23
DR. AMBEDKAR CHALLENGES GWYER AWARD
“Since February 1939 trouble had been brewing in the Rajkot State where a strong agitation was going on for political reforms. Defeated and disappointed by Subhas Bose’s election to the Presidentship of the Congress, Gandhi hurried to Rajkot apparently to settle the State problem, but with an inward desire to create a crisis just at the time of the Tripuri Congress Session over which Subhas Bose was to preside. Dr. Ambedkar was urgently called by the local Depressed Classes to intervene in the dispute regarding their noninclusion in the Reforms Committee of the State. He therefore, left by air for Rajkot and on the evening of April 18, saw the ruler, the Thakor Saheb, and at night addressed a meeting of the Depressed Classes, urging them to carry on their struggle for political rights.
The next morning he had a talk with Gandhi for forty-five minutes on the question of representation for the Harijans on the Reforms Committee. He stated in an interview at Rajkot that he could not discuss in detail all the points with Gandhi, as the Mahatma had a sudden temperature. He, however, revealed that the suggestion that his, alternative proposal should be submitted to a constitutional expert like Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru was not acceptable to Gandhi. At last Gandhi failed in his attempt to effect a change of heart by his non-violent methods and resorted to coercive methods by appealing to the Viceroy to intervene. Gandhi, the apostle of the principle of change of heart and non-violence, himself publicly confessed that his non-violence had not yet been developed to the fullest power, and so he left Rajkot, to quote his words, with hopes cremated and body shattered.
Accordingly, a few days thereafter Sir Maurice Gwyer, the Chief Justice of the Federal Court, gave an Award on the disputes in the State of Rajkot. Dr. Ambedkar challenged the interpretation of the word “recommend” given by Sir Maurice Gwyer. He stated that Gwyer had given his decision on the footing that “There is