z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-06.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 448
448 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
95 per cent. of schools the Antyaja children are made to sit outside in the cold, heat or rain, and they are made to fetch cowdung, fuel, droppings, dust etc………. In April 1927 an Antyaja went to the Damnagar dispensary for medicine. The Doctor made him wait for twelve hours and then examined him—from a distance and gave him medicine—from a distance. This happened in the presence of an Antyaja member of the Baroda Legislative Assembly.” And the Pratap of Surat tells us that when a teacher in the Navasari Antyaja Ashram took an ailing boy to the local hospital, the doctor in charge drove them both away with these remarkable words : “Get away ! This is not Gandhi Raj but Baroda Sarkar’s Raj !”
Item No. 3
(From the Evening News 11th May 1926)
UNTOUCHABLE IN JAMBUSAR MUNICIPALITY
FOUR HINDUS RESIGN
A sensation has been caused in Jambusar at the election of an untouchable to the Jambusar Municipality. Four Hindu members have resigned, while the rest have promised not to touch the untouchable member and to bathe if ever they touched him.
Item No. 4
(From the Bombay Chronicle )
KOLABA DEPRESSED CLASS CONFERENCE
ROWDYISM OF UPPER CLASS HINDUS
The Times of India in its issue of the 24th gives a statement of the riot at Mahad. But as that statement is incomplete and fails to give a correct idea of what happened it is necessary to give a complete and correct account of the riot.
A Conference of the Depressed Classes of the Kolaba District was held at Mahad on the 19th and 20th instants [i.e. of March 1927] under the Presidentship of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Bar-at-Law. The attendance of the depressed classes was over 2,500 and great enthusiasm prevailed. But the work of the Conference was severely marred by a riot, the responsibility for which rests entirely upon the upper class Hindu residents of the town of Mahad. On the first day of the Conference after the President had delivered his address, several upper class Hindus addressed the Conference assuring the depressed classes that, they were willing to help them in all ways and urging that the depressed classes should not cultivate hatred of the upper class Hindus. In pursuance of this, the Subjects Committee drafted a resolution among others laying down what the upper class Hindus should do for the uplift of the depressed classes. In the Subjects Committee attention was drawn by some people to the fact that there was a great difficulty at Mahad for the depressed classes in obtaining water for drinking purposes and that this difficulty was felt not only by the resident depressed classes of Mahad but also by the depressed classes from villages who resorted to Mahad for private business or for the purposes of Government