Society and Class Quotes - Quotes, The Story Of My Experiments With Truth | The Story of My Experiments with Truth - Summary & Themes - Novels PDF Download

In the opinion of the caste, your proposal to go to England is not proper. Our religion forbids voyages abroad. We have also heard that it is not possible to live there without compromising our religion. One is obliged to eat and drink with Europeans! (1.12.4)

Early in life, Gandhi attracted the anger of others for what he sought to do. So, in a way, his later provocations of the authorities were nothing new for him.

"But will you disregard the orders of the caste?"

"I am really helpless. I think the caste should not interfere in the matter."

This incensed the Sheth. He swore at me. I sat unmoved. So the Sheth pronounced his order: "This boy shall be treated as an outcaste from today. Whoever helps him or goes to see him off at the dock shall be punishable with a fine of one rupee four annas." (1.12.8-10)Gandhi gets kicked out of his caste when he insists on going to England. This is sort of like moving out of your parents' house even when they want you to live at home.

Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'etre of a multitude of sects and castes. (2.15.9)

Raison d'etre is a French phrase meaning "reason or justification for existing." So, Mr. G. is saying he doesn't get the point of the caste system, which causes division.

The committee had to inspect the untouchables' quarters also. Only one member of the committee was ready to accompany me there. To the rest it was something preposterous to visit those quarters, still more so to inspect their latrines. But for me those quarters were an agreeable surprise. (2.25.10)

This shows just how biased Indians were against the untouchables.

Even here [at the Calcutta Congress] I was face to face with untouchability in a fair measure. The Tamilian kitchen was far away from the rest. To the Tamil delegates even the sight of others, whilst they were dining, meant pollution. So a special kitchen had to be made for them in the College compound, walled in by wicker-work. It was full of smoke which choked you. It was a kitchen, dining room, washroom, all in one—a close safe with no outlet. [...] If, I said to myself, there was such untouchability between the delegates of the Congress, one could well imagine the extent to which it existed among their constituents. (3.13.11)

In other words, the congressional delegates hadn't yet gotten over untouchability, so Gandhi is saying the people they represent must be even more prejudiced against the untouchables.

Some of the classes which render us the greatest social service, but which we Hindus have chosen to regard as "untouchables," are relegated to remote quarters of a town or a village, called in Gujarati dhedvado, and the name has acquired a bad odour. Even so in Christian Europe the Jews were once "untouchables," and the quarters that were assigned to them had the offensive name of "ghettoes." In a similar way today we [Indians] have become the untouchables of South Africa. It remains to be seen how far the sacrifice of Andrews and the magic wand of Sastri succeed in rehabilitating us. (4.14.1)

Gandhi compares the plight of the untouchables to the ostracism faced by Jews in Europe and Indians in South Africa. It seems as if everywhere, some group of people are discriminated against.

"I will not wear the sacred thread [...] the sacred thread should be a symbol of spiritual regeneration, presupposing a deliberate attempt on the part of the wearer a higher and purer life. I doubt whether in the present state of Hinduism and of India, Hindus can vindicate the right to wear a symbol charged with such a meaning. That right can come only after Hinduism has purged itself of untouchability, has removed all distinctions of superiority and inferiority, and shed a host of other evils and shams that have become rampant in it." (5.8.12)

This passage shows that Gandhi wants to campaign not just to change government policies, but even to change religious practices. Hinduism includes untouchability, but he thinks that should be abolished—even though he's a Hindu himself.

There was strict untouchability in Bihar. I might not draw water at the well whilst the servants were using it, lest drops of water from my bucket might pollute them, the servants not knowing to what caste I belonged. Rajkumar directed me to the indoor latrine, the servant promptly directed me to the outdoor one. All this was far from surprising or irritating to me, for I was inured to such things. The servants were doing the duty, which they thought Rajendra Babu would wish them to do. (5.12.12)

Discrimination against untouchables appears in every little thing in his life, even something simple like getting water to drink.

In the year 1917 I was taken by my Gujarati friends to preside at the Broach Educational Conference. It was here that I discovered the remarkable lady Gangabehn Majmundar. [...] in courage and commonsense she easily surpassed the general run of our educated women. She had already got rid of the curse of untouchability, and fearlessly moved among and served the suppressed classes. (5.39.5)

This passage proves that some people, at least, had overcome what they must have grown up with, prejudice against untouchables.

Resolutions about Hindu-Muslim unity, the removal of untouchability and Khadi too were passed in this [Nagpur] Congress, and since then the Hindu members of the Congress have taken upon themselves the responsibility of ridding Hinduism of the curse of untouchability, and the Congress has established a living bond of relationship with the "skeletons" of India through Khadi. (5.43.4)

A resolution to remove untouchability is a big move. Discrimination due to caste is illegal in India today, but the system still persists in certain ways.