110. 25-9-1947 The Minority must always be won over, it must Never be Dictated to - Page 403

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THE MINORITY MUST ALWAYS BE WON OVER IT MUST NEVER BE DICTATED TO

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar inaugurated ‘Siddharth College Parliament’ on 25th September 1947 at Bombay.

On this occasion he said,

“I have not got any clear line of action before me for the present, and so I am thinking to speak in a military way. This independance has come so sudden that we had no time to recall our forces and we had no time to arrange our forces even.

The British inspite of their promises to us for the last fifty years, in the end, deceived us in not recognising the Scheduled Castes as separate political entity. They did not help us in the task. They helped the Musalmans and Sikhs. It is very curious to note at this stage as to why the British helped only the Musalmans, Sikhs and not the Scheduled Castes. We are left with no support. We had to depend upon nothing else but our own strength. And as you well know that this strength also was divided in the eyes of the British Political Surveyers like Cripps and his fellow friends in the delegation. They saw this division because of the separate organization of the so called Harijan Party. It is true and was true in reality that the Scheduled Castes Federation was the only representative body of the Scheduled Castes.

I am glad to say that, when I had been to England and discussed with many of the leaders of different political groups there, the permanent Parliamentary Secretaries, who were in day to-day touch of the Indian situation, had fully supported my saying that the Scheduled Castes Federation was the only representative body of the Scheduled Castes. Not only that but people like Mr. Cripps and many like him were convinced by my mission, but inspite of this the British Delegation over-ruled everything, because they wanted to take political decision for their safety even