36 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
The question that arise next in order for our consideration, pertain to the electorates and the franchise. Gentlemen, what shall be our demand in respect to them? Regarding the formation of the electorates there are two altenatives open to us. One is the scheme of separate electorates and the other is that of joint electorates with reserved seats. I know that the opinion of the depressed classes is divided on this question. There is a large body of the people in favour of separate electorates. They fear that in joint electorates the majority community having a right to vote in the election of our representatives will favour only such men from amongst us as will be subservient to them. I don’t say that such fears are altogether without any foundations. But if this is true, then the remedy lies not in enclosing lies in a separate compartment, but in increasing our voting strength to the fullest possible extent by demanding adult suffrage, so that we may thereby be in a position to minimise such influence, as the majority community may happen to cast in the election of our representations. In my opinion, if we can get adult suffrage and here I must say that we must insist upon it as one of our most essential demands, we ought to have no objection to the scheme of joint electorates with reserved seats being applied to the Depressed Classes.
In this connection there is one observation which I feel I must make. To say that this is a country which is divided by castes and creeds and that it cannot be one united self-governing community unless adequate safe-guards for the protection of the minorities are made a part of the constitution is a position to which there can be no objection. But the minorities must bear in mind that although we are today “riven by sects and atomised by castes,” our ideal is a united India. This is an ideal which no minority which claims to be heard can fail to place in its forefront. That being so, it follows that every minority in formulating the safe-guards it needs, must take care that they will not be incompatible with the realisation of that ideal. By all means insist on your self-guards because the handicap you suffer from is real, but let not your safeguards be such that they will peipetuate the differences which it must be the desire of us all to see bridged. There is undoubtedly an obligation