z:\ ambedkar\vol 08\vol8 02.indd MK SJ+YS 28 9 2013/YS 13 11 2013 6
6 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
The book is intended to assist the student of Pakistan to come to his own conclusion. With that object in view, I have not only assembled in this volume all the necessary and relevant data but have also added 14 appendices and 3 maps, which in my judgment, form an important accompaniment to the book.
It is not enough for the reader to go over the material collected in the following pages. He must also reflect over it. Let him take to heart the warning which Carlyle gave to Englishmen of his generation. He said:
“The Genius of England no longer soars Sunward, world-defiant, like an Eagle through the storms, ‘mewing her mighty youth,’.......... ......the Genius of England— much like a greedy Ostrich intent on provender and a whole skin..........; with its Ostrich-head stuck into ...... whatever sheltering Fallacy there may be, and so awaits the issue. The issue has been slow; but it now seems to have been inevitable. No Ostrich, intent on gross terrene provender and sticking its head into Fallacies, but will be awakened one day—in a terrible a posteriori manner if not otherwise! Awake before it comes to that. Gods and men did us awake ! The Voices of our Fathers, with thousandfold stern monition to one and all, bid us awake”.
This warning, I am convinced, applies to Indians in their present circumstances as it once did to Englishmen, and Indians, if they pay no heed to it, will do so at their peril.
Now, a word for those who have helped me in the preparation of this report. Mr. M. G. Tipnis, D.C.E. (Kalabhuwan, Baroda), and Mr. Chhaganlal S. Mody have rendered me great assistance, the former in preparing the maps and the latter in typing the manuscript. I wish to express my gratitude to both for their work which they have done purely as a labour of love. Thanks are also due in a special measure to my friends Mr. B. R. Kadrekar and Mr. K. V. Chitre for their labours in undertaking the most uninteresting and dull task of correcting the proofs and supervising the printing.
28th December, 1940, ‘Rajagrah,’ B. R. AMBEDKAR. Dadar, Bombay, 14.