55. I’m prepared to save your Life provided . . . . . - Page 456

55

I’M PREPARED TO SAVE YOUR LIFE PROVIDED………..

“During the first three months of 1955, Maurice Brown and Francis Watson of British Broadcasting Corporation, London, visited India, travelling, interviewing and recording some of those they knew could contribute, recorded their memories and opinions of Mahatma Gandhi. The extracts below contain in brief the text of interview they had with Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. To maintain a link the opinions of a few others have also been retained.

Narrator : We are on the heights now, with the saint, the Mahatma.

B. R. Ambedkar : He was never a Mahatma. I refuse to call him Mahatma, you see. I never in my life called him ‘Mahatma’. He doesn’t deserve that title. Not even from the point of view of morality.

Narrator : Opposition. Opposition from Dr. Ambedkar, political” leader of the Scheduled Castes of India, the Untouchables. Gandhi wanted Untouchability to be dissolved by bringing the scheduled castes within the fold of Hinduism and removing all their disabilities. Dr. Ambedkar wanted protection for them as a separate community, which to Gandhi seemed morally wrong and politically dangerous. It was a very stern fight, leading in the end to one of Gandhi’s most celebrated fasts.

B. R. Ambedkar : Oh of course, he bargained and bargained ; I said, nothing doing. I’m prepared to save your life, you see, providing you don’t make hard terms but I’m not going to save your life at the cost of the life of my people. I always say that as I met Mr. Gandhi in the capacity of an opponent I’ve a feeling. I knew him better than most other people, because he had opened his real fangs to me, you see, and I could see the inside of the man.