A certain solemnity attended the first efforts to group the pariahs. A "suppressed-classes conference" took place at Ahmedabad on April 13 and 14, 1921. Gandhi presided at the conference and made one of his most beautiful speeches. He not only demanded the suppression of the pariah system but urged the untouchables to rise to the occasion and show the best that was in them. He expects great things from the pariahs, he says, in the social life of regenerated India. He tries to instill self-confidence in them and fill them with his own burning ideal. In the "suppressed classes," he says, he sees tremendous latent possibilities. He believes that within five months the untouchable class will be able to win, by its own merits, the place it deserves within the great Indian family.
Gandhi had the joy of seeing his appeal find echo in the hearts of the people. In many parts of India the pariahs were emancipated.[87] The day before his arrest Gandhi made a speech recording the progress of the pariah cause. The Brahmans were helping. The privileged classes were giving touching examples of remorse and fraternal love. Gandhi cites the case of a young Brahman who at nineteen became a street-sweeper, to live among the untouchables.[88]
§ 5
With equal generosity Gandhi took up another great cause, that of women.
The sexual problem is a peculiarly difficult one in India, throbbing with an all-pervading, oppressive, and badly directed sensuality. Child marriages weaken the physical and moral resources of the nation. The obsession of the flesh weighs on men's minds and is an insult to woman's dignity. Gandhi publishes the complaints of Hindu women at the degrading attitude of Hindu nationalists.[89] Gandhi takes the women's side. Their protest, he says, proves that there is another sore in India as bad as that of untouchability. But the woman question is not a purely Indian problem. The whole world suffers from it. As with the pariahs, he expects more from the oppressed than from the oppressors. He calls upon women to demand and inspire respect by ceasing to think of themselves as the objects of masculine desire only. Let them forget their bodies and enter into public life, assume the risks, and suffer the consequences of their convictions. Women should not only renounce luxury and throw away or burn foreign goods, but they should share men's problems and privations. Many distinguished women have faced arrest and imprisonment in Calcutta. This shows the proper spirit. Instead of asking for mercy, women should vie with men in suffering for the cause. When it comes to suffering, women will always surpass men. Let women have no fear. The weakest will be able to preserve her honor. "One who knows how to die need never fear."
Nor does Gandhi forget the fallen sisters.[90] He tells of conversations with them in the provinces of Andhra and Barisal, where they met in conference. He spoke to them nobly and simply, and they replied, confided in him, and asked his advice. He tried to suggest some way in which they might make an honest living, and proposed spinning. They agreed to begin the very next day if assured of encouragement and assistance. And then Gandhi turned to the men of India; called upon them to respect women:
Gambling in vice has no place in our revolution. Swaraj, home rule, means that we must regard every inhabitant of India as our own brother or sister. Woman is not the weaker sex, but the better half of humanity, the nobler of the two; for even to-day it is the embodiment of sacrifice, silent suffering, humility, faith, and knowledge. Woman's intuition has often proved truer than man's arrogant assumption of knowledge.
In the women of India, beginning with his own wife, Gandhi always found intelligent aid and understanding, and among them he recruited some of his best disciples.
§ 6
In 1921 Gandhi's power was at its apogee. His authority as a moral leader was vast, and without having sought it, almost ilimited political authority had been placed in his hand. The people looked upon him as a saint. Pictures were painted representing him as Sri-Krishna.[91] And at the end of the year, in December, the All-India National Congress delegated its powers to him and authorized him to appoint his successor. He was the undisputed master of India's policy. It was up to him to start a political revolution, if he saw fit, or even to reform religion.