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WHAT IS THE GOAL OF INDIA’S POLITICAL EVOLUTION ?
Dr. Ambedkar Condemns Federation
“Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the leader of the Independent Labour Party, Bombay, made a studied exposition of the Federal Scheme in the course of a three-hour long speech at the Gokhale School of Economics in Poona on sunday night the
29th January 1939.
First, the Federal Scheme far from leading the Country to Independence would block the way permanently even to Dominion Status.
Dr. Ambedkar wanted that they should have only a Federation of the British Indian Provinces.
As regards the States he wanted that the rulers of the smaller States should be pensioned off and those of the bigger States should be allowed to function under certain conditions.
The Federal Scheme, according to him, completely forgot the freeman and the poor who constituted the most important factor of national polity.
The following is the summary of the address delivered by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar:
In order to present a clear idea of the real character of the Federation, Dr. Ambedkar undertook a comparison of the Federation with other Federations and he instituted the comparison with reference to three vital questions viz. ( i ) What are the units of the Federations, ( ii ) What is the relationship of these units to the Federation, ( iii ) What is the relationship of the people who are brought under the sovereignty of the Federation.
In this connection he observed “ . . . . . . . . . . . .Federation is not one common whole with a common citizenship. The Federation is a collection of which in law are foreign States. The Federation is really a Con-federation. The peculiarities and the characteristics which it bears are those of a Confederation. If