Vol. 10 · pages 556–560

535CRITIQUE OF THE PROPOSALS........ TABLE IV Distribution of Total Votes polled in Primary Elections all through India and their distribution between Congress and Non-Congress Parties Total Votes polled throughout India in Primary election In favour of Congress Parties In favour of Non-Congress Parties Congress Harijan League Total P.C. Sche- duled Castes Federa- ration Indepe- ndents Hindu Maha Sabha Commu- nists Unio- nists Radical Demo- cratic Party Total P.C. 3,59,532 1,03,449 483 1,03,932 28 91,595 1,19,273 1,212 30,863 13,521 136 2,55,600 72

536 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES TABLE V Number of Candidates who became successful in Primary Elections in different Provinces classified according to their Party Affiliations Name of the Party Madras Bombay Bengal U.P. C.P. Punjab Total 1. Congress ... 10 3 12 4 5 4 38 2. Scheduled Castes Federation ... 24 5 6 5 11 none 51 3. Independents ... 3 4 36 2 3 21 69 4. Hindu Maha Sabha ... none none 1 1 1 ...... 3 5. Harijan League ... none none none none none ...... ...... 6. Communists ... 3 none 1 none none ...... 4 7. Radical Democratic Party ... none none none none none ...... ...... 8. Unionists ... none none none none none 3 3 Total ... 40 12 56 12 20 28 168

2 * The Cabinet Mission and the Untouchables How the Cabinet Mission have Ignored the Untouchables ? The Cabinet Mission in their Statement of 10th May set out their Interim and Long-term proposals for the solution of the political deadlock in India. The most galling and astounding feature of their proposals is their refusal to recognise the Untouchables as a separate and distinct element in the national life of India. The Mission has so completely ignored the Untouchables that not even once have they mentioned them in their long statement. To what extent the Cabinet Mission has gone in ignoring the Untouchables will be apparant from the following:— (i) The Untouchables have not been given the right to nominate their representatives in the Central Executive as has been done in the case of the Sikhs and the Muslims. In the present Interim Government they have got two representatives of the Scheduled Castes neither of them owe any allegiance or obligation to the Scheduled Castes. One is nominated by the Congress and the other is nominated by the Muslim League. (ii) In the Interim Government, the Untouchables have not been given a fixed quota of representation as was done in the case of the Muslims. At the Simla Conference of 1945 it was agreed that Scheduled Castes should have at least two members in a Cabinet of 14. The reason for a change of front between 1945 and 1946 is not known. (iii) They have not been given the right to separate representation in the Constituent Assembly. * Source : Printed Leaflet. —Ed.

538 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES II How the Cabinet Mission’s decision constitutes a departure from established policy of H.M.G. 2. The decision of the Cabinet Mission has not only done a grave wrong to the Untouchables but it has registered a serious departure from the principles which have guided H.M.G. in its policy regarding Indian politics and regarding the position of the Untouchables. (i) Before 1920, the Constitutional changes in the Government of India were made by the British Government on their own authority and in accordance with their own wishes. It was for the first time, that in 1920 that the British Government decided to frame the Constitution of India in consultation with Indians. Accordingly, a Round Table Conference was called to which Indians were invited. Among the Indians, there were representatives of the Untouchables who were invited separately and independently of the Congress or of any other political party. (ii) Mr. Gandhi, the Congress representative, at the Round Table Conference fought against the recognition of the Untouchables as a separate element in the national life of India and contended that they were part of the Hindus and were therefore not entitled to separate representation. The British Government overruled Mr. Gandhi and by their Award recognised that the Untouchables were a separate and distinct clement in the national life of India and were therefore entitled to the same safeguards as the other minorities of India such as the Muslims, Indian Christians etc. (iii) The British Government adhered to this principle in the Simla Conference which was held in June 1945. Among the Indians invited to that Conference there was a representative of the Untouchables who again was invited separately and independently of the Congress or any other political party. (iv) It may be said that in the Constituent Assembly which formed part of the Cripps proposals of 1942, there was no provision for separate representation of the Untouchables and that therefore, the present proposals of the Cabinet Mission cannot be said to mark a departure. The answer is that they do. In the Cripps Proposals of 1942, it is not that the Untouchables alone were not given separate

539 THE CABINET MISSION AND THE UNTOUCHABLES representation. The fact is that no minority community was given separate representation in the Constituent Assembly. But in the Constitution of the Constituent Assembly of the Cabinet Mission, the Muslims and the Sikhs have been given separate recognition and separate representation which is denied to the Untouchables. It is this discrimination which constitutes the wrong of which the Untouchables are complaining. 3. The inequity of the proposals of the Cabinet Mission thus lies in the fact that it departs from the policy of recognising the Untouchables as a separate element in the national life of India and discriminates them by not recognising them while recognizing the Muslims and Sikhs. How the Cabinet Mission’s decision abrogates the pledges given by H.M.G. to the Untouchables ? 4. The non-recognition of the Untouchables as a separate clement by the Cabinet Mission is contrary to the pledges given to them by and on behalf of the British Government. The following are some of the pledges worth mentioning. (i) “ Nor must we forget the essential necessity in the interests of Indian unity, of the inclusion of the Indian States in any Constitutional Schemes. I need refer only two of them—the great Muslim minority and the Scheduled Castes—There are the guarantees that have been given to the minorities in the past; the fact that their position must be safeguarded, and that those guarantees must be honoured.” —Extract from the speech made by Lord Linlithgow, at the Orient Club, Bombay on January 10, 1940. (ii) “These are two main points which have emerged. On these two points, His Majesty’s Government now desire me to make their position clear. The first is as to the position of the minorities in relation to any future Constitutional Scheme….. It goes without saying that they (H. M. Government) could not contemplate the transfer of their present responsibilities for the peace and welfare