Vol. 9 · pages 226–230

197 WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : THE REAL ISSUE slavery. In slavery the master at any rate had the responsibility to feed, clothe and house the slave and keep him in good, condition lest the market value of the slave should decrease. But in the system of Untouchability the Hindu takes no responsibility for the maintenance of the Untouchable. As an economic system it permits exploitation without obligation. Untouchability is not only a system of unmitigated economic exploitation, but it is also a system of uncontrolled economic exploitation. That is because there is no independent public opinion to condemn it and there is no impartial machinery of administration to restrain it. There is no appeal to public opinion, for whatever public opinion there is it is the opinion of the Hindus who belong to the exploiting class and as such favour exploitation. There is no check from the police or the judiciary for the simple reason that they are all drawn from the Hindus, and take the side of the Exploiters. Those who believe that Untouchability will soon vanish do not seem to have paid attention to the economic advantages which it gives to the Hindus. Untouchable cannot do anything to get rid of his untouchability. It does not arise out of any personal fault on his part. Untouchability is an attitude of the Hindu. For Untouchability to vanish, it is the Hindu who must change. Will he change ? Has a Hindu any conscience? Is he ever known to have been fired with a righteous indignation against a moral wrong ? Assuming he does change so much as to regard Untouchability a moral wrong, assuming he is awakened to the sense of putting himself right with God and Man, will he agree to give up the economic and social advantages which Untouchability gives ? History, I am afraid, will not justify the conclusion that a Hindu has a quick conscience or if he has it is, so active as to charge him with moral indignation and drive him to undertake a crusade to eradicate the wrong- History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them. The Untouchables cannot hope to generate any compelling force. They are poor and they are scattered. They can be easily suppressed should they raise their head.

198 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES On this analysis, Swaraj would make Hindus more powerful and Untouchables more helpless and it is quite possible that having regard to the economic advantages which it gives to the Hindus, Swaraj, instead of putting an end to Untouchability, may extend its life. That Untouchability is vanishing is therefore only wishful thinking and a calculated untruth. It would be most stupid—if not criminal—to take it into account in considering the demands of the Untouchables for constitutional safeguards and ignore the hard facts of the present and their certainty to continue in the indefinite future. zz

CHAPTER IX A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNER Let Not Tyranny Have Freedom to Enslave I IT is a matter of common experience that barring a few exceptions, almost all foreigners who show interest in Indian political affairs take the side of the Congress. This quite naturally puzzles and annoys the other political parties in the country, such as the Muslim League claiming to represent the Musalmans, the Justice Party—now in a state of suspended animation but still—claiming to speak in the name of the non-Brahmins and the All India Scheduled Castes Federation claiming to represent the Untouchables, all of whom have been appealing to the foreigner for support but to whom the foreigner is not even prepared to give a sympathetic hearing. Why does the foreigner support the Congress and not the other political parties in India ? Two reasons are usually assigned by the foreigner for his behaviour. One reason assigned by him for supporting the Congress is because he believes that the Congress is the only representative body of Indians and can speak in the name of India and even for the Untouchables. Is he right in his belief ? Two circumstances are mainly responsible for giving rise to such a belief. The first and foremost circumstance for the spread of this view is the propaganda by the Indian Press in favour of the Congress. The Press in India is an accomplice of the Congress, believes in the dogma that the Congress is never wrong and acts on the principle of not giving any publicity to any news which is inconsistent with Congress prestige or Congress ideology. It is largely due to the Press in India that this cry of the Congress, that it represents all, has been so ceaselessly advertised, with the result that the people in England and America know one thing and only one thing, namely that the Congress is the only representative body in India. The second circumstance why the world outside believes that the Congress is the only organization which represents India, including even the Untouchables, is because of the absence of

200 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES propaganda on behalf of the Untouchables to advertise their case against the Congress claim. There are various explanations for this failure on the part of the Untouchables. They have no Press and the Congress Press is closed to them. It is determined not to give them the slightest publicity. They cannot have their own Press. It is obvious that no paper can survive without advertisement revenue. Advertisement revenue can come only from business and in India all business, both big and small is attached to the Congress and will not favour any Non-Congress organ. The staff of the Associated Press of India, which is the main news distributing agency in India, is entirely drawn from Madras Brahmins—indeed the whole of the Press in India is in their hands and who for well-known reasons are entirely pro-Congress and will not allow any news hostile to the Congress to get publicity. These are reasons beyond the control of the Untouchables. But to a large extent their failure to do propaganda is also due to absence of will to do propaganda. This absence of will arises from a patriotic motive not to do anything which will damage the cause of the country in the eyes of the world outside. There are two different aspects to the politics of India which may be distinguished as foreign politics and constitutional politics. India’s foreign politics relate to India’s freedom from British Imperialism while the constitutional politics of India centre round the nature of a constitution for a free India. They are really separate. But the Untouchables fear that though the two aspects of India’s politics are separable, the foreigner who counts in this matter, and whose misunderstanding has to be guarded against, is not only not capable of separating them but is very likely to mistake a quarrel over constitutional politics for a disagreement over the ultimate purposes of India’s foreign politics. This is why the Untouchables have preferred to remain silent and allowed the Congress propaganda to go unchallenged. Congressmen will not admit the patriotic motives of the Untouchables in keeping silent over Congress propaganda which is directed against them. The fact, however, remains that their silence and desire to avoid open challenge has been a material cause which has brought about the general belief that the Congress represents all, even the Untouchables. Though regrettable, it was excusable for a foreigner to be carried away by propaganda at a time when the representative character of the Congress was not put to test in an election.

201 WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNERS But the matter has now been put to test in the elections that took place in 1937. With the results of the elections available to check the position, there is no justification for any one to rest his judgment regarding the representative character of the Congress, on propaganda. What the election results show has already been set out in an earlier part of the book, both generally and also in particular regard to the Untouchables. It may, therefore, be trusted that the foreigners, who have these facts before them, will not hereafter accept the propagandist view that the Congress represents all, including the Untouchables, as they did in the past, and will realize that other parties besides the Congress and particularly the Untouchables, have something different to say on the political problem of India. The second reason why the foreigner assigns his support to the Congress is because of his belief that the Congress is fighting for the freedom of India. He sees Congressmen engaged in a conflict with the British Government, launching campaigns of civil disobedience, breaking laws made by a Foreign Government, organizing movements for non-payment of taxes, courting prison, preaching non-co-operation with Government, refusing offices and exhibiting themselves in other ways as men out to sacrifice themselves for the freedom of the country. He sees other political parties standing aloof. From this, he concludes that the Congress is a body struggling for the freedom of the country and as a lover of freedom feels bound to support a body carrying on a “Fight for Freedom.” I have explained elsewhere why other political parties have not joined in the Fight for Freedom. Here I propose to deal with another aspect of the question, namely, for whose freedom is the Congress fighting ? II In taking the side of the Congress as an organization “Fighting for Freedom,” the foreigner does not stop to make a distinction between the freedom of a country and the freedom of the people in the country. In not stopping to make this distinction, the foreigner, it must be said, far from understanding the matter, is allowing himself to be misled, if not deceived. For words such as society, nation and country are just amorphous, if not ambiguous, terms. There is no gain-