z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-09.indd MK SJ+DK 21-9-2013 703
EVIDENCE : RAJKUMARI AMRIT KAUR AND MRS. HAMID ALI 703
C382. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Yes. I follow that.
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : That is the first objection. The second objection is that when this indirect election for us is proposed through the Provincial Councils, these Provincial Councils which are going to be on communal lines will naturally bring that communal question again to the women that they elect
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : That is true, but I want to put a further question. I quite understand your objection that to have different representatives of the different communities in the Provincial Legisaltive Council would import a material consideration in the election of women.
C383. Mr. M. R. Jayakar : That is only one of your objections to the indirect election, but I understand another objection is also on the ground that it is indirect ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : I have said so more than once.
C384. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : The question is this. Take, for instance, your direct constituency, any constituency that you may like to take, for instance the City of Bombay. You will have in that constituency, which you would desire to be specially designed for the election of a woman representative in the Lower House, electorates of both men and women drawn from different communities ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : Yes.
C385. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Do you mean to suggest that those voters who would take part in the election of a woman representative would be less communally-minded than the representatives of those larger communities in the Provincial Legislative Council who would be participating in the election of a woman candidate on the indirect basis ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : Without doubt, because the communal question exists far more among the type which goes into the Legislature than it does among the masses of the people.
C386. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : But I want to draw your attention to this fact, that these very electorates will be electing the men who will be the voters for the indirect election ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : It may be so, but when it is a question of joint electorates and we are going to get the votes of joint electorates, the communal question will not exist there — it cannot exist — to the same extent that it does in a Provincial Council which has been elected by separate electorates and where the communal question is alive and must be very much alive.
C387. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Do you think that in the general electorate the men and women in India do not act in a communal manner ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : Certainly not in the general mass.
C388. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Have you ever seen a poll going on ?
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur : Yes. We have had a very recent example in the case of one of the women members of our organisation who topped the poll