Vol. 17, Part I · pages 491–495

466 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES the Hindu fold. Dr. Ambedkar was led by this unyielding attitude into a definite demand for separate electorates for the Depressed Classes.”—P. 55) 1 4 Dr. M. R. Jaikar stated in his Autobiography that : “ ... his (Mahatma) attitude at the Indian Round Table Conference in England drove the minorities to adopt the notorious Minorities Pact. He denied to the Depressed Classes even a single seat by reservation except through the medium of the Congress. Later he fasted in India against Prime Minister MacDonald’s award comparatively a more blanced arrangement than the later, “Poona Pact” which had to be accepted at the point of the bayonet as it were. The effect of this pact was deeply deplored in Bengal by leaders who had been Gandhiji’s loyal followers before.” (The Story of My Life, Vol. One, Pp. 361-62) ” 2 5 On the occasion of the Birth day of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the book entitled “A Bunch of Old Letters” was published. The book includes a letter by Mr. Edward Thompson who wrote it on 6th December 1936, wherein he stated, “I never thought Gandhi wrong until the Round Table Conference, when he was both arrogant and irrelevent. Perhaps he should not have come at all. But having come, he was unjustified in refusing to regard the other Indians, many of the men who had paid a price for their opinions, as men entitled to be consulted by him and regarded as friends engaged in a common endeavour and hope.” (P. 208)” 3 6 Mr. Glorne Bolten stated in his book ‘The Tragedy of Gandhi’ : “The truth is that Mr. Gandhi was lost in London, and the old assurance and reliance was deserting him. Day after day-in the Conference which he had come to detest-he faced the 1 : Khairmode, Vol. 4 P. 173. 2: ibid, P. 173. 3: ibid, Pp. 173-174.

467COMMENTS ON..........POONA-PACT Mohammedan delegates who would yield none of their demands. Day after day Dr. Ambedkar came into greater prominence. He spoke for the ‘Untouchables’ and every speech on the welfare of India whether from a Conservative or a Socialist-would contain references to the tragic flight of the ‘Untouchables’. It was a sentimental rather than a practical concern. Mr. Gandhi, by representing the Untouchables, would have drawn eulogies from almost every one in England-but now Dr. Ambedkar had destroyed this platform. He so opposed the Mahatma that the public began to believe that two personalities dominated the Conference, Mr. Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar. Nothing could have been further from the truth. To begin with, Mr. Gandhi was not dominating the Conference nearly enough. He spoke over after Sir Samuel Hoare, when he came to like more and more, had spoken in favour of indirect election. Mr. Gandhi agreed with him entirely and he proceeded to elaborate his Panchayat Scheme whereby villages elect their representatives, a group of village-representatives elect their district representative and a group of district-representatives elect the representative for legislature. It is a system which while weakening Conservative fear, meets the Congress demand for adult suffrage. Indian Liberal delegates were warm in their approval. “Within a week,” one of them said, “Gandhi will have the Conservatives at his feet.” He never spoke in this fashion again, instead there was a wrangle with Dr. Ambedkar. At first Mohammedans seemed to enjoy the Mahatma’s discomfiture, but in time every delegate was wishing that Dr. Ambedkar would show Mr. Gandhi the courtesy to which his personal eminence certainly entitled him.” (The Tragedy of Gandhi, pages 266-267) “Henceforward Bow and Knights bridge were not to be the only centres for Conference plotting. Representative Mohammedans, Europeans, Anglo-Indians, Untouchables met together. In a very short period of time they had drawn up a Minorities Pact to which representatives of the Minorities with the notable exception of the Sikh leader, Sardar Ujjwal Singh, appended his signature. Mr. Benthall sent Mr. Gandhi a copy of the pact and a courteous, if rather buoyant explanatory letter. Dr. Ambedkar met Mr. Gandhi’s gaze at St. James with an almost defiant smile. There were but two obvious courses open to

468 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Mr. Gandhi. One was to accept the division of the Minorities with whatever grace he could. The other was to rally the great Hindu majority to his side to speak not as the sole representative of Congress but as the spokesman of all the Hindus, the orthodox Hindu Mahasabha included. Mr. Gandhi’s eyes trenched swiftly down the clauses of the Pact. He saw at once that the Pact indicated the truculent attitude which Dr. Ambedkar had adopted. for separate electorates were generously bestowed upon the Untouchables. Obvious courses were not for Mr. Gandhi. If hitherto he had been uncertain of his mission in London he knew now that it was his duty to do. He would save the Untouchables from their leader. He called Sir Samuel Hoare. He even called Mr. Ramsay MacDonald by whom he was impressed, with the vehemence of his views. Mr. Gandhi would speak of nothing else. “Separate Electorates to the Untouchables” he declared in a speech, “will ensure them bondage in perpetuity. The Musalmans will never cease to be Musalmans by having Separate Electorates. Do you want the ‘Untouchables’ to remain ‘Untouchables’ for ever ? And however lightly the Indian Liberal may regard Mr. Gandhi’s views on Federation, he has a healthy respect for his views on minorities. A Minorities Pact falls short of a general agreement and because it provided the hostility of the orthodox Hindus and the Sikhs more particularly because it roused the anger of Mr. Gandhi. The Pact died the day it was born. Its demise was promptly acknowledged by the British and Indian delegates alike. The Communal settlement, as everyone now admitted, would have to be impressed by the British Government. (The Tragedy of Gandhi, Pp. 277—278) ” 1 7 Dhananjay Keer, biographer said, “The Poona Pact thus vibrated the whole country and had repercussions throughout the world. It proved once more that Dr. Ambedkar whom in pre-Poona pact days the Congress leaders and the press refused to recognise as the leader of the Depressed 1 : Khairmode, Vol. 4, Pp. 170—172.

469COMMENTS ON..........POONA-PACT Classes, came out as the accredited leader of the Depressed Classes all over India. In the new arrangement both the sides had to lose something. The Caste Hindus had to grant 148 seats instead of 71. The Depressed Classes lost their chance of bending the Caste Hindu leaders to their will as the Depressed Classes were under the Award entitled to elect their own representatives to the Assemblies separately, and besides they were to vote in general constituencies with the Caste Hindus in electing the Caste Hindu representatives. Now the Caste Hindus got the power to elect the representatives of the Depressed Classes. By a resolution at its Delhi Session on September 26, the Hindu Mahasabha also ratified it. The third thing that was proved was that whenever the Mahatma in Gandhi got the upper hand of the politician in Gandhi, he performed the marvel of making simple things complex and complicated ! At the Round Table Conference the Mahatma in Gandhi dominated the politician in him; and the Mahatma shook the world, but the politician failed. At Yeravda the politician in Gandhi became successful and the Mahatma was defeated ! So effective and crushing was the victory of Gandhi that he deprived Dr. Ambedkar of all the life-saving weapons and made him a powerless man as did Indra in the case of Karna. Dr. Ambedkar was justified in saying that had Gandhi shown enough resilience at the Round Table Conference in the matter of the problem of the Depressed Classes, the Mahatma would not have been required to go through the ordeal. The ordeal was of Gandhi’s own making. The Poona Pact closed an epoch. But did the war, which had been declared at Manibhuvan on August 14, 1931,* come to an end ? Or was it a second battle and the war was to continue even after the truce ?” 1 zz * See Pp. 51-56 of this part-Editors. 1 :Keer, Pp. 215-16.

APPENDIX—VI DR. AMBEDKAR IS NOW PUTTING MR. GANDHI TO AN ACID TEST This is the letter from one the readers of The Times of India, which was published in The Times of India regarding temple entry campaign “DR. AMBEDKAR’S BOMB Test For Mr. Gandhi To the Editor of “The Times of India ” Sir, Your Poona correspondent is quite right. Dr. Ambedkar has thrown a “live bomb into the centre of the temple entry campaign machinery.” It is something much more than that. It is a bomb (a country made one) dropped into the Congress Camp. We must never forget that Congress is almost dead, and this temple-entry campaign is simply an interesting effort to put life into a corpse. From the outset, Dr. Ambedkar has warned us that this whirlwind propaganda by Mr. Gandhi and his Congress was at bottom only a “political stunt”. He is now putting Mr. Gandhi to an acid test. There are two questions before us (1) Is the Mahatma serious about this temple entry questions, or is it a mere gesture ? (2) Would the opening of temples alone raise the status of the Depressed Classes ? That Mr. Gandhi is not really serious about the question of temple entry is proved from his own confession that “he never enters these temples himself”. Indeed, Mr. M. K. Acharya, the great orthodox Hindu leader, reminded us last week in a speech at Surat that: Mr. Gandhi himself had never worshipped in any temple and he knew very little of the principles of rules and regulations of temple worship.” All orthodox Hindus like Mr. Acharya, who have faithfully supported Mr. Gandhi for 20 years, have now forsaken him and Congress. Mr. Acharya has issued a challenge to Mr. Gandhi ; “Why does not Mr. Gandhi found temples of his own and see if all Hindus, including Untouchbles, will go and worship in them?” No one can say that Mr. Gandhi lacks moral