Dr. Surendra Ajnat

Dr. Ambedkar struggled all his life for the betterment of Depressed Classes, now called Scheduled Castes (SCs). He attended Round Table conference in London to achieve his objectives vehemently and argued for the separate electorate for the Depressed Classes.

The upshot came in the form of the British Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald announcing on August 16,1932, the Communal Award which provided for separate electorate for the Depressed Classes. The award was built on the notion of separate electorate that the British Government had already put in place through the Morley-Minto reforms (1909) and the Montagu -Chelmsford Reforms (1919).

Under the separate electorate system, each community was allocated a number of seats in the legislatures and only the members from these communities would be eligible to vote to elect a representative of the same community to legislate assemblies.

Gandhiji bitterly oppose the Communal Award viewing it as a British attempt to divide the Hindus. He was then in prison. He embarked on a fast unto death to protest against providing separate electorate to the Depressed Classes.

 As a result, there was tension and Dr. Ambedkar was under tremendous pressure, to defuse the escalated tensions, negotiations between Gandhi ji and Dr. Ambedkar inevitable.

After the series of negotiations both Gandhi ji and Dr Ambedkar agreed to a solution. On 24 September, 1932 ‘Poona Pact’ was signed at Yerawada Central Jail in Poona by 23 people, excluding Gandhi ji. However, his son Devdas Gandhi did sign. As the pact was signed in Poona, the pact came to be known as Poona Pact.

Dr. Ambedkar agreed to eschew separate electorate. In lieu of that the number of reserved seats was increased, the Communal Award reserved only 71 seats but now the number of seats was almost double that number i.e. 147.

This pact is erroneously called by people as a pact between Gandhi ji and Dr. Ambedkar, whereas the fact of the matter is that it was between upper caste Hindus and Dr. Ambedkar. Gandhiji was not even signatory to the pact as mentioned above. That is why the Hindus observed 8 January 1933 as ‘Temple entry Day’.

The provisions of the pact were incorporated in the government of India Act 1935. In 1937 elections, Dr. Ambedkar fielded 16 candidates out of them 14 won. Under the banner of newly formed party the independent labor Party that was the first occasion when reserved seats as per the Poona Pact were put in practices.

The Poona Pact has changed the Indian political history and the destiny of millions of Dalits across the country. The pact solidified Dr. Ambedkar leadership of the Depressed Classes and made them a formidable political force for the first time in the Indian history.

As earlier mentioned, the provisions of the Poona Pact were incorporated in the Government of India Act 1935, the Constituent Assembly heavily drew upon that act. The reservations for the present day Scheduled Castes (SCs) were taken from the clauses of the pact. It is interesting to know that our constitution borrowed 91 clauses from the government of India Act 1935. In this way, the concessions agreed to in the Poona Pact were the precursors to the Reservations of independent India enjoyed by the Scheduled Castes (SCs).

There are some people who denounce the Poona Pact saying that without the separate electorates it was a forced and lame pact. They are obviously oblivious of the later development that took place in the Constituent Assembly where every section having separate electorates had to relinquish them i.e. the separate electorates. Dr Ambedkar got 147 seats instead of 71 and he had not to eschew that. The Poon Pact proved a veritable springboard for the Scheduled castes (SCs) and we salute to Dr. Ambedkar sagacity for signing the Poona Pact.

• Surendra Ajnat did M.A. in Sanskrit and Hindi respectively. He is a University Gold Medalist and bagged Doctor of Philosophy. He is well versed in scriptures. Dr. Ajnat is a staunch rationalist and atheist. Dr. Ajnat contributes articles to various national and international newspapers, magazines and research journals. Dr. Ajnat is a staunch Ambedkarite and Buddhist and penned down several books on Dr. Ambedkar and Buddhism. Dr. Ajnat is a former Buddhist intellectual chief, Samata Sainik Dal (Regd)