18
PROTEST LETTER OF DR. AMBEDKAR TO MR. ATTLEE
“Rajgriha”
Dadar, Bombay 14
12th August 1946.
My dear Attlee,
Thank you for your letter of the 1st August 1946. I did not expect you to find time to reply to my letter of the 1st July
I am therefore grateful to you for your having found time to let me know your views about the points that I had raised in my letter.
I am afraid I cannot accept your justification for the revision of the policy followed by His Majesty’s Government in the Simla Conference of 1945 nor of the Mission’s method of treating the Scheduled Castes. I cannot help saying that Mr. Alexander’s statement in the House of Commons that the majority of the Scheduled Castes are with the Congress is an atrocious statement and has no foundation in truth. This is not only my view but the view of every Englishman in India. If you only consult Sir Edward Benthall who is now in England, I am sure he will support me.
With regard to the analysis you have given of the result of the achievements of the Federation in the Primary Election, all lean say is that you have misunderstood the situation and I am afraid no outsider who does not know the significance of the facts or the method of the election will be able to understand what they mean without proper explanation. The main ground of my charge against the Mission is that when the other side of the picture were (was) presented by the Congress, it was their bounden duty to have called me and to have asked for an explanation. This, the Mission did not do, which they were in justice bound to do. If I had failed to give them satisfactory explanation then they would have been justified in the conclusion to which they came. That the Mission was grossly misinformed is proved by my election to the Constituent Assembly from Bengal. The Cabinet Mission stated