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DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
your permission, because it may take a little time and economy of time in a meeting like this is one’s principal aim.
“Chairman: The point is that this Committee’s business is very strictly limited to a consolidation of the Minorities problem.
Sir Ali Imam: It is from that point of view that I shall approach the subject.
Chairman : If there is no other official intervention shall I call on Sir Ali Imam ?”
Then followed His Highness the Aga Khan who said :—
“I believe that Mahatma Gandhi is going to see the Muslim Delegation to-night. We hope to-night to have a friendly talk with our friend. That is all that I can tell you as far as any possible negotiation is concerned.”
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya also suggested that a short adjournment may be fruitful of results. Knowing that this was a mischievous move I got up and spoke as follows :—
“I should like to say one word before we adjourn. As regards your suggestion—that while these negotiations are going on members of the other minority communities should prepare their case—I should like to say that so far as the Depressed Classes are concerned, we have already presented our case to the Minorities Sub-Committee last time.
“The only thing which remains for me to do is to put before this Committee a short statement [1] suggesting the quantum of representation which we want in the different Legislatures. Beyond that I do not think I am called upon to do anything; but the point I am anxious to make at the very outset is this. I have heard with great pleasure that further negotiations are going to take place for the settlement of the communal issue, but I would like to make our position clear at the very start. I do not wish any doubt should be left on this question. Those who are negotiating ought to understand that they are not plenipotentiaries appointed by the Committee to negotiate a settlement; that whatever may be the representative character of Mr. Gandhi or of the other parties with whom he wishes to negotiate, they certainly are not in a position to bind us— certainly not. I say that most emphatically in this meeting.
“Another thing I want to say is this—that the claims put forward by the various minorities are claims put forward by them irrespective of the consideration as to whether the claims that they have put forward are consistent with the claims of the other minorities. Consequently, any settlement which takes
1 This I did by putting in another memorandum which is included as Appendix II.