Vol. 10 · pages 51–55

34 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES can take decisions and, therefore, anything that is done in this Committee is not going to commit this House one way or the other. It is purely an Advisory Committee. The second thing which in my judgment presents a stronger reason than the first arises out of the object of the Committee. The object of the Committee is to bring together experts of the representatives of trade and industry together. That is the primary object of this Committee. I would like to draw the attention of Honourable Members to the composition which has been devised for this particular Committee in order that this principal object may be achieved. Sir, there are altogether 16 members on this Committee as planned for the present. The House will see that what has been done is to put five experts on the Committee and to put five representatives of trade and industry along with them. First of all, there is the Director of Geological Survey, the Director of the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research, one representative of the Mining and Metallurgical Institute, one representative of the Indian Mining Association and representative of the Indian Mining Federation. They constitute a body of experts who will sit on this Committee. Then, as representatives of trade and industry, we have given two scats to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce. We have given two seats to steel industry and we have the Secretary of the Commerce Department to represent the Commerce Department on this Committee. From this the House will see that the object of the Committee is really to bring experts who will tell the industrialists and the representatives of the trade what minerals they are in a position to prove and representatives of trade and industry will tell the experts how they could be commercially exploited. Now Sir, if the House bears in mind that this is the principal object of this Committee, there is really not much scope left for the inclusion of what I might call general opinion in the country. Dr. P. N. Banerjea (Calcutta Suburbs : Non-Muhammadan Urban): Representatives of the general public. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Yes, representatives of the general public. The next argument to which I wish to refer is the fact that the Committee is already a large Committee. As planned now, there are 14 Members on it. If I accept the amendment which demands four, then the Committee will consist of 18 and I must take into consideration the fact that if I allow four Members of this House, the Upper House

35ELECTION OF A MEMBER........SURVEY OF INDIA will demand at least three. That means that the Committee will consist of 21 Members which I have no doubt the Mouse will agree will be too unwieldy for doing the business which it will be called upon to undertake. The next point to which I should like to draw the attention of the House is this: that the constitution of the Committee already provides for the nomination of four Members by the Labour Member and without committing myself to any particular line of using this power of nomination I think it is perfectly possible that one Member of the House may find a place on it through nomination. Therefore, Sir, having regard to the considerations which I have placed before the House, I am sorry to say that I cannot accept these amendments. zz

7 *Why Indian Labour is Determined to Win the War Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s Broadcast from Bombay Station of All India Radio “Labour is aware that, if this is a war against the New Nazi Order, it is not a war for the Old Order. It is a war on both the Old Order and the Nazi Order. Labour is aware that the only compensation for the cost of this war is the establishment of a New Order in which liberty, equality, and fraternity will not be mere slogans but will become facts of life,” said the Hon’ble Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Member for Labour, Government of India, broadcasting recently on “Why Indian Labour is determined to win this War” from the Bombay Station of A.I.R. Here is the full text of Dr. Ambedkar’s broadcast : There is to be a series of broadcasts by persons who are connected with and interested in Labour. My talk tonight is the first of this series. The subject of my talk is of a general sort. It is to serve as an introduction to the series. The title I have chosen for the subject is ‘Why Indian Labour is determined to win this War’. There is one fact which must arrest the attention of all. It relates to the attitude of Indian Labour towards the War. In the midst of this sudden surge of non-co-operation with and opposition to the war effort which we are witnessing in India, Labour has been actively co-operating in the prosecution of the war. Of this there can be no question. This, Labour has done and is determined to do notwithstanding the many efforts that are being made to dissuade it from doing. What Labour Wants During the war Labour has secured many gains and will no doubt secure many more. As pointed out by me recently, Labour has obtained *Indian Information, January 1, 1943, pp. 16-19.

37WHY INDIAN LABOUR IS DETERMINED TO WIN THE WAR security through legislation. It has obtained the right to safety, care and attention, through the conditions of welfare which have been enforced by the Central Government upon the Employers for the benefit of Labour. But, if Labour is determined to do its utmost to accelerate the war effort, it is not simply because of the lure of these immediate gains. There arc other and stronger reasons which are at the base of this determination. Labour is not content with securing merely fair conditions of work. What Labour wants is fair conditions of life. Let me explain what Labour means by fair conditions of life. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity Labour wants liberty. There is perhaps nothing new in this. What is new is Labour’s conception of liberty. Labour’s conception of liberty is not merely the negative conception of absence of restraint. Nor is Labour’s conception of liberty confined to the mere recognition of the right of the people to vote. Labour’s conception of liberty is very positive. It involves the idea of Government by the people. Government by the people, in the opinion of Labour, does not mean Parliamentary Democracy. Parliamentary Democracy is a form of Government in which the function of the people has come to be to vote for their masters and leave them to rule. Such a scheme of Government, in the opinion of Labour, is a travesty of Government by the people. Labour wants Government which is Government by the people in name as well as in fact. Secondly, liberty as conceived by Labour includes the right to equal opportunity and the duty of the State to provide the fullest facilities for growth to every individual according to his needs. Labour wants equality. By equality Labour means abolition of privileges of every kind in law, in the civil service, in the Army, in taxation, in trade and in industry : in fact the abolition of all processes which lead to inequality. Labour wants fraternity. By fraternity it means an allpervading sense of human brotherhood, unifying all classes and all nations, with “peace on earth and goodwill towards man” as its motto. The Nazi New Order These are Labour’s ideals. They constitute the New Order, the establishment of which alone can save humanity from destruction. How

38 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES can this New Order be established if the Allied Nations lose the war ? That is the supreme question which Labour knows it would be fatal to shirk or to avoid. Can this New Order be established by sitting idle and refusing to fight? Labour believes that Victory for the Allied Nations is the only hope of such a New Order coming into being. If the Allies fail, sure enough there will be a New Order. But the New Order will be no other than the Nazi Order. It will be an Order in which liberty will be found to be suppressed, equality denied, and fraternity expurgated as a pernicious doctrine. This is by no means the whole of the Nazi New Order. There are parts of the Nazi Order which must compel every Indian to give anxious thought to its dangers, no matter what his religion, his caste and his political faith. The most important part is the one which enunciates the creed of racial gradation. This is the principal dictum in the Nazi Order. The Nazis regard the German Race as the Race of Superman. They are pleased to place the other While Races below the German race. But to the Brown Races—and Indians are included in this category—they give the last place in the gradation. As though this is not humiliating enough, the Nazis have declared that the Brown Races shall be the serfs of the German and the White Races. They arc not to have education, they arc not to have any liberty—political or economic. “A Direct Menace” The fury with which the British Government has been denounced by Hitler in his Mein Kampf for having given Indians education and political liberty, is quite well-known. The Nazi ideology is a direct menace to the liberty and freedom of Indians. Given this fact, there is the strongest reason why Indians should come forward to light Nazism. No one who compares the Nazi Order with the New Order which Labour has in view, can have any doubt that Labour, in making up its determination to fight for the Allies and to defeat and destroy Nazism, has taken up a position which is the only position which all sensible people can take. There are, however, people who refuse to take this view. There are some who think that they do not mind a Nazi victory’ and the coming of the New Nazi Order. Fortunately, not many of these are to be found in the country. Those who take this view are not serious