Poona Pact

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 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.
  • Seats reserved - 71 to 147 in provincial legislatures and to 18 per cent of the total in the Central Legislature.
  • Poona Pact was accepted by the government & amendment in Communal Award.
Impact of Poona Pact on Dalits
  • Certain political rights to the depressed classes.
  • Hindu social order to continue and gave birth to many problems.
  • Pact made the depressed classes political tools which could be used by the majoritarian caste Hindu organisations.
  • Depressed classes leaderless, unable to win against the stooges who were chosen and supported by the caste Hindu organisations.
  • Not being able to develop independent and genuine leadership to fight the Brahminical order.
  • Subordinated the depressed classes into being part of the Hindu social order by denying them a separate and distinct existence.
  • Poona Pact perhaps put obstructions in the way of an ideal society based on equality, liberty, fraternity and justice.
  • Denying to recognise the Dalits as a separate and distinct element in the national life, it pre-empted the rights and safeguards for the Dalits in the Constitution of independent India.
Joint Electorates and Its Impact on Depressed Classes
  • Working Committee on All India Scheduled Caste Federation.
  • System of joint electorates deprived the scheduled castes of the right to send true and effective representatives to the legislatures.
  • 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
  • Working committee of the federation, demanded for the restoration of the system of separate electorates, and nullification of the system of joint electorates and reserved seats.
  • Dr B.R. Ambedkar continued to denounce the Poona Pact till 1947.
Gandhi’s Harijan Campaign
  • Gandhi whirlwind campaign against untouchability.
  • While in jail, he set up the All India Anti-Untouchability League in September 1932 and started the weekly Harijan in January 1933.
  • 1930, Shifted Satyagraha Ashram in Wardha, not to return to Sabarmati Ashram unless swaraj was won.
  • Conducted a Harijan tour of the country in the period from November 1933 to July 1934.
  • Collecting money for his newly set up Harijan Sevak Sangh.
  • Social, economic, political and cultural upliftment of the Harijans.
  • Undertook two fasts - on May 8 and August 16, 1934 - convince his followers of the seriousness of his effort and the importance of the issue.
  • Throughout his campaign, Gandhi was attacked by orthodox and reactionary elements, disrupted his meetings, black flag demonstrations.
  • Also offered support to the government against the Congress and the Civil Disobedience Movement.
  • Government obliged them by defeating the Temple Entry Bill in August 1934.
  • Orthodox Hindu opinion in Bengal was against the acceptance of permanent caste Hindu minority status by the Poona Pact.
  • Certain Themes:
    • Put forward a damning indictment of Hindu society for the kind of oppression practised on Harijans.
    • Total eradication of untouchability symbolised by his plea to throw open temples to the untouchables.
    • "Hinduism dies if untouchability lives, untouchability has to die if Hinduism is to live".
    • Entire campaign, principles of humanism and reason. Shastras do not sanction untouchability.
  • Gandhi was not in favour of mixing up the issue of removal of untouchability with that of inter-caste marriages and inter-dining because he felt that such restrictions existed among caste Hindus and among Harijans themselves, and because the all-India campaign at the time was directed against disabilities specific to Harijans.
  • He distinguished between abolition of untouchability and abolition of caste system as such.
  • Advocated annihilation of the caste system to remove untouchability. limitations and defects of the varnashram system.
  • Product of distinctions of high and low and not of the caste system itself, purged of this distinction.
  • Believed that the removal of untouchability would have a positive impact on communal, opposed to using compulsion against the orthodox Hindus whom he called ‘sanatanis’.
  • Campaign included internal reform - education, cleanliness, hygiene, giving up eating of beef and carrion and consumption of liquor, and removing untouchability among themselves.
  • Impact of the Campaign
    • Not a political movement but to purify Hinduism and Hindu society.
    • Leading to their increasing participation in the national and peasant movement.

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