WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : APPENDIX VI 323
A PPENDIX VI
RECOGNITION OF UNTOUCHABLES AS A SEPARATE ELEMENT
Pronouncements of the British Government on the position of the Untouchables in the Constitution of India.
I NTRODUCTION
The necessity for recalling the pronouncements of the Viceroys and of the Secretaries of State has arisen because of the recent criticism in the Press against the reply of 15th August 1944 given by Lord Wavell to Mr. Gandhi stating that the Scheduled Castes are a separate element in the national life of India and that their consent to the new Constitution was essential before power is transferred to Indian hands. This criticism is based upon the supposition that the Cripps’s proposals did not recognize the Scheduled Castes as a separate element and did not make their consent necessary. Reliance is placed upon the fact that the Cripps’s proposals spoke of “racial and religious minorities” only and it is argued that the Scheduled Castes are neither a racial nor a religious minority.
It is hardly necessary to point out how ignorant this criticism is. The Scheduled Castes are really a religious minority. The Hindu religion by its dogma of untouchability has separated the Scheduld Castes from the main body of the Hindus in a manner which makes the separation far more real and far wider than the separation which exists either between Hindus and Muslims or Hindus and Sikhs or Hindus and Christians. It is difficult to concede of a more effective method of separation and segregation than the principle of untouchability and it is only those who are actuated by malicious spirit of finding excuses to deny the Scheduled Castes their claim to political rights would indulge in this kind of jugglery. Those who regard the statement of Lord Wavell as a new departure have completely forgotten what attitude His Majesty’s Government has taken in the matter of the Scheduled Castes from the very beginning when the transfer of political power from British to Indian hands was thought of. Ever since 1917 when the Montagu-Chelmsford Report advocated responsible Government, the British Government have taken a definite stand that they would, under no circumstances, transfer power to Indian hands until they were satisfied that the position of the Scheduled Castes was safeguarded by adequate Constitutional provisions. A few of the many declarations made by Secretaries of State and Viceroys of India from 1917 to 1941 are collected together in the following pages. It will be found that the