Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (Vol. 9): Gandhi, Congress and the Untouchables
فوکس
Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891-1956), was a scholar, social reformer, powerful advocate of the rights of Dalits and women, chairman of the Constituent Assembly of India, and the country’s first law minister.
In 1976, the
government of Maharashtra set up the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Source Material
Publication Committee to compile Dr. Ambedkar’s complete works. The Committee
consisted of the state’s then education minister and noted scholars and
writers. In 1978, when Vasant Moon (Dalit activist, author and Officer on
Special Duty) joined the Committee, it decided to procure and publish Dr.
Ambedkar’s unpublished writings too.
The state’s Education
Department started to publish a 22-volume series titled Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches in 1979, and it brought out this ninth volume in
1991. The series was re-printed by the Dr. Ambedkar Foundation, an autonomous
body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in January 2014.
The writings in the ninth volume – which is arranged
in two parts or ‘books’ – highlight the differences in opinion between Dr.
Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi.
Book 1: What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables
This is a reprint of a book which was first published in June 1945, by Thacker
and Company, Bombay. Focusing on the activities of the Indian National Congress
between 1917 and 1935, the book discusses Dr. Ambedkar’s two main arguments
against the party, on establishing constitutional and legal safeguards for
Untouchables, and Mahatma Gandhi’s claim to be the “sole champion of the
Untouchables.” The book draws on speeches, articles, private conversations, electoral
data, and various other sources.
A key reason for the animosity between Ambedkar
and Gandhi was their difference in opinion on the matter of separate
electorates for Untouchables. Dr. Ambedkar believed that in order to secure
liberty and equal opportunity for the Untouchables, it was important to first
secure constitutional and legislative safeguards through separate electorates. But
Gandhi and the rest of the Congress party maintained that Untouchability was
essentially a social issue and should be tackled through social reforms. Gandhi
further argued that separate electorates for Untouchables would be divisive for
the Hindu community and a “vivisection of the nation.”
This debate had culminated in Gandhi’s fast unto
death in opposition to the Communal Award of 1932. The Award granted the
Untouchables a fixed quota of seats to be elected by a separate electorate for
the community, and the benefit of a ‘double vote’, through which they could
vote in the general as well as separate electorates. For Dr. Ambedkar, “This
[opposition] was nothing but a declaration of War by Mr. Gandhi and the
Congress against the Untouchables.”
The fast – which began on September 20, 1932 – ended
when Ambedkar agreed to negotiate the terms of the Communal Award, in what became
the Poona Pact of 1932. The pact increased the fixed quota of seats for Untouchables
in the legislative assemblies, but it took away their right to separate
electorates and double vote. According to Dr. Ambedkar, this increased the
Untouchables’ political vulnerability: “To end this long and sad story, the
Congress sucked the juice out of the Poona Pact and threw the rind in the face
of the Untouchables.”
Rather than creating social solidarity, joint
electorates would only lead to the Untouchables being overruled by the Hindu
majority once British rule ends, wrote Dr. Ambedkar. “These elections take
place one every five years,” he said. “It may well be asked how can social
solidarity between the Hindus and the Untouchables be advanced by one day
devoted to joint voting if for the rest of the five years they are leading
severely separate lives.”
Discussing such events as the temple entry movement
of 1932, Dr. Ambedkar argues that Gandhi and the Congress don’t truly represent
the Untouchables. He contends that the Congress’ purported support for the
Untouchables’ interests is “nothing more than mere tactics” to garner support
for their ‘Fight for Freedom’.
Book 2: Mr. Gandhi and the Emancipation of the Untouchables
This book is based on
a conference paper presented by Dr. Ambedkar in Quebec, Canada, in December
1942. It was first published in December 1943 by Thacker and Company, Bombay. In
this book, Dr. Ambedkar introduces the reader to the social, political, educational and economical
demands of the Untouchables in their struggle to achieve legal and social emancipation.
He writes: “If there is any cause of freedom in this Indian turmoil for
independence it is the cause of the Untouchables. The cause of the Hindus and
the cause of the Mussalmans…is a Struggle for power as distinguished from
freedom.”
The 94-page book has 10 chapters, and begins with an overview of the
social structure of Indian society, particularly the relationship between the
Untouchables and the Hindus. Dr. Ambedkar critically assesses the political
demands of the Untouchables, including the issue of separate electorates,
representation for Untouchables in the Executive and Public Services and
separate settlements.
“It is the close-knit association of the
Untouchables with the Hindus living in the same villages which marks them out
as Untouchables and which enables the Hindus to identify them as being
Untouchables,” Dr. Ambedkar writes. “It is the village system which perpetuates
Untouchability and the Untouchables therefore demand that it should be broken
and the Untouchables who are as a matter of fact socially separate should be
made separate geographically and territorially also, and be grouped into
separate villages exclusively of Untouchables in which the distinction of the
high and the low and of Touchable and Untouchable will find no place.”
Dr.
Ambedkar appeals to individuals outside India to question the Congress’ stance
on the abolition of Untouchability. “I would like to warn
the American friends of the Hindus,” Ambedkar writes, “not to be content with
the ‘glittering generalities’ contained in the Congress’ declaration of
Minority Rights. To declare the rights of the minority is one thing and to have
them implemented is another.”
Focus by Zeena Oberoi.
مصنف
First edition compiled and edited by Vasant Moon
Second edition edited by Hari Narke
کاپی رائٹ
The first edition was published by the Education Department, government of Maharashtra, in 1991. This is a 2014 reprint by the Dr. Ambedkar Foundation, Delhi, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
تاریخ اشاعت
01 جنوری, 2014