Vol. 17, Part III · pages 51–55

22 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES be framed without taking due account of the social condition of the country and as the necessary adjustment cannot be made in constitution except by the method of mutual agreement and as the movement of Civil Disobedience is a method of stampede and is incompatible with the means of peaceful negotiations, this Congress cannot approve of the method of Civil Disobedience and advises the Depressed Classes not to participate in it. R. T. Accepted 5. This Congress accepts the Round Table Conference as the best means of solving the present constitutional problem and advises the Depressed Classes to take part in it. The Congress also takes this opportunity to impress upon the Government the necessity of making the Round Table Conference a complete success as far as it may by inviting to that Conference all parties including the Depressed Classes in their due proportion. 6. This Congress is opposed to the system of representation of the Depressed Classes by nomination in the Legislatures of the country. It demands representation by their own members through election and rejects the recommendations of the Simon Commission in so far as they provide for nomination for representation of the Depressed Classes by the members of other communities and certification by the Governor. Want Joint Electorates 7. While believing in the efficacy of Separate Electorates this Congress is prepared to accept the principle of Joint Electorates and reserved seats for the representation of the Depressed Classes provided it is accompanied by the system of adult suffrage. 8. This Congress expresses its regret at the undervaluation by the Simon Commission of their claims to representation and the more favoured treatment it has shown to other Minority Communities whose social disabilities are nothing as compared with those under which the Depressed Classed are labouring. This Congress invokes the principle of equality of treatment to all the minorities and demands by way of adequate representation to the Depressed Classes of weightage commensurate with their disabilities in addition to their population quota of representation.

23PEOPLE CEMENTED............INDEPENDENT Indirect Representation 9. This Congress accepts the system of indirect election for the representation of the Depressed Classes by members of the Depressed Classes in the Assembly and the Council of State but demands that right of the Depressed Classes to adequate representation therein should be recognised. 10. This Congress regrets to find no provision being made by the Simon Commission for the representation of the Depressed Classes in the Council of State and demands that the right of the Depressed Classes for adequate representation in the Council of State should be recognised. 11. While realising the advantage of the frame-work prepared by the Simon Commission for the reconstruction of the Assembly this Congress is of opinion that it is more appropriate to the Council of State than to the Assembly. In view of this and in view of the great necessity of improving the constitution of the Council of State so as to make it a more democratic body, this Conference is of opinion that the frame-work suggested by the Simon Commission for the Assembly should be applied to the Council of State and the Assembly should be constituted on the basis of direct election. Simon Report Condemned 12. This Congress does not approve of the proposals of the Simon Commission in respect of the Military in India. This Congress is of opinion that the Army even if it be a reserved subject should not be withdrawn from the Executive Control of the Government of India. 13. This Congress is convinced of the necessity of having one Central All-India organisation for the Depressed Classes of India. In view of this the Congress appoints a Committee :— (1) To frame a constitution for such an All-India organisation to be submitted at the next Session of the Congress and ; (2) To function as a Working Committee of the Congress for the next year to deal with all matters relating to the Depressed Classes and arising out of the present political situation in the Country.” 1 1: The Bombay Chronicle dated 18th August 1930.

24 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Dr. B. R. Ambedkar delivered his Presidential Address at The All India Depressed Classes Congress, Nagpur, on August 8, 1930. He said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I greatly appreciate the honour you have done me by inviting me to preside over your deliberations to-day, and I am grateful to you for the same. But while I value so much this mark of confidence, I feel the responsibility attaching to the position which you have so kindly called upon me to assume is one of an unusual difficulty, from which it would not have been unwise to have sought an escape. Nevertheless I have consented to assume it because it was borne in upon me that at this juncture it was the duty of every public man to place his services, for what they might be worth, unreservedly at the disposal of his compatriots labouring in the promotion of a common cause. But in taking this responsibility I derive courage from the thought that you will not stint me support and assistance, and that the trusted leaders of our people who are assembled here on this occasion will give us all the benefit of their considered judgment and ripe experience. I. Problem of Self Government in India. 2. The one question that is looming large in the horizon today is, “Is it possible for the peoples of India to become one united self-governing community ?” We have met here to define the attitude of the Depressed Classes with respect to this question which is agitating not only the minds of this country and of the British Empire but also of the whole world as well. Our answer to this question will go a great way in the decision of the final destiny of this country. Our decision will certainly have the potency of retarding or accelerating its realisation and may possibly go so far as to make it or mar it. You cannot therefore, I venture to say, treat this question in a light-hearted manner. You must weigh with deep consideration, its pros and its cons. Let us not fear that our judgment will be different from that of others. But let us be careful that our conclusions will be the result of independent thought and honest belief.

25PEOPLE CEMENTED............INDEPENDENT 3. You are aware that to this question there are two sides. It has been pointed out that the Indian people are composed of a large number of distinct races; that they profess various religions antagonistic in their creeds and diverse in their rites; that they speak different languages and are separated from each other by discordant prejudices, by conflicting social usages and by opposing material interests. The question is asked how can a heterogeneous mass of humanity function as a selfgoverning community ? These are hard facts and no wise man can ignore the bearing which they must necessarily have upon the question of self-government in India. But admitting these hard facts, what is the conclusion to be drawn from them ? Gentlemen, before you proceed to pronounce your opinion let me draw your attention to certain facts equally hard. Consider the position as it obtains in countries like Latvia, Rumania, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Estonia, and Czechoslavakia. These are new States which have come into being after the close of the great war of 1914 which was fought with the avowed object of establishing the principle of self-government throughout the world. These newly, constituted States are all of them self-governing sovereign, independent States, each supreme in its external and internal affair. What are the internal social conditions in these States ? You will be surprised to know that they are as bad as in India, if not worse. In Latvia there are Latts, Russians , Jews and Germans, besides other nationalities. In Lithuania there are Lithuanians, Jews, Poles and Russians in addition to other smaller minorities. In Yugoslavia there are Serbs, Croates, Slovenes, Rumanians, Hungarians, Albanians, and Germans, not to mention other Slave people. In Estonia there are Estonians, Russians, Germans and other small groups. In Czechoslovakia there are Czechs, Germans, Megyars, Ruthinians and others. In Hungary there are Magyars, Germans and Slovaks. Different by race and language these groups form so many warring nations within their respective States. There is not even that religious unity to cement these heterogenous elements into a common whole. You will find amongst them four or five different sorts of Catholics. There are Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, Czechoslovak Catholics. Besides Catholics, you have Evangelicals, Jews, Protestants, not

26 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES to mention the many small creeds that prevail there. Ponder over this. Is the Indian cosmos more bewildering, more heterogeneous than the human cosmos we find in these countries? I dare say it is not. In making your decision about India you shall have to take cognizance of these facts if your judgment is to be honest, independent judgment. Gentlemen, is there any answer to the question that arises as a result of this comparison that if Latvia, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Estonia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Roumania, with all their difference of race, creed, language and culture, can function as united self-governing communites, why cannot India ? I have none to give. And I am looking forward to hear with great interest those of our friends who think they can. 4. It seems to me, to insist that the divergent elements in a country shall be one united whole before it can have the blessings of self-government is sometimes to reverse the order of things and to ignore the unifying effects of the great process of self-government. It is given to very few countries to have within their boundaries a homogeneous people connected by one language, one religion and one culture. But there are many in which, as a result of historical, geographical and political factors, sets of peoples, differing in their creeds, in their languages and in their cultures, have been intermingled. Such people could never have become heirs to a system of self-government which is theirs to-day, if the rule of homogeneity had been applied to them in all its absolutistic rigour. And after all is said and done, has not the system of self-government itself been the cause of unification of many a people who, in its absence, would have remained as discordant and as distinct as they were in their original conditions ? Has not the self-governing constitution adopted by the German Empire been the cause of the unification of the German people ? Could the Bavarians, Prussians, Saxons and the various other groups that prevailed as distinct nationalities and as separate States before 1870 have merged themselves into one united nation if they had not been brought under a common Government ? A common government is often the best instrument one can devise to mould a diverse people into a nation. But why go so far to Germany for illustration.