Vol. 10 · pages 436–440

415 POLITICAL GRIEVANCES 18. What is the provision which this resolution makes to safeguard the position of the Scheduled Castes ? I give below the two relevant provisions of the Resolution. In paragraph 3 the Resolution states that:— “No useful purpose will be served by reserving for them (Depressed Classes) a definite percentage of vacancies out of the number available for Hindus as a whole, but they hope to ensure that duly qualified candidates from the Depressed Classes are not deprived of fair opportunities of appointment. The way in which Government hoped to ensure to the Scheduled Castes a fair share of representation in the Public Services is specified in para 7(1)(vi) of the Resolution, which reads as follows :— “In order to secure fair representation for the Depressed Classes duly qualified members of these classes may be nominated to a Public Service even though recruitment to that service is being made by competition”. A persual of these proposals brings out two facts :— (i) The Resolution does not declare the Scheduled Castes to be a minority. (ii) The Resolution does not allot to the Scheduled Castes any fixed proportion of the annual vacancies. It goes without saying that there is a striking contrast between the provisions made by the Government of India for securing the recruitment of the Scheduled Castes and for the other minor communities to the Public Services. This contrast can be expressed in one sentence. The recruitment of the other communities is owing to the Resolution, not left to be a matter of discretion. It has been made a matter of obligation. The recruiting authority must fill in vacancy by recruiting a person, belonging to the community for which the vacancy is reserved. The recruitment of the Scheduled Castes on the other hand has been made a mere matter of discretion. The recruiting authority may fill an unreserved vacancy by appointing a person from the Scheduled Castes. 19. It is owing to this difference between must and may that the Muslims and other communities have been so well represented in the Public Services and the Scheduled castes so completely excluded. No belter result is possible so long as the Government of India leaves

416 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES the matter of recruitment of the Scheduled Castes in public services to the discretion and goodwill of the appointing officers. These officers are either Europeans, Hindus or Muslims. The European is blissfully ignorant of the Scheduled Castes, and he has never made the protection of the interests of the Scheduled Castes his special concern. So long as his general authority is maintained he is prepared to follow the advice of his Hindu or Muslim subordinates. The Muslims are naturally striving to strengthen their own position. They are concerned to see that as many vacancies as possible should go to the Muslims : at any rate all those which are reserved to them. The Hindus who had so far the monopoly in the public service and who never know how to share the good things of life with others want to keep the balance to themselves. With their self-interest combined with their age-old prejudices against the Scheduled Castes the Hindus will never be fair to them. It is a sheer delusion to leave to the discretion of such officers the question of the recruitment of the Scheduled Castes and to hope that the Scheduled Castes will as a result of it secure a fair share of representation. 20. The question of entry into the Public Service is an important question for all minority communities. But to the Scheduled Castes it is a vital question, a question of life and death. There are many reasons why this must be so. In the first place, it is a question of opening up a career for youngmen from the Scheduled Castes. This is an aspect of the question which the Scheduled Castes, and even the Government of India, cannot ignore. Trade and Industry, as openings for a career, are all blocked to youngmen of the Scheduled Castes. It is only in Government service that they can find a career. While this is an important aspect, it is not the only aspect which makes this question so vital. For there is another aspect which is calculated to invest it with such importance. That aspect relates to the effect which the bestowal of Government patronage has in encouraging the spread of education in a community. The case of the Hindu community is quite in point. The rapid progress which the Hindu community has made is of course very striking. But it is very seldom realized that the reason why education has taken such deep root in the Hindu society is entirely due to the assurance that education opens up a career by entry in Government service. Such assurance of career is absolutely necessary

417 POLITICAL GRIEVANCES in the case of the Scheduled Castes who are so backward in education. There is a third argument far more weighty that the two which have been referred to above. It relates to the interest of the general population of the Scheduled Caste people as distinguished from the interests of the educated classes from the Scheduled Castes. This will be clear if it is realised how important public administration is from the point of view of public welfare. In the first place, power of administration now-a-days includes the power to legislate. No Statute in modern days is complete and exhaustive. Most allow the administration the statutory power to make rules to carry into effect the purposes of the Act. Secondly, whether the law is beneficial or not depends upon how efficaciously and how justly it is carried out. Good administration is therefore far more important than good laws. Good laws may prove of no avail if the administration is bad. Administration is therefore a vital question for the Scheduled Castes who are more interested in good administration than in good laws. Is the present administration good administration ? What do the Scheduled Castes think of the present day administration? There can be no doubt that the view universally held is that the whole administration is hostile, unjust, and perverse in its attitude towards the Scheduled Castes all over India. Indeed much of the suffering and harassment of the Scheduled Caste population arises from the fact that the discretion vested in public servants is in almost all cases exercised against the interests of the Scheduled Castes and with the object of keeping them down. This is as it must be given the mentality of the Hindu and Muslim officers, towards the Scheduled Castes. This will continue to be so as long as the personnel of the administration is drawn from classes who have been opposed to the Scheduled Castes and who believe in their suppression. There cannot be a more powerful argument than that of the advantage and welfare of the general population of the Scheduled Castes to show that the entry of the Scheduled Castes in the Public Service must be regarded as a most vital consideration. 21. Certain facts are beyond doubt. The source of mischief is evident. How vital is the service interest of the Scheduled Castes is also clear. How serious is the mischief done to this vital interest by the discrimination which Government has in its resolution of 4th July, 1934 made against the Scheduled Castes as compared with the other

418 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES communities nobody can dispute. How disastrous have been the consequences to the Scheduled Castes will be apparent from the figures given in the following table relating to the communal composition to the I.C.S. :— TABLE III Communal Proportion in the I.C.S. in 1942 Community Total Percentage of Total of 1056 including Europeans Percentage of Total of 568 excluding Europeans 1. Europeans … 488 42.4 …… 2. Hindus … 363 34.4 63.2 3. Muslims … 109 10.3 19.2 4. Indian Christians … 23 2.2 4.0 5. Anglo-Indians … 9 .9 1.5 6. Parsis … 9 .9 1.5 7. Sikhs … 11 1.0 2.0 8. Scheduled Castes … 1 Nil Nil 9. Others … 43 3.9 8.0 Total … 1,056 TABLE IV I.C.S. through Competition and Nomination Community Through Competition Through Nomination Total 1. Europeans … 336 152 488 2. Hindus … 332 31 363 3. Muslims … 35 74 109 4. Indian Christians … 19 4 23 5. Anglo Indians … 8 1 9 6. Parsis … 8 1 9 7. Sikhs … 5 6 11 8. Scheduled Castes … …… 1 1 9. Others … 28 15 43 Total … 771 285 1,056

419 POLITICAL GRIEVANCES TABLE V Population Ratio as Compared with Ratio in the I.C.S. Community Actual Ratio in the I.C.S. excluding Europeans Population Ratio Excess + Defficiency — of Service Ratio as compared with Population Ratio 1. Hindus … 63.2 50.0 + 13.2 2. Muslims … 19.2 23.6 — 4.4 3. Indian Christians … 4.0 1.0 + 3.0 4. Anglo-Indians … 1.5 .03 + 1.47 5. Parsis … 1.5 0.3 + 1.47 6. Sikhs … 2.0 1.3 + 0.7 7. Scheduled Castes … …… 13.5 –13.5 8. Others … 8.0 …… …… 22. From these tables the following conclusions stand out as incontrovertible facts:— (1) All communities have made a fair degree of progress towards getting their apportioned share of representation in the I.C.S. The only exception is the unfortunate community of the Scheduled Castes who have made no progress at all. (2) Some communities have secured a degree of representation in the I.C.S. much in excess of their population ratio. This is noticeable in the case of the Hindus. Excluding the share of the Europeans which is 50% and which must be excluded for comparing the relative position of the Indians the Hindus have got 63% of the I.C.S. appointments when the ratio of their population to the total population is only 50%. They are enjoying an excess of 13%. (3) Nomination was intended only to correct the inequities of competition. Yet some communities have been given the benefit of nomination although it has been able to secure a very large of the I.C.S. appointments by competition and who do not need and cannot claim the benefit of nomination. This is undoubtedly the case with the Hindus. Between 1920-1942 the Hindus were able to secure 332 out of 435 that were filled by Indians by competition, and yet