ROLE OF ......................... INDIAN DEMOCRACY 67
and peace by retaliation and had stemmed from the principle that the best way of keeping peace was to be prepared for war. To support his conclusions he quoted the address delivered to the Muslim League Session at Calcutta by the Gandhian nationalist Muslim leader, Maulana Azad, in which the Muslim leader said : “There would be nine Hindu Provinces as against five Muslim Provinces and whatever treatment Hindus accorded to the Muslims in the nine provinces, Muslims would accord the same treatment to the Hindus in the five provinces. Was not this a great gain ? Was not a new weapon gained for the assertion of Muslim rights?” This is a searchlight on the Gandhian nationalist Muslim leaders.
Dr. Ambedkar then dealt with the Muslim demand for Separate Electorates. He described how different people in Europe lived under a common Government in proximity of each other without objecting to a common electorate. He observed : “It does not seem to be sufficiently known that India is not the only country where the Mohammedans are in a minority. There are other countries in which they occupy the same position. In Albania, the Mohammedans form a very large community. In Bulgaria, Greece and Rumania they form a minority and in Yugoslavia and Russia they form a large majority. Have the Mohammedan communities there insisted upon the necessity of separate communal electorates ? As all students of political history are aware, the Mohammedans in these countries have managed without the benefit of Separate Electorates : nay, they have managed without any definite ratio of representation assured to them. The Mohammedan case in India, therefore, overshoots the mark in my opinion and fails to carry conviction.” The communal representation, he said, was so fundamentally wrong that to give in to sentiment in its case would be to perpetuate an evil.
Dr. Ambedkar further said: “Although I am for securing special representation for certain classes, I am against their representation through Separate Electorates. Territorial Electorates and Separate Electorates are the two extremes which