Ramarajya: Envisioning the Future an Entrenching the Past 85The tactical importance for worn n in the realization of Ramarajya was
not without careful consideration and convincing reasons. Speaking to
the Ceylon National Congress in C lombo, Gandhi advised that "woman
must play her part side by side w th man." He pointed out further: "In
India our one limb is paralysed. W men have got to come up to the level
of man.... they may not copy ma in all the wildness of his nature, but
they must come to the level of m n in all that is best in him."^41 Talking
to the Sabarmati Ashram women, Gandhi said, "The ancient laws were
made by seers who were men. Th women's experience, therefore, is not
represented in them. Strictly speak ng, as between man and woman, nei-
ther should be regarded as superi r or inferior." He noted that women
were caught up "in a helpless con ition like drudges," but only women
could raise themselves, and they c uld be self-supporting. According to
Gandhi, "If she learns satyagraha, she can be perfectly independent and
self-supporting. She will not have to feel dependent upon anyone. This
does not mean that she shall not t ke any help from others. She will cer-
tainly. But if such help be not fort coming she will not feel destitute. If
we are detached, even while we us the articles which we receive, we are
self-dependent." Although it was ossible to blame the sorry condition
of women on their husbands, "w men should think how best they can
themselves cast off their own weak ess."^42 Hence his insistence on charkha
and piety!
The ingenuity of the Gandhian Ian lies in the fact that he wanted to
bring about Ram's rule through Sit. He believed more in women than in
men. He did not use the concept f Ramarajya before audiences of men
because "in this age of rationalism, f one who talks of the spinning-wheel
to women talks also of Ramarajya, this would appear to our intelligent
young men as idle sermonizing."^3 When all women take to spinning,
"it is through them that we woul prevent crores of rupees from being
drained out of the country and sec re true swaraj-Ramarajya."^44 Reposing
more faith in women, he asked the not to consider anyone untouchable;
to train their children, boys and gir , in ancestral traditions; to discourage
early marriages; to give the childre the best education; and to give away
their valuables and jewelry for kha dar.^45
Another impediment Gandhi s w for achieving Ramarajya was the
caste system,^46 with its infamous touchability. When he was in South
Africa, he was against the plan of stablishing separate schools for Indi-
ans because he thought that it wou d prolong untouchability. But once in
India, he accepted the proposal of aving separate schools, temples, and
wells for the untouchables. He ace pted this proposal because "it would
be considered foolish on my part t ignore the existence of a thing which
does exist." So he came to the cone usion that as long as the untouchables
were not able to make use of com on temples and so forth, it was better
for them to have separate instituti ns rather than totally to deprive them