450 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
negotiations on the ground, first, that they have not been let down, as they feared, and secondly, that the negotiations cannot have failed to have opened the eyes of the British Government to the fact that it is Congress intransigence which is the real obstacle. Parsees, I am told, are generally relieved that, for a time at any rate, Congress will not regain power.
The exception to which I have referred is Ambedkar. He came to see me to discuss the establishment of the National War Front, and although he has, with no enthusiasm, agreed to give it some support, he took the opportunity to let off to me some very bitter steam about the Draft Declaration. He said that he had been as good as told that Congress and the Muslim League were the only bodies which counted, and that if they agreed to the proposals, it would not matter what he or the Depressed Classes thought about them. He professed to be bitterly disillusioned and to feel humiliated. He declared that the proposals went back on the August Declaration, and that, with the example of the Irish Treaty before him, the suggestion that minorities could be safeguarded by means of a treaty was a very poor joke. How, he asked, could he and his friends be expected to continue their support of Government if they were to be let down in this way ? He had thought of resigning from the National Defence Council but had decided to carry on for the time being, but he could not be expected to show any enthusiasm in support of Government. I reasoned with him as best I could, but I fear made little impression upon him. This mood of disgruntlement has been noticeable in Ambedkar for a long time— certainly since he was not taken in to the expansion of your Executive Council, as he had hoped. He will, I expect, succeed in obtaining some support for his views amongst his followers in this Province, for he is the only individual amongst them who is capable of thinking for them. Nevertheless, I feel pretty sure that this disgruntlement is largely a personal matter. As you know, his own financial position has been worrying him for some time. I have reason to believe that he owes money to certain people who have helped him in the past, and that he is unable to pay any of it back, and is even rather rude if they mention the subject. As you know, too, he has been, for some time, anxious to obtain a position in the High Court or elsewhere, in which he could have a chance of providing for his own future. He has given