Mr. Gandhi who was very much relieved after the martyrdom of the revolutionaries (Sukhdev and Co) could not realize that the relief was for a short period and his destiny would be cruel to him, by making him face his one and only strongest opponent till his death. The man who would cross sword with Mr. Gandhi, the man who would tell that Mr. Gandhi’s period was the darkest ages in the History, man who sprung from the lowest rung of the dehumanized society who not only carved his name in the golden pages of Indian History but crafted the nation destiny itself-Dr. Ambedkar.
The spark was ignited on August 14, 1931 and it sounded like initial stages of war between Mr. Gandhi and Dr.Ambedkar.
First Phase of War:
As we all know Mr. Gandhi was not present in the first round table conference. Dr.Ambedkar who had participated in the first RTC had thrown open the dehumanized life of the cores of untouchables before the British premier. First time the world came to know population equal to England population was treated worsen than the Negroes.
Dr. Ambedkar: Everybody knows that the Muslims and the Sikhs are socially, politically and economically more advanced than the Untouchables. The first session of the Round Table Conference has given political recognition to the Muslim demands and has recommended political safeguards for them. The Congress has agreed to their demands. The first session has also given recognition to the political rights of the Depressed Classes and has recommended for them political safeguards and adequate representation. According to us that is beneficial to the Depressed Classes. What is your opinion?
Mr. Gandhi: I am against the political separation of the Untouchables from the Hindus. That would be absolutely suicidal.
Dr. Ambedkar (Rising): I thank you for your frank opinion. It is good that I know now where we stand as regards this vital problem. I take leave of you.
Thus, the die was cast
The second meeting was on Sep 26, 1931. Dr.Ambedkar described his position to Mr. Gandhi which Mr. Gandhi kept on listening spinning his wheel. Mr. Gandhi’s unwillingness to respond irritated Dr.Ambedkar.
They both faced each other on Oct 8, 1931 regarding the minorities committee meeting.
Some experts about how they felt:
Dr.Ambedkar : To say in public that I will agree if all others agreed and then set out to work in private to prevent others from so agreeing by buying off those who are willing to agree, is, in our opinion , a piece of conduct unbecoming a Mahatma and to be expected only from an inveterate opponent of the depressed classes. Mr. Gandhi is not only not playing the part of a friend of the depressed classes, but he is not even playing the part of an honest foe.
Mr. Gandhi :The most humiliating day of his life.
Dr.Ambedkar : Unfortunately, the congress chose Mr. Gandhi as its representative. A worse person could not have been chosen to guide India’s destiny. As a unifying force he was a failure. Mr. Gandhi presents himself as a man full of humanity. But his behavior at the Round table conference showed that in the flush of victory Mr. Gandhi could be very petty minded.
Second Phase:
This war was only because of the political cunningness of Mr. Gandhi and his assumed role as the saviour of Hinduism. As we all know Dr. Ambedkar changed his opinion of joint electorate with reserved seats to separate electorate. This transition was because of the superior attitude of the caste Hindus, their negligence, indifference to the untouchables, inability to treat the untouchables as humans. Mr. Gandhi opposed tooth and nail the joint electorate with reserved seats. And even went to the extent in the RTC that he declared to fight with his life for saving Hinduism from the disaster. Dr. Ambedkar through his brilliance, political shrewdness, hard work, non cessable meetings with the British premier, interview with press had won the cause and the British Premier had granted the separate electorate for the untouchables. (Ramsey MacDonald announced in the communal award the separate electorate for the untouchables with 71 seats in the legislature. This came as a shock to Mr. Gandhi).
Now after hearing the news in the yervada jail Mr. Gandhi after his defeat in London, being confident of his mystic influence on his disciples, loyalty of his political followers stooped too low to measure the leadership with the young unarmed Dr. Ambedkar. Hence, he fought with his life as told before and enacted his usual political gimmick (fasting) which he generally uses just to threaten the weaken, against whom he could enforce his wishes, deals, bent according to his cause. His followers as usual assuming the role of sincere stooges, who before neglected Dr. Ambedkar now came to their real senses that Dr. Ambedkar is indeed the leader of depressed classes. They made repeated requests and tried to settle the communal issues and agreed upon the 148 seat with double elections. This pact which is considered as the worse even today became to be known as the Poona Pact. Mr. Gandhi won, after depriving all the lifesaving weapons from young Dr. Ambedkar. If Mr. Gandhi had agreed during the RTC itself, the joint electorate with reserved seats, this political gimmick would have been avoided; instead he chose this ordeal at his own cost. It should be noted that Mr. Gandhi was only worried, fought against the separate electorate for untouchables but stood positive for the separate electorate for the Sikh, Muslim, Christian who were economical well off, politically recognized. He was not even concerned how much breach the communal award granted to Sikhs, Muslim would create, widen the unity and would pose a threat for India in near future. He even told that he would not care if the untouchables were converted to Islam, Christians. This shows how much Mr. Gandhi was politically ill-equipped and his inefficiency in the taking any important decision. This pact is the real nuisance, cause for providing today generations to speak ill about Dr. Ambedkar “Reservation is because of Dr. Ambedkar” but these geniuses failed to understand that “Dr. Ambedkar won separate electorate and Mr. Gandhi was the sole responsible person for the reservation”.
Some excerpts:
Mr. Gandhi: “I would like to repeat what I have said before, that, while the Congress will always accept any solution that may be acceptable to the Hindus, the Mohammedans and the Sikhs, Congress will be no party to the special electorates for any other minorities. One word more as to the so-called Untouchables. I can understand the claims advanced by other minorities, but the claims advanced on behalf of the Untouchables, that time is the ‘unkindest cut of all.’ It means the perpetual bar-sinister. I would not sell the vital interests of the Untouchables even for the sake of winning the freedom of India. I claim myself in my own person to represent the vast mass of the Untouchables. Here I speak not merely on behalf of the Congress, but I speak on my own behalf, and I claim that I would get, if there was a referendum of the Untouchables, their vote, and that I would top the poll. And I would work from one end of India to the other to tell the Untouchables that separate electorates, and separate reservation is not the way to remove this bar-sinister, which is the shame, not of them, but of orthodox Hinduism.
Dr. Ambedkar: Those, who were friends of Mr. Gandhi, could not understand Mr. Gandhi’s attitude to the demands of the Untouchables. To give recognition to the Muslims and the Sikhs and to refuse it to the Untouchables came to them as a surprise and a puzzle. Whenever they asked for an explanation, Mr. Gandhi did nothing except to get angry. Mr. Gandhi himself could not give a logical and consistent defense of his opposition to the Untouchables. Inside the Round Table Conference his defense was that the Hindus had seriously taken up the cause of the Untouchables and that therefore there was no reason to give them political safeguards.
Outside the Round Table Conference, he gave totally different reasons. In a speech in, defense of his position Mr. Gandhi said: “Muslims and Sikhs are all well-organised. The ‘Untouchables’ are not. There is very little political consciousness among them, and they are so horribly treated that I want to save them against themselves. If they had separate electorates their lives would be miserable in villages which are the strongholds of Hindu orthodoxy. It is the superior class of Hindus who have to do penance for having neglected the ‘Untouchables’ for ages. That penance can be done by active social reform and by making the lot of the ‘ Untouchables ‘ more bearable by acts of service, but not by asking for separate electorates for them. By giving them separate electorates, you will throw the apple of discord between the ‘Untouchables’ and the orthodox. You must understand I can tolerate the proposal for special representation of the Musalmans and the Sikhs only as a necessary evil. It would be a positive danger for the ‘Untouchables.’ I am certain that the question of separate electorates for the ‘Untouchables’ is a modern manufacture of Government. The only thing needed is to put them on the voters’ list, and provide for fundamental rights for them in the constitution. In cases, they are unjustly treated and their representative is deliberately excluded they would have the right to special election tribunal which would give them complete protection. It should be open to these tribunals to order the unseating of an elected candidate and the election of the excluded men.
“Separate electorates to the ‘Untouchables’ will ensure them bondage in perpetuity. The Musalmans will never cease to be Musalmans by having separate electorates. Do you want the ‘Untouchables’ to remain ‘Untouchables’ forever? Well, the separate electorates would perpetuate the stigma. What is needed is destruction of untouchability, and when you have done it, the bar-sinister which has been imposed by an insolent ‘superior’ class upon an ‘inferior’ class will be destroyed. When you have destroyed the bar-sinister, to whom will you give the separate electorates? Look at the history of Europe. Have you got separate electorates for the working classes or women? With adult franchise, you give the ‘Untouchables’ complete security. Even the orthodox would have to approach them for votes. “Now then you ask, does Dr. Ambedkar, their representative, insist on separate electorates for them? I have the highest regard for Dr. Ambedkar. He has every right to be bitter. That he does not break our heads is an act of self-restraint on his part. He is today so much saturated with suspicion that he cannot see anything else. He sees in every Hindu a determined opponent of the ‘Untouchables’ and it is quite natural. The same thing happened to me in my early days in South Africa, where I was bounded out by Europeans wherever I went. It is quite natural for him to vent his wrath. But the separate electorates that he seeks will not give him social reform. He may himself mount to power and position but nothing good will accrue to the ‘Untouchables.’ I can say all this with authority, having lived with the ‘Untouchables’ and having shared their joys and sorrows all these years.”
Poona Pact as described by Dr. Ambedkar:
Accordingly, on the 20th September 1932, Mr. Gandhi commenced his “fast unto death” as a protest against the grant of separate electorates to the Untouchables. The story of this fact has been told by Mr. Pyarelal in a volume which bears the picturesque and flamboyant title of “The Epic Fast.” There is another side to it, but there is neither time nor space to present it here. All I can do is to invite attention to the statement. I issued to the Press on the eve of Mr. Gandhi’s fast exposing his tactics. Suffice it is to say that although Mr. Gandhi declared a fast unto death, he did not want to die. He wanted very much to live. The fast nonetheless created a problem, and that problem was how to save Mr. Gandhi’s life. The only way to save his life was to alter the Communal Award which Mr. Gandhi said hurt his conscience so much. The Prime Minister had made it quite clear that the British Cabinet would not withdraw it or alter it of its own, but that they were ready to substitute for it a formula that may be agreed upon by the Caste Hindus and the Untouchables. As I had the privilege of representing the Untouchables at the Round Table Conference, it was assumed that the assent of the Untouchables would not be valid unless I was a party to it. The surprising fact is that my position as the leader of the Untouchables of India was not only questioned by Congressmen but it was accepted as a fact. All eyes naturally turned to me as the man of the moment or rather as the villain of the piece. As to myself, it is no exaggeration to say that no man was placed in a greater and graver dilemma than I was then. It was a baffling situation. I had to make a choice between two different alternatives. There was before me the duty, which I owed as a part of common humanity, to save Gandhi from sure death. There was before me the problem of saving for the Untouchables the political rights which the Prime Minister had given them. I responded to the call of humanity and saved the life of Mr. Gandhi by agreeing to alter the Communal Award in a manner satisfactory to Mr. Gandhi. This agreement is known as the Poona Pact.
My regret is “why did not Mahatmaji take this attitude at the Round Table Conference? If he had shown the same consideration to my point of view then, it would not have been necessary for him to go through this ordeal” – Dr. Ambedkar.
Next Phase:
This phase was concerned with the temple entry movement. Everyone knows Dr. Ambedkar in the year 1930 led the famous Kalaram temple entry movement. Now Mr. Gandhi after the Poona Pact tried his best to move away from the extreme right and for a change of character supported the temple entry. He asked Dr. Ambedkar to agree with the two temple entry bills by Subbarayan’s Iyer and Ranga Iyer which this time Dr. Ambedkar denounced citing “it only supported the temple entry” but did not proclaim “untouchability as a sin”. He was firm in his view that if education opportunities, economic and social upliftment was given for the untouchables the temple entry would automatically follow. Dr. Ambedkar made himself absent from the Anti- Untouchable League which was later styled as Harijan Sevak Sangh by Mr. Gandhi as it did not include any depressed class members so much so that many thought the league was not for the facilitation of Dr. Ambedkar’s movement but rather to liquefy his leadership. Finally, the difference of view culminated when Dr. Ambedkar put forth his question in a lucid manner:
Dr.Ambedkar f: “If I accept temple entry now and agitate for the abolition of Chaturvarnya and caste system, on what side Gandhi would be. If he is in the opposite camp, I cannot be in his camp now”.
For this the reply given by Mr. Gandhi was as follows.
Mr. Gandhi: I am a Hindu, not merely I am born in its fold, but I am one with conviction and choice. There is no superiority or inferiority in Hinduism of my conception. But when Dr. Ambedkar wants to fight varnashram itself, I cannot be in his camp, because I believe varnashram to be an integral part of Hinduism.
When the caste Hindus was forcing themselves to move towards Dr. Ambedkar, leaving the solid rigid right, Dr. Ambedkar moved the shudder of ship in his own style and drifted to the extreme left. He now to everyone’s shock turned the eyes of the depressed class members from “temple entry movement to gain political power”. Dr. Ambedkar’s vision proved correct, the temple entry bill was finally dropped due to the connivance of the congress members and no sympathy from the government.
Another Phase:
This pertained to the posthumous child of the conference that was supposed to be held in Punjab, which surpassed ages and became the best thesis on “Annihilation of Caste”. In this article as we all know Dr. Ambedkar had denounced Hinduism and has criticized it to the core, attributed slavery, non-progressive, absence of equality, fraternity liberty to the caste system. Mr. Gandhi had replied to this thesis in two articles known as the “Dr. Ambedkar’s Indictment”. (Every reader can understand how much Mr. Gandhi lacked backwards in his thinking, and how brilliant was Dr.Ambedkar).
The touchables and untouchables cannot be hold together by law, certainly by any electoral law substituting separate electorate by joint electorate. The only thing that can hold together is love. The salvation of the depressed caste will come only when the Caste Hindus is made to think and is forced to feel that he must alter his ways. I want a revolution in the mentality of the Caste Hindus – Dr. Ambedkar
In the year 1944, Dr.Ambedkar wrote to Mr. Gandhi thinking Mr. Gandhi would now consider the leader of the untouchables. In the letter Dr. Ambedkar had written in addition to solving the Hindu-Muslim problem, the problems of the untouchables should also be considered if the Indian political goal to be achieved. Dr. Ambedkar was ready to formulate points to settle out the problems. However, as expected, Mr. Gandhi turned down the offer as usual mentioning, for him the problems and question about the untouchables was of religious and social reforms.
References:
AUTHOR: Ānanda Bashu
