17
LETTER BY MR. ATTLEE TO DR. B. R. AMBEDKAR
Paris, 1st August 1946
My dear Ambedkar,
I have carefully considered your letter of July 1st and the papers enclosed.@
I am afraid that I cannot accept the view that the Cabinet Mission and the Viceroy were unjust to the Scheduled Castes. The reason why they have revised the policy followed at the Simla Conference of 1945 is, as you suggest, the result of the elections to the Provincial Legislatures, which were held last spring. The Mission made a careful study of the voting figures and I have examined them myself. We appreciate that there are grounds for the view that the present electroral system does not do justice to those Scheduled Caste candidates who are opposed to Congress. On the other hand, I do not find that the figures substantiate what you say about the achievements of candidates belonging to your Federation at the primary elections.* While I do not propose to go into the matter in detail here the facts are that Primary Elections were held in only 43 of the 151 seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes. Of these 43 Primary Elections, the Scheduled Castes Federation contested 22 and topped the poll in only 13.
@ On 1st July Dr. Ambedkar sent Mr. Attlee a lengthy letter with which he enclosed copies of recent correspondence, a memorandum, a speech and some other items. Dr. Ambedkar’s letter was in continuation of a telegram he had sent to Mr. Attlee on 17th June and covered similar ground. For the telegram see page : 224
Transfer of Power, Vol. VIII, No. 105, pp. 170-72.
In his letter of 1st July Dr. Ambedkar wrote that : ‘That results of the Primary Elections—herever they took place in India—proved that the candidates put up by the Federation came to the top and those put up by the Congress went down to the bottom.’ L/P&J/10/50 ; f 81.