To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It is unfortunate that
the writer of the article "The Untouchable Classes and Swaraj " did not acknowledge the fact that the Simon Report recommends the very legislation
which Dr. Ambedkar the leader of the untouchable communi- ties in Western India calls for : namely, reservation of seats.
Mr. Rajah, the representative of the -depressed classes OR the Indian Central Committee, which sat alongside the Simon Committee, asked for Communal Representatives. In rejecting such a proposal, Dr. Ambedicar is another illustration of the divided counsels which have done so much to retard Indian Reforms. But while Mr. Rajah did not get his wishes realized, it is to be noted that the Simon Report proposes much more democratic treatment for the depressed classes than Mr. Rajah's Indian colleagues on the Central Committee were prepared to suggest.
May I remind your readers of Mr. Thompson's words in "The Reconstruction of India," that while the British have the power they must see to it "that a clear path be made for the depressed classes, that will set their community forward so that nothing can send them back again " ? It was fear of the future that made Mr. Gandhi say in 1925, "So long as untouchability disfigures Hinduism, so long do I hold the attainment of Swaraj to be an utter impossibility."
I write as one who earnestly desires to see India s mitring Dominion Status as a result of the Round Table Conference : with adequate safeguards for the depressed classes. The Mohammedans are virile enough to look after themselves.—
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