462
DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
after the event, Mr. Vallabhbhai Patel made a speech in Ahmedabad and said [1] :—
“The Viceroy sent for the leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha, he sent for the leaders of the Muslim League and he sent for Ghanchis (oil pressers), Mochis (cobblers) and the rest.”
Although Mr. Vallabhbhai Patel in his malicious and stinging words referred only to Ghanchis and Mochis his speech indicates the general contempt in which he holds the servile classes of his country.
It may be well to know the reactions of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is a Brahmin, but he has the reputation of being non-communal in his outlook and secular in his beliefs. Facts do not seem to justify the reputation he carries. A person cannot be called secular if he, when his father dies, performs the religious ceremonies prescribed by orthodox Hinduism at the hands of Brahmin priests on the banks of the river Ganges as Pandit Jawaharlal did when his father died in 1931. As to his being non-communal it is stated by no less a person than Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya that Pandit Nehru is very conscious of the fact that he is a Brahmin. [2 ] This must come as a most astonishing fact to those who believe the Pandit to have the reputation of being the most nationally minded Hindu leader in India. But Dr. Sitaramayya must be knowing what he is talking about. More disturbing is the fact that in the United Provinces from which he hails and over which he exercises complete authority the ministers in the cabinet of the province were all Brahmins. Mrs. Vijaya Laxmi Pandit, the well-known sister of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, also seems to be conscious of herself being Brahmin by caste. It is said that at the All-India Women’s Conference held in Delhi in December 1940, the question of not declaring one’s caste in the Census Return was discussed. Mrs. Pandit disapproved [3] of the idea and said that she did not see any reason why she should not be proud of her Brahmin blood and declare herself as a Brahmin at the Census.
Who are these men ? What is their status ? Mr. Tilak
1 Quoted by Mr. J. E. Sanjana in Sense and Nonsense in Politics— Serial No. XII in the Rast Rahabar (a Bombay Gujarati Weekly) of 14th January 1945.
2 See his Invitation p. XVI to Jawaharlal Nehru by Y. G. Krishnamurti.
3 Quoted by Sanjann in Sense and Nonsense in Politics —Serial No. XII in the Rast Rahabar, dated 14th January 1945,