188 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
and after they had dragged it for 10 feet from the gate the Untouchables could join, and together with the touchables join carrying by holding the rope fastened to the Rath, and questioned me whether I had any objection to the Rath procession, to which I replied ‘I had none’ and in order to help the cause of peace I went out of my way to sort out about 50 out of a 5,000 Untouchables and told them that they alone want to take part in the dragging of the Rath. Accordingly the Rath was brought out to the temple gate by the touchables. But the touchables who wanted to decieve both the Untouchables and the Police Officers did two things—
(1) the touchables held the rope so close to one another that no room was left for the Untouchables to join in, and (2) the touchables instead of stopping the Rath at-the temple gate, as previously agreed to, began to run away with it so as to give no chance to Untouchables to catch the rope and participate in carrying the Rath. This menacure to violate the most important condition in the agreement naturally enraged the feelings of the Untouchables. But the immediate cause of the fight was the action of the Police Sepoys a great majority of whom were Caste Hindus, they at once started to assualt those Untouchables who were struggling to hold a bit of the rope. The fight was started by the Caste Hindu Police who openly took the side of the touchable Hindus.
The batch of 50 Untouchables was thus subjected to an assault from two-sides. The touchable Hindus who had held the rope were brushing them away and preventing them from taking a position near the rope and when the Untouchables were struggling to take a position the caste Hindu Police were charging with their batons and butt-ends of their rifles.
Seeing their men assualted in this way the rest of the Untouchables followed the Rath with which the touchables were running away at a terrific speed. Seeing that the crowd of the Untouchables pursuing the Rath had come very near it, the touchables abandoned Rath on the road and went to adjoining field and began to throw a volley of stones on the crowd of Untouchables who were standing on the road.
The road was lined on one side by barbed wire and on the other side by cactus, and consequently the Untouchables could not