GANDHI AND HIS FAST 343
The terms of the Pact were accepted by Mr. Gandhi and given effect to by Government by embodying them in the Government of India Act.
This fast unto death was a great gamble on the part of Mr. Gandhi. He perhaps felt that the mere threat to fast unto death would make me and other Depressed Classes who were with me just shiver and yield. But he soon found that he was mistaken and that the Untouchables were equally determined to fight to the last for their rights. No one except his own followers was convinced that Mr. Gandhi’s fast had any moral basis and if Gandhi got a second lease of life, he owes it entirely to the generosity and goodwill shown towards him by the Untouchables.
Question however is what advantage the Untouchables have got by entering into the Poona Pact. To understand this one must examine the results of the elections to the Legislatures. The Government of India Act came into operation on 1st April 1937. In February 1937 the elections to the new legislatures as defined in the Act took place. So far as the Untouchables are concerned the elections which took place in February
1937 were elections in accordance with the Poona Pact. The following is the analysis of the results of that election to the seats reserved for the Untouchables in the different Provincial Assemblies.
TABLE [1] Province Total Seats Total Seats Reserved for Captured the by Untouchables the Congress
United Provinces .. 20 16
Madras .. 30 26
Bengal .. 30 6
Central Provinces .. 20 7
Bombay .. 15 4
Bihar .. 15 11
Punjab .. 8 Nil
Assam .. 7 4
Orissa .. 6 4
Total .. 151 78
1 This Table is reprinted from Dr. Ambedkar’s ‘What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables’ at page 94. This table was not typed in the M.S. —Ed.