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Great Events from History: Human Rights, 2nd Edition

The Poona Pact Grants Representation To India’s Untouchables

by Nancy Elizabeth Fitch

1932

The Poona Pact was a compromise measure rescinding an award of separate electorates to Depressed Classes but giving them reserved seats through an electoral college

Categories of event: Racial and ethnic rights; civil rights

Time: September 25, 1932

Locale: Poona, India

Key Figures:

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), the leader of the Indian National Congress and signatory to the Poona Pact

Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937), the prime minister of England at the time of the second Round Table Conference

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1892-1956), the leader of the Depressed Classes and founder of the All-India Depressed Classes Federation, a signatory to the Poona Pact

Rao Bahadur M. C. Rajah, the president of the All-India Depressed Classes Conference and a follower of Gandhi

Summary of Event

The second Round Table Conference, called to frame a new constitution for British India and establish gradual self-government leading to dominion status and then independence, was held in 1932, in London. Members of the British government, including Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald, and representatives of the Indian National Congress Party met to discuss the matter of constitutional safeguards to protect the status of minority communities in India on the provisional and central legislatures being established. Muslims, and the All-India Muslim League, had successfully convinced the British government that there should be such safeguards to protect the political, economic, and educational interests of India’s minority communities, including Muslims. As a result of recognition of the validity of this claim, other communal groups, including Sikhs, Indian Christians, Mahrattas, Anglo-Indians and members of the European community, so-called “backward classes,” and women, also petitioned the government for special representations to be set aside for them in the 1935 Indian Constitution. One such religious group was the Untouchables, the Hindu “outcastes” also known by their more political names of “Scheduled Castes” or “Depressed Classes,” or as Gandhi referred to them, the Harijans, or “children of God.” The untouchable classes were divided into three categories—Untouchables, Unapproachables, and Unseeables. In 1962, the number of untouchables was estimated at about sixty million out of three hundred million Hindus.

It was very difficult for the Congress to accept the idea that there were two communities in India whose interests were divergent, namely the Hindus and the largest minority, the Indian Muslims. Now it was being asked to recognize differences within Hinduism between Caste Hindus and the group historically known as the Untouchables. Mohandas K. Gandhi, in Yeravda Prison for civil disobedience activities at the time of the August 4, 1932, Communal Decision that made communal awards not only to Muslims but to Depressed Classes, among others, reacted very strongly to the granting of separate electorates to the Depressed Classes and government recognition of their seemingly separate destinies from Caste Hindus. He began a fast that he vowed to continue until his death if separate electorates were not lifted. He saw the separate electorates as part of a “divide and conquer” strategy to separate the Untouchables from the main body of Hindus. In essence, Gandhi wanted one electorate, composed of both “touchables” and “untouchables.” He wanted Caste Hindus to recognize independently their moral and social responsibilities toward eradicating untouchability and bringing “outcaste” persons into the fold.

Prime Minister MacDonald, in explaining the Communal Decision to Gandhi, did not make things easier for the Congress to swallow when he said that the Depressed Classes would have in effect two votes. Gandhi declared this “the last straw.” In a statement on September 16 announcing his fast, he said he would end it as soon as the threat of separate electorates was removed once and for all. As a prisoner, he considered himself unfit to set forth his proposals. He agreed to accept any agreement made on the basis of joint electorate that was arrived at between the responsible leaders of Caste Hindus and the Depressed Classes and which was accepted by mass meetings of all Hindus. Apart from the political aspects of the Communal Decision, what was at stake was the removal of inequality and elements attached to untouchability that condemned this group of Hindus to a permanent underclass with few, if any, means for group or even individual advancement.

A school of untouchables near Bangalore (Courtesy of Lady Ottoline Morrell via Wikimedia Commons)

GEHR2E_p0280_1.jpg

The Poona Pact, also known as the Yeravda Pact, was an agreement reached on September 24 and signed on September 25, 1932. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, representing the Depressed Classes, agreed to the pact on September 26. Although he was a highly educated and renowned member of the Depressed Caste, he was stigmatized in spite of his personal accomplishments by what was clearly an outdated form of Indian social, economic, and discriminatory distinction. The pact was seen as a compromise: while still recognizing the special status of the Depressed Classes, it would not award them separate electorates but instead joint electorates with the general population along with an electoral college of Depressed Classes members who would elect four candidates from their group for primary elections for reserved seats for that community. Those winners of the primary elections would then constitute the candidates to be voted upon by the general electorate. This provision’s term was ten years, but it could be abolished earlier. The pact also provided, in every province, money for the establishment of educational facilities for members of the Depressed Classes and the removal of political disabilities because of untouchability in appointments for public service jobs. The scheme for primaries, in which only the Depressed Classes would have a vote, was proposed by Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru and made the compromise more palatable to Ambedkar.

Although the Poona Pact, which later became part of the 1935 Indian Constitution, offered the Depressed Classes less than the Communal Decision, Ambedkar had proven himself to be an effective voice for the Untouchables by winning the right to separate electorates in the first place. It was a move that had religious as well as political implications, as did most things in India. Gandhi himself said that he saw it as a religious matter and moral issue, however, and as something only to be corrected by Hinduism itself rather than by what he called “political constitutions.” The Communal Decision gave legitimacy to the idea that the caste system in India was unfair and certainly outdated.

Gandhi referred to the Untouchables as the “Suppressed” rather than the “Depressed” classes and in 1933 began calling them Harijan. After the Poona Pact was signed, Gandhi attempted to eradicate the social and religious debilitating effects of untouchability by opening Hindu temples to Untouchables. He remained opposed to interdining and intermarriage which, however, eventually also took place. It has been suggested that Gandhi, by not endorsing the interdining and intermarriages which were in fact taking place, sent ambiguous signals to people who wished to follow his example.

Significance

The most immediate consequence of the acceptance of the Poona Pact was the ending of what has been called the “epic fast” and the saving of Gandhi’s life. The Mahatma himself indicated, at the time of his fast, that it was not a response to those who disagreed with him but rather a way to force his supporters to confront an issue, untouchability, that had disturbed him since he was a young man. To put his life on the line over this matter was a way to show how deeply he was affected by its continuance. He was unwilling, however, for the caste system to be abolished entirely because it was so central to the historical and religious nature of Indian culture and society. Some saw the caste system’s removal as the only way untouchability would disappear.

In terms of its political and social impact, the Poona Pact did get the Indian National Congress to put untouchability on its agenda. Untouchability thus became a concern of the reformist movement. There had been other movements in the past seeking to ameliorate the situation of the Depressed Classes by eliminating subcastes, relaxing caste restrictions, or even abolishing caste altogether. The Poona Pact opened some temple doors previously closed to Untouchables. There were also private efforts at interdining between the Depressed Classes and the “Sanatanists,” or orthodox Hindus. In 1932, the All-India Anti-Untouchability League, an organization to assist Scheduled Castes, was founded. In 1933, Gandhi renamed the league the Harijan Sevak Sangh. That same year, a new weekly paper, Harijan, was also started. The paper published graphic drawings of the miserable habitations in which these “outcastes” lived. Their disabilities were listed at length: In some parts of the country they were denied access to village wells, schools, and post offices, and were prevented from using umbrellas and wearing sandals.

The Poona Pact could not end the curse of untouchability, which was more than three thousand years old. Access to a temple is not access to a good job. The Harijans remained at the bottom of Indian society. Segregation and discrimination did not end when Gandhi ended his fast. After the fast and the signing of the Poona Pact, untouchability lost its public approval. The concept was recognized as morally illegitimate.

The impact of this human rights event can be measured by remarks and speeches by Ambedkar in 1950, after India’s independence, comparing Hinduism to Buddhism. He, and many in the Depressed Classes, saw Buddhism as the religion of equality while Caste Hinduism was seen as the religion of inequality. In several speeches that year, Ambedkar urged members of the Depressed Classes to convert to Buddhism and asked Buddhists to accept them. Ambedkar called for the resurgence of Buddhism in India, the land of the Buddha’s birth, and inserted provisions into the constitution of independent India regarding the study of the language, Pali, which would complement the religious resurgence. On October 14, 1956, Ambedkar became a Buddhist, showing his followers the road he decided to take toward full equality, a path he thought all of India should take to achieve true democracy.

When the Indian constitution was ratified in 1949, two years after independence, the concept of untouchability was officially outlawed and a system of reservation, in which disadvantaged classes were given priorities in obtaining access to jobs and education as well as official political representation, was put into place. These steps towards equality, though, were often countered by a continuing prejudice against the people that are now officially referred to as Scheduled Castes. For example, in 2006, four members of the Scheduled Castes were murdered by members of the higher Kunbi Caste, in the village of Kherlanji, after being paraded naked in the streets and sexually abused. The incident gradually picked up national attention and led to large protests. The massacre and its aftermath showed that, whatever the legal status of the practice, the concept of cste remains firmly entrenched in the minds of many Indians even today.

Bibliography

1 

Ambedkar, D.R. Annihilation of Caste: The Annotated Critical Edition. Verso, 2016. An updated, annotated edition of Ambedkar’s classic manifesto which vigorously denounced Hinduism and the caste system. Contains an introduction by award-winning novelist Arundhati Roy.

2 

Coupland, Reginald. The Indian Problem: Report on the Constitutional Problem in India. New York: Oxford U P, 1944. Discusses British India’s constitutions of 1919 and 1935 and the Round Table Conferences which led to the latter statute. Good background for the constitutional problems with untouchability, including itemization of political liabilities of the Depressed Classes.

3 

Fischer, Louis. “Climax.” In The Life of Mahatma Gandhi. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950. A chapter in an interesting biography of Gandhi which gives an almost insider’s view of what the Mahatma was thinking during his fast for the removal of separate electorates for the Harijans.

4 

Keer, Dhananjay. Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1962. A biography of the leader of the Depressed Classes with a detailed account of the activities of Ambedkar and Gandhi during the second Round Table Conference which led to the Poona Pact and the politicization of the untouchability issue in India and within the Indian National Congress. Particularly interesting is the recounting of pressures on Ambedkar to accept the Poona Pact and thus end Gandhi’s fast.

5 

Nanda, Bal R. “Harijans.” In Mahatma Gandhi: A Biography. Boston: Beacon Press, 1958. The biographer strongly makes his point that Gandhi, throughout his life, was very much against untouchability. Nanda suggests that fasting might have been a form of coercion, but if so it was directed at Gandhi’s followers rather than those wanting separate electorates—that it was “to sting the conscience of the Hindu community into right religious action.”

See Also: The Muslim League Attempts to Protect Minority Interests in India (1906); Gandhi Leads a Noncooperation Movement (1920); Gandhi Leads the Salt March (1930); India Signs the Delhi Pact (1931); India Gains Independence (1947); The Indian Government Bans Discrimination Against Untouchables (1948); Sikhs in Punjab Revolt (1984).

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Fitch, Nancy Elizabeth. "The Poona Pact Grants Representation To India’s Untouchables." Great Events from History: Human Rights, 2nd Edition, edited by Tina M. Ramirez, Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GEHR2E_0088.
APA 7th
Fitch, N. E. (2019). The Poona Pact Grants Representation To India’s Untouchables. In T. M. Ramirez (Ed.), Great Events from History: Human Rights, 2nd Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Fitch, Nancy Elizabeth. "The Poona Pact Grants Representation To India’s Untouchables." Edited by Tina M. Ramirez. Great Events from History: Human Rights, 2nd Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2019. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.