12 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
between sub-divisions of the same caste should form the subjects for discussion and determination.
As to sanctions it was thought there should be different SubCommittees appointed for dealing with different social questions. The Sub-Committees were to be left to evolve certain fundamental principles and penalties for breach of these principles, to be carried out and enforced as regards the members of Social Reform Party who might agree to be bound by such penalties, (1) by the Sub-Committees themselves, or (2) through their spiritual heads, whenever it was possible to do so, or (3) through Civil Courts, or failing all (4) by application to Government for enabling the Committees to enforce the rules in respect of their own pledged members.
While the Social Reform Party had formed a separate organization of its own to discuss the many social evils which festered Hindu Society, they were not satisfied with the Congress attitude of completely dissociating itself from questions of social reform. Some of them were anxious to make it an issue whether Social Reform should not precede Political Reform and press for a decision. In this they had many friends to support them. Among them was to be found the Government of India. Sir Aukland Colvin, a member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council, very clearly and very emphatically stated that Indians ought to turn their attention to Social Reform in preference to endeavours they were making “to teach the British what their duties were in regard to the Government of India.”
The reference to Social Reform in the addresses of the Congress Presidents referred to above can now be easily understood. They are a reply to the criticism by the Social Reform Party against the Congress dissociating itself from the problem of removing social evils.
Turning to the second question as to why no Congress President has referred to the question of Social Reform in his presidential address after 1895, the answer is that before
1895 there were two schools among Congressmen on the issue of social reform versus political reform. The viewpoint of one school was that expressed by Mr. Dadabhoy Naoroji, Mr. Budruddin Tyabji and Mr. Surrendranath Bannerjee. The viewpoint of the other school was that expressed by Mr. W. C.