Vol. 10 · pages 531–535

510 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES figures substantiate what you say about the achievements of candidates belonging to your Federation at the primary elections.* While I do not propose to go into the matter in detail here the facts are that primary elections were held in only 43 of the 151 seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes. Of these 43 primary elections, the Scheduled Castes Federation contested 22 and topped the poll in only 13. In your letter you make three specific requests.@ As regards the first, His Majesty’s Government are anxious that the Constituent Assembly should have the fullest possible freedom of action consistent with the terms of the Cabinet Mission’s Statements of May 16th and May 25th. We ourselves of course consider the Scheduled Castes to be an important minority which should be represented on the Minority Advisory Committee. But the declaration for which you ask could not be confined to the Scheduled Castes and would have to be a statement of all the elements who we consider should be included as Minorities in the Advisory Committee. Even though it would be only an expression of opinion on the part of His Majesty’s Government, it would inevitably be interpreted as an attempt to interfere with the Assembly’s freedom and as such would be likely to cause serious resentment. In these circumstances I cannot believe that such a declaration would be of value to the cause of the Scheduled Castes. Turning to your second request, I do not find that my speech in the House of Commons on March 15th last contained the words which you attribute to me.† What I said was “We are very mindful of the * In his Idler of 1st July Dr. Ambedkar wrote that : ‘That results of the Primary Elections— wherever they took place in India—proved that the candidates put up by the Federation came to the top and those put up by the Congress went down to the bottom.’ L/P&J/10/50 : f 81. @ These were : (1) To state openly that His Majesty’s Government holds that the Scheduled Castes are a minority within the meaning of paragraph 20 of the Cabinet Mission’s Statement. (2) That His Majesty’s Government will see that satisfactory safeguards which will enable them to live free from the fear of the Majority are provided for the Scheduled Castes before it agree to sign the Treaty for cessation of sovereignty. (3) That in the Interim Government the Scheduled Castes should have at least two representatives which should be the nominees of the Scheduled Castes Federation. Ibid., : f 82. † Dr. Ambedkar had noted that the Cabinet Mission had already made the point that there must be adequate provision for the protection of the minorities. His second request would be met if there were added to this statement the words : ‘safeguards which will enable the Scheduled Castes to live free from the fear of the Majority.’ These were words, Dr. Ambedkar claimed, which Mr. Attlee himself had used in his speech on 15th March. Ibid.

511 THE TRANSFER OF POWER rights of minorities and minorities should be able to live free from fear.” This remains the view of His Majesty’s Government, which found expression in paragraph 4 of the Cabinet Mission’s Statement of May 25th. I do not consider that His Majesty’s Government would be wise to make at this stage any further pronouncement elaborating what was said in that paragraph. Your final request is that in the Interim Government the Scheduled Castes should have at least 2 representatives who should be nominees of the Scheduled Castes Federation. I regret that I cannot hold out any hope of this being possible. I was very glad to see that you had been elected to the Constituent Assembly. C. R. A. zz

512 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES 23 * Dr. Ambedkar to Mr. Attlee [L/P&J/10/50 :f 55] “Rajgraha” Dadar, Bombay 14 12th August 1946 My dear Attlee, Thank you for your letter of the 1st August 1946.1 did not expect you to find time to reply to my letter of the 1st July 1946.1 am therefore grateful to you for your having found time to let me know your views about the points that I had raised in my letter. 2. I am afraid I cannot accept your justification for the revision of the policy followed by His Majesty’s Government in the Simla Conference of 1945 nor of the Mission’s method of treating the Scheduled Castes. I cannot help saying that Mr. Alexander’s statement in the House of Commons that the majority of the Scheduled Castes are with the Congress is an atrocious statement and has no foundation in truth. This is not only my view but the view of every Englishman in India. If you only consult Sir Edward Benthall who is now in England, I am sure he will support me. 3. With regard to the analysis you have given of the result of the achievements of the Federation in the Primary Election, all I can say is that you have misunderstood the situation and I am afraid no outsider who does not know the significance of the facts or the method of the election will be able to understand what they mean without proper explanation. The main ground of my charge against the Mission is that when the other side of the picture were (was) presented by the Congress, it was their bounden duty to have called me and to have asked for an explanation. This, the Mission did not do, which they * The Transfer of Power, Vol. VIII, No. 142, pp. 221-23.

513 THE TRANSFER OF POWER were in justice bound to do. If I had failed to give them satisfactory explanation then they would have been justified in the conclusion to which they came. That the Mission was grossly misinformed is proved by my election to the Constituent Assembly from Bengal. The Cabinet Mission stated in the House of Commons that my influence was confined to Bombay and C.P. How is it then that I was elected from Bengal ? In connection with my election, I would like to impress upon you three facts: One is that I did not merely scrape through but I came at the top of the poll beating even Mr. Sarat Chandra Bose, the topmost Bengalee leader of the Congress Party. Secondly, I am in no way connected by communal ties with the Scheduled Castes community of Bengal. They are of different caste to which I belong. In fact the people of my caste do not exist in Bengal at all and yet the Bengalee Scheduled Castes supported me, so strongly that I was able to come first. Thirdly, though the Scheduled Castes in Bengal had been returned on the Congress ticket yet they broke the rule of their Party not to vote for anybody except for Congressmen and voted for me. Does this prove that I have no following in Bengal ? I am sure if the Cabinet Mission are honest in their conclusion, they ought to revise the erroneous opinion which they have expressed in the House of Commons and revise the view and give proper recognition to the Federation. 4. With regard to the status of the Scheduled Castes in the Minority Advisory Committee, I am glad to have an assurance that the British Cabinet considers the Scheduled Castes to be an important minority. I am afraid that I must again repeat that unless and until the Cabinet Mission were to make a public declaration, this view will not help the Scheduled Castes. I say this because, as you will see, (in) the last letter which Maulana Abul Kalam Azad wrote to the Viceroy on behalf of the Congress before the negotiations broke down, he emphatically challenged the view that the Scheduled Castes were a minority. The Scheduled Castes fear that if this view is not corrected by the British Cabinet in time, the Scheduled Castes’ case may not be considered in the Advisory Committee which is bound to be packed by Congressmen. The danger of their being relegated to the position of a social group within the Hindus as distinguished from a minority, appears to be most certain in view of the recent pronouncement of

514 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Mr. Gandhi who evidently thinks that he can now do anything he likes with the Scheduled Castes in view of the fact that the British Government have refused to lend them their support. 5. In these circumstances, I would press upon you to reconsider the matter and make a declaration that the Scheduled Castes are an important minority to avert a possible danger to their future position in the new Constitution. 6. I am sorry to read that you cannot hold out any hope of the Schdduled Castes getting two seats in the Interim Government. I do not see any justification for this denial. Both on the ground of their numbers and also as compared to the assurance given at the time of the last Simla Conference of 1945, they are entitled to better treatment than is proposed to be given to the Sikhs and other smaller minorities. I should think that the claim made by me was more than justified. With kind regards, Yours sincerely, B. R. AMBEDKAR. zz