Vol. 10 · pages 561–565

540 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES of India to any system of Government whose authority is directly denied by large and powerful elements in India’s national life. Nor could they be parties to the cocrsion of such elements into submission to such a Government.” — Extract from the Statement by Lord Linlithgow on 8th August 1940. “ Congress leaders……have built up a remarkable organization, the most efficient political machine in India…… if only they had succeeded. If the Congress could in fact speak, as it professes to speak, for all the main elements in India’s national life, then however advanced their demands, our problem would have been in many respect far easier than it is today. It is true that they are numerically the largest single party in British India, but their claim in virtue of that fact to speak for India is utterly denied by very important elements in India’s complex national life. These others assert their right to be regarded not as mere numerical minorities but as separate constituent factors in any future Indian policy. The foremost among these elements stands the great Muslim community. They will have nothing to do with a Constitution framed by a Constituent Assembly elected by a majority vote in geographical constituencies. They claim the right in any constitutional discussions to be regarded as an entity against the operations of a mere numerical majority. The same applies to the great body what are known as the Scheduled Castes who feel, in spite of Mr. Gandhi’s earnest endeavours on their behalf, that as a community, they stand outside the main body of the Hindu community which is represented by the Congress.” —Extract from the speech by the Rt. Hon’ble Mr. L. S. Amery, Secretary of State for India, in the House of Commons on August 14, 1940. (iv) “ Without recapitulating all these reasons in detail, I should remind you that His Majesty’s Government at that time made it clear:— (a) That their offer of unqualified freedom after the hostilities was made conditional upon the framing of a Constitution agreed by the main elements of India’s national life and the

541 THE CABINET MISSION AND THE UNTOUCHABLES negotiation of the necessary treaty arrangements with His Majesty’s Government; (b) That it is impossible during the period of hostilities to bring about any change in the Constitution by which means alone a “National Government” such as you suggest could be made responsible to the Central Assembly. The object of these conditions was to ensure the fulfilment of their duty to safeguard the interest of the racial and religious minorities, of the Depressed Classes and their treaty obligations to the Indian States. ” — Extract from the letter by Lord Wavell to Mr. Gandhi, dated 15th August, 1944. 5. The Cabinet Mission’s proposal not to give separate representation to the Untouchables is not the result of their individual judgement arrived at on an honest examination of the relevant facts. On the other hand, what the Mission has done is to pamper to the prejudices of Mr. Gandhi. Mr. Gandhi is vehemently opposed to the recognition of the Untouchables as a separate clement in the national life of India. He opposed their recognition at the Round Table Conference. When he found that notwithstanding his opposition they were recognized as a separate clement by the Communal Award of Mr. Ramsay Macdonald he threatened to fast unto death if the separate recognition of the Untouchables was not withdrawn. Again in 1945 at the First Simla Conference Mr. Gandhi raised his opposition when he found that H.M.G. had given separate recognition of the Untouchables. The Cabinet Mission were anxious to make a success of their proposals. That was not possible unless they could secure the consent of Mr. Gandhi. Mr. Gandhi demanded his price and the Mission gave it. That price was the sacrifice of the separate political existence of the Untouchables. Indeed one can go further and say that the proposals of the Cabinet Mission, so far as the minorities are concerned, are nothing but the reproduction of Mr. Gandhi’s formula which he resounded at the Second Round Table Conference. Mr. Gandhi said that he would recognise only three communities for political purposes (1) Hindus, (2) Muslims and (3) Sikhs. The Mission’s formula is a mere copy of Mr. Gandhi’s formula. There is no other explanation.

542 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES III Grounds urged by the Cabinet Mission in Justification of its decision. 6. For justifying their decision not to recognise the Untouchables as a separate element the Cabinet Mission has relied upon the results of the elections to the Provincial Legislative Assemblies which took place in February 1948. In the course of the debate in Parliament on the Cabinet Mission’s proposals which took place on 18th July 1946, the members of the Mission have tried to make out the following points :— (i) That in the election, the Congress captured all scats reserved for the Untouchables; that therefore the Congress represented the Untouchables. That being the case there was no justification for giving separate representation to the Untouchables. (ii) That the following of the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation and my own was confined only to Bombay and Central Provinces. Futility of the grounds 7. These are monstrous propositions and will not stand close and honest scrutiny. The Cabinet Mission, to start with committed a great mistake in adopting the results of the election as a basis for assessing the representative character of the Congress. In doing so, the Mission failed to take into account the following circumstances :— (i) The Hindu electorate was throughout the war intensely anti-British and although it did war work it did not do it willingly. The Congress Party which was anti-British and had non-cooperated with the war effort was a hot favourite of the Hindu electorate. The other parties particularly the Scheduled Castes suffered in the election because they were pro-British and had cooperated in the war effort. (ii) Just before the date fixed for election, the Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief staged the trial of the I.N.A. men. The Congress at once took up the cause of the I.N.A. men and made it an election issue. The trial was the principal factor which enhanced the influence of the Congress which was on the wane.

543 THE CABINET MISSION AND THE UNTOUCHABLES (iii) The issue over which the election was fought was Independence and Quit India. The nature of the future Constitution of India was never the issue. If it had been the issue the Congress would never have got the majority it did. (iv) The Cabinet Mission did not take into account the open hostility shown by the Returning Officers and the Polling Officers—all of whom were Caste Hindus—against the Scheduled Caste candidates who were opposing the Congress. They went to the length of rejecting their nomination papers and refusing to issue ballot papers. The Cabinet Mission did not take into account the degree of terrorism and intimidation to which the Untouchable voters were subjected by the Caste Hindus on the ground that they were not prepared to vote for the Congress candidates. In the Agra City 40 houses of the Untouchables were burnt down. In Bombay one man from the Untouchable was murdered and in the moffusil Untouchable voters in hundreds of villages were not allowed to go to the Polling stations. In Nagpur a Police Officer became so much of a partisan of the Congress that he fired without the permission of the Magistrate on a crowd of Untouchable voters just to frightern them away. There were innumerable such cases all over India. 8. If the Cabinet Mission had taken into account these circumstances they would have realized that the success of the Congress at the elections was due to purely advantageous circumstances. The results of the elections held under such circumstances should not have been taken as a justification for not giving separate representation to the Untouchables in the Constituent Assembly. How the Mission adopted a false criterion for its decision 9. The criterion adopted by the Mission to decide whether the Congress did or did not represent the Untouchables was how many seats reserved for Untouchables were won by the Congress in the Final Election. This criterion was a false criterion because the results of the final elections are beyond the control of the Untouchables. Under the Poona Pact the final elections are determined by the Hindu votes. The true criterion which the Mission should have adopted was to find out how the Untouchables voted, how many votes were cast in favour of

544 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES the Congress and how many against the Congress. This can be judged from the results of the Primary elections only and not from the results of the final elections. For in the Primary election only the Untouchables vote. If the results of the Primary elections are taken as a basis, the decision of the Cabinet Mission, would be found to be absurd and contrary to facts. For only 28 per cent of the votes polled in the Primary elections were cast in favour of the Congress and 72 per cent against it. 10. It is said if the Untouchables felt that they were not in the Congress they should have had a Primary election for every one of the 151 seats reserved for them. As a matter of fact, there were Primary elections for 43 scats only all throughout India. Why did the Untouchables not stage a Primary election for the rest of the 108 seats ? The argument is absurd for the following reasons:— (i) Primary election is not obligatory. It becomes obligatory only when there arc more than four candidates contesting one scat. It is not realized that anyone who stands for Primary election must also face the necessity of having to stand for final election. The inability of the Untouchables to bear the expense of double election make it very difficult to induce members of the Untouchable communities to stand for Primary election. The fact that there have been Primary elections only for 43 scats cannot be made the basis for the inference that the Untouchables do not claim to be separate from the Congress. (ii) It is the Congress who must be asked as to why it did not put up 4 candidates in every constituency in the Primary elections. For if the Congress claims to represent the Untouchables, it should have put up more than 4 candidates on Congress ticket in every constituency and brought about Primary elections in each of the 151 constituencies and ousted every other party from coming into the final election. The Congress did not do this. On the other hand, even in the 43 Primary elections, the Congress put up only one candidate in each constituency on the off-chance of his coming within the first 4 and then getting him returned in the Final Election with the Hindu votes. This shows that the Congress knew that the Untouchables had no confidence in the Congress. (iii) It is only in 1937 that the Untouchables for the first time got their right to vote. It is only after 1937 that the Untouchables