Muhammad Moledina Meghji

Mahatma Gandhi on the Meritorious Deed of two Mundra Khoja

Ibrahim Pradhan’s Meritorious Deed as Recorded by Mahatma Gandhi 102 – Gandhi’s Speech at Mundra, November 1, 1925, page 177 – 181

….It is wrong to invite me to a place where the entire public believes in untouchability. It is an insult to invite me to a place where the untouchables are treated with nothing but contempt. After having come here, I heard of the school for the untouchables. I felt that at such a place the Antyajas [lit. the last born – ed] would receive service.

I would congratulate Ibrahim Pradhan Saheb on the school but the Hindu public deserves no such congratulations……. However, in this case, the Khojas are doing the work that should be done by Hindus…………If you could rip open my heart today, you would find it crying — ‘O Lord! Could this be the Hindu dharma, where no one cares for the Antyajas? Is there not a single person in the town who will come to their rescue’?…

Gandhi’s Reminiscences of Kutch, November 1, 1925, pages 181-187.

There is a school for the Antyajas in Mundra but it is a philanthropic Muslim gentleman, Sheth Ibrahim Pradhan, who runs it at his own expense.

Sheth Ibrahim Pradhan deserves all praise for his charity, as I was informed that this school is not being run for the purpose of converting the untouchables or schoolchildren to Islam, but in order to enable them to make progress as Hindus.

The people of Mundra also informed me that the gentleman in charge, Mauledina Meghji was a Vedantin [belonging to a school of Indian philosophy – ed.] and a learned person. All this must be regarded as satisfactory.

This institution adds to the prestige of Sheth Ibrahim Pradhan, and to that extent to the shame of the Hindus.