up their sinfulness. None could officiate at the altar of swaraj, who did not approach it with pure hands and a pure heart.—CWMG, vol., 24, pp. 224 to 226

@ Wendy Doniger, The Hindus An Alternative History, New Delhi, Penguin/Viking. 2009, p. 624

Somewhere I read that if Gandhiji couldn’t have never got his success if some other people were ruling India in his time.  Because of their pride to uphold justice for all, the British govt., tried its best to show that though TRUE justice never was done to him, still they created a system which looked as if they tried to do justice as per their British ideal.  One way this could be true, as Mahatmaji himself always appealed to the British justice system when he was fighting for the rights of Indians in South Africa.  Suppose if he were living either in present Russia, China, North Korea and few other countries like them where authoritarian regimes ruthlessly suppress any kind of threat to their authority and power, he would have ever survived to serve the people as he served in his time under British Raj.