HINDUS ALWAYS............HINDU SOCIETY 355
the Hindu community.” he replied. “The Untouchables have always wished for it and have tried for it, but they have never succeeded in changing the attitude of the Hindus who have always regarded them as ‘outside the pale’ of Hindu Society.
HINDU ABSORPTION A DREAM
“It is because the Scheduled Castes have come to realise that the assimilation or absorption of the Scheduled Castes into the Hindu community is a vain hope and is only a dream that they have decided to ask for separate electorates.
“If the Hindus can absorb the Scheduled Castes not in the superficial manner in which they want to do by opening temples and canteens, but in the real and substantial sense of the term assimilation, namely inter-marriage and interdinning, the Untouchables are always prepared and ready for it.
“It is the Hindu who must convince the Scheduled Castes that when he talks about the merger of the Scheduled Castes into the Hindu fold he means the removal of the bar against intermarriage and inter-dinning.
“Another aspect of the same question,” continued Dr. Ambedkar, “is that in the opinion of the Scheduled Castes their merger into Hindu society would become possible easier only when the Untouchables rise to the same social status which is occupied by the Hindus. In the present degraded condition, no Hindu however great a social reformer may be, will consent to dine with an Untouchable or inter-marry with him, but if, as an effect of the political rights, the Untouchables become better educated, more advanced and begin to occupy the posts of officers and administrators in the State, the chances of intermarriage and inter-dinning between them and the Hindus would be much greater.
IGNORANCE, OBSTINACY
“From this point of view the political safeguards which the Untouchables want are in no sense in conflict with the desire of the Hindus to absorb and assimilate them. Because the Untouchables have Separate Electorates it is difficult to understand