72 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Sastri and C. Y. Chintamani. Representing the Muslims, were H. H. the Aga Khan, Sir Muhamed Shafi, Mohomed Ali Jinnah, and Fazlul Huq, while Sardar Ujjal Singh represented the Sikhs, Dr. B. S. Moonje, the Hindu Mahasabha, K. T. Paul, the Indian Christians, Rulers of Alwar, Baroda, Bhopal, Bikaner, Kashmir, Patiala and Sir Akbar Hydari, Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyar, Sir Mirza Ismail represented the Indian States. Sir A. P. Patro and Bhaskarrao V. Jadhav represented other interests; Dr. Ambedkar and Rao Bahadur Srinivasan represented the Depressed Classes. Dr. Ambedkar received the invitation to the Round Table Conference through the Viceroy on September 6, 1930. The Round Table Coference was indeed a great event in the history of both India and England. But to the Untouchables in particular it was an epoch-making event in their history; for, it was at this Conference that they were being invested along with other Indians with the right to be consulted in the framing of the Constitution for India. Their voice was to echo for the first time in the history of two thousand years, and more so in the governance of their Motherland.
Dr. Ambedkar left Bombay for London on October 4, 1930, by the s.s. Viceroy of India. The atmosphere in the country was not congenial to his departure. The whole country was in a turmoil. Congressmen hated, abused and cursed those leaders who co-operated with the British Government in solving the Indian problem in their own honest way. The situation was so tense and fraught with danger that Dr. Ambedkar wrote from Aden, on October 8, to Shivtarkar, his secretary and trusted lieutenant, that he was very anxious for their safety. He warned them to be on their guard in their walks and talks and to avoid all work at night. He asked him to lock the office of the party with an iron bar across it and to watch the movements of a certain Depressed Class leader in Bombay who was at loggerheads with their organization.
Dr. Ambedkar found the political atmosphere in England much sympathetically inclined to the problem of the Depressed Classes. On his arrival, he immediately began to contact Britain’s important political party bosses in connection with the problem of the Depressed Classes. Yet he was anxious to know