202 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Addressing the volunteers direct Dr. Ambedkar said :
“This volunteer corps was born in the struggle started for the assertion of human rights by the Depressed Classes which culminated in the Mahad Satyagraha. ”
“For the proper discharge of that duty you have to be men of sterling character to whom the rest of society will look to as models of humanity.”
“You must remember that you are not a crowd or a mob. You are a battalion. And the difference between the two is obvious. A handful of well-trained, well-desciplined men like you are able to control a crowd of thousands. That is the essence of the difference “between you and an ordinary crowd.”
“Dr. Ambedkar wound up with a fervent appeal to other young men to join the corps and to increase its strength.”
On behalf of the General Officer Commanding of the Volunteer Corps Mr. D. V. Pradhan expressed the hope that they would be able to open branches of the Corps in other provinces in India in the same manner that they had done in various parts of the province of Bombay. [1]
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1 : Bombay Chronicle, dated 10th January 1939.