318 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
of United States. It has no potentiality of forging a nation out of these States and probably the framers of the Scheme have had no such intention at all.
2. Democratization of Autocracies
The other advantage of the Federal Scheme which is claimed by its protagonists is that it brings beneath the dome of a single political edifice the new democracies of British India and the ancient autocracies of the Indian States and that by bringing the two under one edifice it provides contact between democracy and autocracy and thus enables the democracy in British India to democratize the autocracies in the Indian States. To examine this argument and to see how much force there is behind it, it is well to note that the Indian States and the British Indian Provinces are geographically contiguous. There is regular intercourse between them. The people of British India and those of the Indian States racially, linguistically and culturally form parts of one whole. With all these contacts and with all the unity of race, religion, language and culture British India has not been able to influence at all the forms of government which are prevalent in the Indian States. On the contrary while British India has advanced from autocracy to democracy, the Indian States have remained what they were with their fixed form of government. Unless therefore there is something special in the Act itself which enables British India to exercise its influence on the Indian States through the legislature and through the executive, this argument can have no substance at all. Is there anything in the Act which gives British India power to influence the States ? In this connection reference may be made to section 34( 1 ) which deals with the procedure in the legislature with respect to the discussion and voting of the Budget estimates.
From an examination of this Section it will be clear that the estimates relating to para ( a ) and para ( f ) of sub-section ( 3 ) of section 33 cannot even be discussed by the Federal legislature. Para ( a ) of sub-section ( 3 ) refers to the salary and allowances of the Governor-General and other expenditure relating to his office for which estimate is required to be made by Orders in Council, and para ( f ) relates to the sums payable to His Majesty under this Act out of the revenue of the Federation in respect of the expenses incurred in discharging the functions of the Crown in its relations with the Indian States. Another section which has a bearing upon this point is Section 38. Section 33 is a section which deals with the making of the rules by the Federal legislature for regulating its procedure in the conduct of its business. While this section permits the Federal legislature to make its own rules it allows the Governor-General to make rules —
( c ) or prohibiting the discussion of, or the asking of questions on, any matter connected with any Indian State, other than a matter with