A
Testimony
The East
India Company that had come to India for business had entered politics and
eventually conquered the country and made it a part of the British Empire.
India was enslaved and the British Empire spread to more countries. The growth
of the empire divided the world in two blocks that subsequently turned hostile
towards each other and led to the First World War the Empire had sought support
of vassal states to serve its interests in international politics. But there
was a hurdle in India, as the Indian National Congress, in its annual
conference, had passed a resolution to achieve freedom. Indians had become
hostile towards their British masters.
The British
government was in a fix and to overcome the hurdle it wanted to do something to
pacify the people of India. In the British parliament that used to control the
governance in India, the incharge of Indian affairs Lord Montague moved a resolution
on August 20, 1917, to accommodate Indians through reservation in their
country. Accordingly, the Southburough commission was sent to India to tour the
country to make efforts in the direction.
Bhimrao
Ambedkar testified before the commission and narrated the plight of the
untouchables. On the other hand Maharshi Shinde vetoed any reservation for untouchables
on grounds that they had no property and claimed that the Congress through his
Depressed Class Mission was capable of protecting the interests of the untouchables, who did
not require any special rights.
Incidentally,
in 1909, Morley-Minto had toured India to explore the possibility of providing
some freedom for Indians, but the untouchables did not get anything as Ambedkar
had not become active in politics, then.
The scenario
was different in 1917, when Ambedkar had become vocal on the welfare of the
untouchables. The leadership in the Indian National Congress, which was
predominantly Brahmins, was appeasing Muslims but spurning untouchables. In the
Lucknow pact, to cast vote, a citizen has to be at least a matriculate and
earning at least Rs 300 per month, thereby depriving untouchables from voting.
For instance, in 1916, even in Bombay
province, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was the lone graduate and only seven people were
matriculates. In other provinces, the situation was worse. The policy of the
Congress, of depriving untouchables of any rights and more representation of
Muslims ultimately lead to the partition of the country.
The British
wanted to pit the Congress and the Muslim League against each other, but the
ambitions of Muslims kept on increasing and ultimately lead to the creation of
Pakistan. The Hindus in the Congress party were responsible for the partition
of India.
To the
untouchables of India, the British rule turned out to be a boon. It brought
about a change in the country, triggering social reforms to usher in change.
The movement of change began and conservative leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak
were countered by his contemporaries like Mahadeo Govind Ranade and Gopal
Ganesh Agarkar.
With the
outbreak of the first wold war, the British government had to provide some
succour to Indians to get their support. Efforts like the Southborough
commission enabled Ambedkar to narrate the plight of the untouchables. The
Indian National Congress that was established in 1885 did not bother to think about the untouchables. Only after
the British decided to provide representation to communities as per their
population, the Congress was compelled to move a resolution about untouchables
in their annual convention in 1917.
In fact, the
resolution was a party of the dirty politics played by the Congress. The same
year, the British had lifted the ban on recruiting people from the Mahar
community (untouchable community to which Ambedkar belonged) in the Mahar Regiment.
The combat unit had played a crucial role in helping the British defeat the
Peshwa rulers in 1818. The victory had enabled the British jack to fly
unchallenged. However, a ban onthe recruitment of Mahars had been imposed in
1892.
After the
ban on the enrolment of Mahars was lifted in 1917, the untouchables entered the
army in large numbers and gained access to education and earned money. Hence,
after the ban was lifted on February 6, 1917, the untouchables in Mumbai organised
a meeting at the town hall on July 8, 1917, to express their gratitude towards
the British. The change had enabled them to break the shackles of
untouchability in the traditional Hindu society that had denied them civil
rights and confined them to a life of poverty and illiteracy.
It was a
time when, Bal Gangadhar Tilak was opposing the entry of people from Other
Backward Classes (who were part of the four tier traditional Hindu
stratification of society and were better off than untouchables) in legislative
bodies. He had claimed the legislating laws was the right of the upper caste people,
not of those ploughing the fields or involved in petty business.
When Tilak
was opposing the entry of backward classes in legislature, Ambedkar was
insisting on equal rights for the untouchables. The Bahishkrut Hitkarini Sabha
floated by him had demanded 22 seats out of the 140 in the Bombay legislature, apart
from education of the untouchables through state funds and their recruitment in
police and the defence forces. He wanted these things to become the rights of
the untouchables as he had realised the importance of education in the lives of
the untouchables. In short, by urging the Southborough commission to provide
these things to untouchables, he was trying the lay the foundation for special
attention towards their plight and paving the way for reservation for them. Among those who had deposed in front of the
Southborough commission were Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Vitthal Ramji Shinde, Annasaheb
Latthe, N C Kelkar, N M Joshi, Gulam Hussein Hidayatullah, R P Paranjape,
Ambalal Sarabhai, Sir Jamshedji eejeebhoy
and Dr B R Ambedkar. In all, 36 people had deposed before the commission from
January 24, 1919 to January 31, 1919. Ambedkar and Maharshi Vitthal Ramji
Shinde testified on January 27, 1919. In his interaction with the Southborough
commission, Ambedkar, while describing the demography of different religions,
divided Hindus into two parts- the touchable or so called upper-caste Hindus
and the untouchables, so that separate political representation could be
granted for both.
Maharshi
Shinde belonged to the pre-Gandhi era and was confined to the limitations
imposed by the Congress party. Shinde took the same stand that Gandhi was to
take in the Round Table Conference in 1930 that he represented all Hindus and
that untouchables should not be considered as a separate group. Ambedkar, who
was testifying at the commission not as a representative of an organisation but
as a professor from Sydneham college, had said that out of the 60 seats he was expecting
in the Bombay Province, seven should be granted to the untouchables and the
remaining 53 be distributed among the 26 districts in the region.1
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