Vol. 17, Part II · pages 201–205

178 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES (vi) The village system makes any progress on the part of Scheduled Castes impossible inasmuch as it enables the Hindus to use that most formidable weapon of social boycott with which they always threaten the Scheduled Castes and which they use to hold them down and compell them to abandon any act or movement however beneficial it may be from the point of view of the Scheduled Castes, if it happens to offend Hindu interests or Hindu sentiments. 12. So long as this village organisation remains unbroken, there can be no doubt that the Scheduled Castes will continue to remain the Untouchables, subject to the tyranny and oppression of the Caste Hindus and will never be able to enjoy free, full and honourable life. The Working Committee has, after long and mature deliberation, come to the conclusion that for the better protection of the Scheduled Castes from the tyranny and oppression of the Caste Hindus, which may assume vast magnitude under Swaraj, which is only another name for Hindu Raj, and to enable the Scheduled Castes to develop to their fullest manhood, to give them economic and social security, as also to pave the way for the removal of Untouchability, radical change must be made in the village system if the Scheduled Castes are to be freed from the ills from which they are suffering for so many centuries at the hands of the Hindus. Realising the necessity of a change being made in the village system, the Working Committee holds that it is imperative to make provision in the Constitution of India along the following lines : - (i) The Constitution should provide for the transfer of the Scheduled Castes from their present habitations and form separate Scheduled Castes villages, away from and independent of Hindu villages. (ii) For the settlement of the Scheduled Castes in new villages a provision should be made in the Constitution for the establishment of a Settlement Commission,

179MEMORANDUM . . . . . . . CABINET MISSION (iii) All Government land, which is cultivable and which is not occupied, shall be handed over to the commission to be held in trust for the purpose of making new settlements of the Scheduled Castes. (iv) The Commission should be given the right to purchase new land from private owners in fulfilment of the scheme of settlement of the Scheduled Castes. (v) The Constitution should impose an obligation upon the Central Government to grant to the Settlement Commission a minimum sum of Rupees five crores per annum to enable the Commission to carry out their duty in this behalf. PART III Treaty Between India And H. M. G. 13. The Working Committee has given its best consideration, to the proposal of a treaty between Free India and His Majesty’s Government. The Working Committee understands that the idea behind the Treaty is to give protection to the minorities and to other interests to whom His Majesty’s Government has given pledge, even after India has become independent. The Working Committee while appreciating the intention behind the proposal of a Treaty, is unable to follow how it is possible to have such a Treaty overriding the Constitution, having regard to the fact that India is to be a free and independent country, and if the Treaty is not to override the Constitution, of what good can it be to the minorities. The Working Committee has come to the conclusion that the Scheduled Castes would prefer to have their safeguards embodied in the Consitution instead of being set out in a treaty, which has no binding force.

180 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES PART - IV Constituent Assembly 14. The Working Committee is definitely of opinion : - (i) That the Constituent Assembly is unnecessary and incompetent for dealing with purely constitutional questions. (ii) That the Constituent Assembly will be useless for dealing with communal questions, for no minority will be prepared to accept the decisions of the majority. (iii) That the Constituent Assembly would be open to corrupt practices and it will give a free hand to a strong and wealthy party to buy members of the Scheduled Castes to vote - with them. (iv) That in the Constituent Assembly, the Scheduled Castes would be completely out-numbered and they cannot, therefore, have any effective say in its decisions. For these reasons, the Working Committee is opposed to the project of a Constituent Assembly. PART V Views On Interim Government 15. No interim Government shall be acceptable to the Scheduled Castes unless and until the following conditions precedent are fulfilled : - (i) That provision is made for proper representation of the Scheduled Castes in the Central Legislative Assembly by the abolition of the nominated official block and filling the seats thus rendered vacant by the nomination of sufficient number of Scheduled Castes representatives. (ii) That provision is made for representation of the Scheduled Castes by allotting to them in the Executive Council not less than half the seats that may be allotted to the Muslims.

181MEMORANDUM . . . . . . . CABINET MISSION (iii) That no alteration, which w ill adversely affect the Scheduled Castes, shall be made in the Government of India Resolution of 1943 regarding representation of the Scheduled Castes in the Public Services without the consent of the Governor General. (iv) That the financial provision made by the Government of India for the higher education of the Scheduled Castes shall not be abrogated or modified to the prejudice of the Scheduled Castes without the consent of the Governor General. (v) That the principles underlying the safeguards for the Scheduled Castes in the Final Constitution of a Free India are accepted in advance by the Parties, as was stated by Lord Wavell in his letter of 15th August 1944 to Mr. Gandhi. PART VI Views On Pakistan 16. The Working Committee is aware of the demand for Pakistan. The Scheduled Castes are deeply concerned in the issues involved in this demand. The Working Committee, however, feels that no useful purpose would be served by expressing the views of the Scheduled Castes thereon at this stage and prefers to reserve its views till it is known that there is no escape from it. APPENDIX I Pledges And Pronouncements 1. “The authors stated that the Depressed Classes also should learn the lesson of self-protection. It is surely fanciful to hope that this result can be expected from including a single member of the community in an assembly where there are sixty or seventy Caste Hindus. To make good the principles of paras, 51, 152, 154 and 155 of the Report we must treat the outcaste more generously. We think there should be in each council enough representatives of the Depressed Classes to save them from being entirely submerged, and at the same time to stimulate some capacity for collective action. In the case of Madras, we suggest that they should be given six seats; in Bengal, the United Provinces and Bihar and Orissa, we would give them four; in the Central Provinces and, Bombay two and elsewhere one. In these respects we think that the Committee’s report clearly requires modification.”

182 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES —Extract from the Fifth Despatch of the Government of India dated 23rd April, 1919 on the Report of the Southborough Committee on Franchise. 2. “Nor must forget the essential necessity in the interests of Indian unity, of the inclusion of the Indian States in any Constitutional scheme. I need refer only to 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. 3. “These are two main points which have emerged. On these two points, His Majesty’s Government now desires 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 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 coercion of such elements into submission to such a Government.” —Extract from the Statement by Lord Linlithgow on 8th August 1940. 4. “Congress leaders .......... have built up a remarkable organization, the most efficient political machine in India.......... if only they had suceeded, 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 respects far easier than it is to-day. 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 more numerical minorities but as separate constituent factors in any future Indian policy. The foremost among these elements stand 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