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:: page 12 ::
Laying the foundation stone of the Maratha hostel at Nasik
Shahu laid bare his inner most thoughts on caste system:
“Caste enmity is an old disease. Parshuram’s act on
annihilating the Ksatriyas and the Peshwa’s act of bringing
non-Brahmins to ruin are nothing but the reflection of enmity.
What else can be the reason for Brahmins to regard Shivaji and
the Maratha warriors, who secured to them their tufts and
threads, as Shudras? To abolish caste enmity , we must first
abolish the caste systems.
“It would be the happiest day of my when we cease to reckon
men low because of their birth. Disbelieving as I do in the
caste system, I have gone agaist it in public. But my efforts
have not succeeded in dislodging it from its ancient moorings;
it has found its way among those who are around me… If the
Brahmins choose to hate me in return for the love I bear them,
it would be treachery to myself and to my cause not to pay
them in their own coin… Pardon me for plain speaking I say we
must never slacken the efforts we are making to dethrone
Brahmanism to enthrone the Indian Nation.’
One finds Dr. P.B. Gajendragadkar , Chairman of the Law
Commission echoing the same sentiment in a categorical manner
when he says: “Without secularism no community can come to
terms with modernism and unless the whole of the Indian
community comes to terms with modernism, obscurantism and
fanaticism will continue to pose a grave danger to our
democratic way of life.”
The sternness of Shahu’s observation might make one think that
Shahu hated Brahmans. But nothing could be farther from truth,
Shahu himself was very much aware of his calumny and he
confronted it will all the moral fervour at his command,
convinced of the innate justness of his struggle against the
suppression of the depressed masses. As Keer puts it: “Shahu
did not hate the Brahmins as individuals , he would not have
kept them in his service.”
Shahu’s mind is best revealed in this regard in his
observation in a letter to a friend: “I have got a reputation
of being misunderstood, as I am the enemy of the articulate.”
I think this utterance of Shahu is the most characteristic of
the man and the ideals the pursued. Shahu was an angry ruler,
impatient for urgent reform and uplift of the depressed masses
and hence he initiated bold social religious, legislative and
administrative measures in consonance with his policy of
‘immediatism’ to give a fair deal to the underprivileged .
Shahu’s determined stand against casteism naturally caused
consternation amongst the vested casteist interests. They
began a campaign of hatred and calumny against him and even
the British Government was misled which tried to pull him up.
As Mr. Justice Vaidya observes in his Shahu lecture:
“But the Maharaja fearlessly replied that even if he were
deposed from the throne of Kolhapur, he would continue to
serve the backward and depressed classes in the country. He
had a tough mind for his critics and a tender heart for the
backward classes, characterised by incisive thinking ,
realistic appraisal and decisive judgment.”
Shahu’s championing of the cause of the depressed can be only
understood and properly appreciated in the context of his
earnest concern for Indian unity and secularism as it is
understood today in our Constitution. Shahu’s speech as the
President of the Depressed Class Conference at Nagpur on May
30,1919 throws light in this regard:
“We are all Indians, “Shahu said,” countrymen and
brethren, all Indian subject irrespective of our Varna,
religion. Religion may be a personal matter and it cannot be
an obstacle to national question. In this respect only, I
think, religion is less important than the national cause.
Just as all roads starting from different angles reach a big
city, so all religions lead us to God, in short religion is a
path leading to God. Why should then of different religions
hate one another?
... Continued
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