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734 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Mr. M. K. Acharya: Yes, it has come later than the others.
10,798. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: After the evidence of the Hindu Mahasabha was given ?
Mr. M. K. Acharya: No, much before that.
10,799. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Why did not Mr. Deshpande put it before in your Memorandum, if as it is stated here, you had a mandate from your clients to condemn it ?
Mr. Deshpande: I did not think that it was necessary.
10,800. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: There is just one other question I want to ask. You ask in your joint production, No. 72, full Provincial autonomy and Central responsibility ; I need not read that. Now, under paragraph
- Franchise for Lower Chambers, you say : “The bulk of our countrymen are yet untrained in the habit of working representative institutions.” The question that I want to ask you is this : For whose benefit do you ask for Provincial autonomy and Central responsibility, if you say your “country men are yet untrained in the habit of working representative institutions” ?
Mr. M. K. Acharya: I would ask the Honourable Gentleman to read the paragraph more carefully. The answer is there already.
10,801. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: What is the answer?
Mr. M. K. Acharya: The answer is there, if you read it.
10,802. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: What is the answer ?
Mr. M. K. Acharya: We say we are against the indiscriminate lowering of the franchise in the immediate future ; the indiscriminate lowering we condemn ; but making the lowering more discriminate, we are taking the next step immediately to urge Provincial autonomy and Central responsibility.
10,803. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: But how can indiscriminate lowering of the franchise make your countrymen trained in the habit of working representative institutions ?
Mr. M. K. Acharya: That is what we say. Indiscriminate lowering will not train them.
10,804. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Therefore, raise it higher up ?
Mr. M. K. Acharya: No, the opposite of indiscriminate lowering is discriminate lowering.
10,805. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Confining it only to the Brahmins and the higher classes ?
Mr. M. K. Acharya: Discriminate lowering does not mean that. The White Paper says 38,000,000, I would be content with 20,000,000 or 28,000,000. That is not for confining them to this class and that class.
10,806. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: You know in Malabar, there is a community called the Naiyadis ?
Mr. M. K. Acharya: Yes.
10,807. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I understand that under the social customs