356 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
This ‘Fast unto Death’ of Mr. Gandhi was described in glorious terms by his friends and admirers both in India and outside. It was described as ‘second crucifixion’, as ‘martyrdom’ and as ‘ Triumphal struggle’. An American friend of Mr. Gandhi assured the Americans that in laying down his life Mr. Gandhi was neither a ‘trickster’ nor a stick demagogue. Another American in his ecstasy went to the length of describing him as the incarnation of ‘ one against the world ’ . Of course I was held out as the villain of the piece. I had of course my own view of Gandhi’s fast. I described it as a political stunt. His utterances had to me always the ring of falsity and even of insincerity.
I had always the feeling that what actuated Mr. Gandhi to fast against the Communal Award was not any desire to liberate the Untouchables as to save the Hindus from disruption. He was prepared to do that at any cost, even at the cost of political enslavement of the Untouchables. His disapproval of the Poona Pact was very much like the disapproval of the enfranchisement of the Negro by the Southerners after the civil war. The ‘Statesman’ and ‘Nation’ came to the same conclusion. It said: ( Quotation not mentioned in the MS nor could it be traced elsewhere —Ed.)
At the time there was this one solitary instance of a view agreeing with mine. Even some of the prominent untouchables backed Mr. Gandhi. A curious case was that of Mr. Raja whose grievance was that although he was a member of the Central Assembly nominated to represent the Depressed Classes he was not selected as a delegate for the Round Table Conference. He was fighting for separate electorates. Suddenly he changed sides and took up the cudgels on behalf of Mr. Gandhi and fulminated both against me for demanding and against the British Government for granting separate electorates. He developed such a strong love for Mr. Gandhi and such a strong faith in the Hindus that no one could suspect that he was doing the work of a mere hireling. This is what Mr. Raja said in the course of a speech delivered by him on an adjournment motion moved in the Central Legislature on September 13th, 1932 relating to Gandhi’s fast.
“Never in the annals of the history of India has the issue of the Depressed Classes assumed importance as it has today, and for this we of the Depressed Classes must for ever be grateful to Mahatma Gandhi. He has told the world, in words which cannot be mistaken, that our regeneration is the fundamental aim of his life. If world conscience cannot be roused even now to the realization of the position of the Depressed Classes, then we can only conclude that all instincts of humanity are dead in the world today.”
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“The question before the House is the situation created by Mahatma Gandhi opposing the grant of communal electorates to