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782 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
always been treated as predominantly of All-India importance, under the Government of India Act as it is today, they being included either in the purely Central List or in the Concurrent List. My suggestion is that under the Government of India Act the field which is now concurrent was regarded in the Government of India Act as of All-India importance ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: Yes ; I think that generally is so. I think it is inevitable under a unitary form of Government.
13,137. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Quite so. My suggestion, therefore, Secretary of State, is this : That it would not be quite correct to say that a field of legislation which was under the Government of India Act regarded as of All-India importance is administratively to be hereafter regarded as purely provincial ?
Sir Samuel Hoare : No ; I should draw a great distinction between the conditions under a unitary form of Government and the conditions under a Federation in which the Provinces are autonomous. We are quite definitely changing the form of Indian Government from a highly centralised Government into a Federal Government.
13,138. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: But I am only talking about the importance of the subject, a subject which, upto 1901, was regarded as of All-India importance, could not all of a sudden cease to be of All-India importance and become purely a local matter. I am aware that a great deal of concession has to be made for the new Provincial Government; the fact that the Government of India has upto now been regarded as more than of local importance has always to be recognised ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: I think it is very difficult to make such a comparison when it is admitted that the form of Government proposed is a very different type of Government. I think new conditions enter into the problem as soon as you move away from a unitary Government to a Government of Federation with autonomous Provinces.
13,139. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I will not press the point further, but I wanted to draw your attention to the fact that these subjects have hitherto been regarded as of more importance than purely Provincial subjects ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: I suppose, however, it would be fair to say that in most of them administration even under a highly centralised Government, has been Provincial.
13,140. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Yes ; subject to the control of the Centre ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: There again, I do not think that Dr. Ambedkar’s comment upon my answer quite covers the whole field. It would not cover the transferred field in the Provinces.
13,141. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: No ; that is so. Next, I want to draw your attention to Proposal 125 and to Section 45 of the Government of India Act. Section 45 of the Government of India Act is what is called the Obedience Clause, and lays down that a Provincial Government shall be under the superintendence or the control in all matters relating to the