2
* The Cabinet Mission and the Untouchables
How the Cabinet Mission have Ignored the Untouchables ?
The Cabinet Mission in their Statement of 10th May set out their Interim and Long-term proposals for the solution of the political deadlock in India. The most galling and astounding feature of their proposals is their refusal to recognise the Untouchables as a separate and distinct element in the national life of India. The Mission has so completely ignored the Untouchables that not even once have they mentioned them in their long statement. To what extent the Cabinet Mission has gone in ignoring the Untouchables will be apparant from the following:—
(i) The Untouchables have not been given the right to nominate their representatives in the Central Executive as has been done in the case of the Sikhs and the Muslims. In the present Interim Government they have got two representatives of the Scheduled Castes neither of them owe any allegiance or obligation to the Scheduled Castes. One is nominated by the Congress and the other is nominated by the Muslim League.
(ii) In the Interim Government, the Untouchables have not been given a fixed quota of representation as was done in the case of the Muslims. At the Simla Conference of
1945 it was agreed that Scheduled Castes should have at least two members in a Cabinet of 14. The reason for a change of front between 1945 and 1946 is not known.
(iii) They have not been given the right to separate representation in the Constituent Assembly.
- Source : Printed Leaflet. —Ed.