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DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
The effect of this propaganda is considerably heightened because of the absence of counter-propaganda on behalf of the Untouchables to advertise their case against the Congress claim. There are various explanations for this failure on the part of the Untouchables.
The Untouchables have no Press. The Congress Press is closed to them and is determined not to give them the slightest publicity. They cannot have their own Press and for obvious reasons. No paper can survive without advertisement revenue. Advertisement revenue can come only from business and in India all business, both high and small, is attached to the Congress and will not favour any Non-Congress organization. The staff of the Associated Press in India, which is the main news distributing agency in India, is entirely drawn from the Madras Brahmins—indeed the whole of the Press in India is in their hands and they, for well-known reasons, are entirely proCongress and will not allow any news hostile to the Congress to get publicity. These arc reasons beyond the control of the Untouchables.
To a large extent the failure of the Untouchables to do propaganda, it must be admitted, is also due to the absence of will to do propaganda. This absence of will arises from a patriotic motive not to do anything, which will damage the cause of the country in the eyes of the world outside. There are two different aspects to the politics of India, which may be distinguished as foreign politics and constitutional politics. India’s foreign politics relate to India’s freedom from British Imperialism, while the constitutional politics of India centre round the nature of a constitution for a free India. For a discriminating student the two issues are really separate. But the Untouchables fear that though the two aspects of India’s politics are separable, the foreigner, who counts in this matter and whose misunderstanding has to be guarded against, is not only incapable of separating them but is very likely to mistake a quarrel over constitutional politics for a disagreement over the ultimate purposes of India’s foreign politics. This is why the Untouchables have preferred to remain silent and allowed the Congress propaganda to go unchallenged.
The Congressmen will not admit the patriotic motives of the Untouchables in keeping silent over Congress propaganda which is directed against them. The fact, however, remains that the silence and the desire to avoid open challenge on the part of the