(In the following letter dated March 11, 1932 addressed to Sir Samuel Hoare, Mahatma Gandhi informed His Majesty’s Government that in the event of their creating separate electorates for the Depressed Classes, he (the Mahatma) would fast unto death.)
THIS IS A NEGATION OF DEMOCRACY.
Dear Sir Samuel,
You will perhaps recollect that at the end of my speech at the Round Table Conference when the Minorities claim was presented, I had said that I would resist with my life the grant of separate electorate to the Depressed Classes. This was not said in the heat of the moment nor by way of rhetoric. It was meant to be a religious statement.
In pursuance of that statement, I had hoped on my return to India to mobilize public opinion against separate electorate at any rate for the Depressed Classes. But it was not to be. From the newspapers I am permitted to read, I observe that any moment His Majesty’s Government may declare their decision. At first I had thought that if the decision was found to create separate electorates for the Depressed Classes, I should take such steps as I might then consider necessary to give effect to my vow. But I feel it would be unfair to the British Government for me to act without giving previous notice. Naturally they could not attach the significance I gave to my statement.
I need hardly reiterate all the objections I have to the creation of separate electorates for the Depressed Classes. I feel as if I was one of them. Their case stands on a wholly different footing from that of others. I am not against their representation in the legislatures. I would favour one of their adults, male and female, being registered as voters irrespective of education or property qualifications even though the franchise test may be stricter for others. But I hold that separate electorate is harmful for them and for Hinduism whatever it may be from a purely political stand point. To appreciate the harm that separate electorates would do them, one has to know how they are distributed amongst the so-called Caste Hindus and how dependent they are on the latter. So far as Hinduism is concerned separate electorate would simply vivisect and disrupt it. For me the question of these classes is predominantly moral and religious. The political aspect, important though it is, dwindles into insignificance compared to the moral and religious issue. You will have to appreciate my feelings in this matter by remembering that I have been interested in the condition of these classes from my boyhood and have more than once staked my all for their sake. I say this not to pride myself in any way. I feel that no penance Caste Hindus may do, can in any way compensate for the calculated degradation to which they have consigned the Depressed Classes for centuries. But I know that separate electorate is neither penance nor any remedy for the crushing degradation they have groaned under.
I therefore respectfully inform His Majesty’s Government that in the event of their decision creating separate electorate for the Depressed Classes, I must fast unto death.
I am painfully conscious of the fact that such a step whilst I am a prisoner, must cause grave embarrassment to His Majesty’s Government and that it will be regarded by many as highly improper on the part of one holding my position to introduce into the political field methods which they would describe as hysterical, if not much worse. All that I can urge in defence is that, for me, the contemplated step is not a method, it is a part of my being. It is the call of conscience which I dare not disobey, even though it may cost whatever reputation for sanity I may possess. So far as I can see now, my discharge from imprisonment would not make the duty of fasting any the less imperative.
I am hoping however that all my fears are wholly unjustified and that the British Government have no intention whatever of creating separate electorate for the Depressed Classes.
It is perhaps as well for me to refer to another matter that is agitating me and which may also enforce a similar fast. It is the way repression is going on. I have no notion when I may receive the shock that would compel the sacrifice. Repression appears to me to be crossing what might be called legitimate. Governmental terrorism is spreading through the land. Both English and Indian officials are being brutalised. The latter, high and low, are becoming demoralised by reason of the Government regarding as meritorious, disloyalty to the people and inhuman conduct towards their own kith and kin. The latter are being cowed down. Free speech has been stifled. Goondaism is being practised in the name of law and order. Women who have come out for public service stand in fear of their honour being insulted.
And all this, as it seems to me being done in order to crush the spirit of freedom which the Congress represents. Repression is not confined to punishing civil breaches of the common law. It goads people to break the newly made orders of autocracy designed for the most part to humiliate them. In all these doings, as I read them, I see no spirit of democracy. Indeed my recent visit to England has confirmed my opinion that your democracy is a superficial circumscribed thing. In the weightiest matters, decisions are taken by individuals or groups without any reference to the Parliament and these have been ratified by Members having but a vague notion of what they were doing. Such was the case with Egypt and the War of 1914 and such is the case with India. My whole being rebels against the idea that in a system called democratic, one man should have unfettered power of affecting the destiny of an ancient people numbering over three hundred millions and that his decisions can be enforced by mobilising the most terrible forces of destruction. To me this is a negation of democracy. And this repression cannot be prolonged without further embittering the already bitter relations between the two peoples. In so far as I am responsible and can help it, how am I to arrest the process?
Not by stopping Civil Disobedience. For me it is an article of faith. I regard myself by nature a democrat. The democracy of my conception is wholly inconsistent with the use of physical force for enforcing its will. Civil resistance therefore has been conceived to be a proper substitute for physical force to be used wherever generally the latter is held necessary or justifiable. It is a process of self-suffering and a part of the plan is, that in given circumstances a civil resister must sacrifice himself even by fasting to a finish. That moment has not yet arrived for me. I have no undeniable call from within for such a step. But events happening outside are alarming enough to agitate my fundamental being. Therefore in writing to you about the possibility of a fast regarding the Depressed Classes, I felt I would be untrue to you if I did not tell you also there was another possibility not remote, of such a fast.
Needless to say, from my side absolute secrecy has been maintained about all the correspondence I have carried on with you. Of course, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Mr. Mahadev Desai who have just been sent to join us, know all about it. But you will no doubt make whatever use you wish of this letter.