160 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
It is learnt from the weekly newspaper Janata that a large public meeting of the Depressed Classes was held at the Municipal Hall, Bandra, on the 28th August 1937, under the Presidentship of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and that the following resolution was passed thereat :—
“As resolved at the Bombay Presidency Mahar Conference our brothers and sisters should not observe the Hindu religious festivals, the religious rites of Hinduism such as vows, etc., and religious practices such as fasts.”
After several speeches had been made on this occasion Dr. Ambedkar rose to speak.
He said : “Our meeting is specially (convened) in order to remind (you) of the resolutions regarding conversion passed by the Bombay Presidency Mahar Conference. Therefore if any one has any questions (lit. doubts) to ask about conversion he should certainly ask them.” As no one came forward to ask any question (lit. doubt) Dr. Ambedkar commenced his speech.
He said,
“Dear brothers and sisters,
I was not going to attend this meeting; but I learnt that there-are some persons here who stick to old traditions and do not give full effect to the resolution regarding conversion passed by the ‘Mahar Conference’. I have, therefore, come here to remove the doubts of such persons. I have several times expressed my views (on this subject) long ago. As a matter of fact you should not entertain any doubt about them in your minds. The Bombay Presidency Mahar Conference held in
1935 is fit to be written in letters of gold in the history of the Mahar community. The resolutions passed by such a Conference must, therefore, as a matter of fact, be obeyed by the Mahar community as a whole and a majority of the members of the Mahar community do act up to those resolutions.
Gods in Hindu religion should not be worshipped
Dr. Ambedkar further said, “We must give up (observing) all the religious festivals and days which we had been observing according to the Hindu religion. We must consider whether the rites performed according to the Hindu religion are proper from the point of view of religion and morality. Some rites are full of extreme ribaldry. For example, several persons observe fast on