Description

The pre-history to this is fairly well known and doesn’t require an elaborate explanation. Our aim is to provide a brief context to the emergence of these categories. Communities included under Scheduled Castes now in 1936 were previously known as Depressed Classes and consisted primarily of Untouchable communities. Their presence in Indian political life gained an added dimension when the Depressed Classes too were recognised by the British indian colonial state as separate from Hindus and akin to Muslims, Sikhs, Christians or Anglo Indians. During the 1920s and 1930s, leaders of Depressed Classes like Dr. Ambedkar were invited to submit testimony in front of Simon Commission or take part in Round Table Conferences, along with representatives from political parties and princely kingdoms. The fact that they were provided separate representation meant that neither a political party like the Indian National Congress or an organisation like the Hindu Mahasabha could represent the Depressed Classes. The Colonial administrators may have taken such a decision to reduce the authority with which Congress or Hindu Mahasabha could speak. It is also relevant to recognise that these organisations too had very few Depressed Class leaders.