Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi may have presided over countless blunders. Be it betraying Hindus in the name of unity by supporting the Khilafat movement or delaying India’s independence by calling off public movements such as the Non-Cooperation and the Civil Disobedience when they were beginning to gather steam. But one thing that Gandhi did not get wrong was the Poona Pact.
On 24 September 1932, Gandhi signed a historic agreement with Dr BR Ambedkar—dubbed The Poona Pact—that ensured adequate representation for the ‘depressed classes’ in the legislature of British India.
The background to the Poona Pact was the Communal Award of August 1932 which sought to grant separate electorates to depressed classes for the election of members of provincial legislative assemblies in British India.
Gandhi vigorously opposed the move, viewing it as yet another attempt by the wily Britishers to perpetuate social divisions and strengthen their precarious grip over the country. He was against the prospect of terming ‘depressed classes’ as outside the purview of Hindu society. He believed that a separate electorate for them implied that they were considered outside the Hindu fold.
In a bid to oppose the Communal Award, Gandhi launched a fast unto death whilst being lodged in Yerwada Central Jail in Poona, India. Gandhi and Ambedkar did not see eye to eye on a separate electorate for Dalits. In the first Round Table Conference held in 1930, Dr Ambedkar demanded a separate electorate for the ‘Depressed classes’ whom he was representing. But Gandhi and the Congress Party saw the idea of separate electorates for any class as an attempt to weaken and divide Indian society.
With the Communal Award, Gandhi saw the British once again using their infamous policy of Divide and Rule to secure their interest and further their rule in the country. He undertook fast unto death against Communal Award, which exerted public pressure on Ambedkar to step in and stop the fast.
Hence, on 24 September 1932, an agreement was signed between Gandhi and Dr Ambedkar that ended the former’s hunger strike. Dr Ambedkar signed the pact on behalf of depressed classes and Madan Mohan Malviya on behalf of upper caste Hindus. It was a explicit acceptance from the upper-class Hindus that the depressed classes made up the most discriminated sections of the Hindu society. It also acknowledged the need to provide something definite to the depressed classes to bolster their political representation and grant them an advantage to lift them from backwardness they would otherwise find incredibly difficult to overcome.
Provisions of the Poona Pact
As per the provisions of the Poona Pact, seats reserved for the ‘depressed classes’ in Provincial Councils depended on the strength of the provinces. 30 seats were reserved in Madras, 8 in Punjab, 15 in Bombay and Sindh, and 20 in Central provinces. Bihar and Orissa had reserved 18 whereas 30 seats were reserved in Bengal. In United Provinces, 20 seats were reserved and 7 were reserved in Assam, capping the total number of reserved seats for the ‘depressed classes’ at 148.
In the Central Legislature, 19 per cent of the seats would be reserved for the ‘depressed classes’. As per the Pact, the depressed classes who were eligible to vote would form an electoral college. The college would elect four candidates among the depressed classes on the basis of a single vote. The candidates with the four highest numbers of votes would form the panel of four.
Then, the four candidates would stand for elections with the general candidates for election to the assembly. Here, the general electorate would vote. Thus, in effect, the depressed classes got a ‘double vote’ as they formed a part of the general electorate also.
In the Central Assembly too, the same principle of ‘Joint electorate and reserved seats’ followed. It was agreed as per the provisions of the Pact that the system would continue for ten years unless it was ended by mutual consent sooner. It was also agreed upon to earmark a certain amount of money from the educational grant for the education of the ‘depressed classes’ in all the provinces.
The provision also included non-discrimination of anybody on the basis of their belonging to the depressed classes in the matter of election to the local bodies or appointment to government service.
The Poona Pact not only provided adequate representation to the ‘depressed classes’ in Indian politics and helped mainstream them, but it also acted as a cornerstone of the Constitution of India, drafted by Dr BR Ambedkar.
