554 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
My own view is this. I cannot say that I have much of experience of voting. But such experience as I have has given me this idea that the lowest class of people in this country and the highest are politically most conscious. In my experience in my province, the Scheduled Castes, who stand last in the scale of social order, vote to the extent of 80 per cent. I have never found any election in which they have voted less than that. I also feel—and I think I am sure in my statement— that the Brahmins in my province vote about 80 per cent. The reason is obvious.
One community is a depressed community. It is conscious of the fact that its moral and material elevation depends upon the place it occupies in the legislatures of this country. Consequently they never waste their time, their energy in anything else, however profitable they may be except to go to the poll and vote on the day when the poll is called. My experience with regard to the Brahmins is also the same and my analysis is also the same. They today stand almost on the precipice. Everybody wants to push them out from all the places that they have occupied. Consequently they also know that unless they have a certain amount of solidarity among themselves, that unless each one of them goes to the poll they shall not be able to exercise the influence which they must exercise in order to secure themselves from a harsh pushing out immediately and to secure at least a transition from one stage to another.
Shri Kamath (Madhya Pradesh) : Not all Brahmins.
Dr. Ambedkar: The class which is apathetic and which does not care to vote is the middle class. Their existence does not seem to depend so much upon the Governmental activity. They have their granaries, if not full, half full and they know that without resort to any kind of Government help they can carry from season to season and from year to year. They therefore do not care about it. That is my experience. Therefore, what we need do at the present moment is to tell those Members who represent the middle class that there is a duty cast upon them, to see that this class becomes politically conscious and to call them to the election so that