PART I
POLITICAL GRIEVANCES
I. Inadequate Representation in the Central Legislature
As at present constituted the Central Assembly consists of 141 members. Of these 102 are elected and 39 nominated. Of the nominated members 19 are non-Officials and 20 are Officials. Of this total of 141 there are two who belong to the Scheduled Castes. Consider as against this the population of the Scheduled Castes. The census in India has become a political affair; and the Hindus, Muslims and the Sikhs have been attempting to cook up the census so as to show a rise in their numbers. This is done mostly at the cost of the untouchables. It is therefore difficult to get a correct figure of their population. Whatever estimate the census gives, it is bound to be an underestimate. However, taking the figure of 40 millions which is the figure given in the census of 1940 there can be no doubt that the representation of the Scheduled Castes in the central Legislature is ridiculously low.
To make the position clear, I give below two tables which have a bearing on this question :
TABLE No. 1
Population in British India
Percentage to total population
Communities Total of each community in 1941
Order of importance in terms of population
1 2 3 4 Total ... 295,808,722 …… …… Hindus ... 150,890,146 1 50.0 Muslims ... 79,398,503 2 23.6 Scheduled Castes ... 39,920,807 3 13.5 Tribal ... 16,713,256 4 5.7 Sikhs ... 4,165,097 5 1.3 Indian Christians ... 3,245,706 6 1.0 Europeans ... 122,788 7 …… Anglo-Indians … 113,936 8 …… Parsis … 101,968 9 ……
Note. —In this table only the population of those communities whose position is relevant to the purpose of this Memorandum is given.