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DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
is reported to have replied that the Sangh is meant to help Harijans and was not a Harijan organization and, therefore, their request was inadmissible. At the Round Table Conference Gandhiji opposed reservation of seats for Harijans on the ground that they were Hindus and should not be separated from the general body. Subsequently in the Yeravda Pact he was obliged to consent to an allocation of seats for them specially, from the Hindu quota. When the draft formula conceding this came up for ratification before a general meeting in Bombay, over which Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya presided, one of those present pointed out to an impatient audience that it was not necessary to collect a large fund (as Panditjee suggested) to remove from Hindu society the blot of Untouchability and that if each one of those present resolved that he or she (a large number of women were present) would receive Harijans in their homes just like other Hindus, the problem would at once cease to exist. A Bombay business magnate turned to the intruder and remarked quietly: ‘You have told them a home truth. None of them is prepared to follow it.’ From the first it has struck me that this has been the fundamental weakness of the Harijan Sevak Sangh. What is the result ? Nearly every beneficiary of the Sangh is an ardent follower of Dr. Ambedkar, which is nothing, but for the fact that they share to the full the fanatical and bitter hatred of Dr. Ambedkar to the Hindus. I Can give several instances to illustrate this statement. But that would only make matters worse. I think that this may be avoided by associating Harijan gentlemen and women with other Hindus in all important bodies, local and central, thus giving them the decisive voice in moulding policy. The idea of helping Harijans without associating with them, is contrary to the spirit of social reform. I was associated with the earlier movements for the uplift of Harijans and I never found this spirit antagonism aroused among the men and women with whom one came in contact. This was because the promoters of the movement—I have the Depressed Classes Mission prominently in view—were by religious faith and social conviction pledged to avoid all discrimination in their behaviour to members of the Depressed Classes. I think that Gandhiji was not quite right when he said that the Harijan Sangh could not admit members of the Scheduled Castes. Dr. Ambedkar, a friend reminds me, was a member of the Sangh when it was formed,”