268 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
recognition at the Round Table Conference. When he found that notwithstanding his opposition they were recognized as a separate element by the Communal Award of Mr. Ramsay Macdonald he threatened to fast unto death if the separate recognition of the Untouchables was not withdrawn. Again in 1945 at the First Simla Conference Mr. Gandhi raised his opposition when he found that H.M.G. had given separate recognition of the Untouchables. The Cabinet Mission were anxious to make a success of their proposals. That was not possible unless they could secure the consent of Mr. Gandhi. Mr. Gandhi demanded his price and mission gave it. That price was the sacrifice of the separate political existence of the Untouchables. Indeed one can go further and say that the proposals of the Cabinet Mission, so far as the minorities are concerned, are nothing but the reproduction of Mr. Gandhi’s formula which he resounded at the Second Round Table Conference. Mr. Gandhi said that he would recognise only three communities for political purposes (1) Hindus,
(2) Muslims and (3) Sikhs. The Mission’s formula is a mere copy of Mr. Gandhi’s formula. There is no other explanation.
III
Grounds urged by the Cabinet Mission in justification of its decision.
- For justifying their decision not to recognise the Untouchables as a separate element the Cabinet Mission has relied upon the results of the elections to the Provincial Legislative Assemblies which took place in February 1948. In the course of the debate in Parliament on the Cabinet Mission’s proposals which took place on 18th July 1946, the members of the Mission have tried to make out the following points :—
(i) That, in the election, the Congress captured all seats reserved for the Untouchables; that therefore the Congress represented the Untouchables. That being the case there was no justification for giving separate representation to the Untouchables.
(ii) That, the following of the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation and my own was confined only to Bombay and Central Provinces.