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DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
propaganda on behalf of the Untouchables to advertise their case against the Congress claim. There are various explanations for this failure on the part of the Untouchables. They have no Press and the Congress Press is closed to them. It is determined not to give them the slightest publicity. They cannot have their own Press. It is obvious that no paper can survive without advertisement revenue. Advertisement revenue can come only from business and in India all business, both big and small is attached to the Congress and will not favour any Non-Congress organ. The staff of the Associated Press of India, which is the main news distributing agency in India, is entirely drawn from Madras Brahmins—indeed the whole of the Press in India is in their hands and who for well-known reasons are entirely pro-Congress and will not allow any news hostile to the Congress to get publicity. These are reasons beyond the control of the Untouchables. But to a large extent their failure to do propaganda is also due to absence of will to do propaganda. This absence of will arises from a patriotic motive not to do anything which will damage the cause of the country in the eyes of the world outside. There are two different aspects to the politics of India which may be distinguished as foreign politics and constitutional politics. India’s foreign politics relate to India’s freedom from British Imperialism while the constitutional politics of India centre round the nature of a constitution for a free India. They are really separate. But the Untouchables fear that though the two aspects of India’s politics are separable, the foreigner who counts in this matter, and whose misunderstanding has to be guarded against, is not only not capable of separating them but is very likely to mistake a quarrel over constitutional politics for a disagreement over the ultimate purposes of India’s foreign politics. This is why the Untouchables have preferred to remain silent and allowed the Congress propaganda to go unchallenged. Congressmen will not admit the patriotic motives of the Untouchables in keeping silent over Congress propaganda which is directed against them. The fact, however, remains that their silence and desire to avoid open challenge has been a material cause which has brought about the general belief that the Congress represents all, even the Untouchables.
Though regrettable, it was excusable for a foreigner to be carried away by propaganda at a time when the representative character of the Congress was not put to test in an election.