Vol. 17, Part III · pages 281–285

252 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES power. I have no doubt that is our only salvation, and that without it we will perish. It is on this question that we must concentrate all our attention. It is a question of life and death for us. What are our prospects in the matter of capturing political power ? It is better if I sum up the forces which are helping us and the forces which are working against us. With the knowledge of such forces, you will be better able to frame your policy and forge your sanctions. Let me begin by telling you what has been the key-note of my politics. You may be familiar with it but it is well to re-state it. My basis of my politics lies in the proposition that the Untouchables are not a sub-head or a sub-section of the Hindus, and that they are a separate and a distinct element in the national life of India, as separate and distinct as the Muslims and like the Muslims of India the Untouchables are entitled to separate political rights as against the Hindus of India. This is the key-note of my politics. No one will misunderstand me or my politics if he bears that in mind. Having stated the fundamental basis of my politics I will proceed to sum up the forces working for and against our claim for separate political rights. To begin with the Round Table Conference, the Round Table Conference was a very vast affair, and I do not wish to trouble you with all the details of what took place there. I will confine myself to what happened to the Untouchables. There was a contest between me and Mr. Gandhi. Mr. Gandhi contested that the Untouchables were a sub-section of the Hindus and consequently if any political power was to devolve from the hands of the British it should pass undivided into the hands of the Hindus who could be trusted to look after the interests of the Untouchables. The position taken up by me was totally different; I contended that the Untouchables formed separate and distinct element in the life of the country. The Hindus who are their hereditary enemies could not be trusted and far from using the political power for raising the Untouchables the fear was that they would use it for perpetuating their subjection, and it was, therefore, absolutely necessary that there should be political partition between the Untouchables and the Hindus so that the Untouchables

253IF DEMOCRACY....................OUR DOOM may get political power in their own hands to use it to promote their welfare or to use it to save themselves against the tyranny and oppression of the Hindus. I do not want to dilate upon what the Mahatma or other Hindus did by way of manoeuvring to defeat the claim. It is sufficient to say that at the Round Table Conference the Untouchables won and the Mahatma lost. The Communal Award was the result of this contest. Its great virtue lies in the fact that the Untouchables were recognised in the national life of India and entitled to claim separate political rights. That is the importance of the Communal Award. Mr. Gandhi, at first, did not accept the Communal Award. He started a fast unto death to compel the British Government to unsettle a settled fact. He failed in the fast as he failed at the Round Table Conference in defeating the claim of the Untouchables to be treated as a distinct element separate from the Hindus and entitled to separate political recognition. In the Poona Pact which was the result of his fast, he had to admit the main contention I had put forth at the Round Table Conference. In the first round, the victory had gone to the Untouchables. Our position remained intact even after the war had commenced and the Congress had come to occupy a dominant position in Indian politics. Indeed, our claim was reassured and sustained by the declaration of the Viceroy made on the 8th August 1940 in which it was made clear that the Muslims and the Untouchables were distinct and separate elements in the National life of India and that the British Government will not enforce a constitution which has not the support of the Muslims and the Depressed Classes. I have spoken so far of the strength of our position. I must now speak to you of the forces that tend to weaken our position. One malignant factor which has been working to weaken our position is Gandhi and Gandhism. By signing the Poona Pact, I helped to save the life of Mr. Gandhi. But Mr. Gandhi accepted the Poona Pact not as a gentleman signing an agreement with the intention to

254 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES honour his word but as a crafty person seeking to find a way out of a difficulty. For, I want you to remember that Mr. Gandhi, notwithstanding the Poona Pact which saved him from death, never gave his true and honest consent to the principle underlying the Poona Pact. He remained a determined opponent of the claim of the Untouchables for a separate political recognition and has ever since done everything possible to oppose our claim and to undermine our position. I want you to bear in mind that Mr. Gandhi is our greatest opponent. I do not like to use the word enemy, though there is enough justification for it. There are some among us who are deluded by the artificiality of his phraseology. But, I must warn you that you would be making the greatest mistake if you forget to take note of the fact that among the adverse forces which are weakening your side and against which you have to concentrate your forces in winning your battle for political freedom, the most formidable force is Mr. Gandhi. The second factor which has weakened your position must be ascribed to the change in the attitude of His Majesty’s Government. Upto the declaration of 8th August 1940, His Majesty’s Government’s view was that the Untouchables were distinct and a separate element and that they constituted so important an element that their consent was necessary for any constitutional changes that may be desired. But in the proposals of His Majesty’s Government which were sent down with Strafford Cripps, His Majesty’s Government took a complete volte-face. For, Sir Strafford Cripps proclaimed without blush or without remorse that only the consent of the Hindus and the Muslims was enough for giving effect to the constitutional changes involved in the Cripps proposals; that the consent of the Untouchables was not necessary. In plain terms the Untouchables had ceased to be regarded as an important element in the National life of India. It passes one’s comprehension how 60 to 70 millions of Untouchables have ceased to be an important element within a few months. It is a complete somersault on the part of His Majesty’s Government. It is a great betrayal of the Untouchables. Whatever the reasons for this betrayal and however strong may be your feelings at so unjust and

255IF DEMOCRACY....................OUR DOOM indecent an act on the part of His Majesty’s Government, the fact must be recognized that this has been the greatest breach in our war. There is a third circumstance of an adverse character to which I think I must not fail to draw your attention. There was a time when there was a solidarity of feeling based on community of interest among the different minority communities in India, among whom the Muslim Community was a premier community. That solidarity is now gone. This is principally due to the change in the vision of the Muslim community brought about by the Muslim League. The Muslim League when it was resuscitated by Mr. Jinnah after the 1937 election began with the ideology that the Musalmans were a minority, and as a minority they needed the strength of other minorities to support and sustain them. So firm was the faith of the Muslim League in the scheme of mutual strength that the Muslim League had taken up the cause of other minorities and passed resolutions pledging its support to their claims and had stood out not merely as an advocate of the Muslim cause but as a champion of all the other minorities in India. This attitude of the League has undoubtedly been of great help to the Untouchables as the attitude of the Untouchables had always been to the Muslims of India. But the League’s attitude has undergone a complete change. The Muslim League ever since the Resolution on Pakistan was passed has ceased to regard the Muslims as a community. It holds that the Muslims are a nation. That is not all. The Muslim League further believes that it has nothing to do with the other communities, that it has nothing to do with the Hindu community but it has also nothing to do with other minority communities. The Muslim League alignment is simple. It is an alignment of Muslim as against all other Non-Muslim without distinction or discrimination. This change in the attitude of the League cannot but have serious consequences for the Untouchables. It means that the Untouchables have lost an ally. But it may mean more than the loss of an ally The Muslim League has not only come to set up a new and a different alignment of Muslims versus Non-Muslims, it has set up a new equation of values. That equation is a simple equation. It says that the Muslims, whatever their numbers, are just equal to the Non-Muslims and therefore, in any political arrangement the Muslims must get fifty per cent. To this equation no one can

256 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES consent. Not only it is against arithmetic; it is also against the interests of all non-Muslim including the Untouchables. Having regard to these changes in the political standpoint of the Muslim League the Untouchables may be said not only to have lost an ally but also to have lost a friend. For, if the League insists on fifty per cent representation in everything, there can be no doubt that the Muslims and the Untouchables will come in conflict. I have, so far, given you an idea as to what was our position in Indian politics and what forces have been working to undermine that position. Let me now give you an idea of what I think should be your political demands. It is very necessary that you should formulate them in clear terms. It will clarify the position. Our people will know what we stand for. Our opponents will have notice of our demands. In the first place, you must insist upon being recognised as an independent and separate element in the national life of India. The theory that they are only a sub-section of the Hindus must be fought tooth and nail. Failure to get the Untouchables recognized as a distinct element, separate from the Hindus, will keep them submerged and lead to their suppression and degradation. Next, you must ask for provision being made in the constitution for a sum of money to be set apart annually in the budget of every Province for the education of the Untouchables. You must demand such a sum not only for primary education but also for higher education. Higher education is more important to us at this stage than primary education. From the standpoint of leadership, from the standpoint of filling in high administrative posts, higher education is to the Untouchables a great necessity. Thirdly, you should demand that a number of posts in the public services shall be reserved for the Untouchables subject, of course, to the rule of minimum qualification. This is very essential. We suffer from bad administration and not from bad laws. The administration is bad because it is in the hands of the Caste Hindus, who carry their social prejudices into administration and persistently deny to the Untouchables for one reason or another the principle of equal benefit to which they are entitled. Good laws can do you no good unless you have good