372 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
landed property. The Scheduled Castes are unable to obtain any redress from the tyranny and oppression practised upon them by the Sikhs and the Jats to carry out their purposes for the simple reason that the Magistracy and the Policy in East Punjab are wholly manned by the Sikhs and Jats who quite naturally protect the wrong doers who are their Kith and Kin and pay no attention to the complaints of the Scheduled Castes.
(b) It is, therefore, absolutely essential that the Government of East Punjab should be compelled to recruit at least 300 Scheduled Castes in their Civil Police. It was recently published in the newspapers that the East Punjab Government had recruited some 300 Scheduled Castes in their Police Force. On enquiry I found that this recruitment has been made for the purpose of the Frontier Constabulary and not for the ordinary Civil Police Force. What the Scheduled Castes need for the purpose of their protection is recruitment to the Civil Police of East Punjab. I am informed that the Civil Police Force of East Punjab does not include even a single Scheduled Caste person.
(5) (a) The Land Revenue system of East Punjab divided the residents of village into two classes Zamindars and Kaminas. In the category of the Zamindar are included those families who have an exclusive right to own land situated inside the village boundary. The Kaminas have no right to buy or to own land situated in the village of which they are residents. Even the sites on which their houses are situated belong to the Zamindars, with the result that the Zamindars if they combine can compel the Kaminas to leave the village by asking them to remove their houses. This rule places the Kaminas of every village at the mercy of the Zamindars. The Scheduled Castes in all the villages in East Punjab are classed as Kaminas and are therefore living in complete servitude of the Zamindars of the village.
(b) It is, therefore, necessary that the East Punjab Government should be called upon to abolish this distinction by altering their Land Revenue system and making it similar to the Ryotwari System under which all villagers are placed on equal footing so far as the capacity to own land is concerned.