[28th Jan is birth-date of Lala Lajpat Rai]
Lala Lajpat Rai, Sher-i-Punjab was, indeed a lion both in
thought and deed, in what he professed and practiced, in his political, social
and even economic ideas and ideals, in his sense of service, patriotism and nationalism,
in his dealings with the ‘old’ and the ‘new’, the high and the mighty, and the
low and the depressed. Issues and problems affecting he lot and destiny of the dalits
had a special place in his ideas and vision of nation building. He witnessed
the Indian society was characterized by status summation i.e. low status in the
caste hierarchy itself implied a correspondingly low status in social,
religious and economic position. Dalits formed the most indigent, ostracized,
apolitical and illiterate section of the Indian society. During his student age
Lala ji was attracted towards Aryasamaj because of its nationalistic outlook,
its program of social reform, its education mission and the spirit of self-sacrifice,
self-reliance and self-help that it instilled in the young minds. His views
were nurtured by the company of brilliant scholar Pundit Guru Dutt Vidyarthi
and Lala Hansraj with whom he later established DAV institutions.
Lala ji considered the rigidity of Hindu Caste
system as bane of Hindu society and a barrier in social and national progress of
the Hindus. He considered it as a disgrace to humanity, sense of justice and
feeling of social affinity. He
considered allowing of valuable human resource to rot in a state of utter
depression and helplessness as unsound by all aspects. He was against categorization
of Indian population in census on basis of religion, caste, tribe etc. as an
attempt by Britishers to implement divide and rule policy. He openly condemned Christian
missionaries proselytizing activities and considered it as regular toll and
loss to Hindu society. He said that the missionaries who were posing as social
levelers and egalitarians had failed to eradicate caste distinctions and were
only building castles in the air. Christianity has failed to emancipate caste
system while the bureaucracy wanted to give caste a new orientation to make it
subservient to imperial needs. He considered caste and inter caste jealousies
as blockage for national progress. He was critical of maltreatment meted out to
dalits in different parts of country. In one of speeches as president of depressed
classes at Gurukul Kangdi he chided the Rajputs of Hoshiarpur for cruelty to Kabirpanthis, the Brahmans of Jammu for placing a hot plate iron on the body of
a Vashisht caste Hindu and people of Ludhiana for not allowing a Ramdasi Hindu
to drink water from municipal tap. He was critical of Hindu attitude towards
untouchables before and after conversion. He said as a Hindu you won’t touch
him [Dalit], you would not let him sit on the same carpet with you, you would
not offer him water in your cups, you would not accept water or food touched by
him, you would not let him enter your temple, in fact you would not treat him
like a human being. The moment he becomes a Mohammadan or a Christian, without
even giving up his ancestral occupation, you are all smiles to him, you welcome
him to your home; and have no objection at times to offer him drink and food in
your utensils etc. What an irony? What a paradox? Why and where did the so much
boasted of tolerance of the Hindus disappear, the moment that tolerance was demanded
by the classes lower in the social scale? Was that Hinduism? No, he believed that I was
nothing but disgrace to the good name of Hinduism.
Lala ji
pressed on leveling down of all equalities and wanted that the reformation
must begin from below. He supported Varna system and rejected caste system. He
pointed out that the Hindus had established their caste system (Varna system)
on basis of work, merit and disposition. The division was founded on justice
and the needs and principles of the community. But afterword’s the
classification became purely a matter of birth and the institution of caste was
clothed with a divine sanction to the glory of the Brahman and the desecration
of the Shudra.
Lala ji supported the
Aryasamaj concept of Shuddhi of dalits who were made non Hindu by force or incentive
in past. Aryasamaj motive was not only to water down the apartheid character of
the caste super-structure of the Hindu society by asserting that individual’s
caste status was always achieved and not ascribed, and by reclamation,
re-conversion and Shuddhi, the Aryasamaj put the dalits at a slightly higher
social substratum, but it also made systematic and sustained efforts to make
the untouchables coalesce in the society as an agreeable section. Aryasamaj was instrumental in providing age
old deprived facilities like water, education, technical training and thus
economic uplift. The main idea behind this exercise was eradication of evils of
caste system and creation of Hindu Sangthan. The social work done by Aryasamaj
in different famines and opening of orphanages for orphans was another achievement
to his works. The inter caste marriages and widow remarriage was like social
revolution in caste ridden society. Opening of school, college and Gurukul both
for boys as well as girls where education was provided irrespective of caste differentiation
was turning point in field of education.
In nutshell, Lala ji
had a very soft corner for the dalits and his remedial measures had the stamp
of his own making. The social and national efficiency of a nation can never be achieved
until hard steps are not taken to eradicate the evils of caste system. The
dream of Lala ji is still unfilled even after 68 years of independence because
of lack of political will. Today caste is withering but casteism is
flourishing. The evil of casteism must be destroyed from our minds to unite
Humanity.
Dr Vivek Arya
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