And then came Sadhu Narayan who had renounced hair and home and was practising meditation on the banks of the Vedavathy, and he said, ‘Moorthy, you are a brave soul and a holy soul. And there is in you the hunger of God, and may He protect you always. But Ranganna comes and tells me, “I cannot change his heart. You are a religious man, go and speak to him,” and I came to see you. I have neither hair nor home, and I have come to tell you, this is not just. Defend one must against evil; if not, where is renouncement, continence, austerity and the control of breath?’ To which Moorthy says, ‘You are a holy man, Sadhuji, and I touch your feet in reverence. But if truth needs a defence, God Himself would need one, for as the Mahatma says, truth is God, and I want no soul to come between me and truth.’ And Sadhu Narayan speaks about the world and its wheels and the clayey corruption of men, but Moorthy always says, ‘Truth, truth and truth,’ and Sadhu Narayan gets up to go and he says, ‘May at least my blessings be on you!’ and Moorthy falls at his feet and hold them in grateful respect.
And it was only after this that Sankar, our Sankar, who was the secretary of the Karwar Congress committee, comes and says, ‘Well, Moorthy, if such be your decision, my whole soul is with you. Gandhiji says, a satyagrahi needs no advocates. He is his own advocate. And how many of us did go to prison in 1921 and never touched the shadow of an advocate. I am an advocate, you will say, but you know I am an advocate only for those who cannot defend themselves.’ And Moorthy says, ‘Then if you agree with me, brother, there can be nothing on my conscience,’ and Moorthy’s lips tremble and he falls at Sankar’s feet, but when Sankar lifts him up, Moorthy says, ‘No, brother, you are my elder and a householder. I need your blessings.’ And Sankar says, ‘If so it is, my blessings are always with you’; and Moorthy feels so exalted that he goes to Sankar and embraces him and says, ‘Brother, you are with me?’ And Sankar says, ‘I am with you, Moorthy,’ and then they sit for a while holding each other by the hand, and as the warder comes and says, ‘Now it is time for you to go, sir,’ Sankar rises up and says, ‘But I can hold meetings for you, Moorthy?’ and Moorthy says, ‘Of course, brother!’
And Sankar goes straight to Advocate Ranganna and Advocate Ranganna says, ‘Certainly.’ Then he sees Khadi shop Dasappa and Dasappa says, ‘Oh, most certainly.’ And then he sees the president of the college union and this one says, ‘We are wherever you are,’ and so Sankar sends for his Volunteers and says, ‘A meeting in the Gandhi maidan today,’ and Volunteer after Volunteer goes out to the cloth bazaar and the fish bazaar and the flower bazaar and the grain bazaar, and as the noon cools down, there is a huge crowd in the Gandhi maidan, and the Volunteers are there in khadi kurta and Gandhi cap crying out, ‘Order, brother, order! Please take your seats, brother, please!’ and Sankar goes up to the platform, and there is a huge ovation and ‘Mahatma Gandhi ki jais’, and Dasappa comes and there is an ovation again, and Advocate Ranganna comes and there is an even greater ovation, for everybody knew he had lately thrown open his private temple to the Pariahs, and with folded hands people hymn up, ‘Vande Mataram’. Then they all squat down and Sankar and Ranganna and Dasappa make speeches about the incorruptible qualities of Moorthy, and they say how the foreign Government wants to crush all self- respect, and they then speak of charka and ahimsa and Hindu- Moslem unity, and somebody cries out, ‘And what about the Untouchables?’ and Sankar says, ‘Of course, we are for them — why, has not the Mahatma adopted an Untouchable?’ and somebody cries out again, ‘Ah, our religion is going to be desecrated by you youngsters!’ and Sankar says, ‘Brother, if you have anything to say, please come up to the platform,’ and the man says, ‘And you will allow me to speak?’ and Sankar says, ‘We have no enemies,’ and the man is seen coming from the other end of the maidan, a lean, tall man in durbar turban and filigree shawl, and he wears gold-cased rudrakshi beads at his neck, and he goes up the platform and says:
‘Brothers, you have all heard the injurious attacks against the Government and the police and many other things. I am a toothless old man and I have seen many a change pass before me, and may I say this: All this is very good, but if the white men shall leave us tomorrow it will not be Rama-rajya we shall have, but the rule of the ten-headed Ravana. What did we have, pray, before the British came — disorder, corruption and egoism, disorder, corruption and egoism I say’—he continued, though there were many shouts and booings against him—’and the British came and they came to protect us, our bones and our dharma. I say dharma and I mean it. For hath not the Lord said in the Gita, “Whensoever there is ignorance and corruption I come, for I,” says Krishna, “am the defender of dharma,” and the British came to protect our dharma. And the great Queen Victoria said it when she put the crown of our sacred country on her head and became our beloved sovereign. And when she died — may she have a serene journey through the other worlds! — and when she died — you are too young to know, but ask of your grandfathers how many a camphor was lit before the temple gods, and how many a sacrificial fire was created, and how many a voice did rise up to the heavens in incantation. For not only was she a great queen, a mother-queen, but the most courageous defender of our faith. Tell me, did she not protect it better than any Mohammedan prince had ever done? Now I am an old man. You are all young. Things change. But what I fear for tomorrow is not the disorder in the material world, but the corruption of castes and of the great traditions our ancestors have bequeathed us. When the British rule disappears there will be neither Brahmin nor Pariah, Vaisya nor Sudra — nay, neither Mohammedan nor Christian, and our eternal dharma will be squashed like a louse in a child’s hair. My young brothers, let not such confusion of castes anger our manes, and let the religion of Vasistha and Manu, Sankara and Vidyaranya go unmuddied to the Self-created One. Now I have said all I have to say. ’
But before he has stopped somebody says, ‘So you are a Swami’s man?’—and the old man says, ‘And of course I am, and I have the honour to be.’—’And the Swami has just received twelve hundred acres of wetland from the Government. Do you know that?’ says a youngster. — ’Of course, and pray what else should he do if he is offered a rajadakshina, a royal gift?’—and the youngster says, ‘So the Swami is a Government man?’—and the old man says, ‘The Swami is neither for the Government nor against it, but he is for all who respect the ancient ways of our race, and not for all this Gandhi and Gindhi who cannot pronounce even a gayathri, and who say there is neither caste nor creed and we are all equal to one another, while the Swami. ’—And somebody cries out, ‘Do you know the Swami has been received by the Governor?’— and Sankar rises up and says, ‘No interruptions, please!’—and the old man answers, ‘And of course, but why not? And do not the dharma sastras say the king is the protector of faith? And I cry out “Long live George the Fifth, Emperor!”’ and he hobbled down from the platform.
Then came youngster after youngster and said Moorthy was excommunicated by the Swami, for Moorthy was for Gandhiji and the Untouchables, and the Swami was paid by the British to do their dirty work. ‘I have grown in the Mutt,’ says one, ‘and I have known what they do. The Mutt, brothers, is the best place for retired high court judges, police inspectors, and God-dedicated concubines, and they are not with us, are they?’ And Sankar rises up again and says, ‘Now it is better we talk of other things,’ but the young man continues, ‘The whole trouble has been hatched by the Mutt.’ Then Advocate Ranganna gets up and says, ‘And I too have been excommunicated, for I have thrown open the temple to the Pariahs,’ and there is a violent ovation, and Ranganna continues, ‘And I know one thing too that few know, and it is time I said it in the open,’ and everybody began to stand up and the Volunteers cried, ‘Sit down, please, sit down!’ And when there is silence again, Ranganna continues: ‘Not long ago, I received a visit of a man, and he comes to me and says, “The Swami would like to see you,” and I say, “If the Swami likes to see me, I am indeed most honoured!” and straight I go the next morning with fruits and flowers, and the Swami receives me with smiles and blessings and he says, “I need your help, Ranganna,” and I say, “Of course, everything is yours, Swamiji,” and the Swami says, “There is much pollution going on and I want to fight against it,” and I say, “I am for fighting against all pollution,” and the Swami says, “For some time there has been too much of this Pariah business. We are Brahmins and not Pariahs. When the Pariahs will have worn out their karma, and will have risen in the waters of purification, nobody will prevent them from becoming Brahmins, even sages, in their next lives. But this Gandhi, who is no doubt a very fine person, is meddling with the dharma sastras, the writ laws of the ancient sages, and I am not for it. He said he would like to see me, and I saw him and told him what I thought of it. But he said we did not interpret the dharma sastras correctly, and of course it was ridiculous to say that, for who should know better, he or I? But one cannot break the legs of the ignorant. Now, what I have to say is simple: we want to fight against this anti-Untouchable campaign, and I may tell you in confidence, the powers that be, well, they are with the guardians of our trusted traditions.”