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Dr. Ambedkar to Rt. Hon’ble Mr. A. V. Alexander, Member, Cabinet Mission
Bhimrao R. Ambedkar, 22, Prithviraj Road, New Delhi. M. A., Ph. D., D. Sc, Barrister-at-Law, Dated, 14th May 1946 Member, Governor General’s Executive Council.
Dear Mr. Alexander,
It is a pity that your efforts to bring about a settlement between the Congress and the League should have failed. I know you deserve every sympathy and every gratitude. At the same time, I cannot help saying that the Mission’s effort to settle reminds me of an old Baniya who being without a son to inherit his wealth married a young girl with the hope of begetting a heir. The bride conceived but the bridegroom was striken with a fell-disease. He, however, refused to die without having a look at the baby and would not wait for delivery which was far off. He was so impatient that he called the doctor, asked him to open the stomach of his wife and let him see whether it was a boy or a girl. The result of the operation was that both the baby and the mother died. If I may say so, the Mission wanted to do very much what the Baniya did. You may not be aware but there are many who, like me, feel that the Mission was engaged in bringing about a forced delivery earlier than the natural period of gestation.
- To my mind, it is only right to say that the Hindus and the Muslims are today mentally incompetent to decide upon the destiny of this country. Both Hindus and Muslims are just crowds. It must be within your experience that a crowd is less moved by material profit than by a passion collectively shared. It is easier to persuade a mass of
*Source : Privately printed leaflet by Dr. Ambedkar. —Ed.