Similarly, Gandhi forced upper castes to admit that their claim of superiority was morally flawed. They could not justify the caste system after his patient argument with them but they kept practising it. Was it not Gandhi, who after the Poona Pact had said that it was now for the upper castes to prove their sincerity. So, Gandhi’s memory keeps reminding them that they have not done enough. The upper castes also would have liked Gandhi to be buried.
It therefore fell upon a non-Indian, Joe Biden, President of USA, a country Gandhi never set his foot on despite repeated invitations, to remind the Indian Prime Minister of the central message of Gandhi. He told him that Mahatma’s “message of non-violence, respect, tolerance matters today maybe more than ever”. That an Indian Prime Minister has to take lesson in Gandhi from the leader of a foreign land tells us where we stand.
It was another US President, Barack Obama,who recalled Gandhi to disapprove of the violence against minorities in India. He said, “Michelle and I returned from India—an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity—but a place where, in past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs— acts of intolerance that would have shocked Gandhi Ji, the person who helped to liberate that nation.”