Book excerpt: In Economist Gandhi, an exploration of how the Mahatma grappled with identity politics

Entrepreneur and writer Jaithirth Rao’s book Economist Gandhi: The Roots and the Relevance of the Political Economy of the Mahatma examines Mahatma Gandhi’s economic philosophy, shedding light on why he needs to be looked at as a management guru and explains his positive approach toward business. The following excerpt from Economist Gandhi has been reproduced here with permission from the publisher, Penguin Random House India. *** How Gandhi Grappled with Identity Issues It turns out that both in his personal and public life, Gandhi had a unique challenge, which in his own way he converted into an opportunity to grapple with identity issues. Parel points out that Gandhi was trying to lead his countrymen and countrywomen in their capacity as Indians (Parel, HS, 2009). But the objects of the Mahatma’s attention stubbornly insisted on identifying themselves by religion — Hindu or Muslim — and by caste — Brahmin, Bania, Dalit, etc. In fact, Gandhi had no choice but to confront a very ancient ethnic and occupational identity, uniquely Indian in its contours — caste. Guha has made the case that simplistic criticisms of Gandhi for not taking an early stance against the caste system completely fail to understand the prevalent zeitgeist among the majority of Hindus when Gandhi started his political career in India (Guha, 2018). The historian Rajmohan Gandhi too pays attention to the texture of Gandhi’s evolving positions on caste (Gandhi, 2017). Nishikant Kolge has done the best analysis of Gandhi’s approach to caste identity (Kolge, 2017). It is quite clear that Gandhi chose to attack caste with great intelligence and sensitivity. Caste was by any definition, first and foremost, an identity marker. Deeply embedded in the idea of caste is the idea that certain activities and occupations are considered ritually and practically of a polluting nature. Dealing with human excreta and cleaning toilets are considered degrading activities, and by all accounts induce a profound horror among all ‘well-born’ Hindus. Gandhi decided to grapple head-on with this issue. He personally cleaned toilets and chamber pots. He made cleaning them an integral part of the compulsory routine in his ashrams for all inmates (Gandhi, 2001). With his wife, he appears to have been harsher. In his autobiography, he reveals that he lost his temper with his wife Kasturba, not for her refusing to clean the chamber pot of a visiting guest, who, unsurprisingly, was himself a member of a ritually untouchable caste, but that she did not perform her task with a smile on her face (Gandhi, 2001). What was behind this obsession with toilet cleaning? Gandhi correctly identified this activity as an overwhelmingly important identity marker that set apart the so-called untouchables from upper-caste Hindus. He therefore rightly concluded that unless this connection was broken, attempts to integrate the untouchable castes into the larger Hindu and Indian folds must fail. Just as in our earlier example — women are supposed to stay at home and raise children — persons classified as untouchables were supposed to clean privies. Clearly, the reformer Gandhi belonged to the camp that rejected such anti-feminist and casteist positions. Gandhi insisted that all who sought his association and approbation would have to do the same. This drives a nail into this ancient and persistent identity problem. Working with leather, which after all is cured animal skin/hide, is also considered polluting; and again, in the traditional paradigm, this activity is reserved for the untouchable castes. Gandhi insisted that leatherwork, particularly the making of leather shoes and slippers, be included in ashram activities. Curiously, despite being against vivisection and a defender of animal rights in other contexts (CW, 1999, v. 44, p. 267), Gandhi was a supporter of leatherwork for himself and his associates. Again, the reason for this interest seems to be connected with his desire to invalidate caste identities. When it came to religious identity, Gandhi had a more difficult task. India was partitioned on largely religious lines. Gandhi considered this his personal failure. He got around the issue of religious identity, not by asking people to give up their faiths, which would in any event have not been practical. Instead, he held daily prayer meetings where prayers and hymns of all religions were included. Here was an attempt to create an overarching human religious identity without jettisoning sectarian ones. Sheean points out that Gandhi fell back on grappling with pollution issues even while dealing with religious identity. For traditional Hindus, there are religious taboos associated with accepting food from other castes. Gandhi broke many of his fasts by accepting a glass of fruit juice from Muslims (Sheean, 2005). Even in the world of R.K. Narayan’s fiction, the Mahatma accepts food from a poor untouchable boy rather than from a rich upper-caste man (Narayan, 2010). Even in this fictional account, the Mahatma’s action is meant as a message to the upper castes. It is interesting to remember that Gandhi used his identity as a political prisoner in a South African jail to undertake, as part of his allotted prison work, the making of a pair of sandals, which he then presented to his political opponent, the prim and proper General Smuts. The idea of fluid identities could not have been better demonstrated. To his credit, General Smuts retained the sandals as one of the most treasured gifts that life itself had bestowed on him.