Vol. 17, Part III · pages 71–75

42 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES condition the Depressed Classes were told to rely upon the official block for support. Experience has taught us that the official block is the friend of nobody, but of itself and that its help and friendship is determined by its own interests. I am sorry to say that during these ten years the official block took far more from the Depressed Classes than it gave to them. Be that as it may, now that this doubtful advantage of the official block is not to be available to the Depresses Classes in the future Constitution of India is it not fair that the Depressed Classes should get the same adequate representation which every other minority is getting ? What is the degree of representation in the Provincial Legislatures that the Simon Commission proposes to allow to the Depressed Classes? They say “the proportion of such reserved seats (for the Depressed Classes) to the total number of seats in all the Indian general constituencies should be three quarter of the proportion of the Depressed Class population to the total population of the electoral area of the province.” Now just see the representation given by the Simon Commission to the other minorities in India. The Mohamedan minority has been allowed to retain the excessive representation which it has received under the Lucknow pact in the teeth of the strongest opposition from the Congress. In the case of the Indian Christians, AngloIndians and Europeans, the Commission has not only given them representation according to their population but has allowed them a considerable weightage over their respective population ratios. Is this not scandalous? Is not a community suffering from severe handicaps entitled to a just if not a generous treatment? Even the Indian Central Committee dealt out justice to the Depressed Classes, and allowed them representation on the basis of their population which if admitted to be the least that is due to every minority. 21. From their inception the doors of the Central Legislature were never open to the Depressed Classes and remained closed to them even when they were reconstituted on a popular basis in 1921. It was not until the year 1926 that the Depressed Classes were favoured with one seat in the Legislative Assembly

43PEOPLE CEMENTED............INDEPENDENT of 150 members. The Council of State still remains closed to them. The Simon Commission has attempted to make some provision for the representation of the Depressed Classes in the Central Legislature. But its provision covers only the Legislative Assembly and does not reach the Council of States. But thankful as I am for this small mercy I have also to complain niggardly treatment that the Commission has meted out to us. You will remember the great stock taking of the Depressed Classes that took place just about the appointment of the Simon Commission and the attempt made from all quarters including the Government, to show that the Census figure of population for the Depressed Classes was higher than the actual. Even at the lowest computation the Depressed Classes according to the Simon Commission form 20% the total population of the British India. But according to the provision made by the Simon Commission for their representation in the Legislative Assembly, the Depressed Classes are destined to get no more than 8% of the total seats in that body and none in the Council of States. 22. I cannot understand this systematic undervaluation of our claims and our needs by the Simon Commission. Every one of us expected that the Simon Commission would not only be just to the Depressed Classes but it would also be generous. Nor were the reasons for such a generous treatment to the Depressed Classes wanting. I cannot understand how in the formation of a constitution the loyalty of any community can secure for it any privileges. But in so far as loyalty can in India purchase political privileges, the loyalty of the Depressed Classes has been boundless. They have loved the British not merely from principle but from passion. But the strongest plea in support of the claim of the Depressed Classes for a generous treatment lies in their most abject condition. No minority in India stands so down-trodden and yet so helpless as do the Depressed Classes. So many and so singular are their woes that they were deemed to make India unfit for home-rule. Surely a community so much sinned against must in all honesty receive the most generous treatment. The Depressed Classes have not only not received any generosity at the hands of the Simon Commission: but that they have not received even bare justice. One may well ask

44 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES what has become of the sentiments expressed by Lord Birkenhead when he moved the resolution in Parliament for the appointment of the Simon Commission. It was then said that the Depressed Classes formed a special trust and that the British people could not hand over that trust without making adequate provision for their safety. Are the Simon Commission’s recommendations to be taken as the fulfilment of those magniloquent sentiments? Gentlemen, we must be careful as to how other people are treating us. I am afraid that the British choose to advertise our unfortunate conditions not with the object of removing them but only because such a course serves well as an excuse for retarding the political progress of India. In these circumstances I think it is the duty of our leaders to trouble themselves less about what the Britishers have done for us so far and to care more for what is to happen to us in future and shape our course accordingly without fear from anybody, and insist upon a just if not a generous treatment to which we are entitled by reason of our particular circumstances. V. Depressed Classes and Swaraj. 23. I think I have said all that I need say regarding the guarantees and safeguards that we must have in the future constitution of a self-governing India. That does not exhaust the topics that this meeting has to take into consideration. This meeting will never be said to have fulfilled its purpose if it omitted to formulate its opinion on the present political agitation in the country. You will remember that the Indian National Congress at its meeting held at Calcutta in December 1928 passed a Resolution, which was virtually an ultimatum to the British parliament, demanding the establishment in India of Dominion form of Government by the end of December 1929 failing which it threatened to change the goal of India from Dominion Status to complete Independence. The result of this ultimatum by the Congress was the announcement by the Viceroy that the goal of British policy in India was to give India Dominion Status. This did not satisfy the Congress, It wanted Dominion Status not as a goal but an event to be accomplished immediately and the Congress therefore when it met in December 1929 proceeded

45PEOPLE CEMENTED............INDEPENDENT to pass the Resolution declaring Independence as the goal of India. It is for you to declare what view you will take of the political ideal of the Indian National Congress. The demand for independence we may dismiss from our consideration. It is impracticable and in my opinion it will be disastrous in the present state of the country. It is only people cemented by the feeling of one country, one constitution and one destiny who may take the risk of being independent. No one can deny that this country is miles distant from this position. The ideal of Dominion Status seems to me superior for it has in it the substance of Independence without the attendant risks involved in complete Independence. We must therefore refuse to give our support to the ideal of Independence about the utility of which even Congressmen entertain grave doubts. 24. But what shall we say regarding the demand for Dominion Status which is the same thing as Swaraj or government of the people, for the people and by the people? As to this you must really think well before you decide. There can be no doubt that the advent of the British in India has been a great boon to the country. Without this providential connection it seems to me very doubtful if the intellectual awakening of India could have been as great or as fast. Without the contact of European Civilization with its basic conceptions of liberty, equality and fraternity Indian Society could never have been driven to feel the sense of shame in respect of the many social customs that have been recognized as part of its social and moral code. It is this live contact between the two civilisations which has by cruel contrast forced upon India the revaluation of its social values and the recognition of many of its social customs as so many social wrongs. This has set India as nothing could have done on the road to regeneration. Without the advent of the British, India could never have had the tremendous advantage of a common system of government and a common system of law. These are instruments of no mean potency for the welfare of any country. But their value to India is inestimable. They have prepared the soil of India for the roots of Indian nationalism to go to the depth they have gone and have also laid down the foundations of a stable Government.

46 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Nor can it be said that they have neglected to provide the country with the best equipment of modern civilization such as currency, roads, canals, railways and the post. 25. All this is true. But the question is at what cost? There is no doubt that a kind of dwarfing or stunting of the Indian race is going on under the British rule. In the words of the late Mr. Gokhale “We must all the days of our life live in an atmosphere of inferiority, and the tallest of us must bend.” No Indian can feel that upward impulse which is the source of elevation witnessed in a self-governing community. You may not appreciate the moral grounds on which the claim to Swaraj is made to rest and you may even be amused by it when it is urged by members of the aristocracy as one when one hears satan quoting scriptures in support of his cause. There is no doubt that the cost of the British Government in India is out of all proportion to the means of the people. It is the costliest government in the world. This again may not appeal to you and you may say that no cost is too great for the maintenance of law and order in this country. But there is one thing that I think must appeal to you and that is the poverty of the people. Is there any parallel to the poverty of the Indian people in any part of the world? In the first quarter of the 19th century when British rule in India had become an established fact there were five famines with an estimated loss of 1,000,000 lives. During the second quarter of the century there were two famines with an estimated mortality of 400,000. During the third quarter there were six famines with a recorded loss of life of 5,000,000. And during the last quarter of the century what do we find? Eighteen famines, with an estimated mortality which reaches the awful total of from 15,000,000 to 26,000,000. And this does not include the many more millions (over 6,000,000) in a single year kept alive by government doles. Gentlemen, what must be the cause of this? In plain terms the cause is the deliberate policy pursued by the British in the government of this country. The aim of the British Government all long has been to discourage the growth of trade and industry in this country. This is not an accusation which rests on mere inference. It is an admitted principle of British administration that India be so governed that she will