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DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Until Indian leaders have come closer together than they are now, I doubt if I myself can do anything to help. Let me remind you too that minority problems are not easy. They are real and can be solved only by mutual compromise and tolerance.
- The period after the termination of hostilities for which the transitional Government would last, would depend on the speed with which the new constitution could be framed. I see no reason why preliminary work on that Constitution should not begin as soon as the Indian leaders are prepared to co-operate to that end. If they can arrive at a genuine agreement as to the method of framing the Constitution, no unnecessary time need be spent after the war in reaching final conclusions and in agreeing treaty arrangements with His Majesty’s Government. There again the primary .responsibility rests on the Indian leaders.
Yours sincerely, (Sd.) W AVELL .”
A PPENDIX XI
POLITICAL DEMANDS OF SCHEDULED CASTES
Resolutions passed by the Working Committee of the All- India Scheduled Castes Federation held in Madras on the
23rd September 1944 under the Presidentship of Rao Bahadur N. Shiva Raj, B.A., B.L., M.L.A., outlining the safeguards for the Untouchables in the new Constitution.
R ESOLUTION N O . 1
S UBJECT :— Recognition of the Scheduled Castes as a separate element.
The Working Committee of the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation has found a section of the Press in India making the allegation, that the statement made by H. E. the Viceroy in his letter Mr. Gandhi dated the 15th August 1944 to the effect that the Scheduled Castes are one of the important and separate elements in the national life of India and requiring that the consent of the Scheduled Castes to the Constitution of India was a necessary condition precedent for transfer of power to Indians, is a departure from the position of His Majesty’s Government as defined in the Cripps Proposals. The Committee cannot help expressing its indignation at this propaganda and takes this occasion to state in most emphatic and categorical terms that the Scheduled Castes are a distinct and separate element in the national life of India and