Vol. 9 · pages 161–165

132 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES is reported to have replied that the Sangh is meant to help Harijans and was not a Harijan organization and, therefore, their request was inadmissible. At the Round Table Conference Gandhiji opposed reservation of seats for Harijans on the ground that they were Hindus and should not be separated from the general body. Subsequently in the Yeravda Pact he was obliged to consent to an allocation of seats for them specially, from the Hindu quota. When the draft formula conceding this came up for ratification before a general meeting in Bombay, over which Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya presided, one of those present pointed out to an impatient audience that it was not necessary to collect a large fund (as Panditjee suggested) to remove from Hindu society the blot of Untouchability and that if each one of those present resolved that he or she (a large number of women were present) would receive Harijans in their homes just like other Hindus, the problem would at once cease to exist. A Bombay business magnate turned to the intruder and remarked quietly: ‘You have told them a home truth. None of them is prepared to follow it.’ From the first it has struck me that this has been the fundamental weakness of the Harijan Sevak Sangh. What is the result ? Nearly every beneficiary of the Sangh is an ardent follower of Dr. Ambedkar, which is nothing, but for the fact that they share to the full the fanatical and bitter hatred of Dr. Ambedkar to the Hindus. I Can give several instances to illustrate this statement. But that would only make matters worse. I think that this may be avoided by associating Harijan gentlemen and women with other Hindus in all important bodies, local and central, thus giving them the decisive voice in moulding policy. The idea of helping Harijans without associating with them, is contrary to the spirit of social reform. I was associated with the earlier movements for the uplift of Harijans and I never found this spirit antagonism aroused among the men and women with whom one came in contact. This was because the promoters of the movement—I have the Depressed Classes Mission prominently in view—were by religious faith and social conviction pledged to avoid all discrimination in their behaviour to members of the Depressed Classes. I think that Gandhiji was not quite right when he said that the Harijan Sangh could not admit members of the Scheduled Castes. Dr. Ambedkar, a friend reminds me, was a member of the Sangh when it was formed,”

133 WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A POLITICAL CHARITY I quote this because it gives me the occasion to explain the causes of the hostility and expose the true character of the Sangh. III The writer in the Indian Social Reformer pleads that Untouchables should be associated with the management of the Sangh. His statement might lead people to believe that Untouchables were never represented on the Central Board of the Sangh. That would be a mistake. The correct position is that when the Sangh was started prominent Untouchables in substantial numbers were on the Central Board of the Sangh. The statement issued by Mr. Birla and Mr. Thakkar on 3rd November 1932 gives the names of those who were constituting the Central Board. It was announced that:— “The Central Board has been constituted with the following organising members:— Sjt. G. D. Birla, Delhi and Calcutta; Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas, Bombay; Sir Lallubhai Samaldas, Bombay; Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Bombay; Sheth Ambalal Sarabhai, Ahmedabad; Dr. B. C. Roy, Calcutta, Lala Shri Ram, Delhi; Rao Bahadur M. C. Raja, Madras; Dr. T. S. S. Rajan, Trichinopoly; Rao Bahadur Srinivasan, Madras; Mr. A. V. Thakkar, General Secretary, Delhi.” It will be seen that out of 8 members 3 were drawn from the Untouchables. After my retirement from the Board, the other two namely Rao Bahadur M. C. Rajah and Rao Bahadur Srinivasan also retired. I do not know the reasons why they dissociated themselves from the Sangh. It is right and proper that I should state the reasons why I severed my connection with the Sangh. After the Poona Pact I proceeded in a spirit of forget and forgive. I accepted the bona fides of Mr. Gandhi as I was asked to do by many of his friends. It was in that spirit that I accepted a place on the Central Board of the Sangh and was looking forward to play my part in its activities. In fact, I wanted to discuss with Mr. Gandhi the programme of work which I felt the Sangh should undertake. Before I could do that, I was called to go to London to attend the third Round Table Conference. The next best thing I could do was to communicate my views to

134 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Mr. A. V. Thakkar, the Secretary of the Sangh. Accordingly I wrote the following letter from the steamer:— M/N “VICTORIA,” PORT SAID, Nov. 14, 1932. DEAR MR. THAKKAR, I received your wire previous to my departure to London, informing me of the acceptance of my suggestion regarding the nomination of Rao Bahadur Shrinivasan to the Central Board and Mr. D. V. Naik to the Bombay Provincial Board, I am glad that this question has been amicably settled and that we can now conjointly work out the programme of the Anti-Untouchability League. 1 I wish I had an opportunity to meet the members of the Central Board to discuss with them the principles which the League should follow in framing its programme of work, but unfortunately owing to my having to leave for London at a very short notice, I have had to forego that opportunity. I am however doing the second best namely to convey to you my views in writing for placing them before the Board for their consideration. In my opinion there can be two distinct methods of approaching the task of uplifting the Depressed Classes. There is a school, which proceeds on the assumption that the fact of the individual belonging to the Depressed Classes is bound up with his personal conduct. If he is suffering from want and misery it is because he must be vicious and sinful. Starting from this hypothesis this School of social workers concentrates all its efforts and its resources on fostering personal virtue by adopting a programme which includes items such as temperance, gymnasium, co-operation, libraries, schools, etc., which are calculated to make the individual a better and virtuous individual. In my opinion, there is also another method of approach to this problem. It starts with the hypothesis that the fate of the individual is governed by his environment and the circumstances he is obliged to live under, and if an individual is suffering from want and misery it is because his environment is not propitious. I have no doubt that of the two views the latter is the more correct, the former may raise a few stray individuals above the level of the class to which they belong. It cannot lift the class as a whole. My view of the aim of the Anti-Untouchability League is that it has come into existence not for helping a few individuals at random or a 1. Harijan Sevak Sangh was the name given to the League at a later stage.

135 WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A POLITICAL CHARITY few selected boys belonging to the Depressed Classes but for raising the whole class to a higher level. Consequently, I would not like the League to dissipate its energies on a programme calculated to foster private virtue. I would like the Board to concentrate all its energies on a programme that will effect a change in the social environment of the Depressed Classes. Having stated in general terms my views, I venture to place some concrete proposals for work to be undertaken by the League. 1. A C AMPAIGN TO SECURE C IVIL R IGHTS I think the first thing that the League should undertake is a campaign all 6ver India to secure to the Depressed Classes the enjoyment of their civic rights such as taking water from the village wells, entry in village schools, admission to village chawdi, use of public conveyance, etc. Such a programme if carried into villages will bring about the necessary social revolution in the Hindu Society, without which it will never be possible for the Depressed Classes to get equal social status. The Board must, however, know what difficulties it will have to face if this campaign of civic rights is to be carried through. Here I can speak from experience, because I, as President, know what happened when the Depressed Classes Institute and the Social Equality League launched such a plan in the Kolaba and the Nasik Districts of the Bombay Presidency. First of all, there will be riots between the Depressed Classes and the caste Hindus which will result in breaking heads and in criminal prosecutions of one side or the other. In this struggle, the Depressed Classes will suffer badly because the Police and the Magistracy will always be against them. There has not been a single case in the course of the social struggle carried on in these two districts, in which the Police and the Magistracy have come to the rescue of the Depressed Classes even when justice was on their side. The Police and the Magistracy are as corrupt as they could be, but what is worse is that they are definitely political in the sense that they are out not to see that justice is done but to see that the dignity and interests of the caste Hindus as against the Depressed Classes are upheld. Secondly, the villages will proclaim a complete boycott of the Depressed Classes, the moment they see the latter are trying to reach a status of equality along with them. You know what harrowing tales of harassment, unemployment and starvation, which the Depressed Classes repeated before the Starte Committee of which you were a member. I therefore do not think it necessary to say anything more about the severity of this

136 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES weapon and of its dreadful power to bring all efforts of the Depressed Classes to rise above their degraded station to a standstill. I have mentioned only two of the many obstacles which the League will have to overcome, if this campaign of civic rights is to be successful and the League will have to have an army of workers in the rural parts, who will encourage the Depressed Classes to fight for their rights and who will help them in any legal proceedings arising therefrom to a successful issue. I am so much convinced by the efficiency of this programme that I have not the slightest hesitation in saying that the League ought to look upon this as primary in comparison to everything else. It is true that this programme involves social disturbance and even bloodshed. But I do not think that it can be avoided. I know the alternative policy of adopting the line of least resistance. I am convinced that it will be ineffective in the matter of uprooting untouchability. The silent infiltration of rational ideas among the ignorant mass of caste Hindus cannot, I am sure, work for the elevation of the Depressed Classes. First of all, the caste Hindu like all human beings follows his customary conduct in observing untouchability towards the Depressed Classes. Ordinarily people do not give up their customary mode of behaviour because somebody is preaching against it. But when that customary mode of behaviour has or is believed to have behind it the sanction of religion mere preaching, if it is not resented and resisted, will be allowed to waft along the wind without creating any effect on the mind. The salvation of the Depressed Classes will come only when the Caste Hindu is made to think and is forced to feel that he must alter his ways. For that you must create a crisis by direct action against his customary code of conduct. The crisis will compel him to think and once he begins to think he will be more ready to change than he is otherwise likely to be. The great defect in the policy of least resistance and silent infiltration of rational ideas lies in this that they do not compel thought, for they do not produce crisis. The direct action in respect of Chawdar Tank in Mahad, the Kalaram Temple in Nasik and the Gurwayur Temple in Malabar have done in a few days what million days of preaching by reformers would never have done. I therefore strongly recommend this campaign of direct action for securing civic rights of the Depressed Classes for adoption by the Anti-Untouchability League. I know the difficulties of this campaign, and from such experience as I have of it I am convinced that the forces in charge of Law and Order must be on our side, if it is to end in success. It is