The Doctor and the Saint (Caste, Race, and the Annihilation of Caste)

Review by Jon P. Dorschner

The Doctor and the Saint (Caste, Race, and the Annihilation of Caste) by Arundhati Roy,
Haymarket Books: Chicago, Illinois, 2017, ISBN 978-1-60846-797-6, 171 pp., $15.95
(Paperback), $9.99 (Kindle).

This is the second book by Arundhati Roy I have reviewed for American Diplomacy, and is a
timely supplement to my article “What Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi can Contribute to India’s
Political System.” To properly understand Roy and her political thought, she must be placed in
her proper context. Roy is a radical political thinker who embraces a combative opposition to
the status quo, while rejecting (for the most part) Marxist ideology. In this regard, she parallels
Noam Chomsky. The two of them are close personal friends and work together on many causes.

Roy’s radical ideology places her in a Manichean world, in which it is the duty of all “good
persons” to stand up to evil wherever it is found and adopt a position of “truth to power.” There
is little room for gray in this world view. Good persons stand up for those at the bottom of the
social ladder who endure oppression. It brooks no compromise with evil oppressors. The
arbitrariness of this position often precludes effective coordination and cooperation with those to
the right of Roy. She harbors particular ire for “liberals,” who are aware of oppression, but
willing to compromise with it.

Roy places Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and his political party, the Indian National Congress
(INC), squarely within the liberal camp, and therefore worthy of condemnation. This shapes
Roy’s negative assessment of Gandhi and his place in Indian history.

The Doctor and the Saint is an analytical essay of the conflict between Gandhi and Dr. B. R.
Ambedkar on the subject of “untouchability.” Ambedkar, himself a member of the “untouchable
(now called Dalit)” Mahar caste, emerged as an outspoken champion of untouchable rights and
clashed with Gandhi, who claimed the mantle of untouchable leadership for himself. In 1934, an
organization of progressive high-caste Hindus asked Ambedkar to address their gathering.
However, they withdrew the invitation after reading the text of his remarks. Ambedkar then
published the address as The Annihilation of Caste, which remains one of the most widely read
political texts in India today.

Ambedkar argued that caste and untouchability are inextricably linked. He decried the Hindu
religion as “Brahmanism,” asserting that its principal purpose is to uphold a flagrantly unjust
system that sentences human beings to the bottom of the social ladder for life, with no possibility
of escape. Ambedkar argued that since Hinduism is irredeemable, the only way for untouchables
to find justice would be the elimination of the religion, which would destroy the caste system in
its entirely and allow India to reconstruct society on an egalitarian basis that provides equal
opportunity to all.

By contrast, Gandhi asserted that he was proud to be a Hindu, and that while untouchability is
indefensible and criminal, the caste system is an inherent component of Indian culture that can be
reformed to eliminate or vastly reduce its discriminatory practices. Gandhi called for the
elimination of untouchability, but stopped short of condemning the caste system in Toto.

Roy’s book strongly supports Ambedkar’s position, while painting Gandhi as hopelessly
antiquarian and an avowed hypocrite. Roy’s scholarship is impeccable and she supports her
position with substantial data, including quotes from Gandhi’s writings that are avowedly racist
and depict Dalits in a reprehensible fashion.

I found inherent problems with Roy’s position. I was reminded of the work by left-wing
historians on Abraham Lincoln and the eradication of slavery from the United States. Like
Gandhi, Lincoln was not a radical thinker, but was firmly anchored in his time and place.
Initially, Lincoln was willing to accept the existence of slavery in the slave states of the United
States and was opposed only to its spread. He did not oppose the common racist thinking of the
time and supported the return of freed slaves to Africa, as he thought that blacks and whites
would never be able to live together in the United States. These views do not stand up well to
scrutiny by 21st Century Americans.

Likewise, Gandhi was a product of his time, place and culture. His position calling for the
eradication of untouchability was considered radical by most caste Hindus of Gandhi’s time,
much like Lincoln’s calls for the eradication of slavery were viewed in 19th Century America.
Both Lincoln and Gandhi were assassinated for their advocacy of social change. By the time of
his assassination, Lincoln admitted that his early racist views were wrong and called for full civil
rights for the newly-freed slaves.

Gandhi was well-aware that caste was (and remains) a deeply-entrenched component of Indian
society (observed not only by Hindus, but by Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians). He chose to focus
on the most odious component of the caste system (untouchability) and call for its elimination.
Roy chooses to harshly critique Gandhi for this stance and dismiss him as a hypocrite. Although
herself not a Hindu, she calls for the elimination of caste from the Hindu religion and supports a
thinly veiled demand for the eradication of Hinduism altogether.

The United States and India share a heavy burden. India for millennia upheld and supported
untouchability, an abhorrent social evil that condemned countless millions of human beings to
lives of perpetual misery and wholesale discrimination. Americans for centuries upheld the
institution of slavery and after its eradication practiced wholesale discrimination and deprivation
of basic human rights to the freed slaves and their descendants.

The inherent parallels between these two social institutions and the response of the two countries
to them has been widely researched. The most famous book on this subject is, “Caste and Class
in a Southern Town,”1 This work examines the treatment of African Americans in a town in the
American South and draws parallels with the treatment of Dalits in Indian society. Social
scientists have long remarked on the overlap between untouchability and racism. Both concepts
condemn human beings to a subhuman status purely on the basis of birth, and allow no escape
for the innocent victims.

1
By John Dollard, published in 1957, Doubleday.
When African Americans began to confront racist institutions in their country, the principal
leader of the American Civil Rights movement was Martin Luther King. Mahatma Gandhi was
one of his principal inspirations and he adopted Gandhi’s non-violent model. Just as Gandhi
advocated cooperation between Dalits and caste Hindus to combat untouchability, Martin Luther
King advocated that African Americans work together with sympathetic whites to eliminate Jim
Crow. Just as Roy is critical of Gandhi’s efforts, she attacks MLK as hopelessly misguided by
Gandhian thought.

Roy correctly asserts that Mahatma Gandhi failed to eradicate untouchability in India. It is
indeed alive and well. She accurately portrays the wave of violent attacks conducted against
Dalit activists around the country, and the pervasive prejudice and discrimination that continue to
infest Indian society. Gandhi removed legal recognition of untouchability, and supported
legislation making it illegal. Likewise, MLK won the passage of civil rights legislation in the
United States, which eliminated legal racial discrimination. MLK did not succeed in eradicating
racism from the United States, where it is alive and well.

I observed untouchability in practice during my repeated residences in an Indian village. When I

Arundhati Roy’s books are always a good read. They are well-written, take clear positions, and
are well-documented. They are a good antidote to the seemingly all-pervasive good cheer one
sees in American media coverage of Indian developments. Roy is placing her life on the line by
criticizing the repressive and medieval outlook of India’s rulers. Many of her contemporaries
have already been murdered.

The caste system and untouchability are the dark underbelly of Hindu society and must be
addressed, critiqued and dealt with sooner rather than later. Roy is correct to address this issue
now, in 2017. She does a masterful job of documenting the outrages that occur in India every
day, and calling for radical action to deal with the basic inhumanity of this institution. India
cannot move forward until untouchability is finally gone. While I do not agree with all of Roy’s
conclusions, I recommend this book to an American readership. It will open your eyes and cause
you to look at India (and the United States) in a new, more critical way, and hopefully take
action to combat injustice.

American Diplomacy is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely
granted with credit and a link back to American Diplomacy.