%0 Journal Article
%T Gandhi, Ambedkar and British policy on the communal award
%A Sujay Biswas
%J Studies in People's History
%@ 2349-7718
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/2348448918759867
%X It has now become a fashion among many historians, notably from the West, to denounce Gandhi¡¯s fast and the Poona Pact of 1932 as a great betrayal of the ¡®Untouchables¡¯. This view essentially overlooks the constant effort of British imperialism to divide the Indian people into a number of special-interest groups at loggerheads with each other and so weaken the National Movement. This paper weighs the critics¡¯ assertions in the light of the British Government¡¯s own statements and those of the leaders of the Depressed Castes. It is also forgotten that the Poona Pact greatly increased Depressed Castes¡¯ representation; and that no separate electorates have been ever established in Western democracies to avoid majoritarian rule
%K Gandhi
%K Ambedkar
%K Communal Award
%K Poona Pact
%K separate electorates
%K Dalits
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2348448918759867