120 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
and pale. Everywhere, there is an atmosphere of defeatism and pessimism. Even the slightest idea that you can do something, does not arise in any body’s mind.
Why are you only oppressed ?
If the fact that I have described above is true, then you will have to agree with the conclusion of it. The conclusion is, if you depend only upon your own strength, you will never be able to face the oppression. I have no doubt that you are oppressed because you have no strength. It is not that you alone are in minority. The Muslims are equally small in number. Like Mahar-Mangs, they too have few houses in the village. But no one dares to trouble the Muslims while you are always a victim of tyranny. Why is this so ? Though there may be two houses of Muslims in the village, nobody dares to harm them, while the whole village practise tyranny against you though you have about ten houses ? Why does this happen ? This is a very permanent question and you will have to find out a suitable answer to this. In my opinion, there is only one answer to this question. The Hindus realize that the strength of the whole of the Muslim population in India stands behind those two houses of Muslims living in a village and therefore they do not dare to touch them. Those two houses also, enjoy free and fearless life because they are aware that if any Hindu commits aggression against them, the whole Muslim community from Punjab to Madras will rush to their protection at any cost. On the other hand, the Hindus are sure that none will come to your rescue, nobody will help you, no financial help will reach you, nor will the officers help you in any eventuality. Tahsildar and Police belong to Caste Hindus, and in cases of disputes between Hindus and the Untouchables, they are more faithful to their caste than towards their duty. The Hindus practise injustice and tyranny against you only because you are helpless. From the above discussion, two facts are established. Firstly, you cannot face tyranny without strength. And secondly, you do not posses enough strength to face the tyranny. Having these two facts proved, the third automatically follows. That is, the strength required to face this tyranny needs to be secured from outside. How are you to gain this strength is really an important question, and you will have to ponder over this with an unbiased mind.