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Ambedkar Vs Malaviya

The Mahatma spoke of the Indian National Congress, with its diverse and all-inclusive membership, as the sole representative of all Indian interests, classes, castes, faiths, and regions (and also of both genders, pointing to its several female presidents, something no other party could boast of). Ambedkar spoke of two themes in particular, the specific problems of the Depressed Classes and the future constitutional dispensation of free India. On the former subject, Ambedkar refused to be patronized. He disagreed openly with the Mahatma’s stand that no special provisions were required to cater to the needs of his community. When Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (founder of Banaras Hindu University and a prominent Congressman) remarked that if the British had devoted enough resources to the eradication of illiteracy in India, there would have been no Depressed Classes to speak of, Ambedkar testily pointed out that his own extensive academic qualifications had made no difference to his being treated as an ‘untouchable’.

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