COMMUNAL AWARD AND POONA PACT

Modern History

Communal Award
The Communal Award was announced by the British prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald, on August 16, 1932. The Communal Award, based on the findings of the Indian Franchise Committee (also called the Lothian Committee), established separate electorates and reserved seats for minorities, including the depressed classes which were granted seventy-eight reserved seats.

Main Provisions

Muslims, Europeans, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, depressed classes, women, and even the Marathas were to get separate electorates.
Such an arrangement for the depressed classes was to be made for a period of 20 years.
In the provincial legislatures, the seats were to be distributed on communal basis.
The existing seats of the provincial legislatures were to be doubled.
The Muslims, wherever they were in minority, were to be granted a weightage.
Except in the North West Frontier Province, 3 percent seats were to be reserved for women in all provinces.
The depressed classes to be declared/accorded the status of minority.
The depressed classes were to get ‘double vote’, one to be used through separate
electorates and the other to be used in the general electorates.
Allocation of seats were to be made for labourers, landlords, traders and industrialists.
In the province of Bombay, 7 seats were to be allocated for the Marathas.

Congress Stand

Though opposed to separate electorates, the Congress was not in favour of changing the Communal Award without the consent of the minorities.
Thus, Congress decided neither to accept it nor to reject it.

Gandhi’s Response

Gandhi saw the Communal Award as an attack on Indian unity and nationalism. He thought it was harmful to both Hinduism and to the depressed classes.
He said that what was required was not protection of the so-called interests of the depressed classes but root and branch eradication of untouchability.
Gandhi demanded that the depressed classes be elected through joint and if possible a wider electorate through universal franchise, while expressing no objection to the demand for a larger number of reserved seats.
He went on an indefinite fast on September 20, 1932.
Now leaders of various persuasions, including B.R. Ambedkar, M.C. Rajah and Madan Mohan Malaviya got together to hammer out a compromise contained in the Poona Pact.

Poona Pact

Signed by B.R. Ambedkar on behalf of the depressed classes on September 24, 1932, the Poona Pact abandoned the idea of separate electorates for the depressed
classes.
The Poona Pact was accepted by the government as an amendment to the Communal Award.
The Poona Pact, despite giving certain political rights to the depressed classes, could not achieve the desired goal of emancipation of the depressed class.
The Pact made the depressed classes political tools which could be used by the majoritarian caste Hindu organisations.
This led to the depressed classes to submit to the status quo in political, ideological and cultural fields and not being able to develop independent and
genuine leadership to fight the Brahminical order.
The Poona Pact perhaps put obstructions in the way of an ideal society based on equality, liberty, fraternity and justice.

Impact on Depressed Classes

The Working Committee of the All India Scheduled Caste Federation alleged that in the last elections held under the Government of India Act, 1935, the system of joint electorates deprived the scheduled castes of the right to send true and effective representatives to the legislatures.
The committee, further, said that the provisions of the joint electorate gave the Hindu majority the virtual right to nominate members of the scheduled castes who were prepared to be the tools of the Hindu majority.

Gandhi’s Harijan Campaign

While in jail, he set up the All India Anti-Untouchability League in September 1932 and started the weekly Harijan in January 1933.
After his release, he shifted to the Satyagraha Ashram in Wardha as he had vowed in 1930 not to return to Sabarmati Ashram unless swaraj was won.
Starting from Wardha, he conducted a Harijan tour of the country in the period from November 1933 to July 1934, and propagating removal of untouchability in all its forms.
He urged political workers to go to villages and work for social, economic, political and cultural upliftment of the Harijans.
Throughout his campaign, Gandhi was attacked by orthodox and reactionary elements.
He put forward a damning indictment of Hindu society for the kind of oppression practised on Harijans.
He called for total eradication of untouchability symbolised by his plea to throw open temples to the untouchables.
He stressed the need for caste Hindus to do ‘penance’ for untold miseries inflicted on Harijans.

Gandhi And Ambedkar: Difference in Approach

Both the leaders were critical of ills pertaining to the caste system and committed to the upliftment of depressed classes. However, both differ in the approach.
Ambedkar was in favour of annihilation of the caste system as it was beyond reforms. Gandhi did not support the abolition of the caste system or Varnashrama order. He was in favour of bringing behavioural change in the society regarding the ills of the caste system.
According to Ambedkar, the caste question is a political issue and wanted a political solution for upliftment of depressed classes. Ambedkar insisted that a political democracy was meaningless if the so-called depressed classes were not equal participants in it. According to Gandhi caste issue is a social one. He wanted to reform it by changing the hearts and minds of people.
Ambedkar preferred a rights-based approach while Gandhi’s approach was through faith and spirituality.
That's why Ambedkar referred depressed classes as dalits (to give them a political identity), on the other hand Gandhi called depressed classes as Harijan (to sensitize upper caste for plight of depressed classes by invoking spirituality).

The Poona Pact has changed the Indian Political history and the destiny of millions of Dalits across the country. However, social stigma attached to the caste system still remains in the Indian society. Therefore, in order to establish an egalitarian society in true sense, Gandhian Philosophy and Ambedkar’s notion of Social Democracy is much more relevant than ever before.

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Subject: Modern History

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