Vol. 9 · pages 351–355

322 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES State Congress.’ The leaders of this popular organisation belong to the four major communities of the State, namely, the Nair, Mahomedan, Christian and Ezhava community. The President of the State Congress Mr. Thanu Pillai issued a statement in which he stressed that special concessions would be given to the Depressed Class. All the leaders of the Depressed Class have been awaiting for a time to see the attitude of the State Congress. Now we come to understand that there is no reality in the promise of these leaders. 9. Now I am sure that the leaders have neglected the cause of the Depressed Class. The State Congress was started on the principles of nationalism and now it has become an institution of communalism. Communal spirit is now working among the leaders. In every public speech, statement or article, the leaders mention only these four major communities, while they have no thought on us. I fear, if this is the case of the leaders of the political agitation of Travancore, the situation of the Depressed Class will be more deplorable when the Responsible Government is achieved, for the entire possession of the Government will be then within the clutches of the above mentioned communities and the Depressed Classes’ rights and privileges will be devoured by the former. In the meetings of the working committee of the States Congress, two-thirds of the time was devoted in discussion concerning the strike of the Alleppey Coir Factories; but nothing was mentioned in the meeting about the Harijan workers who are undergoing manifold difficulties. The workers in Factories are Savarnas and the agitation for obtaining Responsible Government is a kind of anti-Harijan movement. The motive of every leader of the State Congress is to improve the situation (circumstance) of the Savarna. The leaders of the major communities have some mercenary attitude who are going to sacrifice the Depressed for their progress. 10. These are the conditions of the Depressed Class of the State. What are the ways by which we have to establish our rights in the State ? I humbly request you to be good enough to render me your advice at this occasion. I am awaiting for the reply. Excuse me for the trouble, Yours faithfully, SRINARAYANASWAMI.” If the plan of Temple Entry is ultimately to deprive the Untouchables of their statutory rights, then the movement is not only not spiritual but it is positively mischievous and it would be the duty of all honest people to warn the Untouchables.

323 WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : APPENDIX VI APPENDIX VI RECOGNITION OF UNTOUCHABLES AS A SEPARATE ELEMENT Pronouncements of the British Government on the position of the Untouchables in the Constitution of India. INTRODUCTION The necessity for recalling the pronouncements of the Viceroys and of the Secretaries of State has arisen because of the recent criticism in the Press against the reply of 15th August 1944 given by Lord Wavell to Mr. Gandhi stating that the Scheduled Castes are a separate element in the national life of India and that their consent to the new Constitution was essential before power is transferred to Indian hands. This criticism is based upon the supposition that the Cripps’s proposals did not recognize the Scheduled Castes as a separate element and did not make their consent necessary. Reliance is placed upon the fact that the Cripps’s proposals spoke of “racial and religious minorities” only and it is argued that the Scheduled Castes are neither a racial nor a religious minority. It is hardly necessary to point out how ignorant this criticism is. The Scheduled Castes are really a religious minority. The Hindu religion by its dogma of untouchability has separated the Scheduld Castes from the main body of the Hindus in a manner which makes the separation far more real and far wider than the separation which exists either between Hindus and Muslims or Hindus and Sikhs or Hindus and Christians. It is difficult to concede of a more effective method of separation and segregation than the principle of untouchability and it is only those who are actuated by malicious spirit of finding excuses to deny the Scheduled Castes their claim to political rights would indulge in this kind of jugglery. Those who regard the statement of Lord Wavell as a new departure have completely forgotten what attitude His Majesty’s Government has taken in the matter of the Scheduled Castes from the very beginning when the transfer of political power from British to Indian hands was thought of. Ever since 1917 when the Montagu-Chelmsford Report advocated responsible Government, the British Government have taken a definite stand that they would, under no circumstances, transfer power to Indian hands until they were satisfied that the position of the Scheduled Castes was safeguarded by adequate Constitutional provisions. A few of the many declarations made by Secretaries of State and Viceroys of India from 1917 to 1941 are collected together in the following pages. It will be found that the

324 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES recognition that the Scheduled Castes are a separate and important element in the national life of the country and that their consent is necessary are in no way new proposals. Both the statements have been made by responsible representatives of His Majesty’s Government, viz., the Secretary of State and the Viceroy long before the Cripps’s proposals came into being. Particular attention is drawn to Mr. Amery’s statement on 14th August 1940 and Lord Linlithgow’s statement on 10th January 1940. It is hoped that a perusal of these declarations will enable those who are trying to negative the claim of the Scheduled Castes for political rights to realise that their propaganda is both foolish and malicious. (1) Extract from the Montagu-Chelmsford Report on Indian Constitutional Reform—1917. 155 … … We have shown that the political education of the ryot cannot be a very rapid, and may be a very difficult process. Till it is complete, he must be exposed to the risk of oppression by people who are stronger and cleverer than he is : and until it is clear that his interests can safely be left in his own hands or that the legislative councils represent and consider his interest, we must retain power to protect him. So with the depressed classes. We intend to make the best arrangements that we can for their representation, in order that they too may ultimately learn the lesson of self-protection. But if it is found that their interests suffer and that they do not share in the general progress, we must retain the means in our own hands of helping them. * * * (2) Extract from the Fifth Despatch of the Government of India dated 23rd April 1919 on the Report of the Southborough Committee on Franchise. 13. We have analysed in the statement (printed at the top of the next page) the interests which in the committee’s opinion should be represented by non-official nomination. We accept these proposals generally. But there is one community whose case appears to us to require more consideration than the committee gave it. The Report on Indian Constitutional Reforms clearly recognizes the problem of the depressed classes and gave a pledge respecting them. “We intend to make the best arrangements that we can for their representation.” The castes described as “Hindus—others” in the committee’s report, though they are defined in varying terms, are broadly speaking all the same kind of people. Except for differences in the rigidity of their ex-

325 WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : APPENDIX VI Name of Province Depressed Classes Anglo-Indians Indian Christians Labour Excluded Tracts Military Interest Industrial Interest other than Planting & Mining Aborigines Domiciled Bengalis Others Total Percentage of total Membership 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Madras … … 2 — — — 2 — — — — 2 6 5 Bombay … … — 1 1 1 — — — — — 2 6 5 Bengal … … 1 — 1 1 — — — — — 22 5 4 United Provinces … 1 1 1 — — — — — — 2 5 4 Punjab … … — 2* 1 — — 1 — — — 2 6 7 Bihar and Orissa … 1 1 1 1 — — 1 1 1 2 9 9 Central Provinces … 1 1* — — 2 — — — — 1 5 7 Assam … … — 1* 1 1 1 — — — — 1 5 9 Total … … 7 7 6 4 5 1 1 1 1 14 47 — * Europeans and Anglo-Indians. clusion they are all more or less in the position of the Madras Panchamas, definitely outside that part of the Hindu community which is allowed access to their temples. They amount to about one-fifth of the total population, and have not been represented at all in the Morley-Minto Councils. The committee’s report mentions the depressed classes twice, but only to explain that in the absence of satisfactory electorates they have been provided by nomination. It does not discuss the position of these people or their capacity for looking after themselves. Nor does it explain the amount of nomination which it suggests for them. Para 24 of the report justifies the restriction of the nominated seats on grounds which do not suggest that the committee were referring to the depressed classes. The measures of representation which they propose for this community is as follows :— — Total Population Population of Depressed Classes Total Seats Seats for Depressed Classes (millions) (millions) Madras … … … 39.8 6.3 120 2 Bombay … … 19.5 .6 113 1 Bengal … … … 45.0 9.9 127 1 United Provinces … 47.0 10.1 120 1 Punjab … … … 19.5 1.7 85 — Bihar and Orissa … 32.4 9.3 100 1 Central Provinces … 12.2 3.7 72 1 Assam … … … 6.0 0.3 54 — Total … … 221.4 41.9 791 7

326 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES These figures speak for themselves. It is suggested that onefifth of the entire population of British India should be allotted seven seats out of practically eight hundred. It is true that in all the councils there will be roughly a one-sixth proportion of officials who may be expected to bear in mind the interests of the depressed ; but that arrangement is not, in our opinion, what the Report on reforms aims at. The authors stated that the depressed classes also should learn the lesson of self-protection. It is surely fanciful to hope that this result can be expected from including a single member of the community in an assembly where there are sixty or seventy caste Hindus. To make good the principles of paras 151, 152, 154 and 155 of the Report we must treat the outcastes more generously. We think there should be in each council enough representatives of the depressed classes to save them from being entirely submerged, and at the same time to stimulate some capacity for collective action. In the case of Madras, we suggest that they should be given six seats; in Bengal, the United Provinces and Bihar and Orissa, we would give them four; in the Central Provinces and Bombay two and elsewhere one. In these respects we think that the committee’s report clearly requires modification. * * * (3) Extract from Lord Birkenhead’s speech as Secretary of State for India in the House of Lords on the 30th March 1927 on the appointment of Statutory Commission. * * * …… Let me take the case of the depressed classes. There is in India a vast population even in relation to the numbers with which we are dealing, a population of sixty millions of the depressed classes. Their condition is not quite as terrible, quite as poignant as it has been in the past, but it is still terrible and poignant. They are repelled from all social intercourse. If they come between the gracious light of the sun and one who despised them the sun is disfigured for that man. They cannot drink at the public water-supply. They must make diversions of miles in order to satisfy thirst and they are tragically known and they have been known for generations as the “untouchables.” There are sixty millions of them in India. Am I to have a representative of them upon this Commission ? Never, never would I form a Commission nor would anyone in a democratic country, nor would my friends opposite recommend it, from which you have excluded a member of this class which more than any other requires representation if you are indeed to put the matter to a mixed jury of the kind I am indicating.