Ideas of a Nation
What is the position of the Untouchables in this republic? They are not merely the last but are also the least. All Untouchables are inferior to all Touchables irrespective of age or qualification. A Touchable youth is above an aged Untouchable and an educated Untouchable must rank below an illiterate Touchable—B.R. AMBEDKAR
Arevered, conflicted and undeniably significant figure in the Indian imagination, Ambedkar’s ideas continue to infl uence—and have resonance—in India today. In the three speeches and one essay featured in this book, we witness the eloquent conviction with which he thought and spoke about issues that were of deep concern to him—the position and protection of the Dalits in the about-to-be formed nation; the communal question and proportional representation in the constituent assembly and government services; and the achievement of freedom and the survival of democracy.
Bhimrao Ramji (Babasaheb) Ambedkar was a nationalist and political leader, and the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. Born into the Mahar community which was considered untouchable, Ambedkar spent his whole life fighting against social discrimination, and advocating political rights and social freedom for Dalits.
Cover illustration by Nitesh Mohanty
To celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Indian Republic, the Words of Freedom series showcases the landmark speeches and writings of fourteen visionary leaders whose thought animated the Indian struggle for Independence and whose revolutionary ideas and actions forged the Republic of India as we know it today.
Books in the series
B.R. Ambedkar
Aruna Asaf Ali
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Subhas Chandra Bose
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
Sarojini Naidu
Jawaharlal Nehru
Vallabhbhai Patel
Rajendra Prasad
C. Rajagopalachari
Periyar E.V. Ramasami
Bhagat Singh
Rabindranath Tagore
WORDS
OF
FREEDOM
IDEAS OF A NATION
B.R. AMBEDKAR
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ISBN: 978-01-4306-897-6
This digital edition published in 2011.
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Contents
Copyright
Introduction
1. If Democracy Dies, it Will Be Our Doom
2. The Communal Question and the Framing of the Indian Constitution
3. I Have Loyalty to Our People and Also to the Country
4. The Indian Ghetto
Introduction
Bhimrao Ramji (Babasaheb) Ambedkar (14 April 1891–6 December 1956) was a nationalist and political leader; philosopher, historian and economist; and orator and prolific writer. He was also a jurist and the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. Born into the Mahar community which was considered untouchable, Ambedkar spent his whole life fighting against social discrimination, and advocating political rights and social freedom for Dalits. Against great odds, he was one of the first Dalits to obtain a college education, and he earned multiple doctorates in law, economics and political science from Columbia University and the London School of Economics.
A revered, conflicted and undeniably significant figure in the Indian imagination, Ambedkar’s ideas continue to influence and have resonance in the India of today. In the three speeches and one essay featured in this book, we witness the eloquent conviction with which he thought and spoke about issues that were of deep concern to him—the position and protection of the Dalits in the about-to-be formed nation; the communal question and proportional representation in the constituent assembly and government services; and the achievement of freedom and the survival of democracy.
For a man torn between allegiance to people who have been oppressed relentlessly for centuries and allegiance to India, the very country that had abetted in the perpetuation of intolerance, Babasaheb Ambedkar admirably manages the ethically difficult and complex balancing act.
IF DEMOCRACY DIES, IT WILL BE OUR DOOM
ADDRESS BY DR AMBEDKAR AT THE ALL-INDIA DEPRESSED CLASSES CONFERENCE HELD AT NAGPUR
18 JULY 1942
Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I MIGHT AS WELL TELL YOU HOW THE IDEA OF THE HOLDING OF THIS CONFERENCE ORIGINATED. As you will recall, I was called in April last to be present in Delhi to meet Sir Strafford Cripps, who had come to India as an agent of His Majesty’s Government with proposals for constitutional changes and who was charged with the duty of negotiating with the different political parties in India for the acceptance of those proposals. Before I went to Delhi I had invited representatives of the Scheduled Castes in different Provinces in India to meet me in Delhi for consultation. When I communicated to them the results of my talks with Sir Strafford Cripps we all felt that the proposals Sir Strafford Cripps had brought with him were a death-blow to the interests of the Scheduled Castes. I expressed my views on the Cripps proposals in a statement to the press which I hope you have all read. But it was felt that common and united action on the part of the Scheduled Castes from all over India was a great necessity—and that it was only common action that could save us from the impending political doom. This Conference has been the result of the wish expressed by the Scheduled Castes all over India through their representatives who met at Delhi and has therefore the backing of Untouchable India as a whole. That is why we have here present among us representatives of the Scheduled Castes all over India.
While I am a Member of Government of India, you will have the responsibility of keeping up our movement and making it effective so that it may lead to the result we all hope to achieve. I shall help you, I shall advise you. But I sh
all not be able to participate in it. That is a fact you must all bear in mind. It is, therefore, all the more necessary that before I transfer the responsibility to others, I must render account of my stewardship of this movement of the Untouchables which has been associated with me and has been carried on under my guidance if not under my aegis during the last twenty years. It is necessary for me to do so in order that those on whom this responsibility will fall should know where the Scheduled Castes stand vis-a-vis other communities in this country, what has been done and what remains to be done for their emancipation.
It is a matter of immense satisfaction that the Untouchables have made great strides along all sides. I will particularise only three. They have acquired a degree of political consciousness which few communities in India have acquired. Secondly, they have made considerable progress in education. Thirdly, they are securing a foothold in the institutions and in the public service of the country.
The modern generation of Untouchables are not in a position to realize the immensity of the progress made by the Untouchables. For the simple reason that they do not know how things stood when the movement began twenty years ago. I well remember the first meeting addressed in Bombay after I returned from England as a barrister-at-law. Except the organisers of the meeting, there was not a single member in the audience—some persons were sitting on the doorsteps of houses smoking pipes and others were chatting in corners by themselves. No one thought of attending the meeting. See the difference. You have here an audience of 75,000 people. Education has made a good progress as compared to that twenty years ago. In Poona alone there are fifty boys studying in colleges. There are altogether about 500 Untouchables who have graduated from the various universities. Some are doctors. Some have become barristers. Many of our brethren are members of municipalities, district and local boards. Years ago our children were denied education. Years ago Untouchables were not permitted to be members of local boards and municipalities for fear of causing pollution. All this has now changed. Our progress in public service has not been as rapid as we wish. In some respects the Untouchables have an entry. I must mention the police and the army. The police department was closed to the Untouchables and not even a constable’s place was open to the Untouchables. This has changed in some provinces at least. Our people are now recruited in the police service. I must also mention the army. Upto 1892, Mahars were everywhere in the army and there were armies of Mahars. After 1892 the entry of the Mahars in the army was stopped. During the great war of 1914, recruitment of the Mahars in the army was restarted and one battalion of the Mahars was formed. After the last war that battalion was again disbanded. Now, however, our regiments are again being formed. Commissions are being granted to our young men and five or six of our young men have received King’s Commission and are holding posts of responsibility and honour in the army. The greatest progress that we have made is to be found among our women folk. Here you see in this conference these 20,000 to 25,000 women present. See their dress, observe their manners, mark their speech. Can anyone say that they are Untouchable women? The progress made by our women is the most astonishing and encouraging feature of our movement and it is of course the most gratifying feature.
This is a record of progress of which we may all be legitimately proud. It is a progress for which we have not to thank anybody. It is not the result of Hindu charity. It is an achievement which is entirely the result of our own labour. The question is how can we maintain this progress. That is a question we must never forget to ask ourselves. Progress in the competition of communities is the result of power. This power may be economic, it may be social or it may be political. Have we power to sustain our progress? Have we economic power? I am sure we have none. We are a class of serfs. Have we social power? I am sure we have none. We are a degraded portion of humanity. The only thing, therefore, we can depend upon for our continued progress is the capture of political power. I have no doubt that is our only salvation, and that without it we will perish. It is on this question that we must concentrate all our attention. It is a question of life and death for us. What are our prospects in the matter of capturing political power? It is better if I sum up the forces which are helping us and the forces which are working against us. With the knowledge of such forces, you will be better able to frame your policy and forge your sanctions.
Let me begin by telling you what has been the keynote of my politics. You may be familiar with it but it is well to re-state it. My basis of my politics lies in the proposition that the Untouchables are not a sub-head or a sub-section of the Hindus, and that they are a separate and a distinct element in the national life of India, as separate and distinct as the Muslims and like the Muslims of India the Untouchables are entitled to separate political rights as against the Hindus of India. This is the keynote of my politics. No one will misunderstand me or my politics if he bears that in mind. Having stated the fundamental basis of my politics I will proceed to sum up the forces working for and against our claim for separate political rights. To begin with the Round Table Conference, the Round Table Conference was a very vast affair, and I do not wish to trouble you with all the details of what took place there. I will confine myself to what happened to the Untouchables. There was a contest between me and Mr Gandhi. Mr Gandhi contested that the Untouchables were a sub-section of the Hindus and consequently if any political power was to devolve from the hands of the British it should pass undivided into the hands of the Hindus who could be trusted to look after the interests of the Untouchables. The position taken up by me was totally different; I contended that the Untouchables formed separate and distinct element in the life of the country. The Hindus who are their hereditary enemies could not be trusted and far from using the political power for raising the Untouchables the fear was that they would use it for perpetuating their subjection, and it was, therefore, absolutely necessary that there should be political partition between the Untouchables and the Hindus so that the Untouchables may get political power in their own hands to use it to promote their welfare or to use it to save themselves against the tyranny and oppression of the Hindus. I do not want to dilate upon what the Mahatma or other Hindus did by way of manoeuvring to defeat the claim. It is sufficient to say that at the Round Table Conference the Untouchables won and the Mahatma lost. The Communal Award was the result of this contest. Its great virtue lies in the fact that the Untouchables were recognized in the national life of India and entitled to claim separate political rights.
Mr Gandhi, at first, did not accept the Communal Award. He started a fast unto death to compel the British government to unsettle a settled fact. He failed in the fast as he failed at the Round Table Conference in defeating the claim of the Untouchables to be treated as a distinct element separate from the Hindus and entitled to separate political recognition. In the Poona Pact which was the result of his fast, he had to admit the main contention I had put forth at the Round Table Conference.
In the first round, the victory had gone to the Untouchables. Our position remained intact even after the war had commenced and the Congress had come to occupy a dominant position in Indian politics. Indeed, our claim was reassured and sustained by the declaration of the Viceroy made on 8 August 1940 in which it was made clear that the Muslims and the Untouchables were distinct and separate elements in the national life of India and that the British government will not enforce a constitution which has not the Support of the Muslims and the Depressed Classes.
I have spoken so far of the strength of our position. I must now speak to you of the forces that tend to weaken our position. One malignant factor which has been working to weaken our position is Gandhi and Gandhism. By signing the Poona Pact, I helped to save the life of Mr Gandhi. But Mr Gandhi accepted the Poona Pact not as a gentleman signing an agreement with the intention to honour his word but as a crafty person seeking to find a way out of a difficulty. For, I want you to remember that Mr Gandhi, notwithstanding the Poona Pact which saved him from death, never gave his true and ho
nest consent to the principle underlying the Poona Pact. He remained a determined opponent of the claim of the Untouchables for a separate political recognition and has ever since done everything possible to oppose our claim and to undermine our position. I want you to bear in mind that Mr Gandhi is our greatest opponent. I do not like to use the word enemy, though there is enough justification for it. There are some among us who are deluded by the artificiality of his phraseology. But, I must warn you that you would be making the greatest mistake if you forget to take note of the fact that among the adverse forces which are weakening your side and against which you have to concentrate your forces in winning your battle for political freedom, the most formidable force is Mr Gandhi.
The second factor which has weakened your position must be ascribed to the change in the attitude of His Majesty’s Government. Upto the declaration of 8 August 1940, His Majesty’s Government’s view was that the Untouchables were distinct and a separate element and that they constituted so important an element that their consent was necessary for any constitutional changes that may be desired. But in the proposals of His Majesty’s Government which were sent down with Strafford Cripps, His Majesty’s Government took a complete volte face. For, Sir Strafford Cripps proclaimed without blush or without remorse that only the consent of the Hindus and the Muslims was enough for giving effect to the constitutional changes involved in the Cripps proposals; that the consent of the Untouchables was not necessary. In plain terms the Untouchables had ceased to be regarded as an important element in the national life of India. It passes one’s comprehension how 60 to 70 million Untouchables have ceased to be an important element within a few months. It is a complete somersault on the part of His Majesty’s Government. It is a great betrayal of the Untouchables. Whatever the reasons for this betrayal and however strong may be your feelings at so unjust and indecent an act on the part of His Majesty’s Government, the fact must be recognized that this has been the greatest breach in our war. There is a third circumstance of an adverse character to which I must not fail to draw your attention. There was a time when there was a solidarity of feeling based on community of interest among the different minority communities in India, among whom the Muslim community was a premier community. That solidarity is now gone. This is principally due to the change in the vision of the Muslim community brought about by the Muslim League. The Muslim League when it was resuscitated by Mr Jinnah after the 1937 election began with the ideology that the Musalmans were a minority, and as a minority they needed the strength of other minorities to support and sustain them. So firm was the faith of the Muslim League in the scheme of mutual strength that the Muslim League had taken up the cause of other minorities and passed resolutions pledging its support to their claims and had stood out not merely as an advocate of the Muslim cause but as a champion of all the other minorities in India. This attitude of the League has undoubtedly been of great help to the Untouchables as the attitude of the Untouchables had always been to the Muslims of India. But the League’s attitude has undergone a complete change. The Muslim League ever since the resolution on Pakistan was passed has ceased to regard the Muslims as a community. It holds that the Muslims are a nation. The Muslim League further believes that it has nothing to do with the other communities. The Muslim League alignment is simple. It is an alignment of Muslim as against all other Non-Muslim without distinction or discrimination. This change in the attitude of the League cannot but have serious consequences for the Untouchables. It means that the Untouchables have lost an ally. But it may mean more than the loss of an ally. The Muslim League has not only come to set up a new and a different alignment of Muslims versus Non-Muslims, it has set up a new equation of values. That equation says that the Muslims, whatever their numbers, are just equal to the Non-Muslims and therefore, in any political arrangement the Muslims must get fifty per cent. To this equation no one can consent. Not only it is against arithmetic; it is also against the interests of all Non-Muslim including the Untouchables. Having regard to these changes in the political standpoint of the Muslim League the Untouchables may be said not only to have lost an ally but also to have lost a friend. For, if the League insists on fifty per cent representation in everything, there can be no doubt that the Muslims and the Untouchables will come in conflict.