Vol. 17, Part III · pages 196–200

40 WORK FOR UPLIFT OF UNTOUCHABLES The fourth Session of the Mang Community Conference was held at Sholapur on 1st January 1938. Addressing the meeting Dr. B. R. Ambedkar said that his work for the uplift of Untouchables was not limited to Mahars but was for all Depressed Classes. He had opened hostels for them and had secured posts in Government Department for Mangs and Chamars. About 2,500 attended. 1 zz 1 : Bombay Secret Abstract, dated the 8th January 1938.

41 DEMOCRACY MUST GIVE RESPECTFUL HEARING TO ALL WHO ARE WORTH LISTENING TO From Pandhapur Dr. B. R. Ambedkar went to Sholapur to address the Matang Conference. On his arrival he was presented with a civic address of welcome by the Sholapur Municipality in the morning of January 4, 1938* at the Bhagwat Chitra Mandir. The address was read and presented by Rao Bahadur Dr. V. V. Muley, who had helped the cause of the Untouchables at Sholapur in the capacity of the President of the Municipality. In reply Dr. Ambedkar made a very important speech, expressing his views on the working of Parliamentary Democracy. He said, “In the political situation that has grown up in this country, there has grown the habit among the people of paying homage to only one political party, the Congress.” “I am no believer,” continued he, “in Democracy as an ideal to be pursued in all circumstances and in all claims ; and having regard to the present-day conditions in India, Democracy is a most unsuitable system of Government. At any rate, for some time India needs the strong hand of an enlightened autocrat.” 1 “In this country we have,” observed he, “Democracy, but it is a Democracy which has ceased to exercise its intelligence. It has bound itself hand and foot to one organization and only one. It is not prepared to sit in judgment over the doings or thinking of this organization. I consider it the greatest malaise, a disease and a sickness. It has affected all our people. They are intoxicated.” “Unfortunately,” he added, “the Indian people are by tradition men who have more faith and less wit. Anyone who does anything out of the ordinary, does something so eccentric as * Keer and Bharill had taken extracts of the speech from the Times of India dated 4th January 1938. Keer mentioned the date of the function as 4th January 1938 where as Bharill as 1938. From the perusal of Janata dated 8th, 15th January and 5th February 1938 and also report of the Mang Communuty Conference, it is obvious that Dr. Ambedkar attended the above function on the 1st January 1938.—Editors. 1 : Keer, Pp. 298-299. Also referred the Times of India dated 4th January 1938.

169DEMOCRACY MUST...........LISTENING TO to be called in other countries an insane person, acquires in this country the status of a Mahatma or Yogi. And people follow him as the sheep follow the shepherd........” I am sure that if this continues we could reap no benefit from the political advancement which this country has secured under the act. Dr. Ambedkar emphatically stated that, “democracy must learn that its safety lies in having more than one opinion regarding the solution of any particular problem, and in order that people may be ready to advice with their opinions, democracy must learn to give a respectful hearing to all who are worth listening.” 1 “ I am glad, “he concluded,” that the Sholapur Municipality has set an example in voting an address to me who do not belong to an organization which claims to be the only organization in the country and which all people are in a mood to uphold at present.” 2 zz 1 : The Times of India dated 4th January 1938. Reprinted Bharill, Pp 190-191. 2 : Keer, P. 299.

42 PEASANTS AND WORKERS SHOULD THINK OVER THE CAUSES OF THEIR POVERTY Dr. B.R. Ambedkar lead a march of the peasants to the Council Hall in Bombay on 10th January 1938. Peasants from outlying Districts such as Thana, Kolaba, Ratnagiri, Satara and Nasik came to Bombay in trains and steamers. With torn clothes on, blankets and bundles on their shoulders, and stuffs in their hands, they came to Bombay to voice their grievances. Their sun-burnt faces shone with a certain enthusiasm. They marched on to the Council Hall from three directions in processions ; one from Parel, the other from the Alexandra Docks and the third from Chowpatty. Escorted by the police, they walked slowly along the prescribed routes. Police parties were posted at important junctions. The processionists carried posters bearing slogans such as “Down with the Khoti System”, “Support Dr. Ambedkar’s Bill”. The processionists reached the Esplanade Maidan near the Victoria Terminus at half past one in the afternoon. There the police officers held up the processions and allowed twenty leaders to go to interview the Chief Minister who was then called the Premier. Parulekar, S. C. Joshi, D. W. Raut, Indulal Yagnik and A. V. Chitre headed by Dr. Ambedkar, saw the Premier. The first demand presented by the deputationists was the enforcement of the minimum standard of wages for agricultural labourers. The second was that all the arrears of rent should be remitted since the revenue arrears had been also remitted. They urged that immediate legislation should be made to provide with or without compensation for the abolition of the Khoti System and the Inamdar System ; and landlordism, which was economically wasteful and sociality tyrannous, must go. The last demand was for reduction of fifty per cent of irrigation rates payable by small holders. The Premier told the deputationlists that every problem was being tackled by the Ministry in their own way. The leaders returned to the Esplanade Maidan and addressed a mammoth meeting Dr. Ambedkar made a very powerful speech.

171PEASANTS AND..............THEIR POVERTY “He said that the number of books he had read on Communism exceeded the number of books read by all Communist leaders put together.* But he was of the opinion that the Communists never looked to the practical side of the question. He observed that there were two classes in the world—the haves and the havenots, the rich and the poor, the exploiters and the exploited ; the third one, the middleclass, was very small. He, therefore, exhorted the peasants and workers to think over the causes of their poverty and told them that they lay in the richness of the exploiters. The way out for them was to organize a labour front without any regard to caste or creed, and to elect to the legislatures those who were their real representatives. If they did so, they would have shelter, clothing, and they who produced the food and wealth of the nation would not die from hunger.” 1 zz * The Janata, dated 15th January 1938. 1 : Keer, Pp. 300-301.