परिशिष्ट—VI : डॉ. आंबेडकर आता श्री. गांधींची अग्निपरीक्षा घेत आहेत

APPENDIX—VI DR. AMBEDKAR IS NOW PUTTING MR. GANDHI TO AN ACID TEST

This is the letter from one the readers of The Times of India, which was published in The Times of India regarding temple entry campaign “DR. AMBEDKAR’S BOMB Test For Mr. Gandhi To the Editor of “The Times of India ”

Sir, Your Poona correspondent is quite right. Dr. Ambedkar has thrown a “live bomb into the centre of the temple entry campaign machinery.” It is something much more than that. It is a bomb (a country made one) dropped into the Congress Camp. We must never forget that Congress is almost dead, and this temple-entry campaign is simply an interesting effort to put life into a corpse. From the outset, Dr. Ambedkar has warned us that this whirlwind propaganda by Mr. Gandhi and his Congress was at bottom only a “political stunt”. He is now putting Mr. Gandhi to an acid test. There are two questions before us (1) Is the Mahatma serious about this temple entry questions, or is it a mere gesture ? (2) Would the opening of temples alone raise the status of the Depressed Classes ? That Mr. Gandhi is not really serious about the question of temple entry is proved from his own confession that “he never enters these temples himself”. Indeed, Mr. M. K. Acharya, the great orthodox Hindu leader, reminded us last week in a speech at Surat that: Mr. Gandhi himself had never worshipped in any temple and he knew very little of the principles of rules and regulations of temple worship.” All orthodox Hindus like Mr. Acharya, who have faithfully supported Mr. Gandhi for 20 years, have now forsaken him and Congress. Mr. Acharya has issued a challenge to Mr. Gandhi ; “Why does not Mr. Gandhi found temples of his own and see if all Hindus, including Untouchbles, will go and worship in them?” No one can say that Mr. Gandhi lacks moral

courage. But he cannot accept Mr. Acharya’s challenge because the Mahatma is an astute politician. And this is a question of political strategy and not a purely religious question. Mr. Acharya forgets that the Mahatma has often told us : “Most religious men I have met are politicians in disguise. I, however, who wear the guise of a politician, am at heart a religious man. My religion is my politics (Autobiography). He has always subordinated religion and principle to policy and politics. It is impossible to exaggerate the injury he has inflicted upon his country in general and upon Hinduism in particular. Look at the Poona Pact, entered into in haste ; there is now a countrywide feeling that it was grossly unfair to Caste Hindus. Mr. Gandhi stampeded the country into an unjust settlement. He is now again trying to stampede the country to do something for Harijans which they do not really want.”

zz 1: Source Material, Vol. 1 Pp. 107-108.