Vol. 9 · pages 51–55

22 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES mittee is found in the proceedings of the Congress Working Committee held in Bombay in July 1922. At that meeting the Committee passed the following resolution.:— “That the General Secretary be asked to request Swami Shradhanand to reconsider his resignation and withdraw it and a sum of Rs. 500 be remitted to the Convener, Syt. G. B. Deshpande, for the contingent expenses of the Depressed Classes Sub-Committee.” Here the matter ended, so far as the year 1922 was concerned. Nothing further seems to have been done. The year 1923 came on. Seeing that nothing was done to set going the Scheme for ameliorating the condition of the Untouchables, the Working Committee which met also at Gaya in January, 1923 took up the matter and passed the following resolution :— “With reference to Swami Shradhanand’s resignation, resolved that the remaining members of the Depressed Classes Sub-Committee do form the Committee and Mr. Yajnik be the convener.” Thereafter the All-India Congress Committee which met Bombay in May 1923 passed the following resolution :— “Resolved that the question of the condition of the Untouchables be referred to the Working Committee for necessary action.” Here ends the second stage in the history of the resolution remitting the question of the Untouchables to a special Committee. The third stage in its history is marked by the resolution of the Working Committee passed in May 1923 at its meeting held in Bombay. This resolution ran as follows :— “Resolved that while some improvement has been effected in the treatment of the so-called Untouchables in response of the policy of the Congress, this Committee is conscious that much work remained yet to be done in this respect and in as much as this question of untouchability concerns the Hindu community particularly, it requests the All-India Hindu Mahasabha also to take up this matter and to make strenuous efforts to remove this evil from amidst the Hindu Community.” Thus is told the sad tale of the resolution and how it began and how it ended. What shameful close to a flaring start! It will be seen how the Congress washed its hands of the problem of the Untouchables. It need not have added insult

23WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A SHABBY SHOW to injury by relegating it to the Hindu Mahasabha. There could not be a body most unsuited to take up the work of the uplift of the Untouchables than the Hindu Mahasabha. If there is any body which is quite unfit for addressing itself to the problem of the Untouchables, it is the Hindu Mahasabha. It is a militant Hindu organization. Its aim and object is to conserve in every way everything that is Hindu, religious and cultural. It is not a social reform association. It is a purely political organization, whose main object and aim are to combat the influence of the Muslims in Indian politics. Just to preserve its political strength, it wants to maintain its social solidarity, and its way to maintain social solidarity is not to talk about caste or untouchability. How could such a body have been selected by the Congress for carrying on the work of the Untouchables passes my comprehension. This shows that the Congress wanted somehow to get rid of an inconvenient problem and wash its hands of it. The Hindu Mahasabha of course did not come forth to undertake the work for it had no urge for it and also because the Congress had merely passed a pious resolution recommending the work to them without making any promise for financial provision. So the project came to an inglorious and an ignominious end: Before closing this chapter, it would not be unprofitable to ascertain why did the Congress abandon the work of social amelioration of the Untouchables of which it had made so much show ? Was it because the Congress intended that the scheme should be a modest one not costing more than two to five lakhs of rupees but felt that from that point of view they had made a mistake in including Swami Shradhanand in the Committee and rather than allow the Swami to confront them with a huge scheme which the Congress could neither accept nor reject? The Congress thought it better in the first instance to refuse to make him the convener 1 and subsequently to dissolve the Committee and hand over the work to the Hindu Mahasabha. Circumstances are not quite against such a conclusion. The Swami was the greatest and the most sincere champion of the Untouchables. There is not the slightest 1 The fact that the Congress was keen on having Mr. Deshpande as the convener shows that they did not like to leave matters in the hands of Swami Shradhanand. The choice of Mr. Deshpande also indicates that they did not want anything to be done for the simple reason that Mr. Deshpande was an Orthodox Brahmin who had taken no interest in the welfare of the Untouchables.

24 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES doubt that if he had worked on the Committee he would have produced a very big scheme. That the Congress did not want him in the Committee and was afraid that he would make big demand on Congress funds for the cause of the Untouchables is clear from the correspondence 1 that passed between him and Pandit Motilal Nehru, the then General Secretary of the Congress, and which is printed in the Appendix. If this conclusion is right, then it shows how empty of sincerity were the words of the Congress which passed that resolution. Did the Congress abandon the programme because it was revolutionary ? The resolution was in no sense a revolutionary resolution. This will be clear from the note which the Working Committee had appended to the resolution and which the All-India Congress Committee had approved. The note said :— “Whilst therefore in places, where the prejudice against the Untouchables is still strong separate schools and separate wells must be maintained out of Congress funds, every effort should be made to draw such children to national schools and to persuade the people to allow the Untouchables to use the common wells.” Obviously, the Congress was not out for the abolition of Untouchability. It had accepted the policy of separate schools and separate wells. The resolution did no more than to undertake amelioration of the condition of the Untouchables. And even such a timid and mild programme the Congress was unable to carry through and which it gave up without remorse or shame. II Did the Congress abandon the programme because it had no funds ? Quite the contrary. The Congress had started the Tilak Swaraj Fund in 1921. How much money did the Congress collect? The following table will give some idea. Rupees one crore and thirty lakhs were contributed by the public to the fund. The fund was collected to carry out Congress propaganda and to finance the constructive programme of the Congress as drafted by the Working Committee at Bardoli. How was this huge amount spent by the Congress? Some idea as to the purposes on which the money out of this fund was spent can be gathered from the list of grants voted by the Working Committee during the years 1921, 1922 and 1923. 1 Appendix I.

25WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A SHABBY SHOW Table 1 TILAK SWARAJ FUND* RECEIPTS 1921 1922 1923 Total Rs. a. P. Rs. a. P. Rs. a. P. Rs. a. P. General Collections Annexure No. 1 ... 64,31,779 15 10 3,92,430 2 6½ 2,64,288 9 1 70,88,498 11 5½ Specific (ear-marked) Donations or Grants Annexure No. II ... ... 37,32,230 2 10½ 9,45,552 1 4½ 7,10,801 10 3 53,88,583 14 6 1,01,64,010 2 8½ 13,37,982 3 11 9,75,090 3 4 1,24,77,082 9 11½ Add—Miscellaneous Receipts, Interest, Other Funds, Famine, Flood, Pro- vincial Membership, Delegation, Affiliation, etc., for 1921-23 ... ... — — — 5,42,332 5 7½ 1,30,19,415 1,5 7 * The Indian Annual Register —1923, p. 112.

26 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES I. Grants Voted in 1921 1 I. Grants voted by the Working Committee at its meeting held in Calcutta on January 31st and February 1st, 2nd and 3rd 1921 :— 1. Rs. 1,00,000 to remain at the disposal of Mahatma Gandhi for the support of lawyers who give up their practice and stand in need of support ( iv). 2. Read the following telegram dated the 31st January 1921 from Syt. C. Rajagopalachariar :— “Regret unable to attend meeting. Selected full time public workers for Tamil, Kerala part Karnatak about hundred, of whom about forty lawyers suspending practice. Pending collection Tilak Fund sanction drawing Rs. 5,600 per month. Students’ movement progressing rapidly though newspapers do not show up news. Must carry on against parental opposition, least two months. Must draw three thousand per month for this. Committee must immediately wire authority issuing Swarajya Fund receipts in name of Congress for convenient denominations like Khilafat receipts. Confident to make up all advances in three months. Do not hope large sums Madras.” Resolved that a sum of Rs. 8,600 be advanced to Tamil, Kerala and the Karnatak parts of the Madras Presidency for one month for the present, and for future advances the matter be placed before the next meeting of the Working Committee ( xx). II. Grants voted by the Working Committee at its meeting held at Bezwada on the 31st March and 1st April 1921 :— 3. A lump sum of Rs. 6,000 be advanced to Pandit Mohanlal Nehru, Secretary, U.P. Provincial Congress Committee, for carrying on propaganda and collecting funds ( v). “4. Rs. 17,000 be sanctioned for the remainder of the current year for the expenses of the office of the President, the Secretaries, the Cashier, and that out of the above a sum of Rs. 300 per mensem be assigned to Mr. C. Rajagopalachariar for the expenses of his secretary and the President’s stenotypist (vii) . 5. A sum of 1,000 dollars remitted by cable to Mr. D. V. S. Rao of the India Home Rule League of America, 1,400 Broadway, New York ( viii).” III. The Working Committee at its resolution No. 18 dated 31st July 1921 appointed a Grants Sub-Committee to 1 Roman figures in the brackets after each grant refer to the resolution of the Working Committee by which the grant was made.