z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-06.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 472
472 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
protected by nomination ?
Dr. Ambedkar: They should be protected somehow ; I do not much mind how. My feeling is that every man is intelligent enough to understand exactly what he wants. Literacy has not much bearing on this point; a man may be illiterate, none the less he may be very intelligent
- Do not you think that this separate representation will lead to communal tension ? It is stated that communal tension is due to separate representation and separate electorates. Is that your belief ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Even assuming it does lead to tension I do not see how you can get rid of it. Whether it does lead to tension is questionable, but I do not see in any case how you can get rid of it, having regard to the fact that society is divided into classes and communities.
- Do not you think it is the root cause of dissension ?
Dr. Ambedkar: I do not think so, but I do say this; as a result of communal representation, the leaders of the communities are less prone to compromise than they would otherwise be. That is my feeling, but I do not think it leads to communal riots, which are due, I think, to something very different
- Syed Miran Muhammad Shah: Would you not suggest that by taking away the official bloc, non-officials may be nominated in order ?
Dr. Ambedkar: I do not want nomination.
- Major Attlee: Are there members of the depressed classes working in industry, in the cotton mills and so on ?
Dr. Ambedkar: All of them. The depressed class men are all labourers.
- You have not got my point; I am talking of industry. You have members of the depressed classes who work in villages, for the most part in certain occupations. But are there large numbers of the depressed classes engaged in industry ?
Dr. Ambedkar: A very large number.
119.You would have a very large number in a place like Bombay City?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes.
- Do they cease in any degree to be untouchable ?
Dr. Ambedkar: No, I should like to point out this. The depressed class man is entirely kept out of the weaving department, the most paying department. He can only enter departments like the throstle department and others.
- Why?
Dr. Ambedkar: On account of untouchability.
- When he is working there he is working alongside people of all castes?
Dr. Ambedkar: Not quite. The departments are discriminated according to castes. One department is entirely manned by the depressed classes;