z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-06.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 481
EVIDENCE BEFORE SIMON COMMISSION 481
Dr. Ambedkar : Five or six years.
- You have, of course, taken an interest in your own community since long before that ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes.
- You can look back twenty years and give us some ideal ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes.
- Let me take two or three things. First of all I imagine that there is no change at all so far as regards the admission of the depressed classes to the interior of a Hindu temple. That, of course, is a matter of religious practice and teaching. I do not criticise it, but there is no change at all ?
Dr. Ambedkar: No, there is no change at all in that respect.
- What I want to know is this. Let us take two or three definite things in this Presidency. In the country districts, you have told us that as a rule the depressed classes, the untouchables, live in a place for themselves. Of course, we have seen it many times. Sometimes they five in a corner of the village, if it happens to be a Hindu village, and sometimes in a hamlet of their own. Now is there any change in the last twenty years as regards their living among the general communities ?
Dr. Ambedkar: No change.
- We saw some of the villages the other day. We understand some of them can draw water from the river, but I suppose there are other villages that rely on wells ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Even in the case of rivers they can take water only from a portion of the river. A point on the river is appointed for them.
- That is to say, the depressed classes will draw water at a point lower down than the caste Hindus ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes.
- Now let us take the case of villages that rely on wells. It is not uncommon ?
Dr. Ambedkar: No, not uncommon.
- I am anxious to know and I hope you will tell me quite frankly, is there in that respect any improvement in the last twenty years ?
Dr. Ambedkar: No.
- Your attention has been called to the fact that there have been resolutions passed on this subject ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes, only resolutions.
- It is suggested that untouchability sometimes goes to such a length that the actual contact with the man (or sometimes his shadow itself) is regardedsocially by those of the higher castes as a pollution ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes.
- Is there an improvement in that respect ?
Dr. Ambedkar: There is an improvement in that respect.
- I am glad to hear that. That is, whereas 20 years ago a caste Hindu who found himself in close contact with an untouchable would possibly think it his religious duty to purify himself, it is not viewed with so much