THE CABINET . . . . . . . . . UNTOUCHABLES 265
(iv) It may be said that in the Constituent Assembly which formed part of the Cripps proposals of 1942, there was no provision for separate representation of the Untouchables and that therefore, the present proposals of the Cabinet Mission cannot be said to mark a departure. The answer is that they do. In the Cripps Proposals of 1942, it is not that the Untouchables alone were not given separate representation. The fact is that no minority community was given separate representation in the Constituent Assembly. But in the Constitution of the Constituent Assembly of the Cabinet Mission, the Muslims and the Sikhs have been given separate recognition and separate representation which is denied to the Untouchables. It is this discrimination which constitutes the wrong of which the Untouchables are complaining.
- The inequity of the proposals of the Cabinet Mission thus lies in the fact that it departs from the policy of recognising the Untouchables as a separate element in the national life of India and discriminates them by not recognising them while recognizing the Muslims and Sikhs.
How the Cabinet Mission’s decision abrogates the pledges given by H.M.G to the Untouchables ?
- The non-recognition of the Untouchables as a separate element by the Cabinet Mission is contrary to the pledges given to them by and on behalf of the British Government. The following are some of the pledges worth mentioning.
(i)
“Nor must we forget the essential necessity in the interests of Indian unity, of the inclusion of the Indian States in any Constitutional Schemes.
I need refer only two of them—the great Muslim minority and the Scheduled Castes—there are the guarantees that have been given to the minorities in the past ; the fact that their position must be safeguarded, and that those guarantees must be honoured.”