896 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
recorded, but I find the Commissioner absolutely silent over this matter of the gravest importance for the Scheduled Castes. I find, for instance, that from the complaints which have come to me—and I am sure that many more complaints must have gone to the Commissioner; they could not be less than a thousand, or certainly five hundred, but I mention one or two which have come to my notice and are of very recent occurrence—I am told on very reliable authority that in Rajasthan thirty Scheduled Caste people have been shot down by the so-called dacoits. The real fact is that the Rajputs and the high caste Hindus do not like the Scheduled Castes in Rajasthan to enjoy what are called the fundamental rights which give them equality of status with the other Hindus. In order to terrorise them and to make them nervous, in the matter of exercising these fundamental rights, the high caste Hindus have organised themselves into a band of dacoits and they go on shooting the Chamars, who are trying to exercise and derive the benefit of the fundamental rights. Police parties have been sent there in order to give protection to them, but my information is that the police are in league with the dacoits. Half a number of guns possessed by the police were handed over to the dacoits and the report is made that the guns have been snatched away from them by the dacoits. Half the number of bullets are again handed over to these dacoits by the police. Only half are fired, probably in the air without causing any effect. The result is that the dacoits are getting on merrily. The dacoits are really nothing else but what existed in the southern States of America known as the Ku-Klux-Klan, a band of Whites who were bent upon shooting down the Negroes if they tried to exercise the right of equality which was given to them after the Civil War. I do not find any mention of this incident in the Report of the Commissioner.
I mention another incident, and that has occurred in Bombay. One Bhangi who was living in a village was supposed by the Hindus to have brought about a certain disease in the village. They thought the malignant influence which he possessed was the cause of a certain disease which was prevalent in the village. They caught hold of him and asked him to take a burning fire on his head and walk around the