Ideas of a Nation Read online

  Conclusion

  These are some of the proposals I have had in mind for the solution of the communal problem. They do not commit the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation. They do not even commit me. In putting them forth, I am doing nothing more than exploring a new way. My emphasis is more on the principle I have enunciated than on the actual proposals. If the principles are accepted then I am sure the solution of the communal question will not be as baffling as it has been in the past.

  The problem of solving the Indian deadlock is not easy. I remember reading a historian describing the condition of Germany before the Confederation of 1867 as one of ‘divinely ordained confusion’. Whether that was true of Germany or not, it seems to me that they form a very accurate description of the present conditions of India. Germany did get out of this confusion, if not at one stroke at least by successive stages until just before the war she became a unified people, unified in mind, unified in outlook and unified by belief in a common destiny. India has not so far succeeded in evolving order out of her confusion. It is not that she had no opportunities to do so. In fact, there have been quite a number. The first opportunity came in 1927, when Lord Birkenhead gave a challenge to Indians asking them to produce a constitution for India. That challenge was taken up. A committee was formed to frame a constitution. A constitution was produced and was known as ‘The Nehru Constitution’. It was, however, not accepted by Indians and was buried without remorse. A second opportunity presented itself to Indians in 1930, when they assembled at the Round Table Conference. There again, Indians failed to play their part and write out their own constitution. A third attempt is the one recently made by the Sapru Committee. The proposals of this committee too have fallen flat.

  There is neither enthusiasm nor optimism left to indulge in another attempt. One is pursued by a sense of fatality, which suggests that as every attempt is doomed to failure, none need be made. At the same time I feel that no Indian ought to be so downhearted or so callous as to let the deadlock stink, as though it was a dead dog, and say that he is prepared to do nothing more than be a mere witness to the political dog-fight that is going on in this country. The failures of the past need not daunt any body. They do not daunt me. For, I have a feeling that though it is true that all attempts to reach an agreement on the communal question have failed, the failure have been due not so much to any inherent fault of the Indians as they have been due to a wrong approach. I feel confident that my proposals, if considered dispassionately, should be found acceptable. They constitute a new approach and as such I commend them to my countrymen.

  Before I conclude, I must, however, warn my critics that they may be able to amend my proposals in some respects; but it will not be easy to reject them. If they do reject them, the first thing they shall have to do is to controvert the principles on which they are based.

  I HAVE LOYALTY TO OUR PEOPLE AND ALSO TO THE COUNTRY

  25 MAY 1947

  Excerpted from Jai Bheem.

  REPLYING TO BIRTHDAY FELICITATIONS OFFERED TO HIM BY THE DELHI SCHEDULED CASTES WELFARE ASSOCIATION, BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR MADE THE FOLLOWING OBSERVATIONS ON 14 APRIL 1947 AT KAROL BAGH, NEW DELHI:

  Celebrations of birthdays from one point of view are not very happy. As you know man is mortal and he must pass away some day. Birthdays are reminders that there have been several deductions from one’s life. Of course, these deductions are not to be regretted by anybody because it is natural that man should spend his life. However, in a case where the life of a man is devoted to some public cause it does become a matter of some consideration.

  Looking at the situation, I am, indeed, very happy to see that the Scheduled Castes all over India have now become so conscious of their disabilities and are now so well organized and so determined to achieve the fullness of their life that no man need despair of the future. As I told the Viceroy the other day, I do not mind telling it to you. I said to him ‘I would not have come to see you if you had not called me. I have no desire to run after the British.’ The British at one time had taken the responsibility of looking after the welfare of the Scheduled Castes. I had thought that they would take special steps to see that responsibility is carried out. If the British are going, I don’t mind. But they are going without taking any special steps for securing such safeguards as we want in the constitution. It is for them to decide whether their action is right or not. It is not for me. Hundred times I had to persuade them that they ought to do something for the welfare of the Untouchables. I said, I am confident enough that the fate of the 60 million Untouchables will not be sealed simply because the British refuse to do their duty. I have no doubt in my mind that the 60 million Untouchables, without any support and without any power, would achieve what they want even if the Labour Government do not want to give them their due rights.

  We, certainly today, are not the same old people, led by others with no consciousness and no organization. Everybody in this country knows that we are now quite different people. We, therefore, must cultivate more strength and power. Both the Congress and the Muslim League want our support and are making terms for that. This would have never happened if we were not so well organized. And I wanted to tell you this that unfortunately our issue has been completely clouded by the announcement of the British to quit India by June 1948. I have no idea what is going to happen. I have made some calculations, but I do not want to announce at present.

  It may be that the British may have to stay here under circumstances quite different. But the decision of the British to quit has brought before the public some problems, which have, to some extent, obscured our demand for constitutional safeguards. I do hope that notwithstanding this clouding of the issue we shall succeed, if not wholly, to a very great extent in getting such political safeguards as are necessary for us.

  I am glad to tell you that in the committee for the formulation of the fundamental rights we have succeeded to a very great extent. A memorandum which I had presented to the fundamental rights sub-committee has been accepted by the committee. There was one issue on which there has been certain difference of opinion; that was with regard to the discrimination in administration and in the matter of public service. I have proposed certain measures in order to prevent that sort of discrimination and I believe that I will be successful. If that happens, so far as the Legislature or the Executive committees are concerned, we shall have ample protection from the constitution itself. The minorities sub-committee will meet on the 17th of April and will continue its work for some time. I am very sorry to say that two members of the Scheduled Castes who are in the minorities sub-committee have sent in a memorandum which is contrary to the general views of the Scheduled Castes. One has proposed joint electorates than the separate electorates. He has proposed joint electorate by the distributive system of voting which is nothing but political slavery. I proposed to fight with my back to the wall and I hope, I will be able to get the support from other minority communities in the subcommittee. I do not want to say at this stage what is going to happen; whether the committee is supposed to decide the issue by its majority or whether it proposes to negotiate is a matter about which I have no definite mind. But, if they decide the issue by majority I shall certainly take very definite steps to dissociate myself entirely from the constituent assembly. We shall then decide what exactly to do. In this political matter as you know we are concerned with double loyalty, at least I am. I have loyalty to our people inhabiting this country and I am determined that all difficulties that they have faced so far shall be met by political safeguards. I have also loyalty to this country. I have no doubt that you have the same. All of us want this country to be free. So far as I am concerned my conduct has been guided by the consideration that we shall place no great difficulties in the way of this country achieving its freedom although we were ignored by the cabinet mission in the proposals which they formulated. You know that I have delivered many speeches which have been guided by the consideration that this country should find it easy to achie
ve its freedom. At the same time I am quite determined to say that if the 60 million Untouchables are not safeguarded by means of political rights and if I do not find proper gesture on the part of the Congress people in the matter of settlement of the safeguards for the Scheduled Castes, no one, I am sure, will blame me if I take that step viz., to dissociate myself from the constituent assembly. You should, however, remember that in the constituent assembly of 292 or so I am one single, solitary individual. You should also bear in mind that no matter how great a man may have the intellect or the capacity to argue and to defend, he is after all one man, a single individual. If the rest of 291 are determined not to listen the reason, not to listen the argument but to oppose their opponent you can well realize my possible helplessness in the constituent assembly of 292 where I am only one.

  I hope that good sense will prevail and we shall achieve what we want ultimately. What will count with us is an organization. You must also remember all political rights that we might get by our perpetual efforts are bound to be for a period. There will be a time when these rights will vanish, not only for us but for everybody in this country. When these rights vanish what we shall have to depend upon is our organization, our strength and unity. Therefore, we must be determined to unite.

  The only message which I can give you is suffering and more suffering. There can be no other method except through suffering and you should not be disheartened because our people in some villages have suffered and are undergoing great sufferings. We shall have to pursue our task with determination and decide to be organized. There need not be any fear of suffering in this country.

  THE INDIAN GHETTO

  THE CENTRE OF UNTOUCHABILITY

  Excerpted from Chapter 4 of Untouchables or the Children of India’s Ghetto.

  WHAT IS THE POSITION OF THE UNTOUCHABLES UNDER THE HINDU SOCIAL ORDER? To give a true idea of their position is the main purpose of this chapter. But it is not easy to strike upon the best means of conveying a realistic and concrete picture of the way the Untouchables live or rather are made to live under the Hindu social order to one who has no conception of it. One way is to draw a model plant so to say of the Hindu social order and show the place given to the Untouchables therein. For this it is necessary to go to a Hindu village. Nothing can serve our purpose better. The Hindu village is a working plant of the Hindu social order. One can see there the Hindu social order in operation in full swing. The average Hindu is always in ecstasy whenever he speaks of the Indian village. He regards it as an ideal form of social organization to which he believes there is no parallel anywhere in the world. It is claimed to be a special contribution to the theory of social organization for which India may well be proud of.

  How fanatic are the Hindus in their belief in the Indian village as an ideal piece of social organization may be seen from the angry speeches made by the Hindu members of the Indian Constituent Assembly in support of the contention that the Indian Constitution should recognize the Indian village as its base of the constitutional pyramid of autonomous administrative units with its own legislature, executive and judiciary. From the point of view of the Untouchables, there could not have been a greater calamity. Thank God the Constituent Assembly did not adopt it. Nevertheless the Hindus persist in their belief that the Indian village is an ideal form of social organization. This belief of the Hindus is not ancestral belief, nor does it come from the ancient past. It is borrowed from Sir Charles Metcalfe—a civil servant of the East India Company. Metcalfe, who was a revenue officer, in one of his Revenue Papers described the Indian village in the following terms:

  The village communities are little republics, having nearly everything they want within themselves and almost independent of any foreign relations. They seem to last when nothing else lasts. Dynasty after dynasty tumbles down, revolution succeeds to revolution; Hindu, Pathan, Moghul, Maratha, Sikh, English, all are masters in turn, but the village communities remain the same. In times of trouble they arm and fortify themselves. A hostile army passes through the country, the village communities collect their cattle within their walls and let the enemy pass unprovoked. If plunder and devastation be directed against themselves, and the forces employed be irresistible, they flee to friendly villages at a distance; but when the storm has passed over, they return and resume their occupations. If a country remains for a series of years the scene of continued pillage and massacre so that the villages cannot be inhabited, the scattered villagers nevertheless return whenever the power of peaceable possession revives. A generation may pass away, but the succeeding generation will return. The sons will take the place of their fathers; the same site for the village, the same position for their houses, the same lands will be reoccupied by the descendants of those who were driven out when the village was repopulated; and it is not a trifling matter that will drive them out, for they will often maintain their post through times of disturbances and convulsion, and acquire strength sufficient to resist pillage and oppression with success. This union of the village communities, each one forming a little state in itself, has, I conceive, contributed more than any other cause to the preservation of the people of India, through all the revolutions and changes which they have referred, and is in a high degree conducive to their happiness and to the enjoyment of a great portion of freedom and independence.

  Having read this description of an Indian village given by a high-placed member of the governing class, the Hindus felt flattered and adopted his view as a welcome compliment. In adopting this view of the Indian village, the Hindus have not done any justice to their intelligence or their understanding. They have merely exhibited the weakness common to all subject people. Since many foreigners are led to accept this idealistic view of the Indian village, it would be better to present a realistic picture of the society as one finds it in an Indian village.

  The Indian village is not a single social unit. It consists of castes. But for our purposes, it is enough to say

  The population in the village is divided into two sections: Touchables and Untouchables.

  The Touchables form the major community and the Untouchables a minor community.

  The Touchables live inside the village and the Untouchables live outside the village in separate quarters.

  Economically, the Touchables form a strong and powerful community, while the Untouchables are a poor and a dependent community.

  Socially, the Touchables occupy the position of a ruling race, while the Untouchables occupy the position of a subject race of hereditary bondsmen.

  What are the terms of associated life on which the Touchables and Untouchables live in an Indian village? In every village the Touchables have a code which the Untouchables are required to follow. This code lays down the acts of omissions and commissions which the Touchables treat as offences. The following is the list of such offences:

  The Untouchables must live in separate quarters away from the habitation of the Hindus. It is an offence for the Untouchables to break or evade the rule of segregation.

  The quarters of the Untouchables must be located towards the South, since the South is the most inauspicious of the four directions. A breach of this rule shall be deemed to be an offence.

  The Untouchable must observe the rule of distance pollution or shadow of pollution as the case may be. It is an offence to break the rule.

  It is an offence for a member of the Untouchable community to acquire wealth, such as land or cattle.

  It is an offence for a member of the Untouchable community to build a house with tiled roof.

  It is an offence for a member of an Untouchable community to put on a clean dress, wear shoes, put on a watch or gold ornaments.

  It is an offence for a member of the Untouchable community to give high sounding names to their children. Their names be such as to indicate contempt.

  It is an offence for a member of the Untouchable community to sit on a chair in the presence of a Hindu.

  It is an offence for a member of the Untouchable communit
y to ride on a horse or a palanquin through the village.

  It is an offence for a member of the Untouchable community to take a procession of Untouchables through the village.

  It is an offence for a member of the Untouchable community not to salute a Hindu.

  It is an offence for a member of the Untouchable community to speak a cultured language.

  It is an offence for a member of the Untouchable community, if he happens to come into the village on a sacred day which the Hindus treat as the day of fast and at or about the time of the breaking of fast, to go about speaking, on the ground that their breath is held to foul the air and the food of the Hindus.

  It is an offence for an Untouchable to wear the outward marks of a Touchable and pass himself as a Touchable.

  An Untouchable must conform to the status of an inferior and he must wear the marks of his inferiority for the public to know and identify him such as: (a) having a contemptible name. (b) not wearing clean clothes. (c) not having tiled roof. (d) not wearing silver and gold ornaments. A contravention of any of these rules is an offence. Next come the duties which the Code requires members of the Untouchable community to perform for the Touchables. Under this head the following may be mentioned: