14 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
no matter how urgent. [1] This is the explanation why no Congress President after 1895 has referred to the question of social reform in his presidential address. The Congress by its action in 1895 had become a purely political body with no interest and no concern in the removal or mitigation of social wrongs.
III
Against this background the resolution passed by the Congress about the Depressed Classes in 1917 is obviously a strange event. The Congress had never done such a thing before although it had functioned for thirty-two years. It was even contrary to its declared policy.
Why did the Congress think it necessary to pass such a resolution in the year 1917 ? What made it take cognizance of the Untouchables ? What did it want to gain ? Whom did it want to deceive ? Was it because of a change in its angle of vision or was it because of some ulterior motive ? For an answer to these questions one must turn to the following resolutions passed by the Depressed Classes in the year 1917 at two separate meetings held in the City of Bombay under two different Presidents. The first of these meetings was held on the 11th November 1917 under the Chairmanship of the late Sir Narayan Chandavarkar. In that meeting the following resolutions [2] were passed :—
“First Resolution —Loyalty to British Government and prayer for victory to the Allies.”
“Second Resolution carried at the meeting by an overwhelming majority, the dissentients being about a dozen, expressed approval of the scheme of reform in the administration of India recommended by the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League.”
“Third Resolution carried unanimously was : ‘As the population of the Depressed Classes in India considered Untouchable and treated as such, is very large, as their condition is very
1 Some of the leading Social Reformers welcomed this rebellion by the AntiSocial Reform Party in the Congress against the Conference. Dewan Bahadur R. Raghunath Rao wrote to Mr. Ranade that he “was glad that the panda was not allowed to be used by the Social Conference, for the deception that used to be practised by the Congress upon the English people that it worked in conjunction with the Social Conference was unveiled, and the English people would now clearly understand that the Congress really did not mean to work with the Social Conference.”
2 Addresses presented to the Viceroy in India and the Right Hon’ble the Secretary of State for India (1918). Parliamentary Paper Cd. 9178 pages 74-75.