z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-08.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 613
IN THE FEDERAL STRUCTURE COMMITTEE 613
Chairman: I do not think that we need discuss Sir Samuel Hoare’s gratitude. That is a matter which is not before the Committee.
Pandit M. M. Malaviya: My friend, Dr. Ambedkar, forgets what I have said. I have repeated twice that I desire that the representative principle should be introduced into the States at once. I do not yield even to my friend, Dr. Ambedkar, in that desire ; but I recognise a difference between my desire and Dr. Ambedkar’s desire and the right of the Ruling Princes to take time to consider when and how the representative principle may be introduced in their States........
.........Now, My Lord, I want also to say that those of us who are impatient— and none can be more impatient, I will repeat, than myself— to see the principle of representative institutions introduced into the States, should remember..........
Dr. Ambedkar: May I point out, My Lord Chancellor, that we on this side have never said that representative institutions should be introduced into the States. All that we say is that there should be constituencies in the Indian States, similar to the constituencies in British India, for the election of the representatives to the Federal Assembly. I have never said that there should be popular Assemblies in the Native States to control the Native States as a condition precedent to the entry of the Princes into the Federation.
Pandit M. M. Malaviya: If Dr. Ambedkar thinks that he has not asked for representative institutions, I leave him to have that satisfaction. We should not think that, if members who will come to the Federal Assembly from the States will not be elected by some popular method, they will not be useful..........even if the representatives of Indian States do not come by popular election—which, I again repeat, I desire that they should—even then we may have some excellent representatives whose co-operation will be very valuable in our work.
Chairman: Summing it up quite briefly, you say that “rotten boroughs” do not always return rotten members.
Pandit M. M. Malaviya: I think Your Lordship. I wish I could imitate Your Lordship’s epigrammatic way of putting things.
[Pandit Malaviya further suggested that the introduction of principle of representation should be left at the mercy of the India Princes. If they do it voluntarily, he is delighted] ‘but’ he concludes,
“then my recommendation to my British Indian friends would be, let us show patience and courtesy, let us hope that such institutions will be established in proper time, but let us not do anything to create unnecessary obstacles in the way of the establishment of that All-India Federation upon which now, as matters stand, our hopes so much depend.”
Dr. Ambedkar: That is the same advice that is given to the Depressed Classes—that their salvation will also come in time.
Pandit M. M. Malaviya: My Lord, my friend, Dr. Ambedkar, is entirely mistaken and, I am sorry to say, not so well informed as I thought he would be.