Vol. 17, Part II · pages 516–520

491ALL INDIA . . . . . . . . . FEDERATION Article XIII. (a) The Council shall at least meet twice a year preferably the first just after its formation and the last at the end of the session, just before the Annual and Special Session of the A. I. S. C. S. F. (b) Except for the first meeting, at least one month’s notice shall be necessary for calling any subsequent meetings of the Council. (c) The General Secretary shall be responsible for calling the meeting of the Council, but in case he fails to do so, the responsibility devolves upon the Joint Secretaries. Article XIV. (a) The Working Committee shall consist of 15 to 17 (fifteen to seventeen) members, 3 reserved for Ladies and 3 for Native States; the President and General Secretary being the ex-officio members. (b) 5 members of the Working Committee shall form the quorum. (c) The members of the Working Committee shall be elected by the Council at its first meeting. (d) 20 days’ notice for an ordinary meeting and seven days’ notice shall be deemed sufficient for an urgent meeting. Article XV. The organisation shall have one President, two VicePresidents, 1 General Secretary, 2 Joint Secretaries (one of them shall be elected from the Ladies), 1 Treasurer as its office bearers. Besides the above Working Committee there shall be eight more members. Article XVI. In case of necessity the Working Committee shall be entitled to co-opt any member or members not exceeding two. Article XVII. The Working Committee shall also be entitled to appoint non-members as members of its sub-committee, if the necessity of such sub-committee arises at all.

492 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Article XVIII. All branch organisations shall submit quarterly reports of their activities to their respective immediate superior Scheduled Castes Students’ Federation. Article XIX. All vacancies in the Working Committee during the session shall be filled up by the Working Committee itself. Article XX. The Working Committee shall be responsible for the detailed management of the organisation. Affiliation Article XXI. (a) The Provincial and Indian Native States Scheduled Castes Students’ Federations shall be granted ‘Affiliation’ by the A. I. S. C. S.F. (b) All primary Units and other superior organisations shall be granted ‘Affiliation’ in accordance with the constitution of their respective Provincial or Indian Native State Scheduled Castes Students’ Federation. (c) No cases of ‘Disaffiliation’ shall be decided by the Working Committee without reference and express sanction of the Council. Affiliation Fee Article XXII. The Provincial Indian Native States Scheduled Castes Students’ Federations are to pay Rs. 15 (Rupees Fifteen only) as affiliation fee to the A. I. S. C. S. F. and Rs. 25 (Rs. twenty five only) as contribution must be submitted to the All India Body per annum. Conference Article XXIII. (a) The A. I. S. C. S. F. shall hold a Conference every year in the last week of December. (b) The members of the Council shall be elected in this Conference and Annual Session by the votes of the Delegates.

493ALL INDIA . . . . . . . . . FEDERATION (c) The Reception Committee shall be formed by the students of that locality where the Conference would be held. (d) The place for holding Conference will be fixed by the Working Committee. Article XXIV. Every Provincial and Indian States Scheduled Castes Students Federation shall be entitled to send delegates to this Conference and Annual Session according to their roll strength in the ratio of three per hundred. Article XXV. All the money of the A. I. S. C. S. F. shall be deposited in a Bank to the credit of the A. I. S. C. S. F. through the Treasurer. Article XXVI. Ordinarily the expenditure shall have to be previously sanctioned by the Working Committee; but in emergency cases the General Secretary or in his absence the Joint Secretary or Secretaries may spend only any sum upto Rupees thirty without previous sanction, for which he or they will take sanction of the Working Committee afterwards. Article XXVII. The General Secretary or in his absence the Joint Secretaries shall be entitled to draw money from the Treasurer. Discipline Article XXVIII. (a) No member of the A. I. S. C. S. F. shall be allowed to be a member or enjoy any sort of membership of any political organisation save that of the All India Scheduled Castes Federation. (b) The Working Committee shall have the power to take disciplinary action against any member within its jurisdiction for :— (i) Failure of the payment of the required subscription.

494 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES (ii) Betraying the policy of the Federation and the proceedings of the Council or the Working Committee. (iii) Wilful infringement of the rules and regulations of the A. I. S. C. S. F. (iv) Any other circumstances occuring not specially provided for these rules, which are likely to disturb the order or discipline of the A. I. S. C. S. F. Sessions Article XXIX. The President of the Annual and Special Session shall be elected by the Council of the A. I. S. C. S. F. The Working Committee may, instead of convening a meeting for this purpose, obtain the name of the president in writing from the members. Article XXX. The Provincial and Indian Native States Scheduled Castes Students’ Federations shall have their own Constitution. But these Constitutions must not contain anything contrary to the rules and regulations contained in the Constitution of the A. I. S. C. S. F. Undefinied Powers Article XXXI. Powers not defined in the Constitution are vested in the Working Committee, which shall be used at its discretion relating to matters not provided in the Constitution. Article XXXII. The Constitution shall be subject to change only by the Two Third Majority of the members of the Council or by the bare majority of the Delegates in the open session.”1 zz 1 : The all India Scheduled castes Students’ Federation Report of the Second Session, held at Nagpur on 25, 26 and 27 December 1946, published by V. D. Chahande on 2nd June 1947.

APPENDIX—II “THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM (A Rejoinder to an Article Published in “Eve’s Weekly” on January 21, 1950, under the title “Our New Republic ”) Lama Govinda “In India, women were used to statecraft long before they ever did in Europe. The Ramayana and Mahabharata are full of instances of such women. ” These lines were prominently displayed in an article, published in Eve’s Weekly on January 21,1950, under the title “Our New Republic. Does the learned author of the article hint at the fact that Draupadi, the chief female character of the Mahabharata was gambled away by her husband, or rather husbands (because she had five) or that Sita, who had heroically rejected all advances of her captor Ravana, was rewarded with distrust and doubts in her purity, put to the fire-ordeal and banished in to the jungle ? If the position of women in those days had been what the writer of the above-mentioned article would have us believe, then we wonder why Draupadi had never been given a chance to gamble away her five husbands, or Sita an opportunity to send her calumniators and doubters on the pyre or into the woods ? It certainly would have been more correct in this connection to say that the Women of India in those times were used by statecraft. As to the women of Europe, I cannot say whether they were lagging behind their sisters in India in this respect, but I am quite sure that when some of them got an opportunity to meddle with statecraft they were quick to make use of it. If Queen Elizabeth had been in the place of Draupadi she would probably have executed her five husbands as she executed her unfortunate lover Lord Essex. But in my opinion Draupadi without statecraft was more lovable woman than Queen Bessie with all her political power and cunning.