ROLE OF ......................... INDIAN DEMOCRACY 145
and are certainly beyond my comprehension. He not only does not endeavour to augment the scanty political power which the Depressed Classes have got under the Communal Award, but on the contrary he has staked his very life in order to deprive them of what little they have got. This is not the first attempt on the part of the Mahatma to completely dish the Depressed Classes out of political existence. Long before there was the Minorities Pact, the Mahatma tried to enter into an agreement with the Muslims in order to defeat the claims of the Depressed Classes. He offered to the Muslims all the 14 claims which they had put forth on their behalf, and in return asked them to join with him in resisting the claims for Social Representation made by me on behalf of the Depressed Classes.
It must be said to the credit of the Muslim delegates, that they refused to be party to such a black act, and saved the Depressed Classes from what might as well have developed into a calamity for them as a result of the combined opposition of the Mohamedans and Mr. Gandhi.
I am unable to understand the ground of hostility of Mr. Gandhi to the Communal Award. He says that the Communal Award has separated the Hindu Community. On the other hand Dr. Moonje, a much stronger protagonist of the Hindu cause and a millitant advocate of its interests, takes a totally different view of the matter. In the speeches which he has been delivering since his arrival from London, Dr. Moonje has been insisting that the Communal Award does not create any separation between the Depressed Classes and the Hindus. Indeed, he has been boasting that he has defeated me in my attempt to politically separate the Depressed Classes from the Hindus. I am sure that Dr. Moonje is right in his interpretation of the Communal Award although I am not sure that the credit of it can legitimately go to Dr. Moonje. It is therefore, surprising that Mahatma Gandhi, who is a Nationalist, and not known to be a communalist, should read the Communal Award in so far as it relates to the Depressed Classes in a manner quite contrary to that of a communalists like Dr. Moonje. If Dr. Moonje does not sense any separation of the Depressed Classes from the Hindus in the Communal Award the Mahatma ought to feel quite satisfied on that score.