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| A picture taken in 1930, shows a man believed to be Mahatma Gandhi with broom |
Collective cleanliness
As I grew up
in the Sewagram Ashram founded by Gandhiji in 1936, the picture that is etched
in my mind is of our joyous participation in the collective cleaning drive in
the Ashram. Oh , what joy it was for us children to walk with our own jhadu
(broom), tokri (basket) and a little khurpi (shovel) and phawada (spade) and march out in
teams to our allocated area for taking part in systematic community
sanitation for three quarters of an hour each morning under the leadership of
our elders. The time that we spent in cleaning the surroundings, especially the
toilets, are one of the happiest memories of my life. Everything became so
clean and the night soil was composted into pits that turned magically into Sone
khaad, used as manure in the farms.
The habit of cleaning the toilets has continued even today and it is
with great pride that my family gets involved in this task.
For
centuries, perhaps from the feudal ages or even earlier sanitation is
considered to be a mean activity in India. The job used to be done by the
members of a particular caste of people who were treated differently. Although
every mother does the cleaning of the children and women sweep the household,
cleaning of streets and latrines were left to the so called untouchables.
Even as a child, Gandhiji could not accept the idea
of untouchability. When Dedhabhai came to clean the toilets in the Gandhi
household in Probandar, his mother Putli Bai forbade Mohan, or Moniya as she
used to call him from playing with him. It was unbearable to Mohan who for once
could not comply with his mother’s orders.
Dedhabhai and Mohan became friends. Many years later, he told Dr.
Ambedkar that he was wedded to untouchability much before he was wedded to
Kasturba. His tireless campaign against untouchability had undoubtedly shaken
the very foundation the system. However, untouchability was not eradicated from
the country. Even today untouchability is present despite Gandhiji’s campaign
and Dr. Ambedkar’s constitution and laws.
Phoenix Settlement
Gandhiji began cleaning the toilets in South Africa
as well. Ever since he established a community in Phoenix, he made cleaning of
the campus a common activity for everyone. Cleaning of the toilets, which was
considered to be the dirtiest of jobs was voluntarily taken up by Gandhiji
himself until it became a natural part of the whole process of sanitation.
In Sewagram too, the collective sanitation became a
fine art and developed into a scientific activity, when most of the members
joined the activity and some of them became leaders in planning and organizing
the activity for the whole community. Everyone, from Gandhiji to the little
ones in the Ashram used to carry the basket on their heads!
Experiments with different types of latrines were
also conducted in the Ashram to make the cleansing process free of offensive smell
and to use night soil for fertilizing the farms. It developed into a process
that made it both hygienic and economically productive. But perhaps the most important dimension of
the process was the social one. A task that was abhorred by the higher caste
Hindus was turned into a daily ritual by Gandhiji in his Ashram. One of Gandhiji’s methods of introducing his
Ashram life to newcomers was to allot the task of cleaning the toilets. It was
both a test of their willingness to change their lifestyle and an act of
initiation in the Ashram way of living.
Once Srimanarayan, a young educated youth from
London School of Economics had come to seek an audience with Gandhiji in the
Sewagram Ashram. He had come with big dreams of changing the Nation; eagerly
awaiting his turn to tell his ideas to Gandhiji. On the appointed day of his
meeting, even before he could utter a word, Gandhiji with a smiling face and
soft voice instructed him to join the collective sanitation for which he was
ready to leave. My mentor, Narayanbhai Desai was a teenager at that time and
was responsible to perform the role of the senior partner to the beginners. He
told me that it was most interesting for him to see the novice passing through
almost a mental crisis in the earlier stages. His task was to present them the
process in as pleasant a way as he could!
The process
The sanitation duties would rotate from time to time
giving the Ashramites experience in various processes and preventing them from
being bored. Preparing some of the implements such as brooms and preparing
compost-pits were also part of the community sanitation activity. Community
sanitation was Gandhiji’s revolutionary method of social change, being a
constructive revolt against untouchability. When Gandhiji turned his steps
towards the villages, the prosperous Indians could hardly imagine what kind of
villages captured Bapu’s attention. From
the beginning of his stay in Maganwadi, Bapu had begun going to the adjoining
village to clean the faces from the streets and yards, where people normally
relieved themselves. This was no jungle hamlet far from the railway track, but
a village right by the city of Wardha reminisces
Narainbhai Desai.
This work had two purposes. One was to encourage the
villagers to adopt better habits of sanitation and the second was to show that
proper Hindus could undertake such work. The job of ‘sweeper’ was assigned to
an outcaste community, to fulfill this function. But teaching such lessons to the villagers
was no easy task as we are seeing even in today’s times. For months on end the
villagers looked on Gandhiji, Mahadevbhai and their companions as ordinary
sweepers. Only, these were better,
because they took no money for their work!
‘Go over there. It is dirtier on that side.’ So said
one who had just eased himself, pointing to the spot he had soiled. In the
Sabarmati Ashram it was dumping the buckets of ‘night soil’ into compost pits,
and to scrub the buckets with coconut-leaf brooms. But here things were
different. When my father questioned him
about what good was this work, as it doesn’t affect people. To that Gandhiji
said,’ the bane of untouchability is no ordinary blemish on our society. We
will have to perform a prolonged penance to remove it.’ Gandhiji was so
enthusiastic about sanitation and a stickler for cleanliness that he maintained
that if he had his way he would be out there sweeping those roads himself. Not
only that, he would plant flowers there and water them daily. Where there was
dung of heaps today, he would make gardens. ‘Sweeping is an art in itself, he
said.
Village sanitation program
Health, sanitation and beauty were apparent outcomes
of village sanitation programme; Gandhiji wanted to tackle the question of the
biological resource of natural fertilizers and disposal of human and animal
waste. Perhaps his fastidious habits of personal hygiene were inherited from
his mother Putlibai, who was particular about religious observances.
Perhaps it is also the time we learn from the
Japanese people, how to keep the surrounding and the neighborhood clean. During
my recent trip to Tokyo and Kyoto in October 2104, I chanced upon group of
elderly in uniforms, brooms and cleaning materials, who were keeping the sub
ways, hotels, rooms, roads and all the public places spic and span, like only
the Japanese can. Their dedication, commitment and diligence is something to
learn from. From their childhood,
Japanese children are taught to clean. Called o-soji, this is a part of their
education.
Even the Japanese audience of the recent World Cup
matches in football demonstrated to the world how much they value cleanliness.
Though their team lost, after the match was over, all of them rose as one and
cleaned the stadium as though to do their natural duty of maintaining
cleanliness and order all around. Can we
learn from them? After all, it was just
66 years ago that our Father of the Nation demonstrated to us that cleanliness
is next to Godliness.
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