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Pandit Malaviya, in his recent speech at Madras has shown his true colours. Evidently, the face-born gentleman has unmasked his real self. The ringmasters of the Madras political circus have brought in another quadruped from the north, which is performing political feats and social somersaults. The tiger from Allahabad is roaring in its Brahminic fury. It is uttering half-hatched, self-contradictory ideas to suit the tastes of the threaded humanity of our province.

Our readers are aware that it is usual for the Brahmins of our province, Especially of the city of Madras, to bring some great personalities from North India, whenever they find themselves in trying circumstances. They did the same with reference to men like Swami Vivekananda, Bepin Chandra Pal, C.R. Das, Lala Lajapat Rai and others. They are playing the same game with Mr. Gandhi, Motilal Nehru and others. When there is any popular movement which directly affects the superiority of the privileged community, when there is any sign of the upliftment of the down-trodden masses, when the monopolists begin to feel the helplessness of their situation, then, they generally resort to such ingenious methods. Some prominent men of the north are caught hold of and given erroneous information of all matters which are detrimental to the selfish aims of the opportunists.

A few hours stay at Madras is enough to poison the minds of these leaders, who are otherwise sympathetic and large-hearted. Their first speeches at Madras will reflect the hidden Brahminism infused into them. Then, in spite of the Brahmin-guarded tour of these men, they get the scent of the real situation, though not in its entirety. They are sometimes forced by circumstances to come face to face with real facts. Then their last speech in the province will bear quite opposite results. And the ring-masters will be not a little sorry for the cat having been let out of the bag.

It was only after his South Indian visit that Swami Vivekananda observed that the “Brahmin cobra must suck out his own poison, if the patient should survive”. Lajapt Rai came to realise the overbearing importance of social reconstruction only when he was denied admission into the Trivandrum temple. It was only then that he proclaimed that “religion was the real cause of all the abuses of society, that he could find nothing human in the temples; that the Madras presidency is getting suffocated amidst the poisonous atmosphere of religion and God; and that fearless reformers are immediately needed in Madras”. It was only when he was refused entry into the temple at Cape Comerin that Mr. Gandhi understood the A.B.C. of South Indian matters. And his further tours in the Tamil Nad in spite of being guarded by the Chota Gandhi, have brought from his month the irrefutable truth that the “temples are the dens of prostitutes”. More instances of this kind are not wanting. Suffice it to note that those who come from the north give vent to their ideas only when they themselves meet with the opportunity of tasting the bitter truths.

Naturally, the Pandit has made his momentous arrival. One of the master-strokes of this Brahminic clannishness has been already given out of his recent speech at Madras. He says, “The caste system had existed and would exist in spite of the frantic efforts which are sometimes made to demolish it”. The Allahabad Pandit “is surprised to find in this province a movement which not only wants to demolish caste, but also to demolish God Himself”. He says, “this new evil creeping into their midst should be nipped in the bud. It is a very difficult task to right a wrong which had existed for a long time”. About the admission to the temples, the Pandit says “it might be that there are certain rules in certain temples not to admit certain people beyond a certain place. I can quite understand it, and in such places, these rules should be very clearly laid and made known to all, so that there could be no complaint.”

Wise words are these. What else can be expected from a Pandit, and that too a Brahmin Pandit when he is especially surrounded by Varnashramites who take pleasure in fondling child widows? This brings to our memory, a suggestion in the vernacular about the idea of a mischievous wounded monkey which is at the same time also angry and drunken. The Pandit may be unaware of the full significance of the Self-respect movement. But it is no reason why he should blurt out unauthentic matters resulting from misrepresented facts. His surprise at a movement aiming at demolishing caste, is a surprise to us, and will be a surprise to the learned world. If the Pandit only takes some trouble in touring the province more leisurely, we are sure, he will not venture such hasty observations. If he is only patient enough to know that more than a dozen papers are published in the policy of the Self- respect movement, that they command the largest number of subscribers, and that the ‘Kudi Arasu’, the chief organ of the movement is commanding the largest circulation in the presidency, he will not indulge in the empty dream of nipping the movement in its bud. Dear Panditji, it is not a bud; it is a tree whose roots have penetrated to an immeasurable depth, and whose branches have extended to far off Turkey, Russia, Afghanistan, China, Burma and South Africa. Its fragrance is being enjoyed by the youths of the world. And its principles are being inhaled by every free-thinker, truth-seeker and reasoner.

Now to the Pandit’s next remark that the wrong existing for a long time could not be righted. This is certainly an old man’s despair. We should advise the despondent Pandit to stop his tours immediately and perform yagas at the foot of the Himalays, even as his forefathers are said to have done. Let him not spread his poison of despondency in a land where fatalism has already sucked the blood of the people. His remarks about the temples are the real expressions of his Brahminic heart. The saviour of Hinduism is at his pitch when he wants specific rules to be laid up for the various castes to enter the temples. Even in that case, we are sorry that the existing temples should be demolished, and new ones built with more number of rooms for each caste of worshippers. We doubt whether the Pandit means it seriously, or simply wants to be true to his salt. But one thing we know, that even if his commonsense repudiates such inhuman customs, his thread across the body will remind him that he is first a Brahmin, and then only a man. It is really a curse to our country that such big heads as Pandit Malaviya sell their heads to an unscrupulous section of humanity. It is high time the Pandit rids himself away from the land of the lotus-eaters and begins to know facts at first hand. Dear Panditji, we heartily welcome you in our midst as a guest, but not as a preacher or bashyakar of Hinduism.

- Revolt, 8 May 1929

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