MR. GANDHI AND THE EMANCIPATION OF THE UNTOUCHABLES : SOME QUESTIONS TO THE HINDUS AND THEIR FRIENDS
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must get themselves satisfied that the Hindus who are urging that their war against the British is a war for freedom will not turn out to be the enemies of the freedom of millions of Indians like the Untouchables. That is the plea I am making on behalf of the 60 millions of the Untouchables of India. And above all let not the American friends think that checks and balances in a Constitution–the demand for checks and balances suited to Indian conditions–are not necessary because the struggle is carried on by a people and is carried on in the name of freedom. Friends of democracy and freedom cannot afford to forget the words of John Adams when he said–
“We may appeal to every page of history we have hitherto turned over, for proof irrefragable that the people when they have been unchecked, have been as unjust, tyrannical, brutal, barbarous, and cruel as any king or Senate possessed of uncontrollable power : the majority has eternally and without one exception usurped over the rights of the minority.”
If all Majorities must be subjected, to checks and balances how much more must it be so in the case of the Hindus ?
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