76 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
telegrams poured in the Conference all in my support, it was a defeat for Mr. Gandhi, who was now forced to keep quiet and accept the inglorious defeat of so glaring a claim.
Thus is the old story of the end of all the efforts of the Minorities Committee to bring about a solution of the communal problem. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the main purpose of Mr. Gandhi in going to the Round Table Conference was to oppose the legitimate demands of the Untouchables. Mr. Gandhi would not mind the separate electorate of the Muslims or the Sikhs, but when the Untouchables ventured to be recognised as a separate entity, he made the bitterest condemnation of their demands. Mr. Gandhi had no logic, he had no principles. He had only the ‘agony of his soul’ which morally forced him to utter out those pious sentences against the Untouchables. He never dared to oppose the Muslims in the same sarcastic language. How could he ? He dared to oppose the demands of the Untouchables only because he anticipated that those Untouchables who were unpaid slaves of the Caste Hindus were being dragged out of the bond of slaverly, which in other words meant that the Caste Hindus would have to be bereft of the honorary serf who had added to their dignity for times unknown.
Although the Congress has been beating the drums of her most representative character, this incident plainly showed that the Congress was nothing but another name for the Caste Hindus. That is why we see the Congress more alert on the point of segregation of the Untouchables from the rest of the Caste Hindus. Had this objection been raised by any other body it would have been considered legitimate. But what axes had the Congress to grind when she talks on behalf of the Untouchables? Does this not mean that the Congress is apparently a Hindu body. The problem of the Untouchables was the problem of the Caste Hindus and the Congress was not a Hindu organisation, then why should she put her nose into the problem which was quite foreign to her own sphere ? She only wanted to lull the Untouchables into sleep for another thousand years by not allowing the legitimate rights for the Untouchables.