Gandhi Beckons
Gandhi asked Laxmanshastri to stay back at his Bardoli ashram to help him in his drive to bring the Untouchables into the mainstream. Laxmanshastri agreed, thinking that this was his opportunity to amplify his reform efforts at the national level. He plunged into the satyāgraha movement and was soon jailed by the British for sedition. In jail, he read Marx’s writing and like many intellectuals of the time both in India and Europe, he became interested in Marxism and its potential to create a just society. He also continued to argue against caste segregation and discrimination. It was in the notorious Yerawada prison that he helped Gandhi formulate arguments against those advanced by the orthodox upper caste Indians who dominated the leadership in the Indian National Congress, to including Untouchables in the political mainstream. When traditional priests objected to the pratiloma marriage arrangement of Devdas, Gandhi’s son, to Laxmi, Rajagopalachari’s daughter, he used a lawyerly interpretation of caste and performed their wedding.