64 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
The Simon Commission came on its first visit, and landed at Bombay on February 3, 1928, to commence the work of re-examination of the Indian problem as declared in the Act of 1919. Its non-Indian character offered an affront to almost all Indian parties. The Congress Party decided to boycott the Commission at every stage and in every form. So, on its arrival, the Simon Commission was greeted with black flags, curses and placards with the slogan “Go back, Simon!” Congressmen staged hostile demonstrations on a nation-wide scale, and the police had to open fire at some places. This black welcome was also extended later to the Commission during its second visit in the winter of 1928-29.
Meanwhile, the All Parties Conference convened by the Congress Party met in February and later in May
1928, and appointed a Committee under Pandit Motilal Nehru to draft a Swaraj Constitution for India. The Nehru Committee worked from June to August 1928 and drafted a Constitution.*
It mainly aimed at closing the Muslim breach. As regards the Depressed or Suppressed Classes, the Nehru Report said : “In our suggestions for the Constitution we have not made any special provision for the representation of the ‘Depressed’ Classes in the legislatures. This could only be done by way of special electorates or by nomination.” But as these two methods were considered harmful and unsound, the Committee said that they were not going to extend either principle. They observed that their Declaration of Rights would be a panacea for all the ills affecting the Depressed Classes.** The attitude of the Congress Party towards the problem of the Untouchables will be clearer when one notices that the Congress Working Committee issued invitations to all prominent Muslim, Parsi, Christian, Sikh, Anglo-Indian organisations and even the
- For comment by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, see editorial of ‘Bahishkrit Bharat’ dated 18th January 1929—Editors.
** All Parties Conference Report, 1928, Pp. 59-60.