846 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
efficient candidate for an appointment. The real protection, the real method of protection is one that has been adopted, namely, to permit the Legislature to fix a certain quota to be tilled by these classes. I am also asked to define what are backward classes. Well, I think the words “backward classes” so far as this country is concerned is almost elementary. I do not think that I can use a simpler word than the word “Backward Classes”. Everybody in the province knows who are the backward classes, and I think it is, therefore, better to leave the matter as has been done in this Constitution, to the Commission which is to be appointed which will investigate into the conditions of the state of society, and to ascertain which are to be regarded as backward classes in this country.
Shri A. V. Thakkar : May I ask whether it will not take several years before that is done ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Yes, but in the meantime, there is no prohibition on any provincial government to make provisions for what are called the backward classes. They are left quite free, by article 10. Therefore, my submission is that there is no fear that the interests of the backward classes or the Scheduled Castes will be overlooked in the recruitment to the services. As my Friend Pandit Kunzru has said, the articles I have presented to the House are certainly a very great improvement upon what the articles were before in the Draft Constitution. We have, if 1 may say so for myself, studied a great deal the provisions in the Canadian law and the provisions in the Australian law, and we have succeeded, if I may say so, in finding out a via media which I hope the House will not find any difficulty in accepting.
[Article 286, as proposed by Dr. Ambedkar not adopted and added to the Constitution.]
ARTICLE 292
*The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I move that for article 292, the following be substituted :
“292 (1) Seats shall be reserved in the House of the People for—
(a) the Scheduled Castes;
Reservation of seats for Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes in the House of the people
(b) the scheduled tribes except the scheduled tribes in the tribal areas of Assam;
(c) the scheduled tribes in the autonomous districts of Assam.
(2) The number of seats reserved in any State for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes under clause (1) of this article shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats allotted to that state in the House of the
*CAD, Vol. IX, 23nd August 1949, p. 633.