z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-05.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 394
394 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
between personal risk and sacrifices involved in the performance of their service is admitted, then in my opinion, there is no logical justification for paying them on the same basis. Indeed, if the total position of the two classes of public servants in India be compared then one thing is certain. That if the present salary of European officers is adequate then it is beyond dispute that the Indian officers are overpaid. If, however, the contention is that the Indian officers are not overpaid then it follows that the European officers are underpaid. Whichever view is taken the present practice of equal pay to Indians and Europeans gives rise to a position which is quite unsatisfactory. I have no hesitation in saying that under the present practice of equal payment whether or not the European is adequately paid his Indian colleagues is certainly overpaid. That being my view I am anxious to see that the scale of salary of public servants with Indian domicile is lower. This argument, I am sure, cannot fail to appeal to every Indian who examines the financial position of the different Provincial Governments and the serious embarrassments in which each is placed by reason of the high proportion of expenditure which is devoted to the payment of emoluments to public servants. There are some Indians I know who object to this principle of inequality in salaries. Be it noted that these objections come from those classes of Indians from which the Civil Service is largely recruited, and who claim to be the leaders of the country. Theirs is a contemptible little argument without any substance in it. It has no substance because inequality in status is not a necessary consequence of inequality in pay. It is contemptible because it is based on self-interest. I for myself am in favour of increasing Indianisation mainly because of the large promise of economy which it holds out.
- (iii) Indianisation and the claims of the Backward Classes. —It is
notorious that the Public Services of the country in so far as they are open
to Indians have become by reason of various circumstances a close preserve
for the Brahmins and allied castes. The Non-Brahmins, the Depressed Classes
and the Mohamedans are virtually excluded from them. They are carrying
on an intense agitation for securing to themselves what they regard as a
due share of the Public Services. With that purpose in view they prefer the
system of appointment by selection to the system of appointment by open
competition This is vehemently opposed by the Brahmins and the allied
castes on the ground that the interests of the State require that efficiency
should be the only consideration in the matters of appointment to public
offices and that caste and creed should count for nothing. Relying upon
educational merit as the only test which can be taken to guarantee efficiency,
they insist that public offices should be filled on the basis of competitive
examinations. Such a system it is claimed serves the ends of efficiency
without in any way prohibiting the entry of the Backward Classes in the
Public Services. For the competitive examination being open to all castes
and creeds it leaves the door open to a candidate from these communities
if he satisfied the requisite test.