z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-06.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 482
482 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
strictness now ; is that correct ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes.
- Then, of course, as compared with twenty years ago I imagine that there are some members of the depressed classes who have in fact risen very much in the professional scale. Twenty years ago were there depressed classes who were practising at the Bar in Bombay ?
Dr. Ambedkar: No.
- How many members of the depressed classes practise at the Bar now ?
Dr. Ambedkar: I am the only man.
- I think we were told yesterday that in the list of voters for the Sardars and Inamdars there were two members of the depressed classes ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Only one. His position is different. His jagir was granted by the Peshwas for the services rendered on the battlefield. His title was not given by the British Government.
- What one notices is that in India there is gradually being introduced the motor bus connecting the town with the village and I see them going along the road. Are those public vehicles open to the depressed classes ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Not in villages. There are a great many villages where the depressed classes are not allowed to travel in these buses
- Who prevents them ?
Dr. Ambedkar: The driver would not take them.
- One would expect the driver to take anybody who pays. Why does he not take them ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Because if he takes them the other people will not come into his car. For instance, the barber here would not shave my head even though I offer him a rupee.
- Rao Saheb Patil: According to law the driver would be prosecuted if he refuses to take any passenger ?
Dr. Ambedkar: That can be evaded by saying that all seats are booked.
- Are matters improving in that respect ?
Dr. Ambedkar: Yes, they are improving; but still there are numerous cases where the depressed classes would not be allowed to enter into these buses.
- Let us take the depressed classes who are employed in the mills in Bombay. Some of them go in trams, I suppose. Do you suggest that they are not allowed to use the trams ?
Dr. Ambedkar: There was a case two years ago where a Bhungi was not allowed to board a tram.
- When you speak of the case two years ago it suggests to me that it is rather exceptional than a rule ?
Dr. Ambedkar: I have seen, for instance, when I was travelling by the B.B. & CI. Railway hundreds of cases where the passengers obstructed the depressed classes coming into the compartments.