z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-09.indd MK SJ+DK 21-9-2013 723
EVIDENCE : DR. B. S. MOONJE AND OTHERS 723
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I will not press you further on that.
- Sir Austen Chamberlain: Does Mr. Chatterjee mean he was unaware that such a meeting was being held in Bombay ?
Mr. B. C. Chatterjee: We were aware that a meeting was being held, but we were completely unaware that anybody was taking it upon himself to go from Bengal to that meeting.
- Sir Austen Chamberlain: If you had these strong feelings on the subject and you were, in your opinion, the most representative body who could speak on behalf of those who held your views, why did not you send representatives when you became aware of the meeting ?
Mr. B. C. Chatterjee : We did not know what was happening there. We in Calcutta, honestly did not know what was happening there excepting that we heard the news of Mr. Gandhi’s going to fast.
Mr. J. Bannerjee: We did not attach any great importance to it. The Malaviya Conference was not to dispose of the fate of the caste-Hindus of Bengal; therefore, nobody went there in any capacity whatever. The Poona Meeting was really important.
- Sir Austen Chamberlain: You were aware of the meeting, but you did not think it worth attending. That is the position ?
Mr. J. Bannerjee: I am afraid you are confusing the two meetings at Bombay and Poona. The Pact was signed at Poona and that was the important meeting to which the caste-Hindus were not invited. The meeting at Bombay was a sort of preliminary canter. We were justified in not attaching much importance to it.
- Mr. Zafrulla Khan: May I put this to you : I do not want to offend you in any way, Mr. Chatterjee, but it appears that, perhaps, the attitude of Bengal caste-Hindus was : “ We are not concerned with this : perhaps it will come to nothing; if it helps to save the Mahatma’s life well and good ; if it affects us in any way we can repudiate it afterwards” ?
Mr. B. C. Chatterjee: With great respect that was not so. I had the honour to be on the Provincial Franchise Committee and had the honour to cooperate with the Lothian Committee. We went into careful investigation as to who were the Untouchables. That is the whole point for investigation.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: You are going away from my point. The reports of what was happening in Bombay and Poona were published regularly fully in the “Liberty” every day. Are you prepared to contradict that ?
Mr. B. C. Chatterjee : I am sorry to say I never read the “Liberty”.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I brought the “Liberty”. I purposely did not bring the “ Statesman “ because you would say it is an Anglo-Indian paper ?
Mr. B. C. Chatterjee: Why should I ? I cannot imagine myself saying that.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I brought it deliberately because I know it is a Hindu paper ?