REACTIONS ON.....................CONVERSION 477
From Bombay I have come here just this morning for consultation on it with friends before formally putting it before the Hindu Mahasabha for its consideration. I am trying to see Pandit Malaviyaji and if possible also H. H. the Maharaja of Patiala. It is a very delicate matter. I have, therefore, to request you to kindly think over it and let me have your opinion in the matter. Until we decide one way or the other, the matter will be kept strictly private and confidential.
Awaiting your reply.
Yours Sincerly, (Sd./—) B. S. Moonje.
P. S.—“I am enclosing also a copy of the statement of his case handed over to me by Dr. Ambedkar for your perusal. Please let me have your reply to my Nagpur address.” [1]
II
“Mr, Rajah’s Reply to Dr. Moonje
I have already expressed my view about Dr. Ambedkar’s proposal that the Depressed Classes should give up Hinduism and embrace some other religion. I make a distinction between conversion—which is a spiritual change and migration from one community to another for social, economic and political reasons.
Dear Dr. Moonje, you will excuse my saying that you view the whole problem of Depressed Classes, in view of Dr. Ambedkar’s proposal, as one of the communal migration and not as a religious problem. One would expect the President of the Hindu Mahasabha to view it as a religious problem and not merely as a political problem, without even looking at it as a social and economic problem. One can understand your concern if as President of the Hindu Mahasabha you placed the spiritual welfare of the Depressed Classes first and foremost and thought of the social and economic welfare next and lastly thought of them as a political factor. Your solicitude for the place of the Depressed Classes in the political scheme not only exposes the interested
1 : The Bombay Chronicle, dated 8th August 1936.