Vol. 17, Part II · pages 196–200

173MEMORANDUM . . . . . . . CABINET MISSION 3. The Working Committee thinks it unnecessary to state to the Mission that this stand taken by the Scheduled Castes has been accepted by His Majesty’s Government as just and binding upon them as will be seen from the pledges given to the Scheduled Castes by the reprenestatives of His Majesty’s Government from time to time in unequivocal terms and which are set out in Appendix I to this Resolution. The Working Committee trusts that the Mission, in the final conclusions that may be reached as a result of the negotiations it has launched upon, will not depart from the pledges given to the Scheduled Castes and will not, in their hurry to settle, allow any other party to dictate to the Scheduled Castes what safeguards they should have. 4. Before proceeding to set out its views on the various issues arising out the purpose of the Mission, the Working Committee desires to draw the attention of the Mission to the results of the Primary elections which have recently taken place in different Provinces, especially because these elections have conclusively proved that the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation is the only organisation, which can claim to speak for the Scheduled Castes of India, and that neither the Congress nor any of the mushroom organisations has any right to speak on their behalf. PART II VIEWS ON FINAL CONSTITUTION FOR FREE INDIA 5. In regard to the final Constitution of a free India, the Working Committee of the Federation desires to make it plain to the Mission that the Scheduled Castes will never accept any Constitution which does not contain the following safeguards : (i) True and adequate representation in all the LegislatureCentral and Provincial; (ii) True and adequate representation in all the ExecutivesCentral and Provincial ;

174 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES (iii) Provision for election through separate electorates ; (iv) Adequate representation in the Public Services ; (v) Adequate representation on the Public Service Commission—Federal and Provincial; (vi) Provision of adequate sum in the annual budgets of the Provincial and Central Government for the higher education of the Scheduled Castes ; and (vii) Provision for new and separate settlements. 6. Without in any way minimising the importance and necessity of any of the foregoing safeguards, the Working Committee regards (1) the provision for separate electorates, (2) provision for adequate representation in the Legislature, in the Executive and in the Services and (3) provision for new and separate settlements, as the most fundamental. 7. As regards the provision for separate electorates, the Working Committee invites the attention of the Mission to the following facts :- (i) This demand is not a new demand. It was put forth at the Round Table Conference by the representatives of the Scheduled Castes. (ii) Mr. Gandhi had strongly opposed it. But notwithstanding his opposition, His Majesty’s Government felt convince of the necessity of Separate Electorates for the Scheduled Castes, and by their Communal Award of 1932, did grant to the Scheduled Castes Separate Electorates. (iii) Before the system of Separate Electorates could come into operation Mr. Gandhi declared that he would fast unto death if the Separate Electorates granted to the Scheduled Castes were not withdrawn and did actually enter upon such a fast. The Scheduled Castes under the pressure of Mr. Gandhi’s fast—untodeath were coerced into giving up their Separate Electorates.

175MEMORANDUM . . . . . . . CABINET MISSION (iv) The Poona Pact, which took the place of the Communal Award, (1) has saddled the Scheduled Castes with two elections : (a) Primary and (b) Final, the former through Separate Electorates and the latter through Joint Electorates, and (2) has placed the small number of Scheduled Caste voters in joint constituencies at the mercy of a vast number of Caste Hindu voters. (v) The results of the final elections, as compared with those of the primary elections which are set out in Appendix II, have conclusively proved that the System of Joint Electorates and reserved seats has made a mockery of the right given to the Scheduled Castes to send their true representatives to the Legislature and is a fraud upon the Scheduled Castes. 8. If the Scheduled Castes have not been able to send a single candidate to the Provincial Legislatures, who is elected by the votes of the Scheduled Castes and who can therefore be said to be the true representative of the Scheduled Castes, it is because the joint electorates in which seats have been reserved for the Scheduled Castes have, by reason of the enormous disparity in the voting strength of the Scheduled Castes and the Caste Hindus, become rotten boroughs from the point of view of the Scheduled Castes and pocket boroughs from the point of view of Caste Hindus, who have been able to put up Scheduled Caste candidates, wishing to be their tools and get them elected in the Joint Electorates exclusively with Caste Hindu votes. 9. Having regard to the bitter experience of the System of Joint Electorates which the Scheduled Castes have had in the past, the Working Committee desires to convey to the Mission the deep seated conviction of the Scheduled Castes that the need of restoring Separate Electorates has become paramount, as they believe and rightly that Separate Electorates form the only guarantee against the nullification by the Caste Hindus of their constitutional safeguards and that without Separate Electorates no amount of political safeguards will be of any avail to the Scheduled Castes.

176 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES 10. On the question of provision for adequate representation in the Legislature, Executive and Services, the Working Committee condemns out-right the offer of token representation often made to the Scheduled Castes and expresses its strong opposition to the grant of weightage to other minorities which cannot but deprive the Scheduled Castes of their due share. The Working Committee wishes to emphasize the fact that the Scheduled Castes form the third important element in the national life of India and that they will not be satisfied unless they are given substantial representation in accordance with their need and their numbers. The Working Committee would be happy if it could convey to the Mission the horror the Scheduled Castes feel at the mere thought of Police and Revenue Services, manned as they are entirely by Caste Hindus, who are oppressing, tyrannising and discriminating against, the Scheduled Castes even when they are working under the British Government, deriving further support for their acts of tyranny and oppression from a Legislature and an Executive dominated by Caste Hindus. Unless provision is made for, a substantial representation of the Scheduled Castes in the Legislature, Executive and Public Services, there can be no safety to the Scheduled Castes, surrounded as they will be by an indifferent Legislature, a Pro-Hindu Executive and an anti-Scheduled Caste Policy. 11. As to the provision for separate settlements, it is the considered opinion of the Working Committee that :- (a) The existing village system has the effect of making the Scheduled Castes in the villages slaves of the Caste Hindus. And if notwithstanding that the Penal Code does not recognize slavery, the Scheduled Castes in every village all over India are in fact the slaves of the Hindus, it is because of the village system. Indeed, a more effective method of enforcing slavery upon the Untouchables could not have been devised. (b) The existing village system under which everyone knows who is a touchable and who is an Untouchable, has the effect of making Untouchability permanent. Indeed, a more effective method of making Untouchability permanent could not have been found.

177MEMORANDUM . . . . . . . CABINET MISSION (c) Under the village system — (i) The Scheduled Castes are not allowed to live inside the village. They have to live on the outskirts. They are not allowed to take water from the village well. They are not allowed to send their children to the village schools. No barber in the village will shave them. They are a community apart, with no son of communion with the Caste Hindu residents of the village. (ii) They have no independent means of livelihood. They own no land. There is no avenue open to them for earning an independent living. The Hindu village is the only market they have. But no Hindu can buy from them. A majority of them live by begging food from their Hindu patrons in the village. They form a mass of landless labour, utterly destitute, a class of hereditary paupers, waiting to eke out such livelihood as they can from such employment and on such wages as the Hindu landowners may give. (iii) They have to do forced labour day in and day out on pain of being driven away from their quarters by the Hindu landholders, who look upon them as a cheap labour force, on which all of them can draw, and are, therefore, always ready to combine against the Scheduled Castes. (iv) They have to live a life of degradation, dishonour and ignomy from generation to generation. It is a state of eternal perdition. They cannot wear clean clothes, they cannot wear ornaments, they cannot eat rich food, they cannot sit on a chair in the presence of a Hindu and they must do all the dirty jobs. (v) The tyranny of the village Hindus upon the Scheduled Castes is so great and has become so pervasive that as the last election has shown, the Scheduled Castes cannot even exercise their right to vote for a candidate of their choice, if the Hindu villagers do not like him.