440 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
was firmly applied. There is a case on record of a Mahar (Untouchable) boy who in 1856 petitioned to the Government of India for being admitted to a Government school in the Dharwar District. The following is the text of the resolution issued by the Government.
“ The question discussed in the correspondence is one of very great practical difficulty.
“1. There can be no doubt that the Mahar petitoner has abstract justice in his side ; and Government trust that the prejudices which at present prevent him from availing himself of existing means of education in Dharwar may be ere long removed.
“2. But Government are obliged to keep in mind that to interfere prejudices of ages a summary manner, for the sake of one or few individuals, would probably do a great damage to the cause of education. The disadvantage under which the petitoner labours is not one which has originated with this Government, and it is one which Government cannot summarily remove by interferring in his favour as he begs them to do.”
In 1882 Government of India appointed the Hunter Commission to examine the Educational Policy. This Commission made a number of important proposals to spread education among Muslims. With regard to the Untouchables it did nothing. All that it did was to express an opinion that “Government should accept the principle that nobody be refused admission to Government College or School merely on the ground of caste,” but qualified it by saying that the principle should “be applied with due caution!”.
This antagonism when it passed away, its place was taken up by negligence and indifference. This negligence and indifference made its appearance not merely in the field of education. It also made its appearance in other fields, particularly in the Army. The whole Army of the East India Company consisted of the Depressed Classes. Indeed but for the Depressed Classes Army the British would never have been able to conquer India. The Untouchables continued to fill the Army till 1892. In 1892 their recruitment in the army was stopped all of a sudden and they were thrown in the street in utter distress with no education and no means to pursue other ways of honourable living.
Who can raise the Scheduled Castes from the distress in which they are now grovelling ? It is certain they cannot do it by their own