Vol. 9 · pages 461–465

432 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Only because he wants to kill, by kindness, them and their movement for separation and independence from Hindus. The Harijan Sevak Sangh is one of the many techniques which has enabled Mr. Gandhi to be a successful humbug. Turn to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He draws his inspiration from the Jeffersonian Declaration; but has he ever expressed any shame or any remorse about the condition of the 60 millions of Untouchables ? Has he anywhere referred to them in the torrent of literature which comes out from his pen ? Go to the youth of India, if you want. The youths who fill the Universities and who follow the Pandit’s lead are ever ready to fight the political battle of India against the British. But what do these children of the leisured class Hindus have done to redress the wrongs their forefathers have done to the Untouchables ? You can get thousands of Hindu youths to join political propaganda but you canot get one single youth to take up the cause of breaking the caste system or of removing Untouchability. Democracy and democratic life, justice and conscience which are sustained by a belief in democratic principle are foreign to the Hindu mind. To leave democracy and freedom in such Tory hands would be the greatest mistake democrats could commit. It is therefore very necessary for the American friends of the Hindus to ask Mr. Gandhi and the Hindus to declare their War aims, so that they may be sure that the fight of the Hindus against British is really and truly a fight for freedom. The Congress and the Hindus will no doubt refer their inquiring foreign friends to the Congress Resolutions regarding minority rights. But I would like to warn the American friends of the Hindus not to be content with the “glittering generalities” contained in congress declaration of Minority Rights. To declare the rights of the minority is one thing and to have them implemented is another. And why should the friends of the Hindus if they are really friends of freedom, not insist on implementation straight away ? Arc not the Hindus saying that they would not be satisfied with mere declaration of freedom from the British ? Are they not asking for immediate implementation ? If they want the Brittish to implement their War aims, why should the Hindus be not prepared to implement their war aims ? American friends of the Hindus, I am sure, will not be misled by the Hindu propaganda that this war of the Hindus against the British is a War for freedom. Before helping the Hindus they

433 MR. GANDHI AND THE EMANCIPATION OF THE UNTOUCHABLES : SOME QUESTIONS TO THE HINDUS AND THEIR FRIENDS must get themselves satisfied that the Hindus who are urging that their war against the British is a war for freedom will not turn out to be the enemies of the freedom of millions of Indians like the Untouchables. That is the plea I am making on behalf of the 60 millions of the Untouchables of India. And above all let not the American friends think that checks and balances in a Constitution–the demand for checks and balances suited to Indian conditions–are not necessary because the struggle is carried on by a people and is carried on in the name of freedom. Friends of democracy and freedom cannot afford to forget the words of John Adams when he said– “We may appeal to every page of history we have hitherto turned over, for proof irrefragable that the people when they have been unchecked, have been as unjust, tyrannical, brutal, barbarous , and cruel as any king or Senate possessed of uncontrollable power : the majority has eternally and without one exception usurped over the rights of the minority.” If all Majorities must be subjected, to checks and balances how much more must it be so in the case of the Hindus ? zzz

American Declaration of National Scheme : 408, 411, 414 Independence : 430 Nazis : 398 Annihilation of Castes : 423 Negroes : 398, 401, 430, 431 Anti-semitism : 378, 397 Nehru, Jawaharlal : 432 Bible : 422 Quit India : 428 Campbell, Bannerman : 418 Parliamentary Government : 409 Carson, Sir Edward : 427 Political Majority : 415-16 Caste system : 423-24 Political Minority : 415-16 Churchill, Sir Winston : 428-29 Class system : 423-24 Recialism : 397 Commission for Scheduled Castes : 404-05 Romans : 401 Communal Scheme : 408, 411, 414, 425 Congress, Indian National : 401-02, 407 Scheduled Castes Conference. at Nagpur : 403, Dicey, Prof. : 415 Demands of : 404 Sikhs: 426 Equality : 428 Separate Electorates : 404, 412-14 Separate Settlements : 419 Fraternity : 428 Serfdom : 401 Freedom, India’s : 401-02 Radicals : 430 Gandhi M. K. : 407, 428-31 Rajgopalachari, Mr. C, : 427 Redmond, Mr. : 427 Harijan Sevak Sangh : 431-32 Hindus : 398, 401-02, 406-07, 410, 415-33 Slaves : 398, 401 Hinduism : 401, 430 Slavery : 401 Hindu Press : 420 Spartans : 401 Hindu Social System : 410 State Committee : 420-21 ‘Statesman’, the : 401 Imperialism : 397, 401-02 Swaraj : 405 Indian Constitution : 425 Institute of International Affairs : 402 Tory: 430 Institute of Public Relation : 397, 402 Untouchables (Scheduled Castes) : 405, 408, Jefferson, Thomas : 430, 432 410-27 Jews: 397,398,401 Political demands of : 403-08 Joint Electorates : 412-14 As separate entity : 403 Separate Settlements of : 405-06 Liberty : 428 Reservations for : 418-19 Untouchability : 401, 418-20 Muslim : 401, 415, 426 Muslim League : 427 Villeinage : 401 Villeins : 401 ‘Nation’ the : 401 Nationalism : 410 Ward, Mr. : 401 INDEX