Vol. 10 · pages 376–380

359 THE INDIAN FINANCE BILL where the Untouchables sometimes form a microscopic minority of 5 per cent as against a majority of 95 per cent. Hindus, it would be idiotic for any man to think that the final election was any test as to who represented whom. The real test is the test of the primary election. For the primary election is an election through a separate electorate of the Scheduled Castes. What has happened in the primary elections. Let me give my friends opposite some idea of the results of the primary elections. In the Punjab there were three constituencies in which a primary election took place. In Bombay there were also three constituencies in which primary elections were held. Shri Mohan Lal Saksena : Out of how many ? The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : Let me finish. Mr. President : Let him proceed. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : In the Central Provinces there were four. In the Madras Presidency ten, in the United Provinces two. (Interruption). If my Honourable friend wants to know the fact, he ought to know that a primary election is not compulsory. Unless five people stand there cannot be a primary election and no Scheduled Caste wants a primary election because it involves a lot of expense and we have no black market money to finance it (Interruptions). In all there have been 22 primary elections. They were all contested by the Congress. I want to tell the House that out of the 22 primary elections, 19 have been won by the Scheduled Castes Federation. Diwan Chaman Lall : How many in the Punjab ? The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : Wait a minute. In the Bombay Presidency—I cannot give the whole lot of figures because my time is short.......... Pandit Govind Malaviya : It may go against you ! The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : In the Bombay City there were two Constituencies in which the primary election was fought. One was the Byculla constituency. The Scheduled Castes Federation candidate got 11,334 votes and the Congress candidate got 2,096 votes. In the Suburban Constituency of Bombay City the Scheduled Castes Federation candidate got 12,899 votes and the Congress candidates got only 2,088. In the Central Provinces—I again take two constituencies for illustration..... Sri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar : The black market did not prevail.

360 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : In the Nagpur constituency the Scheduled Castes Federation got 1,933 votes and the Congress candidate got 270. In Bhandara District the Federation candidate got 3,187 and the Congress candidate, including others who were independent, got altogether 976. In the Agra constituency in the United Provinces the Scheduled Castes Federation candidate got 2,248 while the Congress and others put together got only 840. In the Punjab, Ludhiana—Ferozepur Constituency, I am taking one as an illustration—the Scheduled Castes Federation got 1,900 votes and the Congress got only 500. Diwan Chaman Lall : There was no Scheduled Caste candidate in the Punjab. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : Will my friend let me go on. I know more about these matters than I think he does. Diwan Chaman Lall : My Honourable friend knows there was not one single candidate. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : The Scheduled Castes Federation who..... Diwan Chaman Lall : It is a tissue of lies. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : My Honourable friend will withdraw it. Sir, I seek the protection of the Chair. Diwan Chaman Lall : I challenge my friend to deny the fact that there was not a single candidate of his Federation put up in the Punjab. Mr. President : Order, order. It is no use introducing heat in the debate when the Honourable Member is giving the facts. The point was raised and the reply was invited and whatever he has to say must be heard patiently. I am not concerned with the question as to whether what he said is a fact or not but no Honourable Member of the House is entitled to or can say that what the other Honourable Member was saying was “a tissue of lies.” Diwan Chaman Lall : I withdraw it, Sir, and substitute for it “a tissue of terminological inexactitudes.” The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : I will give one constituency from Madras, viz. Amalapuram. The Federation candidate got 10,540 votes and the Congress candidate 2,683. That is the result of the primary election and I say that if anybody wants to apply an honest test, that test ought to be the test of the primary election. I want to tell my

361 THE INDIAN FINANCE BILL Honourable friends opposite that if what they have done in this election is of any value, it has to my mind substantiated and proved the case which I have been fighting for that the electoral system is a humbug and that the Scheduled Castes must have separate electorates. My Honourable friend, Pandit Malaviya, tried to make out another point. He said that the Hindu community has been taking interest in the Scheduled Castes and that they could subscribe a great deal of money for the moral and material advancement of the Scheduled Castes. Sir, I do not know....... Pandit Govind Malaviya : On a point of order, Sir: May I know from you that if an Honourable Member of this House goes on misrepresenting and misquoting and stating utterly wrong facts about any other Member, who has already spoken and who is not likely to get a chance to reply to or expose those misstatements and terminological inexactitudes, may I know from you what is the way open to the other member to meet that situation ? Mr. President : The question is hypothetical and I do not think I need take the trouble of replying to it But statement of facts is one thing and version is another and the Honourable Member need not confound versions with facts. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : Sir, I was dealing with the point which my Honourable friend made in the course of his speech that the Hindu community was taking a great deal of interest in the welfare and the material and moral advancement of the Scheduled Castes. All that I would like to say is that if one were to judge by what happens within the four corners of this House, I think it would be very difficult for any honest man to subscribe to the statement that my Honourable friend has made. I have been, it is true, a member of this House for a very short time but I have been a very regular reader of the proceedings of this House and there is nothing about this House which I have not read, which is worth reading. And, Sir, having regard to the past, I think it is correct to say that it is very seldom that any member of the Opposition has ever asked any question of any member of the Government sitting here with regard to the many atrocities, tyrranies and oppression that have been practised upon the Scheduled Castes in every village from day

362 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES to day. I have not seen it in the proceedings. I have never seen any Honourable Member moving a resolution..... Sri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar : You would say that it is a Provincial subject. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : ..... that certain things might be done for the uplift of the community. There was one occasion which I remember, in which Honourable Members opposite made a bold bid in order to abolish untouchability. I believe, it was in the year 1932 or 1934, I forget exactly which...... An Honourable Member : 1933. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : ..... when a Bill was brought in for temple entry. And what a hullabaloo was made when the Viceroy refused to give his sanction. Men went on fasts and threatened to commit suicide if permision was not given to introduce the Bill. And when permission was given what happened ? What happened was that these gentlemen threw away the Bill. They disowned it. They left Mr. Ranga Iyer with the baby in his hand. He abused them roundly for having betrayed him. There were only two occasions I remember when the question..... An Honourable Member : You have not read the debates. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : I have read every thing about what happened in this House. I find only two occasions when this House discussed the question of the Scheduled Castes. One was in the year 1916 when Mr. Maneckji Dadabhoy, now the President of the other House, moved a resolution asking the Government to appoint a committee to investigate into the grievances of the Scheduled Castes and if my Honourable friend opposite who started this debate were to brouse into the proceedings of that debate, he will find that it was his father who turned out to be the most vehement opponent of that resolution. The other occasion was in 1927, that was when the late Lord Birkenhead happened to refer to the Scheduled Castes as a minority to be protected under the Constitution. My friends opposite are very fond of me only when I try to make a political issue of my existence. If I ask for separate electorates, if I ask for reservation in the services, if I ask for an educational grant, then they know that I exist. Otherwise, I am dead to them..... An Honourable Member : Nothing.

363 THE INDIAN FINANCE BILL The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : ..... and all social and political rights are denied to me because they say that I am a Hindu. If fraternity is to involve this cost, then I say that I am their cousin and not their brother. The other thing that I would like to say, is this and I would like to say it very positively. I want to tell my Hindu friends that I shall not live on their charity. I do not want their charity. I am a citizen of this country. I am entitled to claim from the Government Treasury whatever rights and benefit every other community is claiming for itself. I do not want charity; charity, the object of which is to enslave and demoralise me and my community. The Scheduled Castes want to stand on their rights and I take this opportunity to tell the House that if their claims are met with opposition, they will not hesitate to shed their blood in order to get their rights. * * * zz