When Bapuji returned from South Africa, he had
neither the lock of hair on the top of his head (kept after tonsure) nor did
he wear the sacred thread. At the time of ‘Kumbhmela’ (an assemblage of
religious minded people at the pilgrimage, after every twelve years) a Sadhu
(a holy man) persistently asked Bapu to have both of them. Bapu agreed to
keep the lock of hair but declined to wear the scared thread. Telling me
about this incident, he said, “Although I am a staunch Hindu myself I want
to introduce so many reforms in Hindu society. If required I would even set
about a hunger strike against this society. That would be the only way to
reform it. So I would better abide by their traditions and keep them happy
until then. Nothing can be achieved by refusing a trivial thing like keeping
a lock of hair. But regarding the sacred thread, he said, “We have
unnecessarily made a number of compartments in Hindu society. We divided it
into pieces. Some of the people have the right to wear the sacred thread and
some don’t have it. This divide is unaccounted for.” Gandhiji was a great
reformer but basically he was a ‘baniya’ (a tradesman by caste). That is why
he called himself orthodox, but accepted the profession of a reformer.