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DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
IV
To say that the elections of 1937 do not prove that the Congress was victorious over the Untouchables in the electoral fight is an understatement. In a real sense the Untouchables triumphed over the Congress. If not many are found to admit this, their inability or unwillingness to do so must be attributed to their ignorance of the difficulties which the Untouchables have had to face in their contest with the Congress. These difficulties were very real and very great. It is worthwhile to detail them so that people may know the courage and tenacity with which the Untouchables have fought to prove that they are independent of the Congress and that the Congress does not represent them.
These difficulties can be classified under two heads (1) Organizational and (2) Electoral.
Under the first head special mention may be made of two :—
The first was the difference in the relative degree of resources at the command of the Congress and of the Untouchables. That the Congress is the richest political party goes without saying. No estimate has so far been made of the money the Congress spent in the elections of 1937. If an investigation was made it would be found that the money it spent in advertisement, in conveyance and in canvassing for the candidates who stood on its ticket was simply colossal. All these resources were placed by the Congress at the service of those Untouchables who stood on the Congress ticket. Not one millionth part of these resources were available to those Untouchable candidates who stood against the Congress. Some of them had even to borrow money to pay their deposits. They fought their elections without the help of advertisement, canvassing or conveyance.
The second is the existence of a party machine on the side of the Congress and the complete absence of it on the side of the Untouchables. The party machine as every one knows constitutes the real strength of the Congress. The credit for the creation of a party machine must be given to Mr. Gandhi. It has been in existence for the last 20 years and with the resources it possesses the Congress has kept the machine well oiled and in perfect order always ready to be put in motion by merely pressing the button. It is a vast machine which covers every town and every village in the country. There is no area in