Vol. 17, Part II · pages 221–225

198 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES But unfortunately this is not the only explanation that comes to one’s mind. There is another explanation which is possible. It is that the Cabinet Mission regards an agreement between the Congress and the Muslim League enough to give them a clear line to proceed with the formation of the interim Constitution as well as for determining the machinery for shaping the future constitution of India without waiting to consider the case of the Scheduled Castes. The Scheduled Castes are filled with anxiety as they do not know definitely what the plan of the Mission is. If the Mission has adopted the second plan, which may well be the fact, then I feel that I shall be failing in my duty if I did not lodge my protest against this betrayal of the Scheduled Castes and inform the Mission that they will be wholly responsible for the consequences that might ensue. This letter is written by me in my capacity as a respresentative of the Scheduled Castes. It is addressed to you in your capacity as a Member of the Cabinet Mission. I shall be grateful if you will be so good to circulate it to your colleagues. I am, Yours Sincerely, B.R. Ambedkar. His Excellency Field Marshal The Right Hon‘ble Viscount Wavell of Cyrenaica and Winchester, SIMLA. G.C.B., G.M.S.I., G.M.I.E., C.M.G., M.C., Viceroy & Governor General of India zz Source ; Privately printed leaflet by Dr. Ambedkar.

7 LETTER TO A. V. ALEXANDER ABOUT THE PROPOSALS OF CABINET MISSION Bhimrao R. Ambedkar, MA. Ph.D., D.Sc., Barrister-at-law, 22, Prithviraj Road, Member, Governor General’s New Delhi, Executive Council. Dated, 14th May 1946. Dear Mr. Alexander, It is a pity that your efforts to bring about a settlement between the Congress and the League should have failed. I know you deserve every sympathy and every gratitude. At the same time, I cannot help saying that the Mission’s effort to settle reminds me of an old Baniya who being without a son to inherit his wealth married a young girl with the hope of begetting a heir. The bride conceived but the bridegroom was striken with a fell-disease. He, however, refused to die without having a look at the baby and would not wait for delivery which was far off. He was so impatient that he called the doctor, asked him to open the stomach of his wife and let him see whether it was a boy or a girl. The result of the operation was that both the baby and the mother died. If I may say so, the Mission wanted to do very much what the Baniya did. You may not be aware but there are many who, like me, feel that the Mission was engaged in bringing about a forced delivery earlier than the natural period of gestation. 2. To my mind, it is only right to say that the Hindus and the Muslims are today mentally incompetent to decide upon the destiny of this country. Both Hindus and Muslims are just crowds. It must be within your experience that a crowd is less moved by material profit than by a passion collectively shared. It is easier to persuade a mass of men to sacrifice itself collectively than to act upon a cool assessment of advantages. A crowd easily

200 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES loses all sense of profit and loss. It is moved by motives which may be high or low, genial or barbarous, compassionate or cruel, but is always above or below reason. The common sense of each is lost in the emotion of all. It is easier to persuade a crowd to commit suicide than to accept a legacy. It is not for me to advise you how you should proceed. The Mission has found greater wisdom and higher inspiration in the Bhangi Basti and in 10 Aurangazeb Road. I would be the last person to say anything in depreciation of such wisdom and inspiration. But I do think that if the Mission were not to exhibit the pathetic spectacle of an old man in a hurry, a phrase used by Chamberlain to describe Gladstone engaged in his campaign for Irish Home Rule and allow that in diplomacy is called ‘Cooling period’ they will find that they have an easier situation to deal with. 3. That is a matter for the Mission, for the major parties and those who have put their faith in the major parties. I am concerned in knowing how you propose to deal with the problem of the Untouchables and their demand for constitutional safeguards. In the official statement issued by the Mission on the last day of the Simla talks, it is said that the Mission will announce the next step it proposes to take within a few days after they return to Delhi. Obviously, the eyes of all the Scheduled Castes are turned towards this announcement. What the Mission will do will ultimately decide their fate. The decision of the Mission will either open to the Untouchables the path of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness or it will drive a nail in their coffin. The question being one of life and death it would not be wrong if I were to engage your attention for a few minutes with the problem of the Untouchables. 4. The problem of the Untouchables is a formidable one for the Untouchables to face. But fortunately it is simple to understand if only the following facts are borne in mind. The Untouchables are surrounded by a vast mass of Hindu population which is hostile to them and which is not ashamed of committing any inequity or atrocity against them. For a redress of these wrongs which are matter of daily occurrence, the Untouchables have to call in the aid of the administration. What is the

201LETTER TO . . . . . . . OF CABINET MISSION character and composition of this administration ? To be brief, the administration in India is completely in the hands of the Hindus. It is their monopoly. From top to bottom it is controlled by them. There is no Department which is not dominated by them. They dominate the Police, the Magistracy and the Revenue Services, indeed any and every branch of the administration. The next point to remember is that the Hindus in the administration are not merely non-social, they are positively anti-social and inimical to the Untouchables. Their one aim is to discriminate against the Untouchables and to deny and deprive them not only of the benefits of law, but also of the protection of the law against tyranny and oppression. The result is that the Untouchables are placed between the Hindu population and the Hindu-ridden administration, the one committing wrongs against them and the other protecting the wrong-doer instead of the victims. 5. Against this back-ground, what can Swaraj of the Congress variety mean to the Untouchables ? It only means one thing, namely, that while today it is only the administration that is in the hands of the Hindus, under Swaraj the Legislature and Executive will also be filled with Hindus. It goes without saying that Swaraj would aggravate the sufferings of the Untouchables. For, in addition to their having to face an hostile administration, the Untouchables will have to face an hostile or indifferent Legislature, a callous Executive and an administration uncontrolled and unbridled in venom and in harshness in its inequitious attitude towards the Untouchables. To put it differently, under Swaraj of the Congress variety, the Untouchables will have no way of escape from the destiny of degradation which the Hindus and Hinduism have fixed for them. 6. I hope this will give you some idea as to why the Untouchables have been insisting that the only way by which the Untouchables can prevent this Swaraj from becoming a calamity to them is to have their representatives in the Legislature so that they may keep on protesting against wrongs and injustices done to them by the Hindus, to have their representatives in the Executive so that they may make plans for their betterment and to have

202 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES representatives in the services so that the administration may not be wholly hostile to them. If you accept the justice of the demand of the Untouchables for constitutional safeguards, you will have no difficulty in understanding why the Untouchables want separate electorates. The Untouchables will be a minority in the Legislature. They are destined to remain a minority. They cannot overcome the majority which being communal in its making is, so to say, fixed and pre-ordained. All they can do is to place themselves in position to able to determine the terms on which they will be prepared to work with the majority and not be compelled to accept the terms prescribed by the majority, and secondly, if the majority refuses to work with them and declines to redress their wrongs, they would at least be free to utter their protest against the majority on the floor of the Legislature. How are the Untouchables to maintain their freedom to protest ? Only if their representatives in the Legislatures do not owe their election to the votes of the majority. This is the basis of their demand for separate electorates. 7. No safeguards are going to be of any value to the Untouchables unless the Untouchables get a separate electorate. Separate electorate is the crux of the matter. I have before me a copy of the representation submitted to the Cabinet Mission by three Congress Harijans who were interviewed by the Mission on the 9th April 1946. They were no better than the three tailors of Tooly Street who had the audacity to present an address to the Parliament saying: “We the people of England.” Apart from this, it is instructive to note that there is no difference between the demands put forth by me on behalf of the Scheduled Castes Federation and the demands put forth by these Congress Harijans. The only difference that exists relates to the question of electorates. I do not know how you interpret the demands of the Congress Harijans. They are not really demands. They represent what the Congress is prepared to give to the Untouchables by way of political safeguards. This is not merely my understanding. It is my knowledge. For I have been informed by person who knows the mind of the Congress that if I was prepared to accept joint electorates, the Congress on its part would be quite prepared to concede all other demands of mine.