Vol. 17, Part III · pages 456–460

427FAILURE OF..............COMMUNISM Now the question arises as to whether there is any desire on the part of the party in power to permit any opposition to be created. Congress does not want any ‘opposition’. Congress is attempting to gather people of sundry views under one canopy. I ask you whether this is a desirable trend in the political life of this country ? Free and fair elections is the other pillar on which Parliamentary Democracy rests. Free and fair elections are necessary for the transfer of power from one section of the community to the other in a peaceful manner and without any bloodshed. In olden times, if a king died, there was at least one murder in the palace. Revolution used to take place in palace resulting in murders before the new king used to take the reigns of his country into his authority. This has been the history of India. Elections must be completely free and fair. People must be left to themselves to choose those whom they want to send to the Legislatures. What about free and fair elections ? We must not lose sight of the fact that ‘Big Business’ is trying to play a great part in political life of this country. The amount that is being contributed to the Congress on behalf of the ‘Big Business’ is very dangerous thing. If moneyed people try to influence the elections by contributing to the election fund of any political party, what will be the result. If the party to which they have supported financially comes into power, they will naturally try to extract concessions for themselves either by modifying the present legislation or by influencing the party in power to legislate in such a manner as would be beneficial to their interests. I ask you gentlemen, whether under these circumstances there is any hope left for the Parliamentary System of Government to do any good to the country. I would like you to refer to the Mahabharata. During the battle between the Pandvas and the Kaurvas, Bhishma and Drona were on the side of Kaurvas. Pandvas were in the right and the Kaurvas were in the wrong. Bhishma admitted this. When somebody asked Bhishma as to why he was supporting the Kaurvas if he found the Pandvas to be in the right. Bhishma replied that memorable sentence : “I must be loyal to the salt : If I eat the food of the Kaurvas, I must take their side even if they might be in the wrong.”

428 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Today the same thing is happening. Congress is accepting the financial help of the Banias, Marwaries and other multimillionaires. Congress is eating their food and it follows, therefore, naturally that Congress will have to take the side of these ‘Big Business’ at all crucial times. We also find that the Government servants are influencing the elections in favour of the party which is feeding them and their dependants. No less a personality than Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, at the inaugural session of the Bhartiya Jan Sangh at Delhi recently, openly charged the Government servants of helping the Congress and thereby nullifying the elections from being free and fair. Under these circumstances, do you, gentlemen, think that there is any hope for the Parliamentary Democracy to succeed. If Parliamentary Democracy fails in this country and it is bound to fail for the reasons mentioned by me, the only result will be rebellion, anarchy and Communism. If the people in power do not realize that people will not tolerate hereditary authority, then this country is doomed, Either Communism will come, Russia having the sovereignty over our country, destroying individual liberty and our independence or the section of the people who are disgruntled for the failure of the party in power will start rebellion and anarchy will prevail. Gentlemen, I want you to take note of these eventual certainties and if you wish that Parliamentary System of Government and Parliamentary Democracy prevail in this country, if you are satisfied that we will be assured of our liberty of thought, speech and action, if we should preserve our independence, if we cherish the inherent right of individual liberty, then it is your duty as students, as intelligent community of our country, to strive your utmost to cherish this Parliamentary System of Government in its true spirit and work for it. Gentlemen, I have done. I thank you for having given me this opportunity to address this August gathering. 1 zz 1 : Lokrajya: Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Special Number, April 16, 1981. Pp. 45-48.

126 IF OUR TRUE REPRESENTATIVES ARE NOT ELECTED, INDEPENDENCE WILL BE A FARCE Dr. Ambedkar’s Speech during Election campaign in Ludhiana, on 28th-October 1951. He said, Dear brothers and sisters, This is the first time that I have visited Ludhiana to speak to our people. Many times before I proposed to visit this place but due to certain unavoidable circumstances, I could not do so. What an auspicious occasion it is that you all have gathered here ! You know in two-three months elections are going to be held in which many parties are taking part. The Scheduled Castes Federation is also putting its candidates for the election. We will contest all the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes in the State Assemblies and the Union Parliament and also some general seats where we have sufficient number of votes. I hope that our candidates will be successful. Our candidates’ success depends mostly upon our own people. If all our people voted for our candidates, I am sure of our success, I would therefore urge that all the Scheduled Caste people should vote for the candidates put by the Scheduled Castes Federation, which is the only organisation of the Scheduled Castes and other Backward Classes. I want to tell you how the British people have deceived during the period of their rule over India. They were successful in establishing their Raj in Hindustan although they were hundreds of miles away. First of all when the East India Company came to India its purpose was only to do business but by and by the Britishers became anxious to establish their Raj here. How were they able to achieve that objective ? They had no army of their own in India. Nobody has so far been able to tell how the Britishers were able to subdue all the Rajas and Maharajas of India without army of their own. I am now going to answer this question. The British people became the rulers of India with the help of the Scheduled Castes people, who were called the Untouchables; who were illiterate and with whom the

430 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES treatment of the High Caste Hindus was very degrading. They had no means of livelihood and were always at the mercy of these High Caste people. Thus, they had no alternative but to join the British army and earn their livelihood. I do not want to impress upon you that what has happened was good but I want to emphasise something else. I want to point out that even the people whom we helped to establish their power in India have treated our people in such a way. Our people died in the army for the sake of these Britishers. But what they got in return ? Who were benefitted ? In spite of the fact that the Scheduled Caste, people helped the Britishers, Brahmins and other High Castes people derived full benefit out of it. The Britishers educated their children and gave all financial assistance to them whereas our people were not paid any attention. This resulted in the well-being of these High Castes at the expense of the poor Scheduled Castes who remained as before. This is the reason why up-til-now there are no wellto-do Scheduled Castes families; why their children are not educated and why they are generally backward. Consequently, the important posts in the Army, Police and other department of administration are in the hands of these High Caste people at present. The British people should have done something for the betterment of our people but they did not do anything for us. In 1857 when there was mutiny what were the causes of that ? Because the Britishers failed to do anything for our people, our people in the army had to revolt against them. When the mutiny was subdued, and it was found that our people in the army had revolted against the Britishers, they stopped recruiting our people in the army any further. Instead Hindus and Rajputs were recruited in the army. Thus the main source of income of our people lost. In 1947 when the British people left India, our conditions remained the same as were before they came to India. At the time of transfer of power to Indians, Britishers handed over all power to the High Caste people. We did not get anything. We were left at the mercy of these brutes. From this you can well understand the way in which other people treated the Scheduled Castes. This is the reason, we have remained so backward up-to-now. I want to ask now one question, whether you still want to remain backward and work as slaves in the hands of these high caste people ? When

431IF OUR.....................FARCE the Aryans came over to India, Varna system came into force. People were given the ranks in the society according to their birth. Some were called Brahmins, some Kshatrias, some Vaishas, some Shudras and others Untouchables. According to this categorisation, the Untouchables were the lowest of all and were totally disconnected from the society. The relation between a Caste Hindu and an Untouchable is that of a foot and shoe. When we enter our house we leave our shoes outside. The same way, Acchuts are kept out of the society and are not given any rights whatsoever. We have borne this treatment at the hands of Caste Hindus for centuries and are still suffering socially, economically and politically. After struggling for many years, we have achieved certain political rights which have been incorporated in the Indian Constitution itself. For twenty long years, I fought against Mahatma Gandhi. He was against the idea of giving us any separate rights. His argument was that if the Untouchables are given separate rights, then they will never be able to come to Hindufold. They will remain out from the Hindus forever. At the Round Table Conference also Mahatma Gandhi opposed our demand for Separate Electorates. After so many years of struggle, we have secured some political powers. Now we can send our own representatives to the State Assemblies and the Union Parliament against the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes. There are many parties which are anxious to snatch away these rights. They are anxious to get our votes and send their own henchmen to the seats reserved for our people. You can very well understand their motives. They want that the Scheduled Castes should remain where they are and should not come into power so that the menial jobs which our people are performing should not suffer. So you will have to be careful about your votes in the coming election. You should see that only our true representatives are elected with our votes and none else. Only then your rights which have been incorporated in the Constitution can be safeguarded. If our true representatives are not elected to the State Assemblies and the Union Parliament, then we cannot enjoy