856 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Sir, as I said, I am not an Andhra. But I belong to what might be called a political group—I shall not give it the honorific name of a ‘ Party’—which is called the Scheduled Caste Federation. As the Leader of that group. I had the occasion to move round in the Andhra country in order to see what the condition of the Scheduled Castes there is. My picture is this that, in this Andhra country, there are, as everywhere else, as I am going to show, some big communities and some very small communities. Of the big communities, the biggest, I believe, is the Reddy community; below the Reddys come the Kamma; below the Kammas come the Kappu; and below them come the unfortunate Scheduled Castes people working as landless labourers. That is primarily the picture of this area. As I said, this is not a lonely case. There are many other areas of the same pattern.
The second thing I noticed is this that all the lands practically are in possession of the Reddys. The Reddys are the biggest landlords there. Next, probably, come, the Kammas, to which my friend Professor Ranga belongs. I was told very recently how great is this evil; I was told in a very vivid way by one of the Congressmen himself. I do not know whether he would feel offended if I mention his name. It would lend great authority to the statement that I am making, but I shall not mention his name as I have not asked him.
An hon. Member: Is he a Member of this House ?
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: He is a Member of the Lower House.
Dr. K. N. Katju: I do not like it to be called the Lower House.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: When we were discussing this question, my friend told me that that was by no means peculiar. There was a certain village in the Andhra area. The entire land of the village measured 1,400 acres. Out of that, only 14 acres were owned by private individuals; the rest of it was owned by a single Reddy. One has just to imagine the picture ...........