z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-06.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 436
436 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Mr. Bajpai speaking on behalf of the Government of India in the Legislative Assembly on the 23rd February 1928 said “that the population of the Depressed classes in India was much exaggerated and that the real strength of the Depressed classes was only 28½ millions and not
60 millions” as used to be stated theretofore. The Sabha fears that the Commission may fall into the same error in which the Southborough Committee fell and may in consequence make proposals based upon such erroneous calculation. The Sabha therefore desires to draw the attention of the Commission to what the Director of the Census of India has to say in this connection. In Chapter XI of Volume I of the Census of India
1921 the Director observes :
“Paragraph 193. It has been usual in recent years to speak of a certain section of the community as the ‘Depressed classes’. So far as I am aware the term has no final definition, nor is it certain exactly whom it covers. In the Quinquennial Review of the Progress of Education from 1912 to 1917 (Chapter XVIII paragraph 505), the Depressed classes are specifically dealt with the point of view of educational assistance and progress, and in Appendix XIII to that Report a list of the castes and tribes constituting this section of the community is given. The total population classed according to these lists as depressed amounted to 31 million persons or 19 p.c. of the Hindu and Tribal population of British India. There is undoubtedly some danger in giving offence by making in a public report social distinctions which may be deemed invidious ; but in view of the lists already prepared and the fact that the ‘depressed’ have especially in South India, attained a class consciousness and a class organization, are served by special missions, ‘raised’ by philanthropic societies and officially represented in the Legislative Assemblies, it certainly seems advisable to face the facts and to attempt to obtain some statistical estimate of their numbers. I. therefore, asked Provincial Superintendents to let me have an estimate based on Census figures of the approximate strength of the castes who were usually included in the category of ‘depressed’. I received lists of some sorts from all Provinces and States except the United Provinces, whose extreme delicacy of official sentiment shrank from facing the task of attempting even a rough estimate. The figures given are not based on exactly uniform criteria, as a different view is taken of the position of the same group in different parts of India, and I have had in some cases to modify the estimate on the basis of the figures in the educational report and of information from the 1911 reports and tables. They are also subject to the general deject which has already been explained, that the total strength of any caste is not recorded. The marginal statement [reproduced below] gives, however, a rough estimate of the minimum numbers which may be considered to form the ‘depressed classes’ of the Hindu Community. The total of these provincial figures adds up to about 53 millions. This, however, must be taken as a low and conservative estimate since it does not include (1) the full strength of the castes and tribes concerned and (2) the tribal aborigines most recently