VI
His
greatest opponents however came from the political school of the intelligentsia.
These politicals developed a new thesis. According to that thesis political
reform was to have precedence over social reform. The thesis was argued from
platform to platform and was defended by eminent people like Mr. Justice
Telang, a Judge of the Bombay High Court, with the consummate skill of an acute
lawyer. The thesis caught the imagination of the people. If there was one
single cause to which the blocking of the Social Reform movement could be
attributed, it was this cry of political reform. The thesis is unsupportable,
and I have no doubt that the opponents of Ranade were wrong and in pursuing it
did not serve the best interests of the country. The grounds on which Mr.
Justice Telang defended the Politicians’ thesis were of course logical. But he
totally forgot that logic is not reason, and analogy is not argument. Neither
did he have a correct understanding of the inter-relation between the “social”
and the “political” which Ranade had. Let us examine the reasons for the
thesis. Those that were advanced were not very impressive. But I am prepared to
meet the most impressive arguments that could be advanced. Even then the thesis
will not stand. The following strike me as being the most impressive. In the
first place, it could be said that we want political power first because we
want to protect the rights of the people. This answer proceeds from a very
frugal theory of Government as was propounded by the American statesman
Jefferson according to whom politics was only an affair of policing by the
State so that that the rights of people were maintained without disturbance.
Assume that the theory is a sound one. The question is, what is there for the
State to police if there are no rights ? Rights must exist before policing
becomes a serious matter of substance. The thesis that political reform should
precede social reform becomes on the face of it an absurd proposition, unless
the idea is that the Government is to protect those who have vested rights and
to penalize those who have none. The second ground that could be urged in
support of the thesis is that they wanted political power because they wanted
to confer on each individual certain fundamental rights by law and that such
conferring of the political rights could not take place unless there was
political power first obtained. This of course sounds very plausible. But is
there any substance in it ? The idea of fundamental rights has become a
familiar one since their enactment in the American Constitution and in the
Constitution, framed by Revolutionary France. The idea of making a gift of
fundamental rights to every individual is no doubt very laudable. The question
is how to make them effective ? The prevalent view is that once rights are
enacted in a law then they are safeguarded. This again is an unwarranted
assumption. As experience proves, rights are protected not by law but by the
social and moral conscience of society. If social conscience is such that it is
prepared to recognize the rights which law chooses to enact, rights will be
safe and secure. But if the fundamental rights are opposed by the community, no
Law, no Parliament, no Judiciary can guarantee them in the real sense of the
word. What is the use of the fundamental rights to the Negroes in America, to
the Jews in Germany and to the Untouchables in India? As Burke said, there is
no method found for punishing the multitude. Law can punish a single solitary
recalcitrant criminal. It can never operate against a whole body of people who
are determined to defy it. Social conscience—to use the language of Coleridge—that
calm incorruptible legislator of the soul without whom all other powers would
“meet in mere oppugnancy—is the only safeguard of all rights fundamental or
non-fundamental.”
The third
argument of the politicals could be based on the right to self- Government.
That self-Government is better than good Government is a well-known cry. One
cannot give it more value than one can give to a slogan, and all would like to
be assured that self-Government would also be a good Government. There is no
doubt that the politicals wanted good Government and their aim was to establish
a democratic form of Government. But they never stopped to consider whether a
democratic form of Government was possible. Their contention was founded on a
series of fallacies. A democratic form of Government presupposes a democratic
form of society. The formal framework of democracy is of no value and would
indeed be a misfit if there was no social democracy. The politicals never
realized that democracy was not a form of Government : it was essentially a
form of society. It may not be necessary for a democratic society to be marked
by unity, by community of purpose, by loyalty to public ends and by mutuality
of sympathy. But it does unmistakably involve two things. The first is an
attitude of mind, an attitude of respect and equality towards their fellows.
The second is a social organization free from rigid social barriers. Democracy
is incompatible and inconsistent with isolation and exclusiveness, resulting in
the distinction between the privileged and the unprivileged. Unfortunately, the
opponents of Ranade were never able to realize the truth of this fact.
One may
judge it by any test and it will be found that the stand that Ranade took in
this controversy and his plan of work were correct and fundamental to if they
were not the pre-requisites of political reform. Ranade argued that there were
no rights in the Hindu society which the moral sense of man could recognize.
There were privileges and disabilities, privileges for a few and disabilities
for a vast majority. Ranade struggled to create rights. Ranade wanted to
vitalize the conscience of the Hindu society which had become moribund as well
morbid. Ranade aimed to create a real social democracy, without which there
could be no sure and stable politics. The conflict was between two opposing
points of view and it centred round the question which is more important for
the survival of a nation, political freedom or. strong moral fiber. Ranade took
the view that moral stamina was more important than political freedom. This was
also the view of Lecky the great historian who after a careful and comparative
study of history came to the conclusion that :
“The foundation of a Nation’s strength and prosperity is laid in
pure domestic life, in commercial integrity, in a high standard of moral worth,
and of public spirit, in simple habits, in courage, uprightness, and a certain
soundness and moderation of judgment which springs quite as much from character
as from intellect. If you would form a wise judgment of the future of a nation,
observe carefully whether these qualities are increasing or decaying. Observe
carefully what qualities count for most in public life. Is character becoming
of greater or less importance ? Are the men who obtain the highest posts in the
nation men of whom, in private life, irrespective of party competent judges
speak with genuine respect ? Are they of sincere convictions, consistent lives
and indisputable integrity ? It is by observing this current that you can best
cast the horoscope of a nation.”
Ranade was
not only wise but he was also logical. He told his opponents against playing
the part of Political Radicals and Social Tories. In clear and unmistakable
terms he warned them saying :
“You cannot be
liberal by halves. You cannot be liberal in politics and conservative in
religion. The heart and the head must go together. You cannot cultivate your
intellect, enrich your mind, enlarge the sphere of your political rights and
privileges, and at the same time keep your hearts closed and cramped. It is an
idle dream to expect men to remain enchained and enshackled in their own
superstition and social evils, while they are struggling hard to win rights and
privileges from their rulers. Before long these vain dreamers will find their
dreams lost.”
Experience
has shown that these words of Ranade have been true, even prophetic. Let those
who deny this consider : Where are we today in politics and why are we where we
are ? It is now 50 years since the National Congress was born. Its stewardship
has passed hands, I won’t say from the sane to the insane, or from realists to
idealists, but from moderates to radicals. Where does the country stand today
at the end of 50 years of political marching ? What is the cause of this
deadlock ? The answer is simple. The cause of deadlock is the absence of
Communal settlement. Ask why is communal settlement necessary for political
settlement and you realize the fundamental importance of the stand that Ranade
took. For the answer to this question is to be found in the wrong social
system, which is too undemocratic, too over-weighed in favour of the classes
and against the masses, too class conscious and too communally minded.
Political democracy would become a complete travesty if it were built upon its
foundations. That is why nobody except the high caste Hindus will agree to make
it the case of a political Democracy without serious adjustments. Well may some
people argue to their satisfaction that the deadlock is the creation of the
British Govern ment. People like to entertain thoughts which sooth them and
which throw responsibility on others. This is the psychology of escapism. But
it cannot alter the fact that it is the defects of social system which has given
rise to the communal problem and which has stood in the way of India getting
political power.
Ranade’s
aim was to cleanse the old order if not to build a new one. He insisted on
improving the moral tone of Hindu society. If he had been heard and followed,
the system would have at least lost its rigours and its rigidity. If it could
not have avoided Communal settlement it would have made it easy. For his
attempts, limited as they were, would have opened the way to mutual trust. But
the politicals had developed a passion for political power which had so
completely blinded them that they refused to see virtue in anything else.
Ranade has had his revenge. Is not the grant of political safeguard a penalty
for denying the necessity of social reform ?
How much
did Ranade achieve in the field in which he played so dominant a part ? In a
certain sense the question is not very important. Achievement is never the true
measure of greatness. “Alas”, as Carlyle said, “we know very well that ideals
can never be completely embodied in practice. Ideals must ever lie a very great
way off; and we will right thankfully content ourselves with any not
intolerable approximation thereto!” Let no man, as Schillar says, too
querulously “measure by a scale of perfection the meagre product of reality” in
this poor world of ours. We will esteem him no wise man ; we will esteem him a
sickly discontented foolish man. And yet Ranade’s record of achievement was not
altogether bare. The problems facing the then social reformers contained in the
statement on social reform prepared by Rai Bahadur P. Anandcharly were five :
(1) early marriage ; (2) remarriages of widows ; (3) liberty for our countrymen
to travel—or sojourn in foreign lands ; (4) women’s rights of property and (5)
education of women. Of this programme he achieved a great part. If he did not
achieve all, there were the odds against him, which should never be forgotten.
A clever, determined and an insincere intelligentsia came forward to defend orthodoxy
and give battle to Ranade. The scenes were exciting, as exciting as those of a
dread grim of battle. And battle it was. One cannot recall the spirit of the
time when this controversy over social reform was raging in this country. It is
not possible for decency to enter into the abuses that were hurled, the
calumnies that were uttered, the strategies that were employed by the orthodox
section against the Social Reformers. It is impossible to read the writing of
those who supported orthodoxy in their opposition to the Age of Consent Bill
without realizing the depth of the degradation to which the so-called leaders
of the peoples had fallen. The Bill aimed to punish a husband who would have
sexual intercourse with his wife if she had not attained the age of 12. Could
any sane man, could any man with a sense of shame oppose so simple a measure ?
But it was opposed, and Ranade had to bear the brunt of the mad orthodoxy.
Assuming that Ranade’s achievements were small; who could take pride or
exultation in his failure to achieve more ? There was no cause for exultation.
The decline of social reform was quite natural. The odium of social reform was
too great. The appeal of political power too alluring. The result was that
social reform found fewer and fewer adherents. In course of time the platform
of the Social Reform Conference was deserted and men flocked to the Indian
National Congress. The politicians triumphed over the social reformers. I am
sure that nobody will now allow that their triumph was a matter for pride. It
is certainly a matter of sorrow. Ranade may not have been altogether on the
winning side, but he was not on the wrong side and certainly never on the side
of the wrong as some of his opponents were.
