Vol. 17, Part III · pages 206–210

177TRADE UNIONS............INTERESTS There are in my view two enemies which the workers of this country have to deal with. The two enemies are Bramhanism and Capitalism. The accusation by our critics arises partly because the critics fail to reckon Brahmanism as an enemy which the workers have to deal with. I do not want to be misunderstood when I say that Brahmanism is an enemy which must be dealt with. By Bramhanism I do not mean the power, privileges and interests of the Bramhins as a community. That is not the sense in which I am using the word. By Bramhanism I mean the negation of the spirit of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. In that sense it is rampant in all classes and is not confined to the Bramhins alone though they have been the originations of it. This Bramhanism which pervades everywhere and which regulates the thoughts and deeds of all classes is an incontrovertible fact. It is also an incontrovertible fact that this Bramhanism gives certain classes a privileged position. It denies certain other classes even equality of opportunity. The effects of Bramhanism are not confined to what are social rights such as inter-dining or intermarriage. If that was so, one would not mind it. But it is not so. It extends to civic rights as distingnished from social rights. Use of public schools, of public wells, of public conveyances, of public restaurants are matters of civic rights. Everything which is intended for the public or maintained out of public fund must be open to every citizen. But there are millions to whom these civic rights are denied. Can anybody doubt that this is the result of Brahamanism which has been let loose in this country for thousands of years and which is func tioning even now as a live wire ? So omnipresent is Bramhanism that it even affects the field of economic opportunities. Take the Depressed Class worker and compare his opportunities with a worker who does not belong to the Depressed Classes. What opportunities of obtaining work has he ? What are the prospects he has in the matter of security of service or advancement therein? It is notorious that there are many avocations from which a Depressed Class worker is shut out by reason of the fact that he is an Untouchable. A notorious case in point is that of the Cotton Industry. I do not know of what happens in other parts of India. But I know that in the Bombay Presidency the Depressed Classes are shut out from

178 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES the weaving department in the Cotton Mills both in Bombay and in Ahemadabad. They can only work in the spinning department. The spinning department is the lowest paid department. The reason why they are excluded from the weaving department is because they are Untouchables and because on that account the caste Hindu worker objects to work with them although he does not mind working with the Musalmans. Take the Railways. What is the position of the Depressed Class worker on the Railways. No one can deny that his destiny is to work as a gangman. Day in and day out, all his life he works as a gangman with no prospects of a rise. There is no higher grade post that is open to him. Very rarely he is employed even as a Porter. That is because as a porter he must also work as a domestic servant as a part of his customary duties in the household of the Station Master. A Depressed Class worker becomes quite useless to the station master who is generally a high caste Hindu because he cannot avail himself of the services of the porter for his house hold purposes if the porter is an Untouchable. He therefore generally avoids appointing a Depressed Class man as a porter. In the Railway there is no qualifying examination for the appointment of clerks and Non-Matrics are usually employed for these posts. Hundreds of non-matrics from Indian Christians, from Anglo-Indians, and Caste Hindus are employed as clerks in the Railways. But the Depressed Class boys who are non-matrics and there are hundreds of them are systematically rejected and hardly one ever gets a chance. The same is the case in Railway Workshops. Very seldom is a Depressed Class man employed as a mechanic Class. Hardly ever is a Depressed man seen to occupy the position of a Mistry. He is never made a foreman, or even a chargeman in the Workshop. He is just a cooly and remains a cooly. Such is the condition of the Depressed class workers in the Railways. In those avocations where he has a chance to obtain work he is employed in the lowest grade. He is excluded from any place of power or authority. He is not only employed in the lowest grade but he is confined to that grade until he retires. There is no rise for him. There is no career for him and often

179TRADE UNIONS............INTERESTS there is no promotion for him. This is what happens to him when there is no slump. In days of slump he is the first to be fired as in the boom he is the last to be employed. To the critics who have accused me and you of sinister motive I wish to ask two questions-and they are plain questions—are these or are these not real grievances? Secondly, if they are real grievances must not those who are suffering from them organize in order to see that they are removed? If the answer to these two questions is in the affirmative-I do not see how any honest man can give any other answer- then our attempt is amply justified. Labour leaders who are accusing us are undoubtedly suffering from certain delusion. They have read in Karl Marx that there can be only two classes-owners and workers and, on reading Marx they straight way assume that in India there are only owners and workers and proceed on their mission of demolishing capitalism. There are obviously two errors in this. The first error consists in thinking as real what is only possible or ideal. Marx never said as dogma that there are only two clear-cut classes in a society namely the owners and workers. Such a statement is untrue in fact and therefore it is dangerous as a foundation to build upon it any active propaganda with any chance of success. It would be as false as to hold that an economic man or a rational man or a reasonable man is a fact which exists in all classes. The economist has always uttered a wise caution whenever he puts forth the economic man as a basic fact for drawing his conclusion—that the economic man exists only if other things are equal. The labour leaders have forgotten this ceteris paribus. It would be incorrect to suppose that even in Europe, what Marx said was true. “Is there a poor and oppressed man in Germany ? Is there a robbed and ruined artisan of France ? Well, there they appertain to one race, one county, one creed, one past, one present, and one future. Let them unite.” This is an exhortation which has been addressed ever since the days of Marx. Has the poor and oppressed man in Germany united with the robbed and ruined artisan of France ? Even after 100 years they did not learn to unite and in the last war they fought as open, avowed and ruthless enemies. It would be positively erroneous with regard to India. A clear cut division

180 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES does not exist in India. That all labourers are one, form one class is an ideal to be achieved and it is the greatest error to assume it as a fact. How are we to consolidate the ranks of labour ? How are we to bring about unity among labour ? Not by allowing one section of the workers to suppress other section of the workers. Not by preventing the oppressed section from organizing. Not by preventing the aggrieved section from agitating against the injustice that is being done to them. The real way to bring about unity is to remove the causes which make one worker the antagonist of another worker on the ground of race and religion. The real way to bring about unity is to tell the worker that he is wrong in claiming rights which he is not prepared to give to other workers. The real way to bring about unity is to tell the worker who makes these social distinctions which result in unfair discrimination are wrong in principle and injurious to the solidarity of workers. In other words we must uproot Bramhanism - this spirit of inequality - from among the workers if the ranks of labour are to be united. But where is the labour leader who has done this among workers? I have heard labour leaders speaking vociferously against Capitalism. But I have never heard any labour leader speaking against Bramhanism amongst workers. On the other hand their silence on this point is quite con spicuous. Whether their silence is due to their belief that Bramhanism has nothing to do with the organisation and unity of workers, whether it is due to their non-appreciation of the fact that Bramhanism has great deal to do with the disorganisation of labour or whether it is due to sheer opportunism which believes in acquiring leadership of labour and not saying anything which would hurt the feelings of the workers I do not stop to inquire. But I must say that if Bramhanism is admitted to be the root cause of the disorganisation of labour then a serious effort must be made to remove it from the workers. This infection will not go away merely by ignoring it or by remaining silent about it. It must be pursued, dug out and knotched. Then and then only will the way for the unity of workers be made safe. So long as Bramhanism remains a living force and so long as people continue to stick to it because it confers privileges upon one class and puts handicaps on others, I am afraid, that

181TRADE UNIONS............INTERESTS till then there will be the necessity for those who suffer from these handicaps to organize themselves. And what harm is there if they do organize themselves. I could understand the force of the complaint if this organization was engineered by the employers. If it could be proved that we are the tools of the employers, that we are playing into their hands, that we are organizing separately with the deliberate purpose of dividing the ranks of labour, then there would be sufficient justification for condemning this conference. Indeed such a conduct could be denounced as treachery. But can any one say that this move of ours is engineered by the employers and that we are out to help the employers and ruin the cause of labour ? I challenge any of our critics to do so. There is therefore no necessity to be ashamed of or to offer any apology for holding this Conference. The reasons and motives amply justify it. There are one or two men from the Depressed Classes who have disapproved of this Conference. There is nothing strange in this. Some of them are the tools and hirelings of others. Some are misguided. The Depressed Classes are so weak in themselves and the word union has such a charm in it, especially when it falls from the lips of influential propagandist that it is no wonder they are deluded; but such people forget that there can be no real union between parties whose feelings and attitudes are in every respect opposed to each other and where one of whom claims rights and interests which are adverse to the interests of the others. Union among such people would be nothing but fraud upon the weak and suffering party. Every sincere man who repudiates the fraud is maligned by these imposters, as one who would sow division. Division, indeed! Yes, a division it may be, but it is a division, where a real difference and a real antagonism exists. This antagonism arises chiefly because one section of Labour claims vested rights against another section of Labour namely the Depressed Classes. Nobody wants to create a difference. What we are doing is to recognize the difference and to prevent the difference from working an injustice to us.