z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-06.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 438
438 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
of the Depressed classes both educational and economical is the lowest in this Presidency. Consequently they are entitled to some electoral advantage over what they are entitled to on the basis of their strength. This electoral advantage must be greater in the case of the Depressed classes than in the case of any other community of equal strength and standing; because no community can be said to form a submerged class in the same sense in which the Depressed classes do. Nor can any class be said to be burdened with those grave disabilities which form the common lot of the Depressed classes and which prevent them from rising above their degraded station in life. This is one reason why the Sabha feels justified in asking for this increment in representation. There is also another reason which the Sabha thinks must justify the extra representation claimed by it for the Depressed classes. The representation of a minority, if it is to protect the minority, must also be effective. If not, it would be a farce. To escape this reproach it must be recognized that if a minority is to be protected then there must be enough representatives of the minority to save it from being entirely submerged. To put the same thing in the form of a proposition, the effectiveness of a minority representation depends upon its being large enough to have the sense of not being entirely overwhelmed. In claiming this extra representation the Depressed classes, the Sabha thinks, are entitled to invoke this principle in their favour, in common with the rest of the minorities in the country.
- Necessity for impartial treatment of all minority communities. —These principles governing the extent of representation are those which have been laid down by the Government of India in their despatch reviewing the Report of the Southborough Committee. The Sabha desires to point out that the case of the Depressed classes was more deserving of the application of such principles than that of any other community that could have been thought of in the whole of India. In practice, however, the benefit of these principles was rigorously denied to the Depressed classes all throughout India and was literally showered upon a community like the Mahomedans holding a stronger and better position in the country than can be predicated of the Depressed classes. To point out one such instance of unequal treatment the Sabha would invite the attention of the Commission to the two following cases : —
Seats for Depressed classes
Moslem Seats for Provinces Population Moslems
Depressed classes Population
Central Provinces .. .. 574,276 11 3,060,232 2
Bombay Presidency .. .. 1,207,443 7 1,627,980 1
Howsoever indignant one may feel over the perpetration of such injustice to the Depressed classes the Government of India does not blush at it. For, it had avowedly enunciated those principles for the very limited purpose of applying them to the Mahomedans only. This was due, as everyone knows, to the distinction the Government of India made in the political importance of the different communities. The Sabha protests against this grading of the citizens of a country on the basis of their