Mohandas Gandhi's "I Have a Dream" Speech
[Released January 21, 2013]
Preamble:
The following is a fictional speech which we envision Gandhi presenting on the occasion of India’s independence in 1947. It contains direct quotes from writings throughout his life which express his deep-seated opposition to the spirit of equality and a color-blind society which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. propagated in the true “I Have a Dream” speech.
In reality, as declared by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, a contemporary of Gandhi who is known as champion of the civil rights of the outcastes of the Hindu caste system: “Gandhi is the greatest enemy the untouchables have ever had in India.” Ambedkar further explained Gandhi’s confusing tactics, writing: “This is the technique of Gandhism to make wrongs done appear to the very victim as though they were his privileges. If there is an ‘ism’ which has made full use of religion as an opium to lull the people into false beliefs and false security, it is Gandhism.”
As detailed by Gandhism.net: “Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. The first volume of Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi was not even published until 1960. Like many people, Dr. King had only heard about the mythical Gandhi…. Without the easy access to Gandhi’s South… writings which we have today, Dr. King had no reason to doubt or ability to verify the official story. It is our belief that if Dr. King had known the reality of Gandhi’s racism, he would not have promoted the man.”
This speech satirizes Gandhi, who is so often unjustly linked to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King’s original “I Have a Dream” speech which he promoted a truly equal society.
Gandhi’s “I Have a Dream” Speech:
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of our newly independent nation.
Five decades ago, a great Indian, to whose melodic voice you now listen, began the ideological movement for India’s independence. This momentous undertaking came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Brahmins, who had been seared in the flames of withering equality. It came as a joyous sunset to end the long day of their compatibility.
But fifty years later, the Brahmin still is but an aristocrat. Fifty years later, the life of the Brahmin is now sadly crippled by the mania of desegregation and the chains of equality. Fifty years later, the Brahmin lives on a lonely island of luxury in the midst of a vast ocean of material poverty. Fifty years later, the Brahmin is still languishing in the center of Indian society and finds himself a superior in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When, as the architect of our republic, I wrote the magnificent words of The Indian Opinion and Young India, I was signing a promissory note to which every Indian was to fall prey. This note was a promise that some men, yes, Brahmins as well as Kshatriyas, would be guaranteed the unalienable right not to suffer the insult, degradation, or injustice of being classed with the natives, whether Kaffir or Shudra. [1]
It is obvious today that India (as South Africa before her) has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as the caste Hindus are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, India has given the Hindu people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of fundamental caste division is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of discrimination of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the rank of Brahmin and the superiority of our Varna. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind India, fiercely and urgently, that we believe in caste division on the basis of birth because the roots of the caste system start from birth. [2] This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of the Varna system. Now is the time to sink from the bright and desegregated path of racial justice to the sunless valley of segregation. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial co-mingling to the solid rock of caste division. Now is the time to make it a reality that, if there is one thing which the high-caste cherish, more than any other, it is the purity of type. [3]
It would be fatal for the low-caste to overlook the happenstance of his birth. A Shudra’s illegitimate discontent must pass, as he can’t be called a Brahmin even if he possesses all the qualities of a Brahmin by inheritance. He should never claim his right other than the Varna in which he was born. This is an evidence of his being humble. [4] Nineteen forty-seven is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that massacres of minorities was just Brahmins blowing off steam will have a rude awakening if they disrupt business as usual by insisting on annihilating caste. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in India, for the Brahmin knows that to abolish caste is to demolish Hinduism. [5] The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to break the foundations of our nation until the bright day of caste acceptance emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the temple of the Brahmin. We should not insist on taking the outcaste to a hospital or temple at a place where public opinion is against such action. [6] In the process of preserving our rightful place, we must resist the separation of the Untouchables from the caste Hindus even at the cost of their lives. [7] Let us not seek to satisfy their thirst for freedom by accepting the superstition, borrowed from the West, that interdrinking, interdining, or intermarrying will prevent bitterness and hatred. [8]
We must forever conduct our struggle against the indignity and degradation of being classed at the level of the raw Kaffir, whose sole ambition is to buy a wife and, then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness. [9] We must not allow it be known when our creative protest degenerates into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of surreptitiously meeting soul force with physical force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Hindu community must lead us to a division amongst all people, for many of our low-caste fellows, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come by being hoodwinked to think their destiny is to no longer be culturally tied up. They have come, but don’t realize, that their freedom is to be inextricably bound by our freedom. We will not walk among them.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of casteism, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the respectable Indian is the victim of equal treatment with the raw Kaffir. We can never be satisfied, as long as our mail, heavy with the philosophizing of Brahmins, remains unsegregated from that of the Kaffirs and Europeans in the post offices of the cities. [10] We cannot be satisfied as long as the Kaffir’s basic mobility allows him to mix with Indians. [11] We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their superiority and robbed of their dignity by the opening of their schools to Coloured children. [12] We cannot be satisfied as long as a Hindu is taken to be so lowly and ignorant that, like the Kaffirs who can be pleased with toys and pins, the world assumes we can also be fobbed off with trinkets. [13] No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until Hinduism is an ocean into which all the rivers run. It can absorb Islam and Christianity and all the other religions and only then can it become an ocean. Otherwise it remains merely a stream. [14]
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from killing Europeans in the streets. [15] Some of you have come from areas where your quest for superiority left countless thousands battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of your brutality. You have been the veterans of cruelly preserving caste to save Hinduism from disintegration. Continue to work with the faith that unearned discrimination is repressive.
Go back to South Africa, go back to Punjab, go back to Gujarat, go back to Maharashtra, go back to Uttar Pradesh, go back to the partitioned slums of our northern regions, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be unchanged. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the division of Hindus into four castes. [16]
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “One acquires one’s caste by birth. One who is born in a Brahmin family dies a Brahmin.” [17]
I have a dream that one day on the Western Ghats of Maharashtra the sons of Untouchables and the sons of Brahmins will still not be able to sit down together at the same table, as interdining has never been known to promote brotherhood in any special sense. [18]
I have a dream that one day, even in the colony of South Africa, a region which will someday be sweltering with the heat of racial justice, sweltering with the heat of racial co-mingling, will be retransformed into an oasis predominated by the white race. [19]
I have a dream that my four grown sons will always live in a nation where they will not be judged by the content of their character but by the Varna in which they were born. [20]
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, up in Punjab, with its vicious Khalsa, with their misguided patriot Gobind Singh [21] having his lips dripping with the words of interdining and no caste; one day right there in Punjab, little Sikh boys and little Sikh girls will be unable to join hands with little Hindu children or little non-Hindu children in the Sikh kitchen, which is a menace. [22]
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every non-Hindu shall be expelled, every skill and fountain shall be made off-limits to the low-caste, the rough faces will be kept plain, and the crooked races will be made to abate, and the glory of Brahmacharya shall be compulsory, and all flesh shall suffer together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I am in Delhi with. With this faith we will be able hew out of the mountain of equality a stone of Brahminism. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling threat of unity of our nation into a beautiful symphony of division. With this faith we will be unable to work together, to pray together, to dine together, to drink together, to marry one another, knowing that one day caste will be necessary for Christians and Muslims as it has been necessary for Hinduism, and has been its saving grace. [23]
This will be the day when all of Brahma’s children will be able to cling with a new meaning to the arithmetic principle: “The caste system is scientific. You cannot condemn it by argument. It controls the society socially and ethnically — I see no reason to end it. To end casteism is to finish the Hindu Religion.” [24]
And if India is to be a great nation this must remain true. So let us bring caste, unchanging, to the hilltops of Odisha. Let us bring caste, unchanging, to the forests of Chhattisgarh. Let us bring caste, unchanging, to afflict the heightening Himalayas of Kashmir!
Let caste take wing from the snowcapped Pir Panjals of Himachal Pradesh!
Let caste sting in the curvaceous slopes of Tamil Nadu!
But not only that; let caste spring from Anamudi Mountain of Maharashtra!
Let caste wring from Chembra Peak of Kerala!
Let segregation swing through every savannah and thicket of South Africa. To Table Mountain, caste let us bring.
And when this happens, when we allow us to bring caste, unchanging, when we make it spring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all the low-caste will accept the Brahmin standard as the best and so consent to dine at the hands of the ‘purer’ caste [25], when Kaffir men and European men, Muslims and Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists, will be unable to join hands but will sing in the words of the old Brahmin spiritual: “Pure at last! Pure at last! Thank Brahma Almighty, we have fundamental division at last!” [26]
Citations:
[1] “So far as the feeling has been expressed, it is to degrade the Indian to the position of the Kaffir.” — Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG), Vol. 1, p. 229. “The Boer Government insulted the Indians by classing them with the Kaffirs.” — Vol. 5, p. 59. “It was a gross injustice to seek to place Indians in the same class as the Kaffirs.” — Vol. 5, p. 226
[2] “I believe in caste division on the basis of birth because the roots of the caste system start from birth.” — Verana Vayavstha, p. 77.
[3] “May we inform the members of the conference that, so far as the British Indians are concerned, such a thing is practically unknown? If there is one thing which the Indian cherishes more than any other, it is the purity of type.” — CWMG, Vol. 3, p. 379.
[4] “A Shudra can’t be called a Brahmin even if he possesses all the qualities of a Brahmin by inheritance. He should never claim his right other than the Varna in which he was born. This is an evidence of his being humble.” — Young India, Nov. 24, 1927
[5] “To abolish caste is to demolish Hinduism.” — Harijan, 1933
[6] “We should not insist on taking a Harijan to a hospital or temple at a place where public opinion is against such action.” — CWMG, Vol. 57, p. 244
[7] “I would resist with my life the separation of ‘Untouchables’ from the caste Hindus. The problem of the ‘Untouchable’ community is of comparatively little importance.” — Round Table talks, London, England, 1932
[8] “In its origin caste was a wholesome custom and promoted national well-being. In my opinion the idea that interdining or intermarrying is necessary for national growth is a superstition borrowed from the West.” — CWMG, Vol. 19, p. 417
[9] “Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and, then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness.” — CWMG, Vol. 1, p. 410
[10] In 1895, Gandhi began actively promoting racial segregation in Durban, South Africa. The local post office had two doors: one for whites and the other shared by Indians and black Africans. Gandhi was required to share a door with black South Africans, which deeply offended him. So he initiated a campaign to segregate the blacks from the Indians. “In the Durban Post and telegraph offices there were separate entrances for natives and Asiatics and Europeans. We felt the indignity too much and many respectable Indians were insulted and called all sorts of names by the clerks at the counter. We petitioned the authorities to do away with the invidious distinction and they have now provided three separate entrances for natives, Asiatics, and Europeans.” — CWMG, Vol. 1, pp. 367-368
[11] “Under my suggestion, the Town Council must withdraw the Kaffirs from the Location. About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians, I must confess I feel most strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian population.” ~ CWMG, Vol. 3, p. 429
[12] “The decision to open the school for all Coloured children is unjust to the Indian community, and is a departure from the assurance given… that the school will be reserved for Indian children only.” — CWMG, Vol. 4, p. 402
[13] “The British rulers take us to be so lowly and ignorant that they assume that, like the Kaffirs who can be pleased with toys and pins, we can also be fobbed off with trinkets.” — CWMG, Vol. 8, p. 167
[14] “Hinduism is an ocean into which all the rivers run. It can absorb Islam and Christianity and all the other religions and only then can it become an ocean. Otherwise it remains merely a stream along which large ships cannot ply.” — CWMG, Vol. 97, p. 465
[15] In 1921, an American engineer named William Francis Doherty was murdered in Bombay by pro-Gandhi rioters. His wife, Annette, met with Sarojini Naidu, an emissary of Gandhi, who “very frankly asked me my price for refraining from ever discussing or advertising the affair in America and from myself returning to America. Under no condition, said Mrs. Naidu, would they be willing that the American public should learn that they were killing people so promiscuously that even a white face cost a man’s life.” When Annette later met with Gandhi himself, he “emphatically stressed the point that Americans, because they were so much in sympathy with him in his political views, must on no account learn the details of the murder of my husband lest it hurt the success of his movement in America.” She, obviously, refused to be shut up and confirmed these facts in a deputized statement in Los Angeles in 1931. — CWMG, Vol. 97, p. 465
[16] “I am prepared to defend, as I have always done, the division of Hindus into four castes.” — CWMG, Vol. 22, p. 68
[17] “I believe that one acquires one’s caste by birth. One who is born in a Brahmin family dies a Brahmin.” — CWMG, Vol. 22, p. 314
[18] “Interdining has never been known to promote brotherhood in any special sense.” — CWMG, Vol. 22, p. 156
[19] “We believe also that the white race of South Africa should be the predominating race.” — CWMG, Vol. 3, p. 256
[20] “He should never claim his right other than the Varna in which he was born.” — Young India, Nov. 24, 1927
[21] “Guru Govind Singh or Washington… I do not hesitate to say that it is highly likely that had I lived as their contemporary and in the respective countries, I would have called everyone of them a misguided patriot.” — CWMG, Vol. 31, p. 142
[22] “So far as the Sikh kitchen is concerned, it is a menace.” — CWMG, Vol. 28, p. 11
[23] “Caste is necessary for Christians and Muslims as it has been necessary for Hinduism, and has been its saving grace.” — Gandhi’s 1932 speech at Trivandrum, cited in “The bleeding wound: Being a most up-to-date collection of Gandhiji’s speeches, writings and statements on untouchability,” by Ramnath Suman
[24] “The caste system, in my opinion, has a scientific basis. Reason does not revolt against it. It has disadvantages. Caste creates a social and moral restraint — I can find no reason for their abolition. To abolish caste is to demolish Hinduism. There is nothing to fight against the Varnasharma (caste system). I don’t believe the caste system to be an odious and vicious dogma. It has its limitations and defects, but there is nothing sinful about it.” — Harijan, 1933
[25] “Only by accepting the standard of the Brahmin… as the best, have the other castes consented to dine at the hands of the ‘purer’ caste.” — CWMG, Vol. 22, p. 155
[26] “I am certainly against any attempt at destroying the fundamental divisions. The caste system is not based on inequality.” — CWMG, Vol. 22, p. 67