Vol. 17, Part I · pages 501–505

APPENDIX - X REACTIONS ON THE STATEMENT DATED 19-6-1936 ISSUED BY DR. B. R. AMBEDKAR ON CONVERSION I Dr. Moonje’s Letter to Mr. Rajah Dr. Moonje wrote the following letter dated. New Delhi 30th June 1936 to Rao Bahadur M. C. Rajah :— “Dear Sir, On urgent calls from Bombay friends and also from Shreeman Seth Jugal Kishore Birla with the concurrence of Dr. Ambedkar, I had occasion to go to Bombay on the 18th instant. There Dr. Ambedkar had long conversations with me for three days. Eventually a fomula for amicable settlement of his revolt against Hinduism was drafted. Dr. Ambedkar entirely agrees with it. The formula is as follows :— “If Dr. Ambedkar were to announce his decision that he and his followers are prepared to embrace Sikhism in preference to Islam and Christianity and that he shall honestly and sincerely co-operate with the Hindus and the Sikhs in propagating their culture and in counteracting the Muslim movement for drawing the Depressed Classes into the Muslim fold, the Hindu Mahasabha will be prepared, in view of their having agreed to remain within the Hindu Culture, to make an announcement that it will not object:— (1) To the conversion of the Depressed Classes to Sikhism; (2) To the inclusion of the Neo-Sikhs in the list of the Scheduled Castes; and (3) To the enjoyment by the Depressed Classes of the political rights of the Poona Pact by free competition between the Non-Sikhs and the Neo-Sikh Depressed Classes as provided for under the Poona Pact.”

477REACTIONS ON.....................CONVERSION From Bombay I have come here just this morning for consultation on it with friends before formally putting it before the Hindu Mahasabha for its consideration. I am trying to see Pandit Malaviyaji and if possible also H. H. the Maharaja of Patiala. It is a very delicate matter. I have, therefore, to request you to kindly think over it and let me have your opinion in the matter. Until we decide one way or the other, the matter will be kept strictly private and confidential. Awaiting your reply. Yours Sincerly, (Sd./—) B. S. Moonje. P. S.—“I am enclosing also a copy of the statement of his case handed over to me by Dr. Ambedkar for your perusal. Please let me have your reply to my Nagpur address.” 1 II “Mr, Rajah’s Reply to Dr. Moonje I have already expressed my view about Dr. Ambedkar’s proposal that the Depressed Classes should give up Hinduism and embrace some other religion. I make a distinction between conversion—which is a spiritual change and migration from one community to another for social, economic and political reasons. Dear Dr. Moonje, you will excuse my saying that you view the whole problem of Depressed Classes, in view of Dr. Ambedkar’s proposal, as one of the communal migration and not as a religious problem. One would expect the President of the Hindu Mahasabha to view it as a religious problem and not merely as a political problem, without even looking at it as a social and economic problem. One can understand your concern if as President of the Hindu Mahasabha you placed the spiritual welfare of the Depressed Classes first and foremost and thought of the social and economic welfare next and lastly thought of them as a political factor. Your solicitude for the place of the Depressed Classes in the political scheme not only exposes the interested 1 : The Bombay Chronicle, dated 8th August 1936.

478 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES nature of your concern for these classes, but is like placing the cart before the horse. One would expect you as President of the Hindu Mahasabha to ameliorate the social condition of the Depressed Classes by removing civic and social disabilities of these classes, not to speak of securing for them the right of worship in Hindu temples on an equal footing with other worshippers, and to further the Harijan movement started by Gandhiji all over the country. Instead of doing this, what is it, that you are doing ? You are dissecting the Depressed Classes and affiliating them religiously to the Sikhs while retaining them politically as Hindus. The whole thing seems to me not to be conceived in the interest of the Depressed Classes but on the other hand to be planned in the communal interests of the Hindus and the Sikhs. We are not sheep and cattle to be bartered away in this fashion, driven from one political fold to another as a result of a bargain between the leaders of different communites. We want to remain so solid community moving of our own accord in the direction of progress and this we can best do by not throwing away our birth rights as Hindus but by remaining within Hinduism and changing it so as to make it more comfortable not only to our communities which are suffering from similar liabilities, though our hardships are greater and more palpable. It is not our purpose to weaken the Hindu community but to strenghthen it by reforming it from within. We do not wish to be pawns in the game of communal conflicts and competition. Your proposal involves of electoral fortunes of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. If you want us to shift religion from the Hindu fold, we shall have to choose religion between the Sikhs and the Muslims who are the bidders for our communal migration, wrongly called conversion. Why should we antagonise and stand arrayed against Muslims? They are our brothers as much as the Sikhs and the Hindus. If the Depressed Classes all to become Sikhs and call themselves Neo-Sikhs, it will create all over the India a Sikh-HinduMuslim problem, as in the Punjab, made move complicated by the fact that the so-called Neo-Sikh belongs to the Depressed Class even among Sikhs.

479REACTIONS ON.....................CONVERSION This question of conversion or the communal migration as a move of the political chess board does not disturb us much in South India. We are content to work under the Poona Pact, partly as a separate electorate and partly with a joint electorate preserving our status with the Hindus both religiously and politically. I would therefore be no party even to the political manipulations which are proposed in your letter. I would urge the Hindu Mahasabha to address itself to the task of making easy for the Depressed Classes to stay within Hinduism and Hindu Society instead of arranging for the ticket for entering them to some far off destination. As the question you raise is likely to rouse a lot of discussion. I reserve to myself the right to publish my reply when the occasion arises. III Rajah Backed Mr. C. Rajagopalchari writing to Rao Bahadur Rajah said :— “I have your note and enclosures. I read through the Correspondence. I would not be too strong language to call the whole thing a diabolical proposal. I am glad, you have sent the correspondence to Mahatmaji. I am glad, you have replied in the terms you have done and summarily rejected the Idea.” 1 IV RAJBHOJ REPLIES TO DR. AMBEDKAR Poona Pact Benefits not for Runaways from Hinduism “The Poona Pact does not make any provision for converts from Hinduism, and even if some of the Harijan community embraced Sikhism or any other religion in a body, it is not within the power of the Poona Pact signatories to retain for those converts any of the advantages secured under it,” says Mr. P. N. Rajbhoj, Harijan leader and Secretary of the All India Depressed Classes league, in a statement on Dr. Moonje’s plan. Mr. Rajbhoj adds that the Poona Pact was specially intended to give the utmost concession to 1 : The Bombay Chronicle, dated 8th August 1936.

480 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES the members of the Depressed Classes, so that they remained an integral part of the Hindu-fold. There was no question of applying it to those that left or were leaving the Hindu-fold. Dr. Ambedkar never once raised the question of conversion at the time of the Pact. I think the cry is now raised to secure more concessions, says he. Logical Absurdity Proceeding, Mr. Rajbhoj asks if new converts from Hinduism are to be given the benefits derived under the Poona Pact why not the old converts who may for political, if not religious, reasons want them ? He says that there are large number of Depressed Classes who have embraced other faiths, but have not been able to throw off the disabilities attached to the Harijan Community, and mentions the case of the Christians in some parts of Madras. Why should concessions and benefits obtained by those who laboured under disadvantages and difficulties be given to those who did not want those disadvantages, but only the benefits of the labours of others. The Poona leader adds, “the formula is a vicious formula and will lead to more complications and endless trouble. It should not be accepted by the Hindus or by anybody. We are Hindus or not Hindus. If we elect to remain within the Hindu-fold, we are entitled to our right and privileges as Hindus, and once we leave the Fold, we can have no claim.” Refuting the statement that the Hindus have not made any sacrifice by accepting the Poona Pact, Mr. Rajbhoj says that instead of the 71 seats given to the Depressed Classes under the Communal Award, the Pact gave them 148 seats. Concluding Mr. Rajbhoj asserts that the conversion idea has no universal appeal among the Harjijan community. Even in Maharashtra only the Mahars favoured such a view, but the Chamars were solidly opposed to any conversion. There was no support to the idea in other provinces and he was surprised how the Hindu leaders were involved into it.” 1 1 : The Bombay Chronicle, dated 15th August 1936.