Vol. 10 · pages 456–460

435 OTHER GRIEVANCES 50. Of course, Government may say that it is not bound to do publicity work for parties and communities, and that the parties and communities may do their own publicity. But that is not the case here. The Government of India, as I have shown, docs engage itself very much in this work of publicity. And when a Government does it, it is bound to treat all parties on equal footing in the matter of publicity and give a true and correct picture of the movements and forces operating in the country. VIII. Closed-door in Government Contracts 51. A Good part of Government needs in Public Works is carried out not departmentally but by contracts. This is so in normal times. In war times the work done for Government by the contract system has expanded several hundred fold. I can speak only of the Central Public Works Department. The list of approved contractors maintained, by the Central Public Works Department is 1,171. Of these, I am told, there is only one contractor belonging to the Scheduled Castes. The rest of them are Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. It should be possible for Government to arrange things in such a manner as to make its contract system allow an open door to members of all communities to profit by it. There are many persons of the Scheduled Castes who could be trusted to carry out a Government contract. Already many members of the scheduled castes are working as employees of Hindus, Muslim or Sikh contractors. The result is that the Hindu, Muslim or Sikh contractors are taking profit while the Scheduled Caste men are working on a mere wage. 52. There is not much difficulty in getting a certain number of men from the Scheduled Castes put on the list of approved contractors. But what is important is to enable them to get a contract. There are two rules in the matter of Government contracts :— (1) That a contract is to be given generally to a contractor whose tender is the lowest; (2) That Government is not bound to accept the lowest tender. 53. It is therefore, a mattter of discretion which is exercised by the Officer in charge whether a contract will go to a particular contractor

436 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES or not. This discretion is not likely to be exercised in favour of a Scheduled Caste contractor. His tender may be the lowest but owing to communal prejudice he may not accept it and rely on the second rule “ that he is not bound to accept the lowest”. If his tender is higher than the lowest, he will not accept it although he is free to do so. He will rely on the first of the two rules. Either way he will have his justification for rejecting the tender of the Scheduled Caste contractors. 54. There is of course, no remedy against communal bais. The only thing that strikes me that we can do is to amend the rule by saying that a tender of a Scheduled Caste contractor, if it is not higher than the lowest by 5 per cent, shall be deemed to be the lowest. This, of course, involves financial loss and the Finance Department will have to agree to it. I cannot give any idea of the approximate cost of such a concession. I am sure it will not be heavy as to break the camel’s back. zz

PART IV DUTY OF GOVERNMENT TOWARDS DISTRESSED PEOPLE Some of the proposals submitted in this Memorandum on behalf of the Scheduled Castes, particularly those which are put forth to remove political grievances, do not involve any financial burden on the public treasury. They are really not proposals so much as political demands which, by reason of their logic and their justice, Government must grant. The difficulty arises only with regard to the acceptance of those proposals which involve a financial burden upon the revenues of the Central Government. Financial burden there is. But, it will not do to reject them merely on that account. For there can be no doubt that Government has a duty towards the Scheduled Castes, and if they accept their duty in this behalf they are bound to discharge it even if it involves a certain amount of financial burden on the public purse. 56. The policy of the British Government towards the Scheduled Castes has been one of complete and continuous neglect. It began from the very beginning when the British Government realized that its duty was not merely to maintain law and order, and extended to giving the people education and looking after their welfare. This will be clear from the following quotations from the report of the Board of Education of the Bombay Presidency for the year 1850-51 :— Inquiry as to Upper Classes of India “Paragraph 16. It being then demonstrated that only a small section of the population can be brought under the influence of Government education in India, and the Honourable Court having in effect decided that this section should consist of the ‘upper classes’, it is essential to ascertain who these latter consist of. Upper Classes in India “Paragraph 17. The classes who may be deemed to be influential and in so far the upper classes in India, may be ranked as follows :— 1st.—The landowners and jagirdars, representative of the former

438 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES feudatories and persons in authorities under Native powers and who may be termed the Soldier class. 2nd.—Those who have acquired wealth in trade or commerce or the commercial class. 3rd.—The higher employees of Government. 4th.—Brahmins with whom may be associated, though at long interval, those of higher castes of writers who live by the pen and as Parbhus and Seenvies in Bombay, Kayasthas in Bengal, provided they acquire a position either in learning or station. Brahmins The Most Influential “Paragraph 18. Of these four classes incomparably the most influential, the most numerous and on the whole easiest to be worked on by the Government, are the latter. It is a well recognised fact throughout India that the ancient Jagirdars or soldier class are daily deteriorating under our rule. * * * nor among the commercial classes, with a few exceptions, is their much greater opening for the influences of superior education.. * * * Lastly the employees of the State, though they possess a great influence over the large numbers who come in contact with Government, have no influence, whatever, with the still larger numbers who are independent of Government ; Poverty of Brahmins *Paragraph 19. The above analysis, though it may appear lengthy is nevertheless, indispensable, for certain important conclusions deducible from it. First, it demonstrates that the influential class whom the Government are able to avail themselves of in diffusing the seeds of education are the Brahmins and other high castes Brahmanis proximi. Question as to Educating Low Castes “Paragraph 21. The practical conclusion to be drawn from these facts which years of experience have forced upon our notice, is that a very wide door should be opened to the children of the poor higher castes, who are willing to receive education at our hands. But here, again, another embarrassing question arises, which it is right to notice. If the children of the poor are admitted freely to Government

439 DUTY OF GOVERNMENT TOWARDS DISTRESSED PEOPLE Institutions what is there to prevent all the despised castes —the Dheds,, Mahars, etc., from flocking in numbers to their walls ? Social Prejudices of the Hindus “Paragraph 22. There is little doubt that if a class of these latter were to be formed in Bombay they might be trained, under the guiding influence of such Professors and masters as are in the service of the Board, into men of superior intelligence to any in the community : and with such qualifications, as they would then possess, there would be nothing to prevent their aspiring to the highest offices open to Native talent —to Judgeships, the Grand Jury, Her Majesty’s Commission of the Peace. Many benevolent men think it is the height of illiberality and weakness in the British Government to succumb to the prejudices which such appointments would excite into disgust amongst the Hindu community, and that an open attack should be made upon the barriers of caste. Wise Observations of the Honourable Mount Stuart Elphinstone Cited “Paragraph 23. But herewith wise reflections of Mr. Elephinstone, the most liberal and large minded administrator who has appeared this side of India, point out the true rule of action. ‘It is observed,’ he says, ‘that the missionaries find the lowest caste the best pupils; but we must be careful how we offer any special encouragement to men of that description ; they are not only the most despised, but among the least numerous of the great divisions of society and it is to be feared that if our system of education first took root among them, it would never spread further, and we might find ourselves at the head of a new class, superior to the rest in useful knowledge, but hated and despised by the castes to whom these new attainments would always induce us to prefer them. Such a state of things would be desirable, if we were contented to rest our power on our army or on the attachment of a part of the population but is inconsistent with every attempt to found it on a more extended basis!” * * * 57. Such is the antagonism towards the Schedule Castes with which began Government’s policy of giving education to Indians. This policy