patel on dalit leaders when he suggested to consider himself superior
Sardar Patel
on 28 august 1947 in constitutional assembly
To the Scheduled
Caste friends, I also appeal: "Let us forget what Dr. Ambedkar or Ms group
have done. Let us forget what you did. You have very nearly escaped partition
of the country again on your lines. You have seen the
result of separate electorates in Bombay, that when the greatest benefactor of
your community came to Bombay to stay in bhangi quarters it was your people who
tried to stone his quarters. What was it ? It was again the result of this
poison, and therefore I resist this only because I feel that the vast majority
of the Hindu population wish you well.. Without them where will you he ?
Therefore, secure their confidence and forget that you are a Scheduled Caste. I
do not understand how Mr. Khandekar is a Scheduled Caste man. If
he and I were to go outside India, nobody will find out whether he is a
Scheduled Caste man or I am a Scheduled Caste man. There is no Scheduled
Caste between us. So those representatives of the Scheduled Caste must know
that the Scheduled Caste has to be effaced altogether from our society, and if
it is to be effaced, those who have ceased to be untouchables and sit amongst
us have to forget that they are untouchables or else if they carry this
inferiority complex, they will not be able to serve their community. They will
only be able to serve their community by feeling now that they are with us
They are no more Scheduled Castes and therefore they must change their manners
and I appeal to them also to have no breach between them and the other group of
Scheduled Castes. There are groups amongst themselves, but everyone
tries according to his own light. We are now to begin again. So let us forget
these sections and cross-sections and let us stand as one, and together
sardar patel 26 may 1949
why do you want to claim
privileges? It was all right when there was a third party: but that is all
over. That dream is a mad dream and it should be forgotten altogether. Never
think about that, do not imagine that anybody will come here to hold the scales
and manipulate them continuously. All that is gone. So the future of a
minority, any minority, is to trust the majority. If the majority misbehaves,
it will suffer. It will be a misfortune, to this country if the majority does
not realise its own responsibility. If I were a member of a minority community,
I would forget that I belong to a minority community. Why should not a member
of any community be the Prime Minister of this country? Why should not Mr.
Nagappa who today challenges the Brahmin be so? I am glad to hear that the
ownership of 20 acres of land does not entitle him to be a scheduled casts man.
"That is my privilege" he said " because I am born a scheduled
caste man. You have first to be born in the scheduled caste". It gladdened
my heart immensely that that young man had the courage to come before the House
and claim the privilege of being born in the Scheduled Caste. It is not a
dishonour: he has an honourable place in this country. I want every scheduled
caste man to feel that he is superior to a Brahmin or rather, let us say, I
want every scheduled caste man and the Brahmin to forget that he is a scheduled
caste man or a Brahmin respectively and that they are all equal and the same.
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