ROLE OF ......................... INDIAN DEMOCRACY 77
Concluding his brilliant speech, he sounded a great warning to the British Government and to those who were engaged in the “battle of wits” in the Conference : I am afraid it is not sufficiently realized that in the present temper of the country, no constitution will be workable which is not acceptable to the majority of the people. The time when you were to choose and India was to accept is gone, never to return. Let the consent of the people and not the accident of logic be the touchstone of your new constitution, if you desire that it should be worked.” * #
The fearless tone and the bold criticism in the speech had a wonderful effect upon the Conference. The frankness and fearlessness with which Dr. Ambedkar lucidly put the facts before the Conference impressed the delegates immensely, and they congratulated him on his brilliant speech. It created a good impression upon the British Premier. The Indian Daily Mail described this speech as one of the finest bits of oratory during the whole Conference. One man in the Conference was extremely pleased with his speech. He returned to his kingly residence full of admiration, satisfaction and high appreciation; and with joyful tears in his eyes, he told his princely wife that their efforts and the money they had spent on the speaker of the day were all realised. It was an achievement, a glorious success ! This admirer was nobody else than His Highness the Maharaja of Baroda who invited Dr. Ambedkar to a special dinner given by him in London to his choice friends. It was a strange freak of destiny that Gaekwad and Ambedkar should meet after years of estrangement in a melodramatic situation.
The effect of this powerful speech of Dr. Ambedkar was tremendous on the newspapers also. The English newspapers and pressmen devoted their attention to the leader of the Depressed Classes and English statesmen, like Lord Sydenham, O’Dwyer and others, who had bitterly criticized Dr. Ambedkar’s Nagpur speech in the Spectator, were now thoroughly convinced that Dr. Ambedkar was a nationalist; and so they began to whisper
- Indian Round Table Conference, 1930-31, Proceedings Pp. 123-29.
#Speeches of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in R.T.C. See Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches Vol. 2—Editors.