328 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
and which was for that very reason-rejected by the Congress. The other question I forget at this distance of time. The Lord Chancellor turning to Mr. Gandhi asked him what answer he had to give. Mr. Gandhi refused to give any answer.
If the past has been sold, if India has been let down, it is not by me, it is not by Scheduled Castes, it is let down by Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Shastri and others.
Parallel from Ireland
Proceeding of the situation in Ireland and how a last effort was made in 1916 towards uniting of the country, referring to the conversation between Mr. Redmond representing the Southern Irish Catholics and Sir Edward Carson, the Irish Leader, and the reply that Carson gave to Redmond when the latter asked the former to ask for any safeguards he liked : “Damn your safeguards. I do not want to be ruled by you. “I would like to tell the Hindu brethren that we in India have a thousand excuses to adopt the attitude of Mr. Carson. We were in justice bound to tell the Hindus, “Damn your safeguards, we do not want your rule” Did we say so ? Have we said it either ? No, we have not said it, although we have every right and every justification to say so. We have played our part in much more humbler manner. We have said, “if you want Home Rule which as the President of Hindu MahaSabha said would be nothing more than Home Rule.” Still we are large hearted enough because, we realise the interest of the country as a whole. We have said if you want Home Rule, you have it; we will support you. There is only one small condition that we maintain and that conditions is : give us reasonable safeguards. That is an attitude which is much more nobler than the one adopted by Carson.
I would like to ask Mr. Shastri, Mr. Gandhi or any Congress politician whether this attitude is not patriotic, whether it is not noble-minded, or whether it is not generous. How much we are forgetting the Brahmanical rule under which we have been suffering for the last 2,000 years in the hope that if we are given safeguards, we may with the help of the other generous elements in the country be able to build up a system in which not only this