The Communal Award was created by

British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern pri ...

Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...

on 16 August 1932. Also known as the MacDonald Award, it was announced after the Round Table Conference (1930–1932) and extended the separate electorate to the Depressed Classes (now known as the Scheduled Castes) and other minorities. The separate electorate had been introduced by the

Indian Councils Act 1909 The Indian Councils Act 1909 ( 9 Edw. 7. c. 4), commonly known as the Morley–Minto or Minto–Morley Reforms, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that brought about a limited increase in the involvement of Indians in the gover ...

for the Muslims and extended to the Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans by the

Government of India Act 1919 The Government of India Act 1919 ( 9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 101) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was passed to expand participation of Indians in the government of India. The act embodied the reforms recommended in the report ...

. The separate electorate was now available to the

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Sikh'' ...

Indian Christians Christianity is India's third-most followed religion with about 28 million adherents, making up 2.3 percent of the population as of the 2011 census. Christianity is the largest religion in parts of Northeast India, specifically in Nagaland, ...

, Anglo-Indians,

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common ancestry, language, faith, historical continuity, etc. There are ...

and Depressed Classes (now known as the Scheduled Castes) etc. The principle of weightage was also applied. Sir Samuel Hoare asked for clarification of the ninth and last paragraph, which applied directly to the Depressed Classes. The award favoured the minorities over the Hindus, which caused consternation and elicited anger from

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

.''The Bombay Chronicle,'' 18 August 1932, in Dhananjay Keer, ''Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission'' (Popular Prakashan, 1971), p.204. From the fastness of Yervada Jail he made contact with the Cabinet in London declaring in September 1932 an open fast until death. The reason behind introduction of Communal Award was that MacDonald considered himself as 'a friend of the Indians' and thus wanted to resolve the issues in India. The Communal Award was announced after the failure of the Second of the

Round Table Conferences (India) The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–1932 were a series of peace conferences, organized by the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government and Indian political personalities to discuss constitutional reforms in British raj, India. ...

and attracted severe criticism from Gandhi. The Award was controversial as it was perceived by many Hindus to be aimed at causing social divides in India, and Gandhi feared that it would disintegrate Hindu society. However, the Communal Award was supported by many among India's minority communities, most notably

B. R. Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Bhīmrāo Rāmjī Āmbēḍkar; 14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who chaired the committee that drafted the Constitution of India based on t ...

, who insisted on separate electorates for Scheduled Castes. According to Ambedkar, Gandhi was ready to award separate electorates to Muslims and Sikhs but was reluctant to give separate electorates to the Scheduled Castes. He feared division within both Congress and Hindu society from the Scheduled Castes having separate representation. The

Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Eternal Party'') is a Centre-right politics, centre-right Sikhism, Sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India, Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Indian ...

, the representative body of the Sikhs, was also highly critical of the Award since only 19% was reserved to the Sikhs in

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, as opposed to 51% for the Muslims and 30% for the Hindus. Gandhi concurred with the revival of ''

Swaraj Swarāj (, IAST: , ) can mean generally self-governance or "self-rule". The term was used synonymously with "home-rule" by Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati and later on by Mahatma Gandhi, but the word usually refers to Gandhi's concept of Indian ...

'', which became policy in May 1934 on ratification by the All-India Congress Committee. The government reluctantly agreed to lift the ban on Congress and in return received anxious support from the

All-India Muslim League The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party founded in 1906 in Dhaka, British India with the goal of securing Muslims, Muslim interests in South Asia. Although initially espousing a united India with interfaith unity, the Muslim L ...

, which was still smarting over Gandhi's

majoritarianism Majoritarianism is a political philosophy or ideology with an agenda asserting that a majority, whether based on a religion, language, social class, or other category of the population, is entitled to a certain degree of primacy in society, ...

. After lengthy negotiations, Gandhi reached an agreement with Ambedkar to have a single Hindu electorate, but there would be reserved seats for Scheduled Castes. The

Poona Pact The Poona Pact of 1932 was a negotiated settlement between Mahatma Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar that increased the political representation of the depressed classes, now known as Scheduled Castes (SC). The Poona Pact was an agreement between nom ...

rejected any further advancement for the Untouchables but satisfied the other electorates like Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans since they would remain separate. During the parliamentary debates on the Government of India Act, the Untouchables gained a notable champion in a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

MP,

Albert Goodman Albert William Goodman (1880 – 22 August 1937) was a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom. At the 1929 general election, he unsuccessfully contested the safe Labour seat of Bow and Bromley in east London, losing to the incumbent Ge ...

. He stressed that their poverty should be ameliorated by greater representation in the provincial assemblies. However, the Muslim League remained ambivalent to the Communal Award, and its ratification by the Central Assembly remained a priority.

References

Further reading