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NO DISPUTE OVER INDIA’S GOAL OF FREEDOM
“Except the communal question, there is no dispute among the various parties in India,” said Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Labour Member, Government of India, speaking at a party given in his honour by a group of friends at ‘Cafe Model’, Bombay, on Sunday the 20th May 1945. He added that there was no differences of opinion between the parties as to the ultimate goal of Indian political evolution-freedom.
Analysing the present situation, Dr. Ambedkar said, that it could be summed up in the question : “Is a majority rule right ?” His view was that it was wrong. It was wrong to consider that the needs of the State were paramount and those of the individual not, as that amounted to a Fascist or a Nazi doctrine. Protection of the individual, he further said, was the fundamental concern of the State and the suppression of the individual could not be tolerated.
Proceeding he said that the majority could be classed as political majority and communal majority. The former was always changing. That sort of majority was tolerable. But a “born majority” was not, he said. To settle this problem, he added, they had to depart from the principle of “mere majority.” That done, a solution for the problem facing them will have been found.
Turning to the question whether it was Dominion Status or Independence that was to be accepted, Dr. Ambedkar said that it was hardly a question of dispute. He considered the former as the first step in reaching the second. He personally felt that it would be better for India to accept Dominion Status. It was hardly of any use, he said, to win liberty which they could not retain. The determination Indians should make, he added, was not so much that they should free themselves from the British yoke, but they should be able to retain that freedom after having attained it.
The two important questions that a free India will have to tackle, Dr. Ambedkar said, were indsutrialisation and defence. He had grave doubts that India had all the resources necessary to proceed