z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-06.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 480
480 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Dr. Ambedkar: No. I say the accused himself would not come in.
- The accused himself was terrorised by the past acts of the Hindus ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes.
- The fear had been engendered in the minds of the depressed classes on account of the oppression of the caste Hindus that he would not get a square deal thereafter if he was to trench upon the limited rights which he had been given by the caste Hindus ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes.
- Sir Hari Singh Gour: I think you will admit, Dr. Ambedkar, that during the last few years there has been a forward movement in the way of removing untouchability and removing all disqualifications from the path of the depressed classes ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes.
- I admit that the reforms have not been commensurate with your desires and mind, but at the same time, we have to recognise that there is a growing feeling that there must be a consolidation of the Hindu people by removing all these barriers that stand between the caste and the non-caste Hindus. You recognise that ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes, there are speeches from the platform.
- There are positive actions ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Speaking for my part of the country, the Bombay Presidency, I would rather hesitate to accept your proposition.
- Therefore, I will give you examples. Every year, for instance, wherever there is a caste and no-caste society, Hindus hold annual dinners, and they all sit together for the purpose of making one class of people accustomed to the other class of people ?
Dr. Ambedkar: I am not aware of it in this Presidency.
- I have attended several of them.
Dr. Ambedkar: In this Presidency?
Sir Hari Singh Gour: No, in Nagpur.
There is no such movement here ? Dr. Ambedkar: No.
But you admit that there is recognition of the fact that oppression and untouchability must go, and that every effort to suggest anything in that way receives sympathetic consideration from the caste Hindus, and particularly from the Reformers ?
Dr. Ambedkar. I would hesitate, again, to answer that.
Chairman: Would you agree, in order to get this witness’s view of the facts, that I should ask two or three questions on your line ? Sir Hari Singh Gour: Yes Sir, certainly.
- Chairman: Mr. Rajah would be, in many ways, the best person to do it, but I wish you would tell us your own view. Compare twenty years ago with now in the Bombay Presidency. How many years, if I may ask, have you been here ?