Sharma : Hiw role at the Round Table Conference would do no credit to him. He was all the time putting impediments in Gandhiji's way.
Chavan : Quite right. That shows that he was not part of the independence movement. But what is the independence movement? Ultimately, when you are historically taking a view of the independence movement now, you cannot merely say that the struggle against th British was the independence movement. According to me, struggles which were directed against social exploitation, economic exploitation were all part of the independence struggle.
Sharma : True, but Gandhi was second to none in attacking any form of exploitation, economic or social.
Chavan : I agree with you, Therefore, we followed Gandhiji throughout our life. But my criticism of Dr. Ambedkar would not be so one sided, because I understand. why he was not with us. There was some deficiency in our independence movement, that we had not made sufficient efforts to convince them to become a part of it. We have to look at it this way also.
Whenever Dr Ambedkar came to our area for lecture, I attended them, even though I was a congressman. Mostly his lectures were not against the British but against untouchability, social exploitation.. that there was something basically wrong in society which must be changed for the sake of humanity. These ideas were revolutionary and I shared those ideas. Therefore, I won't criticise Dr. Ambedkar the way some people might choose to do.
I wanted Dr. Ambedkar to do something about it. On the contrary, I would say that it was one of the deficiencies of the independence movement that it did not try to atrract the depressed people who should have been more interested in revolution and political freedom. They were away from us. There was some Iacuna in that movement. This is what I feel.