Gandhi, Ambedkar and British Policy on the Communal Award: A Response to Sujay Biswas

Abstract

This article considers the proposition, advanced by Sujay Biswas, that the British ‘manufactured’ the demand for a separate ‘Untouchable’ electorate in the Communal Award of 1932. First, the evidence cited by Biswas is closely examined. His proposition is then assessed in the context of the deliberations of the colonial authorities in India, the provincial administration in the United Provinces (UP) and the Cabinet of the United Kingdom (UK). It is concluded that while communal electorates generally may have been used deliberately to divide Indians, there are no grounds for thinking that it was the case in that of the Depressed Castes.