A survey done by the National Applied Economic Research along with the University of Maryland and reported in the Indian Express, has disclosed that the practice of untouchability is still prevalent in the heartland of India nearly eight decades after Mahatma Gandhi asked us to give up the practice.
My recollections go back to the nineteen forties to Karkala in South Kanara district of the then Madras Presidency where I grew up and did my schooling. My father, Inna Subba Rao, was a lawyer, and I remember him telling us not to call those who used to clean the latrines as 'Holeyas' and instead call them as Harijans, or children of God.
I remember my father employed a Dalit as a contractor to build a new house for us, which was not appreciated by our relatives. His reply to his critics was that the soil and the bricks that are used in constructing a house do not know who is a Dalit or an untouchable.
Once we moved into our new house, I remember that we were the first house in the neighbourhood to build a septic tank for the lavatory in a corner of our compound. As soon as the new lavatory was ready, the person who used to clear the erstwhile latrine came and represented that she would lose her income, which she could ill afford.
My father told her to continue coming to our house and clear the surroundings and that he would continue to pay her the salary. Over a period of time, many of the houses in our neighbourhood acquired latrines with septic tanks.
Out of curiosity, I asked my father the significance of the word Harijan. He told me that Mahatma Gandhi had gone on a fast at the Yeravada Jail in Poona against the proposal of the British Government to have separate electorates for Dalits. There was an upsurge of feelings in the country in response to the fast undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi, and temples, wells and public places were thrown open to untouchables. The British gave up the proposal to segregate untouchables.
Mahatma Gandhi gave up the fast, and following his release, went on a tour of India for nine months, covering 12,500 miles, to campaign against untouchability.
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Mahatma Gandhi also started the Harijan, a weekly newspaper in 1933, which used to be his mouthpiece till 1948.
The Quit India Movement commenced soon after the commencement of the Second World War, and I remember having been hit by a lathi by the police when I participated in a strike. Soon, India gained Independence, and I remember listening to Jawaharlal Nehru speaking over the radio when the country became free. We had a community radio established in the town.
Over two decades later, I visited Karkala on a holiday to spend my leave as a Central Government Official. My father had passed away and members of my family had settled down in Mumbai and other places. I had gone to the post office to buy some stamps.
When I visited the post office, the post master there invited me to come inside and have a cup of tea with him. I accepted the invitation. He told me that he was the son of the contractor, the 'Harijan' , who built our house. He told me that my father had motivated his family to see that he went to school. He completed his matriculation and got a job in the post office and had risen to become the post master.
I will never forget the cup of tea that I shared with the post master of my town. And the values instilled in us by my parents and in abolishing untouchability in our neighbourhood.
And in my career in the Government of India, I never asked a colleague or a newspaper person what his or her caste was. Irrespective of their status, all had access to me.
I feel it would be fitting for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to campaign for having a casteless society in India on the martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi.
The views expressed in the above article are that of Mr. I. Ramamohan Rao, Former Principal Information Officer, Government of India.