108 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Sarojini Naidu and Malaviya, who were to go by the same steamer, cancelled their passages, as Gandhi had not yet decided about his departure. In the interview which Dr. Ambedkar gave on the steamer he referred to Gandhi [!] s refusal to go the Round Table Conference and said it was the height of folly to place the interests of Bardoli above those of India. “to bother about petty grievances and to be unmindful of bigger problem the settlement of which will enable him to exercise control over those very officers is a thing which I cannot understand.”
Ambedkar was now deeply thinking of Gandhi’s decision to oppose his demands. So he sent a message to his people in India through his secretary to hold meetings to denounce the attitude of Gandhi towards their claims. From Suez he wrote another letter to Shivtarkar asking him to send copies of the Memorandum which he had submitted to the Minorities SubCommittee of the first session of the Round Table Conference. He also asked him to send with Rao Bahadur R. Srinivasan the leather bag which he had left behind.
On the steamer, Jayakan the Maharaja of Rewa and other leaders expressed their satisfaction at the imposing sight of the Samata Seva Dal of the Depressed Classes. Shaukat Ali was glad ; Dr. Moonje was pleased and even expressed his hidden joy that in spite of the failure of the Hindu Mahasabha to raise such a disciplined volunteer corps, there was one organization of the Untouchable Hindus to stand face to face with the Muslim volunteers ! Moonje even congratulated Dr. Ambedkar on his being the leader of the Untouchables, who were conscious enough to know Dr. Ambedkar’s services to their cause, and added that they were not indifferent and ungrateful, like the Caste Hindus, who knew not their benefactors !
On reaching London on August 29, Dr. Ambedkar was down with influenza and suffered terribly from vomiting and diarrhoea. The illness sapped his energy, so much so that he wrote to Shivtarkar that his health was on the brink of a crisis. From Monday, September 7, he began to feel better but weakness still lingered. All the time he advised Shivtarkar not to utter a word about his illness to his wife. One thing weighed on his mind. Defeated at the Mahad Sub-judge’s Court the Orthodox