z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-06.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 467
EVIDENCE BEFORE SIMON COMMISSION 467
- The only other thing I will ask you is this. I think Mr. Rajah probably will be glad to put a few questions himself to bring out the social condition. At present I think, in the Bombay Legislative Council there are two members, are there not, who are nominated to represent the depressed classes ?
Dr. Ambedkar : That is so.
- You yourself being one of them ?
Dr. Ambedkar : Yes.
- And Dr. Solanki being the other ?
Dr. Ambedkar : Yes.
- Was that based on the Southborough Committee’s Report ?
Dr. Ambedkar : Yes, I believe so.
- I believe you gave evidence before the Southborough Committee ?
Dr. Ambedkar : Yes.
- I have been reading your evidence before that Committee, and I was looking to see how many members you said there were of the depressed classes. I think you point out in your memorandum, in a note at the bottom of page 39, that the figure of the depressed classes given by the Southborough Committee for the Bombay Presidency was 5,77,000 ?
Dr. Ambedkar : Yes.
- I think your view is that, that was an error ?
Dr. Ambedkar : Yes, a very large error.
- Can you tell me, as a matter of fact, how they arrived at it ? Do you know at all ?
Dr. Ambedkar : They simply took, I think, a small table with regard to castes which cause pollution.
- It was taking a still narrower definition of what constituted the depressed classes ?
Dr. Ambedkar : Yes.
- Mr. Hartshorn: I notice in this note you say, after referring to the figure of the Southborough Committee of 5,77,000. “According to the authority relied upon by the Southborough Committee, the population of the depressed classes in the Bombay Presidency in 1911 was 2,145,000”.
Dr. Ambedkar : In the Census.
- That is the authority they relied upon ? That was what I wanted to know.
Dr. Ambedkar : Yes. The authority gave two different figures on two different pages, if I remember correctly. On one page they gave the smaller figure, and they took that up, and as soon as the Report of the Southborough Committee was published we protested against this estimate to the Government of Bombay.
- Chairman: I think it is quite clear what the 2,100,000 was. It was the result of adding together in the Census of 1921 the figure given for the untouchables, which as I have said, was 1,478,000, and the figure given