Knowledge Nugget: Poona Pact — What all you need to know for UPSC Exam

Key Takeaways :

1. It was in this week in September 1932, at the Yerawada Central Jail in Pune, that Mahatma Gandhi began fasting unto death against the award of separate electorates to the Scheduled Castes. The consequences of this fast was the Poona Pact between Gandhi and Dr B. R Ambedkar.

2. B.R Ambedkar is credited with awakening the Dalit consciousness, which powered the community’s bid for political power. Ambedkar’s political programme emphasised lower castes obtaining political power. “Nobody can remove your grievances as well as you can and you cannot remove them unless you get political power in your hands,” he wrote. 

3. “The Depressed Classes feel that they will get no shred of political power unless the political machinery for the new constitution is of a special make,” Ambedkar said during the plenary session of the First Round Table Conference in London. He suggested separate electorates as a form of affirmative action to empower lower castes.

4. Separate electorates was the political machinery with double vote – one for SCs to vote for an SC candidate and the other for SCs to vote for in the general electorate.

5. Ambedkar argued that while joint electorates might better help integrate lower castes into the Hindu fold, they would do little to challenge their subservient position. He believed that joint electorates “enabled the majority to influence the election of the representatives of the Dalits community, and thus disabled them for defending the interests of their oppression against the ‘tyranny of the majority’”.

6. Gandhi, while sympathetic to the plight of the untouchables, opposed separate electorates for depressed classes. His opposition to separate electorates was ostensibly based on his view that they “do too little” for lower castes. Gandhi argued that rather than being restricted to just this measly share of seats, lower castes should aspire to rule “the kingdom of the whole world”. 

7. More importantly, Gandhi’s opposition also stemmed from the fear that separate electorates would “destroy Hinduism” by driving a wedge within the community. This was important for two strategic reasons.

(i) First, Gandhi rightly understood how the British had exploited internal divisions in Indian society for their own purposes. According to him, separate electorates would only help the British ‘divide and rule’. 

(ii) Second, this was also a time when antagonism between Hindus and Muslims was rising. If separate electorates for lower castes were announced in addition to those for Muslims, this would significantly reduce the power that caste Hindu leadership enjoyed by breaking the consolidated Hindu fold.

Differences over separate electorates

1. During the Second Round Table Conference (RTC) in 1931, the irreconcilable position of Gandhi and Ambedkar on the political rights of the untouchables came to the fore. Gandhi was cited as saying, “Those who speak of the political rights of the Untouchables do not know their India.”

2. Gandhi also contested Ambedkar’s claim to represent all untouchables in India and feared it would create division in Hindu society. But Ambedkar remained skeptical of Gandhi’s approach and the Congress’s sincerity in addressing untouchability.  He prioritised the self-respect and political empowerment of the Depressed Classes over the unity of Hindu society.

3. The Gandhi-Ambedkar debate also highlighted the contrasting philosophies of the two leaders, with Gandhi using the term “Harijans” (Children of God) and Ambedkar employing the Marathi term ‘Dalits’ (Broken People). The clash at the RTC ended without a resolution.

4. Notwithstanding Gandhi’s opposition, Dalit leaders continued to demand separate electorates for Dalits. Ambedkar went to London to lobby British cabinet members for it. Eventually, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald announced the Communal Award of 1932 (also known as the MacDonald Award), which provided separate electorates for Depressed Classes along with other minorities including Muslims.

5. Gandhi, imprisoned in Yerawada Jail in Poona, responded by announcing an indefinite fast until the provision of separate electorates for untouchables was revoked. Ambedkar had to concede to Gandhi’s “extreme form of coercion” and sign the Poona Pact on 24 September 1932. Madan Mohan Malviya signed on behalf of Gandhi. The pact replaced the separate electorate with reservations for the Depressed Classes.

6. Following the pact, Gandhi broke his fast and proposed to establish the Anti-Untouchability League to continue the fight against untouchability. However, tensions between Gandhi and Ambedkar persisted, reflecting their fundamentally different approaches to caste and social reform.

BEYOND THE NUGGET: Mahad Satyagraha and Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha

1. The Mahad Satyagraha of 1927 was the first major collective protest of the Dalits under the stewardship of B.R Ambedkar. It is considered to be the “foundational event” of the Dalit movement.

2. This was the first time that the community collectively displayed its resolve to reject the caste system and assert their human rights. Although anti-caste protests had taken place before the Mahad Satyagraha, they were mostly localised and sporadic.

Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha

3. Ambedkar was the first Dalit to study at Bombay’s Elphinstone College, and he went to Columbia University on a Baroda State Scholarship and then to the London School of Economics. He always championed education as a way to empowerment and societal progress and set up the ‘Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha’ in 1923 to spread education amongst the marginalised communities. 

Post Read Question

Which of the following parties were established by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar? (UPSC CSE 2012)

1. The Peasants and Workers Party of India

2. All India Scheduled Castes Federation

3. The Independent Labour Party

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

(Sources: The Ambedkar-Gandhi debate on untouchability,  Why Ambedkar and Gandhi disagreed on question of separate electorates for Scheduled Castes) 

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