जोडपत्राविषयी टीप (संपादकाने जोडलेली)

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

Table 20 Classification of the Congress Members of the Provincial Legislatures in terms of Occupation Province Lawyers Medical Practiti- oners 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

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

Table 21 Composition of the Cabinets 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 ? ? ? Brahmin United Provinces … … 6 2 4 4 Nil Nil Brahmin

* This table represent 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.

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

Table 22 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 9 3 4 1 Orissa … … … … 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

the Cabinet. In all the Hindu Provinces, the Prime Ministers were Brahmins. In all Hindu provinces, if the non-Hindu ministers were excluded, the majority of ministers were Brahmins and even parliamentary secretaries were Brahmins. What has been said so far makes two things as clear as daylight. First is that there is in India a well defined governing class, distinct and separate from the servile class. Second is that the governing class is so powerful that though small in number in the elections of 1937 it quite easily captured political power and established its supremacy over the servile classes. There remains only one more point for me to establish to be able to put my thesis across. It is to show how far Congress was responsible for the victory of the governing class in the elections of 1937. I know I must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Congress is responsible for placing the governing class in the position of supremacy over the servile class. For it might be said that the Congress had nothing to do with this, that even if the Congress was responsible for it the result was an accident and that there was no intention on the part of the Congress to help the governing classes to win this position of supremacy.

V The first line of these suggested defences can be easily disposed of. It is probable that those who raise this defence do not know the political colour of the province to which the figures given in Tables 19, 20, 21 and 22 relate. If they knew it they would give up this line of defence. For they relate to what are called the Congress Provinces. In these provinces the majority party was the Congress Party and the Cabinets were Congress Cabinets. Obviously, if in these Congress provinces the governing classes succeeded in establishing their rule over the servile classes it is difficult to see how the Congress could be absolved from responsibility for such a result. The Congress is a well disciplined party. It had a plan for fighting the elections. In every province there was established a Parliamentary Board, the functions of which were (1) to choose candidates for elections, (2) to decide upon the formation of Cabinets, and (3) to control the actions of ministers. Over and above these Provincial Parliamentary

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

Boards there was a Central Parliamentary Board to superintend and control the work of the Provincial Parliamentary Boards. It was an election which was planned and controlled by the Congress. It is therefore futile to argue that if the governing classes captured power in the elections of 1937 in the Congress Provinces the Congress is not responsible for the result. The second line of defence is as fragile as the first. Those who wish to argue that the dominance of the governing class in the Congress provinces is accidental and not intentional should know that they are advancing an argument which will not stand. I would invite the attention of those who are inclined to treat it as an accident to consider the following circumstances. First let them consider the mentality of the leading members of the Congress High Command who have guided the destiny of the Congress in the past and who are at present running the affairs of the Congress. It would be well to begin with Mr. Tilak. He is dead. But while he was alive he was the most leading man in the Congress and exercised the greatest sway over it. Mr. Tilak was a Brahmin and belonged to the governing class. Though he had acquired the reputation of being the father of the Swaraj movement his antipathy to the servile classes was quite well known. For want of space I will cite only one instance of his mentality towards the servile classes. In 1918, when the non-Brahmins and the Backward classes had started an agitation for separate representation in the legislature, Mr. Tilak in a public meeting held in Sholapur said that he did not understand why the oil pressers, tobacco shopkeepers, washermen, etc.—that was his description of the Non-Brahmins and the Backward classes—should want to go into the legislature. In his opinion, their business was to obey the laws and not to aspire for power to make laws. Next after Tilak I may take Mr. Vallabhbhai Patel. Here again, I will cite only one instance to indicate his mentality. In 1942, Lord Linlithgow invited 52 important Indians representing different sections of the people to discuss the steps that might be taken to make the Central Government more popular and thereby enlist the sympathy and co-operation of all Indians in war effort. Among those that were invited were members belonging to the Scheduled Castes. Mr. Vallabhbhai Patel could not bear the idea that the Viceroy should have invited such a crowd of mean men. Soon

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

after the event, Mr. Vallabhbhai Patel made a speech in Ahmedabad and said 1 :— “The Viceroy sent for the leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha, he sent for the leaders of the Muslim League and he sent for Ghanchis (oil pressers), Mochis (cobblers) and the rest.” Although Mr. Vallabhbhai Patel in his malicious and stinging words referred only to Ghanchis and Mochis his speech indicates the general contempt in which he holds the servile classes of his country.

It may be well to know the reactions of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is a Brahmin, but he has the reputation of being non-communal in his outlook and secular in his beliefs. Facts do not seem to justify the reputation he carries. A person cannot be called secular if he, when his father dies, performs the religious ceremonies prescribed by orthodox Hinduism at the hands of Brahmin priests on the banks of the river Ganges as Pandit Jawaharlal did when his father died in 1931. As to his being non-communal it is stated by no less a person than Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya that Pandit Nehru is very conscious of the fact that he is a Brahmin. 2 This must come as a most astonishing fact to those who believe the Pandit to have the reputation of being the most nationally minded Hindu leader in India. But Dr. Sitaramayya must be knowing what he is talking about. More disturbing is the fact that in the United Provinces from which he hails and over which he exercises complete authority the ministers in the cabinet of the province were all Brahmins. Mrs. Vijaya Laxmi Pandit, the well-known sister of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, also seems to be conscious of herself being Brahmin by caste. It is said that at the All-India Women’s Conference held in Delhi in December 1940, the question of not declaring one’s caste in the Census Return was discussed. Mrs. Pandit disapproved 3 of the idea and said that she did not see any reason why she should not be proud of her Brahmin blood and declare herself as a Brahmin at the Census.

Who are these men ? What is their status ? Mr. Tilak 1 Quoted by Mr. J. E. Sanjana in Sense and Nonsense in Politics— Serial No. XII in the Rast Rahabar (a Bombay Gujarati Weekly) of 14th January 1945. 2 See his Invitation p. XVI to Jawaharlal Nehru by Y. G. Krishnamurti. 3 Quoted by Sanjann in Sense and Nonsense in Politics —Serial No. XII in the Rast Rahabar, dated 14th January 1945,

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

has the reputation of being the father of the Swaraj movement. Mr. Patel and Pandit Nehru come next in command in the Congress hierarchy after Mr. Gandhi.

Some might think that these are the individual and private opinions of the members of the Congress High Command. But that would be an error. Several cases could be pointed out in which such opinions have been acted upon in election campaigns run by the Congress.

Ever since 1919 when Mr. Gandhi captured the Congress, Congressmen have looked upon the boycott of legislatures as one of the sanctions for making the British Government concede the demand for Swaraj. Under this policy, every time there was an election in which the Congress decided not to take part, the Congress would not only refuse to put candidates on the Congress ticket but would carry on propaganda against any Hindu proposing to stand for election as an independent candidate. One need not quarrel over the merits of such a policy. But what were the means adopted by the Congress to prevent Hindus standing on an independent ticket ? The means adopted were to make the legislatures objects of contempt. Accordingly, the Congress in various Provinces started processions carrying placards with these significant and telling words: “Who will go in the legislatures? Only barbers, cobblers, potters and sweepers.” In the processions one man would utter the question as part of the slogan and the whole Congress crowd would shout as answer the second part of the slogan. When the Congressmen found that this was not enough to deter persons from standing for the elections, they decided to adopt sterner measures. Believing that respectable people would not be prepared to stand for election if they felt certain that they would have to sit with barbers, potters and sweepers, etc., in the legislatures, the Congress actually went to the extent of putting up candidates from these despised communities on the Congress ticket and got them elected. A few illustrations of this outrageous conduct of the Congress may be mentioned. In the 1920 election, the Congress elected a cobbler 1 to the legislature of the Central Provinces. In the 1930 election, they elected in the Central 1 Fagnwa Rohidas.

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

Provinces two cobblers, 1 one milkman 2 and one barber, 3 and in the Punjab one sweeper. 4 In 1934, the Congress elected to the Central Legislature a potter. 5 It might be said that this is old history. Let me correct such an impression by referring to what happened in 1943, in the Municipal elections in Andheri—a suburb of Bombay. The Congress put up a barber to bring the Municipality in contempt. What a mentality for a, Governing class ! What a brazenfacedness for a governing class to use the servile class for such an ignominious purpose and yet claim to be fighting for their freedom ! What a tragedy for the servile class to take pride in its own disgrace and join in it voluntarily! The Sinn Fein Party in Ireland also boycotted the British Parliament. But did they make such hideous use of their own countrymen for effecting their purposes ? The campaign of boycott of legislature which took place in 1930 is of particular interest. The elections to the Provincial legislatures in 1930 in which these instances occurred coincided with Mr. Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha campaign of 1930; I hope that the future (the official historian, Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, has failed to do so) historian of Congress while recording how Mr. Gandhi decided to serve notice on the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, presenting him with a list of demands to be conceded before a certain date and on failure by the Viceroy in this behalf, how Mr. Gandhi selected Salt Act as a target for attack, how he selected Dandi as a scene of battle, how he decided to put himself at the head of the campaign, how he marched out from his Ashram in Ahmedabad with all pomp and ceremony, how the women of Ahmedabad came out with Arthi and applied tilak’(saffron mark) to his forehead wishing him victory, how Mr. Gandhi assured them that Gujarat alone would win Swaraj for India, how Mr. Gandhi proclaimed his determination by saying that he would not return to Ahmedabad until he had won Swaraj, will not fail to record that while on the one hand Congressmen were engaged in fighting for Swaraj, which they said they wanted to win in the name of and for the masses, on the other 1 Guru Gosain Agamdas and Babraj Jaiwar.

2 Chunnu.

3 Arjun Lal.

4 Bansi Lal Caudhari.

5 Bhagat Chandimal Gola.

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

hand and in the very year they were committing the worst outrages upon the very masses by exhibiting them publicly as objects of contempt to be shunned and avoided. VI This mentality of the Congress High Command towards the servile classes is enough to negative the theory that the supremacy of the governing classes in the Congress Provinces was an accident. There are other facts which also go to negative the theory of accident and which are set out in Table 23 (see page 226). They relate to the educational qualifications of the several classes of candidates selected by the Congress for fighting the elections. What does the table show ? It is crystal clear 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 non-Brahmins and the Scheduled Castes. Was this an accident or was this a matter of policy ? This sort of selection is marked by such a state of uniformity that it could hardly be doubted 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 qualifications. The difference in terms of graduates and non-graduates does not really reveal the real difference between the status and position of the Brahmin candidates and non-Brahmin candidates. The Brahmin candidates were not merely graduates but they were seasoned politicians of high repute, while the non-Brahmin graduates were raw graduates with nothing but the career of second class politicians behind them.

Why did the Congress select the best educated Brahmins 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—the representatives of the servile classes—from forming a ministry. It cannot be that better educated non-Brahmins were not available. What the Congress seems to have done is deliberately

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

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

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

to prefer an uneducated non-Brahmin to an educated nonBrahmin. And why ? 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. In the second place, the uneducated non-Brahmin is less likely to join hands with the educated non-Brahmins in the Congress Party and overturn the ministry of the governing classes and form a non-Brahmin ministry. In the third place, the greater the number of raw non-Brahmins in the Congress the lesser is the possibility of the non-Brahmins in the Congress forming a competent and alternative Ministry to the detriment of the governing class.

Given these circumstances, can there be any doubt that the Congress “Fight for Freedom” is for the freedom of nobody except that of the governing class ? Is there any doubt that the Congress is the governing class and the governing class is the Congress ? Is there any doubt that when Swaraj came in 1937 in the form of Provincial autonomy, the Congress deliberately and shamelessly put the governing class in places of power and authority ?

VII

The facts set out above prove beyond cavil that the “Fight for Freedom” launched by the Congress has ended in perverting the aim and object of Indian freedom and that the Congress itself is a party to such a perversion. The result is an enormity, the character of which it would not be possible for the foreigner to realize unless he has an adequate idea of the social outlook and social philosophy of the Governing Classes in India.

Starting with the Brahmins who form a strong and powerful element in the governing class in India it is no exaggeration to say that they have been the most inveterate enemies of the servile classes, the Shudras (the old name for the nonBrahmins) and the Untouchables who together constitute about 80 or 90 per cent. of the total Hindu population of India. If the common man belonging to the servile classes in India is to-day so fallen, so degraded, so devoid of self-respect, hope or ambition, and so lifeless, it is entirely due to the Brahmins and

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

their philosophy. The cardinal principles of this philosophy of the Brahmins were six—to use a correct expression, techniques of suppression—(1) graded inequality between the different classes; (2) complete disarmament of the Shudras and the Untouchables; (3) complete ban on the education of the Shudras and the Untouchables; (4) total exclusion of the Shudras and the Untouchables from places of power and authority; (5) complete prohibition against the Shudras and the Untouchables acquiring property, and (6) complete subjugation and suppression of women. Inequality is the official doctrine of Brahmanism and the suppression of the lower classes aspiring to equality has been looked upon by them and carried out by them, without remorse as their bounden duty. There are countries where education did not spread beyond a few. But India is the only country where the intellectual class, namely, the Brahmins not only made education their monopoly but declared acquisition of education by the lower classes, a crime punishable by cutting off of the tongue or by the pouring of molten lead in the ear of the offender. The result is that for centuries the Brahmins have denied the servile classes the right to education. Even to-day the Brahmins exhibit the same hostility to their education. Mr. Baines, the Census Commissioner for 1891 in discussing the causes why education was not spreading among the masses said :— “The second influence antagonistic to a more general spread of literacy is the long continued existence of a hereditary class whose object it has been to maintain their own monopoly of all book-learning as the chief buttress of their social supremacy. Sacerdotalism knows that it can reign over none but an ignorant populace. The opposition of the Brahmin to the rise of the writer castes has been already mentioned, and the repugnance of both, in the present day, to the diffusion of learning amongst the masses can only be appreciated after long experience. It is true that the recognition by the British Government of the virtue and necessity of primary education has met with some response on the part of the literate castes, but it is chiefly in the direction of academic utterances, which cannot, in the circumstances, be well avoided. It is welcome too, in its capacity of affording the means of livelihood to many of these castes, as they have to be engaged as teachers, and are bound accordingly to work up to the State standard of efficient

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

tuition. The real interest of the castes in question is centred on secondary education, of which they almost exclusively are in a position to reap the advantage.”

The Congress politicians complain that the British are ruling India by a wholesale disarmament of the people of India. But they forget that disarmament of the Shudras and the Untouchables was the rule of law promulgated by the Brahmins. Indeed, so strongly did the Brahmins believe in the disarmament of the Shudras and the Untouchables that when they revised the law to enable the Brahmins to arm themselves for the protection of their own privileges, they maintained the ban on the Shudras and the Untouchables as it was without lessening its rigour. If the large majority of people of India appear to-day to be thoroughly emasculated, spiritless, with no manliness, it is the result of the Brahmanic policy of wholesale disarmament to which they have been subjected for the untold ages. There is no social evil and no social wrong to which the Brahmin has not given his support. Man’s inhumanity to man, such as the feeling of caste, untouchability, unapproach-ability and unseeability is a religion to him. It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that only the wrongs of man are a religion to him. The Brahmin has given his support to some of the worst wrongs that women have suffered from in any part of the world. In India widows were burnt alive as suttees and the Brahmin gave his fullest support to the practice. Widows were not allowed to remarry. The Brahmins upheld the doctrine. Girls were required to be married before 8 and the husbands were permitted to claim the right to consummate the marriage at any time thereafter whether she had reached puberty or not. The Brahmin defended the system. The record of the Brahmins as law givers for the Shudras, for the Untouchables and for women is the blackest as compared with the record of the intellectual classes in other parts of the world, For no intellectual class has prostituted its intelligence for the sole purpose of inventing a philosophy to keep his uneducated countrymen in a perpetual state of servility, ignorance and poverty as the Brahmins have done in India. Every Brahmin to-day believes in this philosophy of Brahmanism propounded by his forefathers. He is an alien element in the Hindu Society. The Brahmin ‘ vis-a-vis the Shudras and the Untouchables is as foreign as the German is to the French, as the

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Jew is to the Gentile or as the White is to the Negro. There is a real gulf between him and the lower classes of Shudras and Untouchables. He is not only alien to them but he is also hostile to them. In relationship with them, there is in him no room for conscience and no call for justice. The Bania is the worst parasitic class known to history. In him the vice of money-making is unredeemed by culture or conscience. He is like an undertaker who prospers when there is an epidemic. The only difference between the undertaker and the Bania is that the undertaker does not create an epidemic while the Bania does. He does not use his money for productive purposes. He uses it to create poverty and more poverty by lending money for unproductive purposes. He lives on interest and as he is told by his religion that money-lending is the occupation prescribed to him by the divine Manu, he looks upon money-lending as both right and righteous. With the help and assistance of the Brahmin judge who is ready to decree his suits, the Bania is able to carry on his trade with the greatest ease. Interest, interest on interest, he adds on and on, and thereby draws millions of families perpetually into his net. Pay him as much as he may, the debtor is always in debt. With no conscience to check him there is no fraud, and there is no chicanery which he will not commit. His grip over the nation is complete. The whole of poor, starving, illiterate India is irredeemably mortgaged to the Bania.

In every country there is a governing class. No country is free from it. But is there anywhere in the world a governing class with such selfish, diseased and dangerous and perverse mentality, with such a hideous and infamous philosophy of life which advocates the trampling down of the servile classes to sustain the power and glory of the governing class ? I know of none. It is true that the governing classes in other countries do not readily admit into their society those who do not belong to their class. But they do not refuse admission to those who have risen to their level. Nor do they prevent any person from rising to their level. In India the governing class is a close corporation unwilling to admit anyone who does not belong to it by birth and ready to use every means to prevent the servile classes from rising to their level.

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

There was a governing class in France before the French Revolution. There was a governing class in Japan before the seventies of the nineteenth century when Japan decided to modernize its constitution. In both countries the governing classes realizing that it was an hour of national crisis decided to shed their ancient rights and privileges in order to make the transition from oligarchy to democracy smooth and easy. 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 was called. The Commons got 600 representatives, while the clergy and the Nobles got 300 each. The question arose how were the 1,200 members to sit, debate and vote. The Commons insisted upon the union of all the 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 self-sacrificing than the attitude of the governing classes in France. As students of Japanese history know, there were four classes in Japanese Society: (1) The Damiyos, (2) The Samurai, (3) The Hemin or the Common folk and (4) The Eta or the outcasts, 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 25/30 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 modern nation with equality of citizenship. Accordingly the Damiyos charged with the spirit of nationalism

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and anxious not to stand in the way of national unity, came forward to surrender their privileges and to merge themselves 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 lining 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 uniform 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. Unfortunately, the history of the struggle of the servile classes in India against the governing class has not yet been written. But those who know anything about it will know that the governing class in India has no intention of making any sacrifice not even on the altar of Indian Freedom for which it is thirsting. Instead, the governing class is using every means to retain them. For this it is using two weapons. First is the weapon of nationalism. 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.’ What are these reservations for ? To put it briefly they are intended to provide floorings below which the governing class will not be able to push down the servile classes in their struggle for existence. There, is nothing sinister and nothing wrong in this demand for reservations. How does the governing class react to them ? It loses no occasion to deprecate them and to ridicule them. People are led to believe that if they are to achieve national freedom, they must maintain unity, that all questions regarding reservations in the Legislatures, Executives and the Public Services are inimical to national unity and that, therefore, for anyone interested in national freedom it is a sin to support -those who ask for such 1 Quoted in Romance of Japan by Japan by James A. B. Scherer.

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

reservations. That is the attitude of the governing class in India. It stands in glaring contrast with that of the governing class in Japan. It is a misuse of nationalism. But the governing class does not feel any compunction for such misuse.

The second means employed by the governing class is the writing of the lampoons and parodies calculated to pour ridicule on the demand for reservations. Such lampoons are by no means few and far between. Even the most respectable members of the governing class do not mind indulging in such compositions. Even Dr. R. P. Paranjpe, now India’s High Commissioner for Australia, who stands for an advanced type of liberalism, could not withstand the temptation of trying his hand in writing such a parody. 1 Among the parodies composed by members of the governing class his was the most colourful and had, when it appeared, excited the greatest resentment among the servile classes.

The argument used by the governing classes to oppose the demand of the servile classes for reservations is based on the doctrine of efficiency. To give a patriotic look to the stand taken by the governing classes it is represented that what 1 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 have occurred under the principle of communal reservations. As the magazine is not easily available, I reproduce’ it below with a view to rescue it from oblivion:— ‘A PEEP INTO THE FUTURE’

The following extracts are taken from reports of Commissions, records of police courts oases, 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 onefifth the numbers belonging to each community and three members will hold

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

Indians must aim at is to maintain in India an efficient body politic and that this can be done only by insisting that every place of power and authority should be filled by none but the best man available. It is this argument which seems to impress the foreigner and which makes him a critic if not an adversary of the demand for reservation. It is therefore 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 manyexisting Government buildings as may be necessary may be pulled dowu 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 Ramdin (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. Ramaswamy (caste, Andhra Sweeper) in charge of the road cleaning branch of the P.W.D.

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

* * * 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 Ycravda Jail : Ghantichor.

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

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

necessary to examine the validity of the argument and the sincerity of those who use it.

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 right from the point of view of the servile class ? Could the ‘best’ German be the ‘best’ for the French ? Could the ‘best’ Turk be ‘best’ for the Greeks ? Could the ‘best’ Pole be regarded 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 acoused if he had to say anything. The pleader, Mr. Bomanji, said he agreed with the verdict but that according to Law the aocnaed 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 Telis had already reached theire. His Lordship accepted the contention of the defence pleader and acquitted the acoused. 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 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 com-

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

‘best’ for the Jews ? There can hardly be any doubt as to the correct answer to these questions.

In answering this question two things cannot be overlooked. One is that a great man is not necessarily a good man. The other is that man is not a mere machine without any feelings. 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.

Mere efficiency can never be accepted as a test. If it was accepted as the only test the result would be that the affairs of the French might well be run by the Germans, of Turks by the Russians and of Chinese by the Japanese. Those who hold out the theory of naked efficiency and nothing but efficiency as the test of good Government should ask the French, the Turks and the Chinese as to what they have to say about it and how they like the result which follows from its application. munities 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 n 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.