SCENE 4

[It is the year 1934 and some of Ambedkar’s co-workers in the movement of the depressed
express a desire to go on a sight-seeing tour if Ambedkar decides to join them.]

[The scene starts with Ambedkar and his co-workers sitting in a room.]

Co-workers: We were wondering if you are ready to go on a sight-seeing tour, we could

make plans for the same.

Ambedkar: Absolutely. Our plan should, at all events, include a trip to the Buddhist caves at
Verul.

Co-workers: Definitely.

[To go to Verul, they have to go to Aurangabad. Aurangabad is a town in the once

Mohammedan State of Hyderabad and was included in the dominion of His Exalted
Highness, the Nisam. On the way to Aurangabad they have to first pass another town called
Daulatabad which is also in the once Hyderabad State. Daulatabad is a historical place and
was, at one time, the capital of a famous Hindu King by name Ramdeo Rai. The fort of
Daulatabad is an ancient historical monument and no tourist while in that vicinity should
omit a visit to it.]

Co-workers: Given its rich history, we should also include a trip to the fort of Daulatabad.

[Accordingly, it is decided that they shall visit the fort as well.]

[About 30 in number, they hire some buses and touring cars. They start from Nasik to Yeola
as Yeola is on the way to Aurangabad. They have not announced their tour programme and
quite deliberately.]

Ambedkar: We should not announce our travel itinerary as it’s best to avoid difficulties
which an untouchable tourist might face in the outlying parts of the country.

Co-workers: Yes. It’s best to travel incognito and just inform the people at those centres
where we have decided to halt.

[Accordingly, although they pass many villages in the Nisam State, none of their people come
to meet them. However, it is naturally different at Daulatabad.]

[People of the Daulatabad centre are waiting for them at the entrance of the town.]
Person 1 (politely): Oh, please do get down and have some tea and refreshment first!

[The crew is enticed by the offer; however, they refuse.]

Ambedkar: Thank you for the kind offer, however, we must leave for the fort now as we
want sufficient time to see the fort before it is dusk. We will surely take that offer when we
are on our return journey.

[With that, they tell the drivers to move on and within a few minutes, they are at the fort.]

[The month is Ramjan. Just outside the gate of the fort there is a small tank of water full to
brim. There is all around a wide stone pavement. Their faces, bodies, and clothes are full of
dust gathered in the course of their journey and they all wish to have a wash. Without much
thought, some members of the party wash their faces and their legs on the pavement with the
water from the tank. Post these ablutions, they go to the gate of the fort. There are armed
soldiers inside. They open the big gates and admit them into the archway.

Ambedkar (to the soldier): Sir, what is the procedure for obtaining permission to enter into
the fort?

[But the soldiers answer is overpowered by the shouting they hear from behind them.]

[They tur and notice that it is an old Mohammedan man with a white flowing beard, pointing
and shouting at them.]

Mohammedan man (shouting): The Dheds have polluted the tank! The Dheds have polluted
the tank!

[All the young and old Mohammedans gather around them and begin to hurl abuses.]

Mohammedan 1: The Dheds have become arrogant! They have forgotten their religion!
They must be taught a lesson!

Ambedkar: Sir, we are outsiders. We do not know the local custom.

[Upon hearing this, they turn the fire of their wrath to the local untouchables who have
arrived at the gate by this time.]

Mohammedan 2 (yelling menacingly): Why did you not tell these outsiders that this tank
could not be used by untouchables?!

[They keep asking them repeatedly.]

[Ambedkar is disturbed by the whole ordeal. He believes that it was their mistake because
they acted without inquiry. The local untouchables weren’t therewhen they entered the tank.]

[But the Mohammadens are not prepared to listen to the local untouchables protests.]

Local untouchable 1: It’s not our fault!

Local untouchable 2: Yes, we weren’t even here when they came!

Mohammedan 3: We accept no excuses! You Dheds are useless scums!

[The abuse rises in intensity. It is vulgar and exasperating. There can easily be a riot and
possible murders. However, Ambedkar knows that they have to restrain themselves. They do
not want to be involved in a criminal case that could bring their tour to an abrupt end.]

[One young Muslim in the crowd comes forward.]

Muslim man: One must conform to their religion. Meaning, thereby, that the untouchable
must not take water from a public tank.

[Ambedkar grows impatient.]

Ambedkar (in an angry tone): Is that what your religion teaches? Would you prevent an
untouchable from taking water from this tank if he became a Mohammedan?

[These straight questions seem to have some effect on the Mohammedans. They stand silent.]

[Ambedkar turns to the guard.]

Ambedkar (in an angry tone): Can we get into the fort or not? Tell us, if we can’t, we don’t
want to waste our time.

Guard: What’s your name?

[Ambedkar writes it on a piece of paper. The guard takes it to the Superintendent inside and
comes out.]

Guard: You can go into the fort but you must not touch water anywhere in the fort. A soldier
will accompany you to see that you do not transgress the order.

[Ambedkar understands that this instance proves that a person who is an untouchable to a
Hindu is also an untouchable to a Mohammedan.]
SCENE 5

[In its issue of 12th December 1929, ‘Young India’ – a journal published by Mr. Gandhi,
releases a letter from an untouchable school teacher in a village in Kathiawar. It expresses
the difficulties he went through in persuading a Hindu doctor to attend to his wife who had
just delivered how the wife and child died for want of medical attention.]

[The child is born on the 5 th and on the 7th, she falls ill and suffers from loose stools. Her
vitality seems to ebb away and her chest becomes inflamed. Her breathing becomes difficult
and there is acute pain in the ribs.]

[The teacher goes to call a doctor.]

Teacher: Doctor, you must help me! My daughter is in a lot of pain!

Doctor: I will not go to the house a Harijan nor examine and treat a child of his.

[The teacher then goes to Nagarseth and Garasia Darbar and pleads them to help him.]

Nagarseth: I will stand surety to the doctor for you paying his fee of two rupees.

[The teacher then goes back to the doctor.]

Doctor: I will examine her but, on the condition, that the examination should be outside the
Harijan colony.

[The teacher takes his wife and child out of the colony. Then, the doctor gives his
thermometer to a Muslim, the Muslim gives it to the teacher, and the teacher gives to his wife
and then returns it the same way.]

[It is about eight in the evening.]

Doctor (looking at the thermometer): The patient is suffering from pneumonia.

[The doctor then goes away and sends the medicine. The teacher brings some linseed from
the bazaar and uses it on the child. The doctor refuses to see the child later, even though the
man gave his two rupees fee.]
Teacher: This disease is dangerous and God only will help us. The lamp of my life has died
out.

[The daughter passes away at about two that afternoon.]

[The name of the untouchable teacher and the name of the doctor is not mentioned in the
journal. This is done at the request of the untouchable who fears reprisals.]

[Ambedkar thinks of how the doctor, inspite of being educated, refused to apply the
thermometer and treat an ailing woman in a critical condition. As a result of his refusal to
treat her, the woman died. He felt no qualms of conscience in setting aside the code of
conduct binding on his profession. Ambedkar wonders how the Hindu would prefer to be
inhuman rather than touch an untouchable.]
SCENE 6

[On 6th of March 1938, a meeting of the Bhangis is held at Kasarwadi, Dadar, Bombay,
under the chairmanship of Mr. Indulal Yadnik. In this meeting, one Bhangi boy narrates his
experience.]

[The boy has passed the Vernacular Final Examination in 1933. He has studied English up
to the 4th Standard. He applies to the Schools Committee of the Bombay Municipality for
employment as a teacher but fails as there is no vacancy. Then, he applies to Backward
Classes Officer, Ahmedabad, for the job of a Talati and succeeds. On 19 th February 1936, he
is appointed a Talati in the office of the Mamlatdar of the Borsad Taluka in the Kheda
District.]

[He has never been to Gujarat before, despite being born there. Therefore, he does not think
that untouchability would be observed in Government Offices. Besides, in his application, it
is evident that he is a Harijan so he expects his colleagues to know he is. He is surprised to
see the attitude of the clerk of the Mamlatdar’s office when he presents himself to take charge
of the post.]

Karkun (contemptuously): Who are you?

Harijan: Sir, I am a Harijan.

Karkun: Go away, stand at a distance. How dare you stand near me? You are in office, if
you were outside, I would have given you six kicks, what audacity do you have to come here
for service?

Karkun: Drop your certificate and order of appointment on the ground.

[He drops them. The Karkun picks them up.]

[He also experiences great difficulty in the matter of getting water for drinking. In the
verandah of the office, there are kept cans containing drinking water. There is a waterman
in-charge of these water cans. His duty is to pour out water to clerks in office whenever they
need it. In the absence of the waterman, they can themselves take water out of the cans and
drink it. However, it is impossible in the Harijan’s case. He cannot touch cans as his touch
will pollute the water. For his use, they keep a separate rusty pot which he will touch and
wash. The waterman does not like the idea of supplying water to him and slips away. He does
not have water to drink on many days.]

[He faces the same difficulties regarding his residence. He is a stranger in Borsad. No caste
Hindu rents a house to him.]

Harijan: Sir, I desperately need a place to live. Can you please rent a room to me?

Hindu landlord: Go away, I will not rent any room to any Harijan. Don’t come back here!

[The untouchables of Borsad are not ready to give him lodgings as well.]

Harijan: Can you provide me a room to live? I’ll pay rent. Please help me as a fellow
Harijan.

Borsad untouchable: Sorry, brother. We live in fear of the Hindus, and giving you space to
live poses a far greater risk of displeasing them.

[He faces difficulties in terms of food. There is no place or person where he can get his
meals. Every morning and evening, he eat ‘Bhajhas’ at some solitary place outside the
village. He sleeps on the pavement of the verandah of the Mamlatdar’s office. He has passed
four days in this state.]

Harijan (exhaustingly): All this has become unbearable. I will live at Jentral itself.

[He lives at his ancestral village and walks eleven miles each day to his office.]

[Thereafter, the Mamlatdar sends him to a Talalti to learn work. The Talati is in charge of
three villages, Jentral, Khapur and Sajjpur, with Jentral being the headquarters. He teaches
him nothing in the two months he is there. He is forbidden from entering the village office.]

[The headman of the village is particularly hostile.]

Headman: You fellow, your father, your brother, are sweepers who sweep the village office
and you want to sit in the office as our equal? Take care, better give up this job.

[Once, the Talati calls him to Sajjpur to prepare the population table. He goes and finds the
headman and Talati doing some work in the village office.]
Harijan: Good morning.

[They ignore him.]

[He stands outside for about 15 minutes. However, already exasperated and enraged with
everyone’s behaviour, he sits down on a chair that was lying there.]

[Seeing him, they quietly go away without saying anything.]

[A short while after, people begin to come and a large crowd gathers around him. This
crowd is led by the Librarian of the village library.]

[At first, he cannot understand why an educated person is leading this mob. He subsequently
understands it was his chair that he is sitting on.]

Librarian (addressing the Ravania): That’s my chair he’s sitting on. Who allowed this dirty
dog of a Bhangi to sit on my chair?

[The Ravania forces him up and takes away the chair. He sits on the ground. Thereupon, the
crowd enters the village office and surrounds him.]

[The crowd is furious.]

Person 1: You dog! How dare you sit on the chair!

Person 2: I will kill you with my bare hands!

Person 3: I will cut you to pieced with my Dharya!

[The Harijan implores the crowd to have mercy on him.]

Harijan (pleadingly): Please, have mercy. Excuse me and do not do this.

[However, it does not have any effect upon the crowd. Subsequently, an idea comes to his
mind. It is his hope that if the crowd comes to know that he is practically reporting them, they
might hold their hands back. He decides to write to the Mamlatdar about the fate that has
befallen him and tell him how to dispose off his body if he is killed.]

Harijan (to Ravania): Give me a paper.

[He writes on the letter in big letters:

To,

The Mamlatdar, Taluka Borsad.

Sir,

Be pleased to accept the humble salutations of Parmar Kalidas Shivram. This is to humbly
inform you that the hand of death is falling upon me today. It would not have been so if I had
listened to the words of my parents. Be so good as to inform my parents of my death.]

[The librarian reads what he wrote.]

Librarian: Tear it off!

[The Harijan teares it off.]

Librarian: You want us to address you as our Talati? You are a Bhangu and you want to
enter the office and sit on the chair?

Harijan: Please have mercy. I will not repeat this mistake and leave my job at once.

[He is kept there till seven in the evening until the crowd leaves. Till then, the Talati and the
Mukhiya have not come. Thereafter, he takes a fifteen days’ leave and returns to his parents
in Bombay.]