प्रकरण IX.–परदेशीयांना आवाहन जुलूमशाहीला गुलाम बनवण्याचे स्वातंत्र्य मिळू नये

WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNERS

Table 18 Classification of Congress Members of Provincial Assemblies by Castes Province Brahmins Non-Brahmins Scheduled Castes Not Stated Total Assam ... ... ... ... ... 6 21 1 5 33 Bengal ... ... ... ... ... 15 27 6 6 54 Bihar ... ... ... ... ... 31 39 16 12 98 C.P. ... ... ... ... ... 28 35 7 — 70 Madras ... ... ... ... ... 38 90 26 5 159 Orissa ... ... ... ... ... 11 20 5 — 36 United Provinces ... ... ... 39 54 16 24 133

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

Table 19 Classification of the Congress Members of the Provincial Legislatures in terms of Occupation Province Lawyers Medical Practi- tioners Land- lords Business- men Private Officials Money Lenders Nil Not Stated Total Assam ... ... ... 16 2 2 1 — — 3 9 33 Bengal ... ... ... 9 2 16 5 2 — 16 4 54 Bihar ... ... ... 14 4 56 6 3 — 1 14 98 Central Provinces ... 20 2 25 10 — — 8 5 70 Madras ... ... ... 52 2 45 18 2 1 3 36 159 Orissa ... ... ... 8 1 17 4 4 1 1 — 36

WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNERS

Table 20 Composition of the Cabinds in the Congress Provinces* Province Total No. of Cabinet Ministers Total No. of Non-Hindu Ministers Hindu Ministers in the Cabinet Prime Minister Total Brahmins Non Brahmins Scheduled Castes Assam ... ... ... ... 8 3 5 ? ? Nil Brahmin Bihar ... ... ... ... 4 1 3 ? ? 1 Brahmin Bombay ... ... ... ... 7 2 5 3 2 Nil Brahmin Central Provinces ... ... ... 5 1 4 3 1 Nil Brahmin Madras ... ... ... ... 9 2 7 3 3 1 Brahmin Orissa ... ... ... ... 3 Nil 3 ? ? ? ?

United Provinces ... ... 6 2 4 4 Nil Nil Brahmin

*This table represents the position as it stood in May 1939 and as reported in the Issue of July 15, 1939 of the Indian Information. Question mark indicates inability to classify whether Brahmin or non-Brahmin.

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

did unless they see the facts. The fact is that the Congress High Command in selecting a candidate had a definite policy namely in the case of Brahmins, to give preference to a candidate who had the highest educational qualifications and in the case of the Non-Brahmins and the Scheduled Castes, to give preference to a candidate who had the lowest educational qualification. Let those who have any doubts in the matter consider the facts summarized in Table 22 (see page 224.) It is obvious that in the case of the Brahmins the relative proportion of graduates to non-graduates is far higher than what it is in the case of the Non-Brahmins and the Scheduled Castes. The difference in terms of graduates and non-graduates does not really reveal the correct situation. To put it correctly, the Brahmin graduates were seasoned politicians of high repute while the Non-Brahmin graduates were raw graduates with the career of second class politicians to recommend them. Why did the Congress select the best educated Brahmms as its candidates for election ? Why did the Congress select the least educated Non-Brahmins and Scheduled Castes as its candidates for election ? To this question I can see only one answer. It was to prevent the Non-Brahmins in the Congress from forming a ministry. The Congress seems to have deliberately preferred an uneducated Non-Brahmin to an educated one because from the point of view of the governing class, the uneducated Non-Brahmin has two definite advantages over an educated non-Brahmin. In the first place, he is likely to be more grateful to the Congress High Command for having got him elected than an educated Non-Brahmin is likely to be, and would not be ready to revolt against the Congress Ministry, formed by the governing classes, by joining hands with the educated Non-Brahmins in the Congress Party should the latter aspire to form a government of their own against the government of the governing classes. In the second place, if more undergraduates or more raw Non-Brahmin graduates were selected, it was with the purpose to prevent the Non-Brahmins in the Congress from forming a competent and alternative Ministry to the detriment of the governing class. The Non-Brahmins in the Congress do not know how the Congress has deceived them, and how in drawing them inside the Congress, the Congress was making a concealed attempt to permanently entrench the governing classes in places of power and authority.

WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNERS

Table 21 Classification of Parliamentary Secretaries in Congress Provinces* Province Total No. of Parliamentary Secretaries Total No. of Non-Hindu Parliamentary Secretaries Hindu Parliamentary Secretaries Total Brahmins Non-Brahmins Scheduled Castes Assam ... ... ... ... Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Bihar ... ... ... ... 8 Nil 8 2 5 1 Bombay ... ... ... ... 6 Nil 6 1 5 Nil Central Provinces ... ... Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Madras ... ... ... ... 8 1 7 3 4 1 Grissa ... ... ... ... 3 Nil 3 ? ? Nil United Provinces ... ... ... 12 1 11 2 8 1

*Compiled from Indian Information Issue of July 15, 1939. Question mark indicates inability to classify whether Brahmin or non-Brahmin.

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

Table 22 Classification of Brahmin and Non-Brahmin Congress Partymen by Literacy Provincial Assemblies Castes Total Graduates Non-Graduates Matriculates Illiterates Not stated Assam ... ... Brahmin ... ... ... 6 5 1 — — — Non-Brahmin ... ... 21 15 2 — 1 9 Brahmin ... ... ... 15 14 1 — — — Bengal ... ... Non-Brahmin ... ... 27 21 4 — 1 7 (Scheduled Castes ... ... 6 3 — 1 2 — Brahmin ... ... ... 31 11 5 8 4 3 Bihar ... ... Non-Brahmin ... ... 39 23 4 3 8 13 Scheduled Castes ... ... — 1 1 4 10 — Brahmins ... ... ... 39 15 — 2 9 2 Central Province ... Non-Brahmin ... ... 54 15 — 2 17 1 Scheduled Castes ... ... — 1 — — 6 — Brahmins ... ... ... 38 16 2 3 4 13 Madras ... ... Non-Brahmins ... ... 90 31 3 1 7 61 Scheduled Castes ... ... 26 1 1 1 14 — Backward Class ... ... — 1 — — — — Brahmins ... ... ... 11 6 1 — 3 1 Orissa ... ... Non-Brahmins ... ... 20 7 3 2 7 1 Scheduled Castes ... ... 5 — — — 5 —

WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNERS

VI It would be instructive to compare the attitude of the governing class in India with the attitude taken by the governing class in other countries in times of national crisis such as we are passing through in India today. In France, when the Revolution broke out and demanded equality the governing class in France voluntarily came forward to give up its powers and its privileges and to merge itself in the mass of the nation. This is clear from what happened when the States General called. The Commons got 600 representatives while the clergy and the Nobles got 800 each. The question arose how were the 1,200 members to sit, debate and vote. The Commons insisted upon the union of all the three estates in one Chamber and ‘vote by head.’ It was impossible to expect the clergy and the Nobles to accept this position. For it meant the surrender of their most ancient and valuable privileges. Yet a good part of them agreed to the demand of the Commons and gave France a constitution based upon liberty, equality and fraternity.

The attitude of the governing classes in Japan during the period between 1855 to 1870—a period in which the Japanese people were transformed from a feudal society into a modern nation—was even more patriotic than the attitude of the governing classes in France. As students of Japanese history 1 know, there were four classes in Japanese Society (1) The Damiyos, (2) The Samurai, (8) The Hemin or the Common folk and (4) The Eta or the outcastes standing one above the other in an order of graded inequality. At the bottom were the Eta numbering a good many thousands. Above the Eta were the Hemin numbering about 25/83 millions. Over them were the Samurai who numbered about 2 millions and who had the power of life and death over the Hemin. At the apex were the Damiyos or the Feudal Barons who exercised sway over the rest of the three classes and who numbered only 300. The Damiyos and the Samurai realized that it was impossible to transform this feudal society with its class composition and class rights into a modem nation with equality of citizenship. Accordingly the Damiyos charged with the spirit of nationalism and anxious not to stand in the way of national unity, came forward to surrender their privileges and to merge themselves 1 See Romance of Japan by James A.B. Scherer.

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

in the common mass of people. In a memorial submitted to the Emperor on the 5th March 1869 they said: 1 “The Place where we live is the Emperor’s land. The food that we eat is grown by the Emperor’s men. How then can we claim any property as our own ? We now reverently offer up our possessions and also our followers (Samurai as well as ‘common folk’) with the prayer that the Emperor will take good measures for rewarding those to whom reward is due, and for fining such as do not deserve reward. Let imperial orders be issued for altering and remodelling the territories of the various clans. Let the civil and penal codes, the military laws down to the rules, for uniforms and for the construction of engines of war, all proceed from the Emperor. Let all affairs of the Empire, both great and small, be referred to him.”

How does the governing class in India compare in this behalf with the governing class in Japan ? Just the opposite. The governing class in India has no such intention of making any sacrifice on the altar of Indian Freedom. Instead of surrendering its privileges in the name of nationalism, the governing class in India is using or misusing the slogan of nationalism to maintain its privileges. Whenever the servile classes ask for reservations in the Legislatures, in the Executive and in public services, the governing class raises the cry of ‘nationalism in danger.’ People are told that if we are to achieve national freedom, we must maintain national unity, that all questions regarding reservations in the Legislatures, Executives and the public services are inimical to national unity and therefore for anyone interested in national freedom it is a sin to stand out for such reservations and create dissensions. That is the attitude of the governing class. It stands in glaring contrast with that of the governing class in Japan. Far from sacrificing its privileges for nationalism, it is exploiting nationalism to preserve them.

The governing class in India does not merely refuse to surrender its power and authority; it never loses an opportunity to pour ridicule on the political demands of the servile classes. Some2 members of the governing classes have gone to the 1 lbid, p. 233.

2 The parody written by Dr. R.P. Paranjpe appeared in a magazine called Gujarathi Punch for May 1926 under the heading “A Peep into the Future.” As a specimen of this class of writing by members of the governing class it is worth perusal. It is a satire based on certain incidents which are imagined to

WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNERS

length of composing lampoons and parodies in order to make the demand of the servile classes appear absurd and ridiculous. The most colourful of such parodies was the one written by Dr. R. P. Paranjpe, new Indian High Commissioner for Australia. It is difficult to understand how so advanced a Liberal like Dr. Paranjpe should entertain such views.

have occurred under the principle of communal reservations. As the magazine is not easily available, I reproduce it below :— ‘A PEEP I NTO THE F UTURE’

The following extracts are taken from reports of Commissions, records of police courts cases, judicial trials, Council Proceedings, Administration Reports, etc., issued between the year 1930-50 and are published for the exclusive benefit of the readers of the Gujarati Punch.

I Report of the Royal Commission on the Government of India, 1930 : We have given our closest consideration to the representations made on behalf of several communities in India. Taking the figures of the last Census as our basis we can only give an approximate satisfaction to all the claims made before us, for it is not possible to give an absolutely accurate solution to the problem of constructing a machinery of Government unless every single person in the country is made a member thereof, as the numbers of the several communities do not possess a common measure. We lay down the number 2375 as the fundamental number in the constitution and this number is divided into parts attached to the several communities as shown in the schedule attached to our report. The claims of each community will henceforward be represented by its proper number, and all appointments, memberships of various bodies, and in fact everything in the country will be awarded according to the proportion given in the schedule wherever possible. The Viceroy’s Executive Council will consist of 475 members selected as far as may be according to one-fifth the numbers belonging to each community and three members will hold office for one year so that each community will have attained its exact share of membership in five years. There will be 125 Judges in each High Court, each judge holding office for one year, though according to this arrangement, each section will have obtained its exact share only after the lapse of 19 years. The number of other kinds of appointments will be determined on the same basis for the accurate adjustment of all claims. To allow for the proper functioning of all bodies with these numbers as many existing Government buildings as may be necessary may be pulled down and rebuilt so as to be of the proper size.

II (Notification of the Government of India, 1932 )

In accordance with the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1931, His Majesty the King Emperor has been pleased to appoint the following 475 gentlemen as members of the Executive Council of the Governor General:

267. Matadin Bamdin (caste Barber) member in charge of the Surgical Branch of the Medical Department.

372. Allabux Peerbux (Mahomedan Camel driver) in charge of the camel transport division of the Army Department.

433. Bamaswamy (caste, Andhra Sweeper) in charge of the road cleaning branch of the P.W.D.

437. Jagannath Bhattacharya (Kulin Brahmin Priest) in charge of the domestic section of the Registration Department.

* * *

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

These lampoons and parodies give the impression that the members of the servile classes are perverse if not idiotic in making such demands and the governing classes in opposing the demands of the servile classes are seeking to maintain in India an efficient body politic by insisting that every place of power and authority should be filled by none but the best IV (Letter to all Local Governments, 1934 )

In response to a resolution passed by the Legislative Assembly, with which the Government of India are in full agreement, I am directed to say that henceforward every appointment under Government should go by rotation to each community irrespective of the merits of the applicants.

V (Notification in the Bombay Government Gazette, 1934 )

The Government of Bombay will proceed to make the following appointments in December. The applicants for the several appointments should belong to the castes mentioned against each according to the rotation fixed by Government Order No. ... dated November 30th, 1934.

1. Chief Engineer for Irrigation (Sind) : Kunbi from North Kanara.

2. Professor of Sanskrit, Elphinstone College, Bombay : Baluchi Pathan from Sind.

3. Commandant of His Excellency’s Bodyguard: Marwari from North Gujarat.

4. Consulting Architect to Government: Wadari (wandering gypsy) from the Deccan.

5. Director of Islamic culture : Karhada Brahmin.

6. Professor of Anatomy : (Grant Medical College) Mahomedan Butcher.

7. Superintendent of Yeravda Jail: Ghantichor.

8. Two organizers of prohibition : Dharala (Kaira District Bhil) (Panch Mahals).

VI (Report of a Case from the High Court, 1935 )

A.B. (caste Teli) was charged with the cold- blooded murder of his father while he was asleep. The judge summing up against the accused, the jury brought in a verdict of guilty. Before passing sentence the judge asked the pleader for the accused if he had to say anything. The pleader, Mr. Bomanji, said he agreed with the verdict but that according to Law the accused could not be sentenced at all, much less sentenced to death, as during the current year seven Telia had already been convicted and sentenced two of them with death, that several other communities had not yet reached their quota of convictions as given in the Government of India Act, while the Telia had already reached theirs. His Lordship accepted the contention of the defence pleader and acquitted the accused. VII (Extract from the ‘Indian Daily Mail’, 1936 )

Annaji Ramchandra (Chitpavan Brahmin) was found wandering in the streets of Poona with a long knife attacking whomsoever he met. When brought up before the Magistrate he was shown by the police to have been recently let off from the Mental Hospital. The Superintendent of the Hospital in his evidence said that Annaji had been in the hospital as a dangerous insane for three years, but as there was the quota for the Chitpavanas and as the inmates belonging to other communities had not finished their year-quotas he could not keep

WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNERS

man available. Nobody will have any quarrel with the abstract principle that nothing should be done whereby the best shall be superseded by one who is only better and the better by one who is merely good and the good by one who is bad. But the argument completely fails to carry conviction when in practice one finds that having regard to the historical circumstances of India every time the ‘best man’ is chosen he turns out to be a man from the governing class. This may be alright from the point of view of the governing class. But can it be alright from the point of view of the servile class ? Could ‘best’ German be the ‘best’ for the French ? Could the ‘best’ Turk be ‘best’ for the Greeks ? Could the ‘best’ Pole be regarded him any longer and show any special favouritism to the Chitpavans and he had therefore let him off according to Government Order No. ... in the Medical Department. The Magistrate ordered Annaji to be discharged. VIII (Extract from the Report of the Administration of Jails in the Bombay Presidency, 1937)

In spite of every precaution the numbers in the jails did not correspond to the quotas fixed for each community. The Superintendent had already asked for instructions from Government with a view to remedying the discrepancy. Resolution of Government: Government view with serious displeasure this grave dereliction of duty on the part of the I.G. of prisons. Immediate steps should be taken to arrest and put in jail as many members of the various communities as are required to bring their quotas up to the proper level. If enough persons required cannot be caught, a sufficient number of inmates should be let off to bring down all to the same level.

IX (Proceedings of the Legislative Council, 1940 )

Mr. Chennappa asked: Has the attention of Government been called to the fact that class list of the recent M.A. Examination in Pali do not show the proper quota for mang-garudis ?

The Hon. Mr. Damu Shroff (Minister of Education) : The University Registrar reports that no candidate from among Mang-garudis offered himself for examination. Mr. Chennappa : Will Government be pleased to stop this examination until such a candidate offers himself and if the University disobeys the order of Government to take away the University grant and amend the University Act ? The Hon. Member: Government will be pleased to consider the suggestion favourably. (Cheers).

X (Extract from ‘The Times of India,’ 1942 )

The Coroner Mr. ..... was suddenly called last evening to inquire into the death of Ramji Sonu at the J.J. Hospital as the result of a surgical operation. Dr. Tanu Pandav (Caste Barber) deposed that he had conducted the operation. He wished to open an abscess in the abdomen but his knife pierced the heart and the patient expired. Asked whether he had ever carried out any operation of this nature before, he said that he was appointed as the principal surgeon to the hospital only one day before as it was then the turn of his community and that he had never held a surgical instrument in his hand before except a razor for shaving. The jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure.

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

‘best’ by the Jews ? There can hardly be any doubt as to the correct answer to these questions. Class qualifications can never be ignored. Man is not a mere machine. He is a human being with feelings of sympathy for some and antipathy for others. This is even true of the ‘best’ man. He too is charged with the feelings of class sympathies and class antipathies. Having regard to these considerations the ‘best’ man from the governing class may well turn out to be the worst from the point of view of the servile classes. The difference between the governing classes and the servile classes in the matter of their attitudes towards each other is the same as the attitude a person of one nation has for that of another nation. Persons of the governing class in parodying the demands of the servile classes seem to forget that the difference between the governing class and the servile class in India is of the same nature as the difference between French and Germans, Turks and Greeks or Poles and Jews and the reasons why one will not tolerate the government of the other although it may be of the ‘best’ men are the same in both cases.

The governing class in their attempt to ridicule the demand also forget by what means it has built up their power. Let them refer to their own Manu Smriti and they will find that the ways they got their power were very much the same as the imaginary resolutions suggested by Dr. Paranjpe. A reference to Manu Smriti will show that the view that Brahmins, the chief and the leading element in the governing class, acquired their political power not by force of intellect—intellect is nobody’s monopoly—but by sheer communalism. According to the Laws Manu Smriti the post of the Purohit, King’s Chaplain and Lord Chancellor, the posts of the Chief Justice and Judges of the High Court and the posts of Ministers to the Crown were all reserved for the Brahmins. Even for the post of the Commander-in-Chief the Brahmin was recommended as a fit and a proper person though it was not in terms reserved for him. All the strategic posts having been reserved for the Brahmins it goes without saying that all ministerial posts came to be reserved for the Brahmins. This is not all. The Brahmin was not content with reserving places of profit and power for his class. He knew that mere reservation will not do. He must prevent rivals shooting up from other nonBrahmin communities equally qualified to hold the posts

WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNERS

and agitate and blow up the system of reservations. In addition to reserving all executive posts in the State for Brahmins a law was made whereby education was made the monopoly and privilege of Brahmins. As has already been pointed out the law made it a crime for the Shudra, i.e. the lower orders of Hindu Society to acquire learning, the infringement of which was followed by not only heavy but cruel and inhuman punishment such as cutting the tongue of the criminal and filling his ear with hot molten lead. Congressmen cannot escape by saying that these privileges no longer exist. They must admit that while the privileges have gone the advantages derived from their continuance over several centuries have remained. Nor can Congressmen honestly turn down the demands of the servile classes as Communalism knowing full well that a worst form of communalism had been the recognized means adopted by the Brahmins for acquiring power and that if the servile classes are to-day driven to ask for safeguards it is because the Brahmins in order to maintain their privileges passed laws which made it a crime for them to acquire learning or property. Surely what the servile classes are demanding is not half so bad as was done by the Brahmins for their own aggrandisement and for the perpetuation of their own domination.

In the light of what has been said, it will be found that the Fight for Freedom led by the governing class is, from the point of view of the servile classes, a selfish, if not a sham, struggle. The freedom which the governing class in India is struggling for is freedom to rule the servile classes. What it wants is the freedom for the master race to rule the subject race which is nothing but the Nazi or Nietchian doctrine of freedom for superman to rule the common man.

VIII

The foreigner who wishes to know the what and wherefor of Indian politics and desires to make a contribution to the solution of the problems arising out of it must know the basic considerations which lie behind Indian politics. If he fails to have a full grasp of them he is bound to be at sea and cannot but be the sport of a party which may happen to capture him or captivate him. These basic considerations of Indian politics are : (1) The philosophy and outlook of the governing class in

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

relation to the servile classes (2) The relation of the governing class to the Congress and (3) The raison d’etre of the political demands of the servile classes for constitutional safeguards. Regarding the first enough has been said to enable the foreigner to form his own opinion. The thesis I have endeavoured to present and to support with facts and arguments may be simply stated. It maintains that the only way to ensure that a sovereign and independent India will be a different India in which there will be no servile class doing duty to the governing class, is to frame a constitution which will by proper safeguards, circumscribe the power of the governing class to capture government and to put a limit upon its predatory powers. This is what the Untouchables are urging and this is what the Congress is opposing. The whole controversy between the Congress and the Untouchables centres round the question of constitutional safeguards. The issue is : Is the constitution of India to be with safeguards or without safeguards for the Scheduled Castes? The foreigner does not realize this to be the issue nor does he realize that the alleged representative character of the Congress is absolutely irrelevant to the issue. The Congress may be a representative body but that has nothing to do with the decision of the issue, whether the constitution of India should or should not contain any safeguards for the Scheduled Castes. For the decision of this issue, the representative character of the Congress is beside the point. The decision can rest only on the basis of needs and the question that will be relevant is: Do the Scheduled Castes need the safeguards they have been asking for? The foreigner is not justified in supporting the Congress as against the Scheduled Castes on the ground that the Congress is a representative body. The foreigner is, of course, justified in asking the Scheduled Castes to prove their case for safeguards. He is even justified in saying that the existence of a governing class is not enough and that they must further prove something that the governing class in India is so vile, so wicked, so entrenched that it will not yield to the forces of adult suffrage. Such a stand it is proper to take and the Scheduled Classes are prepared to face it. For, beyond doubt, the governing class in India does occupy a different position in India than it does in other countries of the world. In other countries, there is, at the most, a hyphen between the governing class and the rest. In India, there is a

WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNERS

bar between the two. A hyphen is only separation ; but a bar is a severance with interests and sympathies completely divided. In other countries, there is a continuous replenishment of the governing class by the incorporation of others who do not belong to it but who have reached the same elevation as the governing class. In India, the governing class is a close corporation in which nobody, not born in it, is admitted. This distinction is very important. In the case where the governing class is a close corporation, tradition, social philosophy and social outlook remain unbroken and the distinction between masters and slaves, between privileged and unprivileged continues hard in substance and fast in colour. On the other hand, where the governing class is not a close preserve, where there is social endosmosis between it and the rest, there is a mental assimilation which makes the governing class more flexible, its philosophy less anti-social. On realizing the truth behind these distinctions, a foreigner should be able to see that mere adult suffrage while it may suffice to hold the governing class in check in other countries, cannot have, in India, that effect and that consequently those parties in India like the Untouchables who are advocating additional safeguards in the constitution, are more worthy of Support for their anxiety to make free India safe for democracy, than the Congress which opposes such safeguards and which aims to place free India in the hands of a governing class.

The facts bearing on the second consideration have also been fully set out. From these facts he should be able to see how intimate is the connection between the Congress and the governing class. They will explain why the governing class in India has placed itself in the vanguard of the Congress movement and why it strives to bring everybody within the Congress fold. To put it briefly the governing class is aware that a political campaign based on class ideology, class interests, class issues and class conflicts will toll its death knell. It knows that the most effective way of sidetracking the servile classes and fooling them is to play upon the sentiment of nationalism and national unity and realizes that the Congress platform is the only platform that can most effectively safeguard the interest of the governing class. For if there is any platform from which all talk of conflict between rich and poor, Brahmin and Non-Brahmin, landlord and tenant, creditor and debtor which does not suit the governing class, can be

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

effectually banned it is the Congress platform which is not only bound to preach nationalism and national unity which is what the governing classes want and on which their safety entirely depends, but which prohibits any other ideology inconsistent with nationalism being preached from its platform.

If these two considerations are grasped, the foreigner will not find it difficult to understand the third namely the raison d’etre of the political demands of the servile classes. The reservations demanded by the servile classes are really controls over the power of the governing classes. Even in European countries there is a demand for controls over the powers of certain classes of society. There is control on producers, distributors, money-lenders and landlords. If the necessity for controls over the power of certain classes is admitted in countries where there is much greater degree of homogeneity and identity of interests than there exists in India, a foreigner should not find it difficult to appreciate. The reservations do no more than correlate the constitution to the social institutions of the country in order to prevent political power to fall into the hands of the Governing class.

After so much of explanation of facts and arguments I do not think it will be difficult for the foreigner at least to believe that there is another side to the Congress propaganda, if he is not prepared to agree with the point of view herein presented. It would indeed be a sad commentary on the character and intelligence of a foreigner who even after his having gone through the facts and figures given above was not able to cultivate a cool and a dispassionate attitude towards those who do not share the Congress point of view.

IX There is a tragic side to the foreigner’s view of Indian politics to which it is impossible not to make a reference. The foreigners who take interest in Indian politics fall into three groups. The first group is aware of the social cleavages which rend Indian politics, cleavages of majorities and minorities, Hindus and Untouchables and so on. Their main object is not to solve these cleavages by appropriate constitutional safeguards and to open the way to constitutional advancement of India but to use these cleavages to block constitutional progress. The second group of foreigners are those who pay no attention

WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNERS

to the cleavages, who care a button what happens to the minorities and to the Untouchables. They are out to support the Congress demand and would fulfil it without bothering about safeguards. The third group consists of tourists who come ‘to do’ India and learn about its politics if possible overnight. All three are dangerous people. But the third group is the most dangerous from the point of view of the ultimate interest of the Indian people.

That there should be foreigners of the tourist sort who cannot understand the intricacies of Indian politics and who therefore support the Congress on no other ground except that which Mr. Pickwick gave to Sam Weller—to shout with the biggest crowd—is quite understandable. But what annoys most is the attitude of the leaders of the British Labour Party, heads of radical and leftist groups in Europe and America, represented by men like Laski, Kingsley Martin, Brailsford and editors of journals like the Nation in America, and the New Statesman in England championing the cause of the oppressed and the suppressed people. How can these men support the Congress passes one’s comprehension. Do they not know that the Congress means the governing class and that the governing class means the Congress : Do they not know that the governing class in India is a Brahmin-Bania combine ? That masses are drawn in the Congress only to be camp followers with no say in the making of Congress policy ? Do they not realize that for the reasons for which the Sultan could not abolish Islam or the Pope could not repudiate Catholicism, the governing class in India will not decree the destruction of Brahmanism and that so long as the governing class remains what it is, Brahmanism which preaches the supremacy of Brahmans and the allied castes and which recognises the suppression and degradation of the Shudras and the Untouchables as the sacred duty of the State will continue to be the philosophy of the State even if India became free ? Do they not know that this governing class in India is not a part of the Indian people, is not only completely isolated from them, but believes in isolating itself, lest it should be contaminated by them, has implanted in its mind by reason of the Brahmanic philosophy, motives and interests which are hostile to those who are outside its fold and therefore does not sympathise with the living forces operating in the servile masses whom it has trodden down, is not. charged with their wants, their pains, their

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

cravings, their desires, is inimical to their aspirations, does not favour any advance in their education, promotion to high office and disfavours every movement calculated to raise their dignity and their self-respect ? Do they not know that in the Swaraj of India is involved the fate of 60 millions of Untouchables ? It would be impossible to say that the leaders of the British Labour Party, that Kingsley Martin, Brailsford and Laski whose writings on liberty and democracy are a source of inspiration to all suppressed people, do not know these facts. Yet if they refer to India, it is always to support the Congress. It is very, very seldom that they are found to discuss the problem of the Untouchables which ought to make the strongest appeal to all radicals and democrats. Their exclusive attention to Congress activities and their utter neglect of other elements in the national life of India shows how misguided they have been. One could well understand their support to the Congress if the Congress was fighting for political democracy. But is it ? As every one knows, the Congress is only fighting for national liberty and is not interested in political democracy. The party in India who is fighting for political democracy is the party of the Untouchables who fear that this Congress fight for liberty, if it succeeds, will mean liberty to the strong and the powerful to suppress the weak and the down-trodden unless they are protected by constitutional safeguards. It is they who ought to receive the help of these radical leaders. But the Untouchables have been waiting in vain for all these years even for a gesture of good-will and support from them. These radicals and leftists in Europe and America have not even cared to know the forces behind the Congress. Ignorant or unmindful one does not know, but the fact remains that these leftists and radical leaders have been giving blind and unquestioning support to the Congress which admittedly is run by capitalists, landlords, moneylenders and reactionaries, only because the Congress calls its activities by the grandiloquent name of “Fight for Freedom.” All battles for freedom are not on equal moral plane for the simple reason that the motives and purposes behind these battles of freedom are not always the same. To take only a few illustrations from English History. The Barons’ Rebellion against John which resulted in the Magna Charta could be called a battle for freedom. But could any democrat in modern times give it the same support which he would give—say to the

WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNERS

Levellers’ Rebellion or to the Peasant’s Revolt in English History, merely because it could logically be described as a battle for freedom ? To do so will be to respond to a false cry of freedom. Such crude conduct would have been forgivable, had it proceeded from groups not intelligent enough to make a distinction between freedom to live and freedom to oppress. But it is quite inexcusable in radical and leftist groups led by Messrs. Laski, Kingsley Martin, Brailsford, Louis Fisher and other well-known champions of democracy. When pressed to explain why they don’t support Indian Parties which stand for true democracy, they are reported to meet the charge by a counter question. Are there any such parties in India ? Insist that there are such parties and they turn round and say : if such parties exist, how is it the Press does not report their activities ? When told that the Press is a Congress Press, they retort : how is it that the foreign correspondents of the English Papers do not report them ? I have shown why nothing better can be expected from these foreign correspondents. The Foreign Press Agency in India is no better than the Indian Press. Indeed it cannot be better. There are in India what are called foreign correspondents. In a large majority of cases they are Indians. Only a very few are foreigners. The selection of Indians as foreign correspondents is so made that they are almost always from the Congress camp. The foreign correspondents who are foreigners fall into two groups. If they are Americans they are just Anti-British and for that reason pro-Congress. Any political party in India which is not madly Anti-British does not interest them. Those who are not in the Congress will testify how hard it was for them to persuade the American War Correspondents who trooped into this country in 1941-42, even to entertain the possibility of the Congress not being the only party, much less to induce them to interest themselves in other political parties. It took a long time before they recovered their sanity and when they did, they either abused the Congress as an organization led by impossible men or just lost interest in Indian politics. They never got interested in other political parties in India and never cared to understand their point of view. The situation is no better in the case of foreign correspondents who are Britishers. They too are interested only in that kind of politics which is first and foremost Anti-British. They are uninterested in those political parties in India whose foremost

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

concern is to make a free India safe for democracy. The result is that the foreign press provides the same kind of news about Indian politics as does the Indian Press. These reasons cannot be beyond the ken of these radicals. Correspondents or no correspondents, is it not the duty of radicals to keep in touch with their kindred in other parts of the world to encourage them, to help them and to see that true democracy lives everywhere ? It is a most unfortunate thing that the Radicals of England and America should have forgotten the class to whom they owe a duty to help and have become the publicity agents of Indian Tories who are just misusing the slogan of liberty to befool and befog the world. The sooner they get out of this fog created by the Congress and realize that democracy and self-government in India cannot be real unless freedom has become the assured possession of all, the better for them and the better for the people of India. But if they persist in giving their blind support to the Congress on the basis of an empty slogan without examining its relation to facts and intentions, I for one will have no hesitation in saying that far from being the friends of India they are a positive menace to the freedom of the Indian masses. It is a pity that they do not seem to distinguish the case of a tyrant who is held down and who pleads for liberty because he wants to regain his right to oppress and the case of an oppressed class seeking to be free from the oppression of the tyrant. In their hurry to bring freedom to India they have no time to realize that by siding with the Congress what they are doing is not to make India safe for democracy but to free the tyrant to practise his tyrannies. Is it necessary to tell them that to support Congress is to let tyranny have freedom to enslave ?

zz