Babasaheb Dr B.R Ambedkar

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GANDHI AND HIS FAST
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efforts and devote its funds for the educational, economic and social
uplift of Harijans.”
The work done and the aims formulated when put side by side raise
two questions. Firstly is this record something of which the Sangh can be
proud of? Secondly is its work consistent with the aims of the Sangh? The
record is very poor. It is much cry and little wool. Certainly as compared
with the record of work done by the Christian Missions with which the
Sangh competes, it is not a record of which the Sangh can be proud
of. But this is a mere matter for sorrow and nothing more. The second
question is fundamental and therefore one for anxious consideration.
It is well that the Sangh undertakes to labour in the interests of the
Untouchables. But its labours must be so planned that out of it will
come the destruction of untouchability.
Examined in the light of this consideration what is one to say of
the work that is being done by the Sangh? The Sangh is openly and
without abashment supporting separate schools, separate hostels, separate
dispensaries, and separate wells for the Untouchables. I should have
thought that that was the surest way of perpetuating untouchability.
It is surprizing that Mr. Gandhi who threatened to fast unto death
against separate electorates on the ground that it involved segregation
of the untouchables should himself sanction a line of activity which
perpetuates this segregation. In undertaking to render this social
service to the Untouchables, Mr. Gandhi and his Sangh should have
forgotten what the Untouchables want. What the Untouchables want
is not education, but the right to be admitted to common schools. The
Untouchables do not want medical aid; what they want is the right to
be admitted to the general dispensary on equal terms. The Untouchable
does not want water. What he wants is the right to draw water from
a common well. The Untouchables do not want their suffering to be
relieved. They want their personality to be respected and their stigma
removed. Once their stigma is removed their sufferings will go. This
the Harijan Sevak Sangh does not seem to have realized. The Sangh is
said to be the friend of the Untouchables and the orthodox Hindu the
enemy of the Untouchables. One fails to understand what the friend has
done which the enemy would not do. The orthodox Hindu insists that
the Untouchables shall have separate schools, separate dispensaries and
separate wells, the Sangh says—Thy will shall be done. Except the fact
the orthodox Hindu believes in untouchability and Harijan Sevak Sangh
does not, what is the difference in practice between the friend and the foe
? Under both, the untouchable is condemned to separate schools, separate
hostels and separate wells. If this is so, it is difficult to understand why