APPENDIX—IV
INTERVIEWS OF JAGJIWAN RAM, RADHANATH DAS AND PRITHVI SINGH BEFORE CABINET MISSION
“Jagjivan Ram, Radhanath Das and Prithvi Singh Azad attended together as representatives of the All India Depressed Classes’ League. They said that the League was opposed to any proposal which would impain the integrity of the country ; that, in its view, the division of India into Pakistan and Hindustan would not provide a solution to the minority problem but would produce fresh problems; that it was also opposed to the setting up of more than one constituent assembly. The new consitution should contain provisions for the safeguarding of the language, culture, etc., of the minorities and the rights and interests of the Scheduled Castes. With regard to the interim Government, the Depressed Classes’ League was opposed to weightage being given to any community by depriving another community of its legitimate shares; but if it were decided to give weightage, the Scheduled Castes should also be given weightage. The interim Government should be responsible to the legislature the defence, finance, and foreign affairs should be handed over to the Cabinet, whose members should be elected by the various provincial legislatures. Special provision should be made for the representation of the minority communities, and Scheduled Castes members of the provincial assemblies should form an electoral college to select persons for inclusion in the Central Government.
Jagjivan Ram said that the difference between the Scheduled Castes Federation (led by Dr. Ambedkar) and the Depressed Classes’ league was that, whereas the Federation held that the Scheduled Castes were not Hindus but a religious minority of their own, the League held that the Scheduled Castes masses considered themselves Hindus and that they had sacrificed much for the cause of Hinduism. The Depressed Classes League pressed for special representation in the legislature and in the services in order to enable the Scheduled Castes to raise themselves to the level of the rest of the country.” [1]
(The transfer of Power in India, pp. 244-45).
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1 : Quoted, Khairmode, Vol. 8, Pp. 64-65.