Great Britain and India
The purpose of this page is to ventilate that moderate Indian opinion which, recognizing all the difficulties, yet believes in the continued association of Great Britain and India within the loose framework of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
The "Untouchable" Classes and Swaraj
Ambedkar was a member of the Committee of the Bombay Legislative Council appointed to co-operate with the Simon Com- mission. The following summary of his views is written by an Indian at present living in England.]
THE so-called untouchable classes, who form nearly one-fifth of the Indian population, have till recently been altogether outside the picture, so far as political controversies were concerned. But they have now entered the arena. Their entry was not only welcomed but greatly desired, and to a certain extent engineered, by British die-hards who had felt certain of their bitter opposition to any liberal scheme of Indian self-government and had counted on their staying in the country in undiminished power as trustees for these cruelly used and helpless people. But the untouchables are apparently determined not to lend themselves to be used as stalking-horses for the Britisher's love of power. Mr. B. R. Ambedkar, Ph.D., D.Sc., the talented leader of the untouchable communities of Western India, roundly- declared, as President of the All-India Depressed Classes Congress, last month, referring to the sentiments of Lord Birkenhead and men like him, "I am afraid that the British choose to advertise our unfortunate conditions, not with the object of removing them, but only because such a course serves well as an excuse for retarding the political progress of India." This untouchables' Congress has roughly rubbed the British Government of this excuse. It has adopted resolutions supporting the whole of the demand put forward by the progressive elements of the Indian people, viz., "the transfer of executive responsibility (to the representatives of the people) in all matters except those in which the immediate transfer of control is impracticable." Mr. Ambedkar in his speech expressed the same idea when he asked that, in the provincial sphere, the Governor should be deprived of the reserve powers proposed to be given to him by the Simon Commission and the provincial executive made fully re- sponsible, and that, in the central sphere, responsibility should be introduced in all departments except those per- taining to military and foreign affairs.
The untouchables feel that if the British Government is consumed with the burning desire to befriend and uplift them, it has managed with complete success to conceal this desire from their governing policy. Mr. Ambedkar put the point thus to his co-workers :
" Before the British you were in the loathsome condition due to your untouchability. Has the British Government done anything to remove your untouchability ? Before the British you could not draw water from the village well. Has the British Government secured you the right to the well ? Before the British you could not enter the temple. Can you enter now ? Before the British you were denied the entry into the Police force. Does the British Government admit you in the force ? Before the British you were not allowed to serve in the military. Is that career now open to YOU t Gentlemen, to none of these questions you can give an affirmative answer. Those-who have held so much power over the country for such a long time must have done some good. But there 18 certainly no fundamental improvement in your position. So far aS you are concerned the British Government has accepted the arrangements as it found them and has preserved them faithfully in the manner of the Chinese tailor who, when given an old coat as a pattern, produced with pride an exact replica, rents, patches and all. tour wrongs have remained as open sores and they have not been righted and I say that the British Government actuated with the hest of motives and principles will always remain powerless to effect any change so far as your particular grievances are concerned. No body can remove your grievances as well as you can and you cannot remove them unless you get political power in your own hands. No share of this political power can come to you so long as -the British Government remains as it is. It is only in a Swaraj constitution that you stand any chance of getting the political power into your own hands without which you cannot bring salvation to your people."
The important thing to remember is that not only does Mr. Ambedkar state, as a historical fact, that the British Gov- ernment has done little or nothing to amend the existing vicious code of social and economic life, but that from its very nature it will never attempt such a task. A Government situated as the British Indian Government is cannot afford to side with the lower castes and the poorer sections of the population like labourers and tenants and rouse against it the powerful opposition of " the aristocracy of wealth, educa- tion and social standing." It is only when the former shall rise in social scale and political power that the British Govern- ment will find it worth its while to cultivate them, but in the existing circumstances it is inevitable that it should conspire with the Indian oligarchy in keeping then, down. As a striking illustration of the manner in which British trusteeship for the downtrodden classes has worked out in actual practice in India, Mr. Ambedkar relates how the officials, supposed to safeguard the interests of the untouchables, have voted in the Legislative Councils. Experience has taught us," says he, "that the official bloc is the friend of nobody but of itself, and that its help and friendship are determined by its own interests. I am sorry to say that during these ten years (since the reformed constitution came into effect) the official bloc took far more front the depressed classes than it gave to them." Raising the depressed classes out of the mire has not been in the past and will not be in the future a conscious aim of the present rulers of India. 'This rile the British Government will never be able to play. It is only a government which is of the people, for the people, and by the people, in other words, it is only the Swaraj Government that will make this possible."
Equally desirous as they are with the advanced classes of the largest possible measure of self-government, the untouch- ables insist upon adequate safeguards being inserted in the constitution for the protection of their communal interests. But they are not communalists in the sense in which Moslems are. They do not want separate electorates for their own community. Indeed, they do not understand how the Simon Commission, proceeding on the premise that the existence of a variety of castes and creeds makes popular government most difficult if not impossible, can end by recommending the retention of communal electorates for Moslems, :which arc certain to perpetuate the very differences they deprecate. The untouchables would, therefore, seek to obtain their share of representation in the legislatures through mixed electorates. Mr. Ambedkar thus expresses himself on this point : "There is undoubtedly an obligation on the majority to consent to safeguards for the minorities. But there rests upon the minorities an obligation of equal sanctity not to insist on such safeguards as will block the way to the unity of all. Front this point of view, the scheme of joint electorates and reserved seats must be pronounced to be superior to that of separate electorates. It meets the realities of the present and also helps the ideal of the future," the ideal being that of a United India. The untouchables therefore ask for two things : (1) the establishment of adult suffrage, which in itself would redress in some way the inequalities resulting front the educa- tional backwardness and weak economic condition ; and (2) reservation of a number of seats for their community in com- mon electorates. The Moslems are at present in enjoyment of a larger representation in the legislatures than their num- bers would warrant, this excessive representation being due to their community being supposed to be more important and influential than the rest. Mr. Ambedkar contends that these very claims are the best possible proof that excessive representation is not justified in their case. The backwardness of a community, or its inability to hold its own against the others, constitutes the only admissible title to excessive repre- sentation, and the untouchables being the most backward of all can lay claim to such representation better than any other. Similarly a certain proportion of posts in the public service should be reserved for the untouchable classes. These must be matters for negotiation and settlement at the Round Table Conference.
One other point which Mr. Ambedkar makes should be stressed here, viz., the inherent incompatibility of responsible government in the provinces and irresponsible government at the centre---the kind of arrangement the Simon Commission advocates.
Previous page
