The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 34
34 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN willing to agree, reluctantly but in the interests of agreement, but all the other Muslims in the Congress sent you an urgent message that this should not be accepted, what would be your position?" he smiled and said, "I would still be with Dr. Ansari. " So it became clear that the final decision rested not so much with Mr. Gandhi, but with Dr. Ansari, though Mr. Gandhi was prepared to use his influence and his powers of persuasion with Dr. Ansari to persuade him to agree. We put this aside for the moment, and proceeded to discuss the remaining safeguards. Mr. Gandhi intimated that he had no objection to any of them. He was doubtful with regard to the feasibility of some of them but he was quite willing to go forward with them. This position was reached at the end of the second or third meeting, and we then asked Mr. Gandhi to tell us what was it that he would require of the Muslim Delegation in support of the common cause. He said he would send us his proposals later. Three or four days later a sheet of notepaper arrived from him written out in pencil on both sides with no beginning or end indicating what the document was, but stating simply in its first part the Congress demand for complete independence, including control of the armed forces and finances, and elaborating some aspects of independence to make sure there would be no reservations. We considered that if our position could be reasonably safeguarded we would have no difficulty in supporting the demand as elaborated. What we felt worried about was the concluding proposal that the Muslim delegation should oppose any special arrangements or safeguards being provided in the constitution for the depressed classes, who were then generally described as the scheduled castes. We discussed this among ourselves and decided that this would be a very inconsistent position for us to take up. It was true that the Muslims were, as compared with the Hindus, in a very much weaker position in industry, commerce, education, training and everything else, but, as compared with the scheduled castes, we were more numerous, we were better educated, we enjoyed a better standard of living, we had some share in commerce, and if we had found it necessary to insist upon a set of safeguards for ourselves, then how could we justifiably take up a stand along with Mr. Gandhi as representing the Congress, that no