Gandhi’s resorted to a fast-unto-death against this, forcing Ambedkar to relent in an agreement in 1932 that came to be known as the Poona Pact. According to the Communal Award, a proposal on minority representation, 71 seats were meant for ‘untouchables’ for which only they could vote. After the Second Round Table Conference in London in 1931, the British had accepted Ambedkar’s demand for a separate electorate for Dalits despite fierce objections from Gandhi, who represented the Congress. While he went on to challenge the Congress’s - and Mahatma Gandhi’s - claim to represent the untouchables, the most prominent of their disagreements was over separate electorates for Dalits. As the organisation that led the movement for Independence, the Congress’s ideological clashes with Ambedkar were the most talked about and chronicled.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |