Babasaheb Dr B.R Ambedkar

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372 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
nor right would justify Untouchables in claiming a seat on the Board
of the Sangh.”
Not only were all my proposals rejected by Mr. Gandhi and his
advisers but in framing the constitution of the Sangh, aims and objects
were adopted which are quite opposed to those which I had suggested. 1
At the meeting held in Cowasjee Jehangir Hall in Bombay on the 30th
September 1932 the aims of the organization were stated to be:
“Carrying propaganda against Untouchability and taking
immediate steps ‘to secure as early as practicable that all public
wells, dharmashalas, roads, schools, crematoriums, burning ghats
and all public temples be declared open to the Depressed Classes,
provided that no compulsion or force shall be used and that only
peaceful persuasion shall be adopted towards this end’.”
But in the statement issued by Mr. G. D. Birla and Mr. A. V. Thakkar
on the 3rd November, two months after its inauguration it was stated:
“The League believes that reasonable persons among the
Sanatanists are not much against the removal of Untouchability as
such, as they are against inter-caste dinners and marriages. Since
it is not the ambition of the League to undertake reforms beyond its
own scope, it is desirable to make it clear that while the League will
work by persuasion among the caste Hindus to remove every vestige
of Untouchability, the main line of work will be constructive, such
as the uplift of Depressed Classes educationally, economically and
socially, which itself will go a great way to remove untouchability.
With such a work even a staunch Sanatanist can have nothing but
sympathy. And it is for such work mainly that the League has been
established. Social reforms like the abolition of the caste system and
inter-dinning are kept outside the scope of the League.”
These aims and objects are described in one of the Annual Reports
of the Sangh. It says: 2
“According to its constitution the aim and object of the Society is
the abolition of untouchability by reason of birth and the acquisition
of equal rights of access of public temples, wells, schools and other
public institutions for Harijans as enjoyed by other Hindus.
The achievement of this object has led the Society to undertake
work of a two-fold kind. First, the Society has to bring about such a
radical change in the sentiments and opinions of Caste Hindus that
they may willingly, as a matter of course, allow the enjoyment of
all civic rights to Harijans. Secondly, the society has to put forth its
1
Reprduced from ‘What Congress .......... etc.’ pp. 140-41 as the page in the MS is left
blank.—Ed.
2
Report for 1932-33, p. 1.