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Representation, Education and Agrarian Reform: Jogendranath Mandal and the nature of Scheduled Caste politics, 1937–1943*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2013

DWAIPAYAN SEN
DWAIPAYAN SEN*
Affiliation:
Amherst College, United States of America Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper focusses on the Namasudra leader Jogendranath Mandal (1904–1968), and presents a study of the principal demands submitted by Scheduled Caste legislators over the course of the first half-decade of the Bengal legislative assembly. It seeks to understand these demands and why they were frustrated. It also traces and attempts to explain the withering away of Mandal's initial association with and favourable disposition towards the Congress. In contrast to accepted historiography, it argues that Scheduled Caste politics encompassed demands for representation, education and agrarian reform. It documents how their implementation (particularly the demand for representation) was compromised largely as a consequence of caste Hindu misrecognition.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 77 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

I am grateful for discussions with, and for the helpful suggestions received from Robin D. Bates, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Arvind Elangovan, Spencer Leonard, Moishe Postone, Andrew Sartori, William H. Sewell Jr, and participants in the Social Theory, and Theory and Practice in South Asia workshops at The University of Chicago about this paper.

References

1 This list of studies, while far from comprehensive, is suggestive of the degree to which mid-twentieth century politics in Bengal has attracted the attention of historians largely with reference to relations between Hindus and Muslims: Chatterji, Joya, Bengal divided: Hindu communalism and partition, 1932–1947, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chakrabarty, Bidyut, The Partition of Bengal and Assam, 1932–1947: Contour of Freedom, London: Routledge Curzon, 2004CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Broomfield, J. H., Elite Conflict in a Plural Society: Twentieth-Century Bengal, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968Google Scholar; Das, Suranjan, Communal Riots in Bengal, 1905–1947, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991Google Scholar; Gordon, Leonard A., Bengal: The Nationalist Movement, 1876–1940, New York: Columbia University Press, 1974Google Scholar; Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar, Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India: The Namasudras of Bengal, 1872–1947, Richmond: Curzon Press, 1997Google Scholar; Bandyopadhay, Sekhar, Caste, Politics, and the Raj: Bengal, 1872–1937, Calcutta: K. P. Bagchi and Company, 1990Google Scholar; Ray, Rajat Kanta, Urban Roots of Indian Nationalism: Pressure Groups and Conflict of Interests in Calcutta City Politics, 1875–1939, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, 1979Google Scholar; Gallagher, John, ‘Congress in Decline: Bengal, 1930–1939’, in Gallagher, John, Johnson, Gordon and Seal, Anil, (eds), Locality Province and Nation: Essays on Indian Politics, 1870–1940, London: Cambridge University Press, 1973.Google Scholar

2 As Sugata Bose has observed, ‘In contrast to the literature on other regions of India, subordinate caste critiques of the discourse on unity Indian nationalism have been seriously addressed by one historian of Bengal’. See his ‘Between Monolith and Fragment: A Note on the Historiography of Nationalism in Bengal’, in Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (ed.), Bengal: Rethinking History; Essays in Historiography, Delhi: Manohar, 2001, p. 285.Google Scholar

3 See Usuda, Masayuki, ‘Pushed towards the Partition: Jogendranath Mandal and the Constrained Namasudra Movement’, in Kotani, H. (ed.), Caste System, Untouchability and the Depressed, Delhi: Manohar, 1999Google Scholar, for more details.

4 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India, p. 8.

5 A subject to be covered by this author in subsequent work.

6 Taylor, Charles, ‘The Politics of Recognition’, in Gutmann, Amy (ed.), Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.Google Scholar

7 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India, p. 194.

8 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Caste, Politics, and the Raj, pp. 182–184.

9 Bengal Legislative Assembly, Proceedings (henceforth, BLAP), Alipore: Bengal Government Press, 5 August 1937, p. 209.

10 Ibid., 26 August 1937, p. 627.

11 Interested readers might consult the 1931 Bengal census tables for a sense of the correlation between caste and capital. Those figures clearly reveal the upper caste dominance over private industry, land, and public administration. Of equal note is the small and growing but hardly insignificant group of landowners, businessmen, lawyers, and public servants amongst the Scheduled Castes who constituted the bulk of the leadership's support-base.

12 Here is a typical example: ‘Mauvi Waliur Rahman: (a) Will the Hon'ble Minister in charge of the Judicial and Legislative Department be pleased to state—(i) The total number of clerks now in the Judge's Court of Jessore including clerks of all the Munsif's Courts in the district—(1) Caste Hindus, (2) Scheduled Castes, and, (3) Muhammadans; (ii) The number of appointments in the clerical staff made by the District Judge between the 1st January, 1937, to 31st July, 1937—(1) Caste Hindus, (2) Scheduled Castes, and, (3) Muhammadans; (iii) The number of appointments given to Jessore men; and, (iv) The number of appointments given to outsiders? (b) Will the Hon'ble Minister be pleased to state—(i) The number of process-servers now in the Judge's Court in Jessore including all the Munsif's courts, showing, (1) Caste Hindus, (2) Scheduled Castes, and, (3) Muhammadans, separately; and (ii) The number of new recruits—(1) Caste Hindus, (2) Scheduled Castes, and, (3) Muhammdans in the last financial and current year? (c) Do the Government propose to appoint Muhammadans as—(i) Clerks; and, (ii) Process-servers on the population basis?’. BLAP, 11 September 1937, pp. 1299–1300.

13 Out of a total 119 clerks in the Judge's Court in Jessore, 71 were caste Hindus, 7 Scheduled Castes, and 41 Muhammadans; out of 157 process-servers in the Judge's Court in Jessore, 60 were caste Hindus, 4 Scheduled Castes, and 93 Muhammadans. Out of 95 permanent clerk appointments in the Murshidabad Revenue Collectorate, 60 were caste Hindus, 4 Scheduled Castes and 35 Muslims. Of a total 1,646, 1,443, and 1,718 constables recruited to the police department in the years 1934, 1935, and 1936 respectively, a corresponding mere 66, 34, and 34 were recruited from the Scheduled Castes. Of the 27 civil surgeons in the province, none were Muslim or Scheduled Caste, and of the 162 Assistant Surgeons in Bengal, 28 were Muslim and 5 were Scheduled Castes. Since January 1933, not a single Scheduled Caste individual had been hired in the Secretariat under the Finance Department's control. In Mymensingh's Magistrate-Collectors office, the permanent clerks were composed of 101 caste Hindus, 73 Muslims and 4 Scheduled Castes; in Dacca, the same office housed 92 caste Hindu, 72 Muslim and 8 Scheduled Caste permanent clerks. There were 101 permanent caste Hindus appointees to the Mymensingh criminal courts, to 4 Scheduled Caste and 73 Muslims. In the Co-operative Credit and Rural Indebtedness Department, out of a total of 84 inspectors, 45 were caste Hindus, 35 Muslims and 2 Scheduled Castes, and of a total 241 Auditors, 126 were caste Hindus, 103 Muslims and 10 Scheduled Castes. Ibid., 11 September 1937, p. 1300; 11 September 1937, p. 1317; 13 September 1937, p. 1363; 14 September 1937, p. 1449; 21 September 1937, p. 1700; 30 September 1937, p. 2251; 30 September 1937, p. 2252; 21 February, 1938, p. 60.

14 Ibid., 21 February 1938, p. 86.

15 Ibid., 22 February 1938, p. 140.

16 Ibid., 24 February 1938, p. 237.

17 A response to a question regarding the promotion of inspectors in the police department revealed that of the 33 and 40 assistant sub-inspectors promoted to the rank of sub-inspector in 1936 and 1937 respectively amongst Bengal police, only 1 and 2 Scheduled Caste assistant sub-inspectors had been included. There were no such promotions amongst the Scheduled Castes within the Calcutta police, and no Scheduled Caste sub-inspectors had been promoted to the rank of inspector either. Another enquiry about the composition of Debt Settlement Boards in Burdwan showed that of the 38 boards in that district, 210 members were caste Hindus, 65 were Muslims and 15 were Scheduled Castes. This was further evidence of the blatant over-representation of caste Hindus in the various levels of administration in Bengal relative to both Muslims and Scheduled Castes. Ibid., 2 March 1938, p. 91; 10 March 1938, p. 78.

18 Ibid., 10 March, 1938, pp. 129–130.

19 Chatterjee, Partha, Bengal, 1920–1947: The Land Question, Calcutta: K. P. Bagchi and Company, 1984, p. 179.Google Scholar

20 Arthur J. Dash, A Bengal Diary, Volume IX, MSS Eur C188/6, p. 83.

21 BLAP, 28 September 1937, pp. 2110–2111.

22 In reply, the department's minister, Nawab Musharruff Hossain Khan Bahadur indicated that out of a total of 150 suits—19 had been granted, 65 not granted, and 66 were pending. Mandal returned, asking on what grounds enhancement had been granted with regard to the 19 cases, and what the maximum and minimum rates of enhancement were—to which he received non-committal responses. Ibid., 30 September 1937, p. 2271.

23 Ibid., 11 March 1938, p. 154; 17 March 1938, p. 351.

24 The following paragraphs draw on Jogendranath Mandal's unpublished autobiography made available to me by his son Shri Jagadishchandra Mandal: Jogendranath Mandal, Aprakasita atmakatha (Unpublished autobiography), pp. 50–54, Private collection of Shri Jagadishchandra Mandal. Mandal wrote the autobiography in the mid to late 1960s at a time of acute financial hardship. Written at the encouragement of one of his followers, he did not possess the means to purchase the necessary writing materials. These were provided by the same acolyte. Of various notable features of his autobiography one that certainly bears mention is his use of the third-person in referring to himself.

25 Ibid.

26 Biswas was a Congressite at the time and at a crucial juncture in the future would defect from this association and subsequently join Mandal's Federation. BLAP, 17 March 1938, pp. 393–394.

27 Ibid., 17 March 1938, pp. 394–396.

28 Ibid., 18 March, 1938, p. 27.

29 Ibid., 18 March, 1938, p. 29.

30 Ibid., 18 March 1938, pp. 31–38.

31 Ibid, 18 March 1938, pp. 37–38.

32 There is no doubt that a range of differing opinions, at times conflicting, regarding the details of how communal representation and the provision of educational capital grants be implemented existed amongst the Scheduled Caste leadership. These differences were determined by party loyalties, commitment to ones’ own district constituencies, and rapidly shifting alliances. Nevertheless, despite such differences, what is remarkable is the near unanimity about the desirability of these two provisions.

33 Rao, Anupama, The Caste Question: Dalits and the Politics of Modern India, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009, pp. 131–132.Google Scholar

34 Premhari Barma thus drew attention in the assembly to the ‘non-appointment of scheduled castes in police services in Bengal’. A question by Maulvi Ahmed Ali Mridha about communal percentages of clerks working in the Faridpur Collectorate revealed that of 128 permanent clerks, 49 were Mussalman, 70 Caste Hindu, and 8 Scheduled Caste, and of 35 temporary clerks, 12 Mussalman, 19 Caste Hindu and 4 Scheduled Caste. Of 59 process-servers appointed in the Chittagong civil courts during 1937, 1 was a Scheduled Caste candidate. Of 74 process-servers appointed in the Noakhali civil courts during 1937, 7 were Scheduled Caste. The corresponding figures for Tippera were 139 and 7. Jogendranath Mandal's enquiry about Scheduled Caste employees in the Barisal Public Works Department office revealed that out of 21 permanent and temporary employees, there was but one temporary position held by a Scheduled Caste individual. Monmohan Das’ question to the Judicial and Legislative Department found that there was not a single Scheduled Caste member amongst Government pleaders, Assistant Government pleaders, Public Prosecutors, Assistant Public Prosecutors and Honorary Magistrates in either Mymensingh or Dacca. Madhusudan Sarker's request for a statement on the number of Scheduled Castes appointed as sub-inspectors of police and constables in Bogra and Pabna between 1934 and 1937 demonstrated that no Scheduled Caste sub-inspectors had been appointed in either district, and of the 12 and 14 constables appointed in Bogra in 1936 and 1937, one Scheduled Caste appointment had been made in both years—none had been made in 1934 and 1935, which saw increases of 30 and 7 appointments, and in Pabna, none of the 101 constables appointed in these years were Scheduled Castes. Birat Chandra Mandal's request for a statement evidenced that not a single Scheduled Caste candidate was recruited amongst the 114 appointments to Calcutta police in 1937. Between 7 and 8 April 1938, at least ten more such questions regarding the representation of communities in various government offices were placed before the house. BLAP, 15 March 1938, p. 286; 17 March 1938, p. 358; 18 March 1938, p. 10; 18 March 1938, pp. 10–11; 25 March 1938, pp. 371–372; 25 March 1938, pp. 384–385; 1 April 1938, pp. 117–118; 7 April 1938, p. 193.

35 Sri Upendranath Barman, Uttar-banglar sekal o amar jiban-smrti, (The Past of North Bengal and My Life Reminiscences) pp. 73–75, in Mandal, Jagadishchandra, Mahapran Jogendranath, pratham khanda, (Mahapran Jogendranath, volume one) Kalakata: Caturtha Duniya, 2003, pp. 50–51.Google Scholar

36 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India, p. 185.

37 The meeting was held at the residence of Guruprasad Das, a former member of the Legislative Council, and was attended by the following MLAs: Hem Chandra Naskar, Rasiklal Biswas, Kshetra Mohan Singha, Pushpajit Barman, Jogendranath Mandal, and others. ‘Scheduled Castes Federation dissatisfied with work of present ministry’, Hindusthan Standard, 27 July 1938, Jagadishchandra Mandal, Mahapran Jogendranath, pratham khanda, pp. 48–49.

38 ‘No-confidence motions completely at the mercy of Europeans—How Huq cabinet escapes a defeat’, Hindusthan Standard, 9 August 1938, Ibid., pp. 54–55.

39 BLAP, 10 August 1938, pp. 119–121.

40 Ibid., 10 August 1938, pp. 119–121.

41 Ibid., 10 August 1938, pp. 121–123.

42 Ibid., 10 August 1938, p. 122.

43 Indeed, Mandal clarified his position, as secretary of the Independent Scheduled Castes Assembly Party, in a statement to the Hindustan Standard in mid-September, 1938 which, significantly, contained no mention of the Scheduled Castes MLAs joining Congress. A general critique of the ministry's year-and-a-half-long record, Mandal began by foregrounding his singular purpose to work in the service of the Bengali praja: ‘. . .I shall always fight for interest of the Prajas. My election pledge was to the effect that I shall always try to further the cause of the Prajas in all spheres and also the higher interest of the country at large. . . . My primary object had always been never to do anything or to vote against the interest of the Prajas’. Mandal initially did not join any party, ‘lest I should have to sacrifice my personal liberty to vote at the behest of the party’, but later supported the Nationalist party ‘though it comprises Zeminders, and Maharajas, on the clear understanding that my liberty to vote according to my wish, will not be curtailed in any way’. Mandal underscored the independent-mindedness of his voting record—establishing how he had consistently voted in favour of praja interests, against the Ministry in power and the decisions of the Nationalist party. He had voted for fixing the minimum price of jute, for reducing the rent of the prajas, for abolishing the tax on tobacco. Disillusionment had set in upon the Ministry's stalling over the Tenancy Amendment Bill and their disregard for Scheduled Caste education, welfare and representation. It was in this context that nineteen Scheduled Caste MLAs formed the Independent Scheduled Castes Assembly Party. Dependent on and at the mercy of support from Europeans, Maharajas and Zamindars, in Mandal's opinion, the Huq ministry could not possibly sincerely serve the interests of the Prajas of Bengal. ‘Born with a silver spoon in their mouth and brought up in luxury, in palatial buildings and sweetening their palates with all the dainties, how can they, these absentee landlords, be expected to feel the poignancy of the pitiable tales of woeful miseries of the peasants who can hardly make their both ends meet?’ The ministry's delay in securing the assent of the Governor on the Tenancy Amendment Bill and a host of unfulfilled pledges to the Scheduled Castes had led to the tabling of the no-confidence motions. Moreover, Mandal added, it was unfair for the Coalition Party to take all the credit for the Tenancy Amendment Bill, given that the Independent Scheduled Castes Assembly Party had whole-heartedly supported the Bill. Recounting all the reasons he gave in his assembly speech—the price of jute, agriculturalists debt, primary eduction, Scheduled Caste education, prohibition, and Scheduled Caste representation—he concluded that his party could therefore ‘never support a reactionary Ministry, as led by Mr. Fazlul Huq’. ‘Promises Galore But Pledges Broken’, Hindustan Standard, 16 September 1938, in Jagadishchandra Mandal, Mahapran Jogendranath, pratham khanda, pp. 58–61.

44 For instance, when Monmohan Das unfavourably compared the track record of the Government of Bengal regarding Scheduled Caste education with the Congress-governed provinces in the rest of India, his comparison provoked a telling response: Birat Chandra Mandal, who was still on the side of the ministry, retorted that the Bengal government had done more for the Scheduled Castes than any other provincial government, arguing that there were more Scheduled Caste representatives in the present Cabinet than in any of the Congress-governed provinces. When he asserted that in Bengal the Scheduled Castes enjoyed greater privileges than in other provinces, the assembly broke out in disturbance. Upon listing those aspects which he thought set Bengal apart—the highest number of Scheduled Caste cabinet representatives, provision for a Special Officer of Scheduled Caste Education, the provision of hostels for Scheduled Caste students—he adopted a different tactic. Mandal proceeded to narrate episodes which conclusively proved ‘the depth of love of my caste Hindu friends for the scheduled caste students in Bengal’. Referring to a Namasudra student hostel in Calcutta that had been established in 1917, Mandal alleged that the ‘bosses of Calcutta University have left no stone unturned’ for its disestablishment—their argument being that there was no need for separate hostels as Scheduled Caste students could be accommodated in general ones. Similarly with matters of appointment—in the past ‘when a candidate from the scheduled castes went for a job of Rs. 20 he would not get that, but now we understand that jobs worth Rs. 2,500 are very easy for the scheduled caste members to get. So, Sir, you can very easily understand the depth of their sincerity. They profess something but they act quite the reverse’. He mentioned the following institutions to buttress his argument: The Sanskrit College did not admit Scheduled Caste applicants, the Calcutta Corporation was hardly well-disposed towards them, and the authorities of the Medical College, the Campbell Medical School, Presidency College and Dacca University, systematically denied Scheduled Caste applicants admission. The point Mandal was trying to make was that Congress was far from a promising alternative to the KPP and League government. Similarly, Pulin Behary Mullick quite emotionally reminded the assembly of what the Congress represented, much to the resentment of leading Congress MLAs who interrupted his address with their running commentary: ‘With regard to the treatment that is being meted out to us for generations together by the Caste Hindu people, that is quite fresh in our minds, (Mr. Dhirendra Nath Datta: Not the treatment meted out by Government.) Well, it is no use talking all that. We know what sort of treatment we are receiving in our daily life. We know the treatment that we receive from caste Hindus; we know that and that has been our experience and the sum total of our experience for generations together. It is no use talking of that, for one is apt to lose one's temper when one thinks of the sum total of grievances and difficulties and the insults and assaults committed upon us—the Scheduled Caste. Therefore, I refrain from going into that matter lest I should be apt to lose my temper. (Dr. Nalinaksha Sanyal: No, no, don't lose it.) No, I have not lost my temper as yet. My friend Mr. Birat Chandra Mandal has given a few instances but it is no use giving instances because we know what they are. We feel them; that is our daily experience. . .’. BLAP, 16 August 1938, pp. 92–104.

45 Ibid., 25 August 1938, p. 287.

46 Mandal had also nurtured a relationship with the oscillating Congressman, Nalini Ranjan Sarkar. Due to constraints of space, their association is not elaborated herein. Suffice it to say that Mandal's willingness to engage with Congress leaders in the late 1930s stands in marked contrast to his distinctly anti-Congress stance of the mid and late 1940s.

47 Jogendranath Mandal, Aprakasita atmakatha, p. 35.

48 Gordon, Leonard A., Brothers Against the Raj: A Biography of Indian Nationalists Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose, New Delhi: Rupa and Co., 1990, pp. 390–391.Google Scholar

49 Mandal, Aprakasita atmakatha, pp. 35–40.

50 Ibid., pp. 35–40.

51 Bose, Sarat Chandra, ‘Letter to A. K. Fazlul Huq, dated June 12, 1939’, Sarat Chandra Bose Commemoration Volume, Calcutta: Sarat Bose Academy, 1982, pp. 270–271.Google Scholar

52 BLAP, 22 February 1939, p. 276.

53 Ibid., 22 February 1939, p. 277.

54 Mandal argued: ‘If adequate provisions were made for the upliftment of the backward classes, for the national development, for the introduction of primary education, I for one would not have grudged even the capital grant of Rs. 1.5 lakhs to the educational institutions belonging to the biggest landed magnate of Bengal. I would not have objected to the grant of 1 lakh of rupees and a half to the St. Xavier's College—the veritable den of reaction’. Ibid., 22 February 1939, p. 277.

55 See Jogendranath Mandal, Aprakasita atmakatha, pp. 55–59. BLAP, 15 March 1939, pp. 354–355.

56 This claim yet again evinced the direct relationship drawn between the sources of government revenue and objects of its expenditure. Promatha Ranjan Thakur added in this vein that, ‘. . .the present budget is nothing but a systematic plan to loot the public treasury of Bengal. Every farthing of the money which the present Cabinet has got the authority to spend has come from the poor toiling peasants of Bengal’. Ibid., 20 February 1939, p. 189; 22 February 1939, p. 285; 25 February 1939, p. 326.

57 Ibid., 25 February 1939, pp. 359–360.

58 Ibid., 22 February 1939, p. 277.

59 Ibid., 22 February 1939, 277.

60 Birat Chandra described how the Scheduled Castes thus far had been excluded from political power in Calcutta—initially, the European Indian Civil Servics officers did not ‘care a fig for the representation of the Scheduled Castes’; next, under the ‘Congressite Brahmin’ Sir Surendranath Banerji, nothing had changed; finally, neither had the ‘moderate Kshatriya’ Sir Bijoy Prasad Singh Roy done them justice. Now, the Nawab Bahadur is ‘really trying to give something to the scheduled caste people and for this act of generosity or justice, I may call it the sense of justice of Islam, we are grateful to him’. Ibid., 27 February 1939, pp. 49–50.

61 Ibid., 27 February 1939, pp. 50–51.

62 Promatha Ranjan Thakur reminded the assembly during the Demands for Grants sessions on the Education Budget that even though Muslims were now in power, they, the Scheduled Castes, had received no justice. As the majority community, they ‘only want to keep the Hindus in two different camps only to achieve their ends. . . We scheduled castes are Hindus first and scheduled castes afterwards. We rise and fall with our Caste Hindu brethren’. After once again pressing his demand for an annually recurring capital grant of Rs. 5 lakhs for Scheduled Caste education, Monmohan Das alleged that the educational bureaucracy with regard to the institution of primary education was tilted in favour of the Muhammdans in Mymensingh and Dacca, to the detriment of the Scheduled Castes. Ibid., 13 March 1939, p. 249; 14 March 1939, p. 305.

63 Ibid., 14 March 1939, p. 313.

64 Jogendranath Mandal, Aprakasita atmakatha, p. 67.

65 Khwaja Nazimuddin reminded Narendra Narayan Chakrabarty, for instance, in response to the latter's scathing attack on government, ‘90—or I should say, 99 per cent—of the Muslims and the Scheduled Castes do not believe in the professed nationalism of Mr. Narendra Narayan Chakrabarty. (Cries of “Hear, hear”). We are convinced by bitter experience of many years that it is not their desire to gain the freedom of India for Indians as a whole, but that the main object of my friends is to substitute for the British rule the rule of caste Hindus in India. . .’. BLAP, 22 March 1939, p. 118.

66 Monmohan Das expressed his frustration that the ‘Bill is a fight between the Congress and the Muslim League, both taking advantage of the Scheduled Castes’. Both the Congress and Government, he felt, while projecting a façade of concern, in actuality, sought to ‘further their own interests at the expense of the Scheduled Castes’. Kshetra Nath Singha similarly concluded in despair, that ‘. . .on one side we have got Caste Hindus and on the other Muslims and we are always to lick the shoes of either, we find nobody is going to help us—it is only the Merciful God who alone can help us!’. Ibid., 10 May 1939, p. 410; 10 July 1939, p. 142.

67 For a sense of this debate, see Governor R. G. Casey's diary for 1944, especially the following dates: 26 January (47); 18 February (109); 13 March (158), (159); 12 May (259); 14 October (109), (110), (111). R. G. Casey, Personal Diary, Photo Eur 48/1.

68 BLAP, 24 February 1940, p. 403.

69 Ibid., 22 February 1940, p. 283; 23 February 1940, p. 333; 26 February 1940, p. 5; 4 March 1940, p. 306.

70 Ibid., 8 March 1940, pp. 173–4.

71 Khwaja Shahabuddin, for instance, had assured Governor R. G. Casey (who was particularly exercised over administrative inefficiency) that the communal ratio ‘was not a political stunt but goes very deeply down into the life of the community. . .it is a fundamental question which raises great depths of feeling—on which. . .the Muslims and the Scheduled Castes are equally keen’. R. G. Casey, Personal Diary, 26 January 1944, p. 50.

72 R. G. Casey, Personal Diary, 3 April 1944, p. 193. It is also perhaps no surprise that Anukul Chandra Das, a veteran leader and MLA who would support Mandal's Federation in subsequent years, was the only Scheduled Caste member amongst the personnel of the Land Revenue Commission.

73 Tin nambar pallibasir prati sabinay nibedan, (A humble petition to the residents of number 3 ward) in Jagadishchandra Mandal, Mahapran Jogendranath, pratham khanda, p. 65.

74 Jogendranath Mandal, Aprakasita Atmakatha, p. 44.

75 There were no Scheduled Castes amongst the 27 clerks and 11 process-servers in the Land Acquisition office in Calcutta. Of 63 clerks in the Eastern Circle of the Communications and Works Department, only one was from the Scheduled Castes. Of the 176 clerical employees in the Dacca Collectorate, 3 were Scheduled Castes. 3 of the 85 clerks in the Administrator-General's office were Scheduled Castes. Of the 27 extant District Inspectors of Schools of the province, none was a Scheduled Caste employee, and of the 12 new District Inspectors appointed over the past three years, 4 were Caste Hindus and 8 were Muslims. Not a single Sub-Inspector of the 18 employed in the Education Department posted in Dacca, was a Scheduled Caste individual. Of 142 permanent clerks employed in both divisions of the collectorate in Mandal's own Bakarganj, 11, all in the lower division, were Scheduled Castes. Of 138 permanent clerks in both divisions of the Bakarganj civil courts, 8 were Scheduled Castes. It is worthwhile bearing in mind that these were the returns emerging from the very stronghold of Scheduled Caste politics in East Bengal, the location of Mandal's own political constituency. BLAP, 27 March 1940, p. 70; 29 March 1940, p. 173; 3 April 1940, p. 299; 3 April 1940, p. 305; 15 July 1940, p. 5; 15 July 1940, p. 30; 17 July 1940, p. 194; 23 July 1940, p. 81.

76 None of the following posts, (their numbers in parentheses), were occupied by Scheduled Castes: Assistant Head Masters of Government High Schools (42); Assistant Head Master and Assistant Superintendent of Normal Schools (4), Subdivisional Inspectors of Schools (67/87—illegible); Head Masters of Government High English Schools (41); Head Masters and Superintendents of Normal Schools (4); Divisional and Range Inspectors of Schools (6). Of 27 District Inspectors of Schools, one Scheduled Caste candidate had recently been appointed, of 156 Lecturers of Government Colleges, one was of the Scheduled Castes; of 108 Professors of Government Colleges, likewise, one was of the Scheduled Castes. Ibid., 15 August, 1941, pp. 80–81. A year prior, Roy's question about the scholarships disbursed in both Science and Arts classes of the Presidency College—the very paragon of educational institutions in Bengal—revealed that in 1938, of 70 part-free studentships, 63 were received by caste Hindu students, and 7 by Muslims. Scheduled Caste students had received none, and when in 1938 and 1939 three and two Scheduled Caste students had respectively applied, none of them received the said concession. Ibid., 6 August 1940, pp. 139–140.

77 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India, p. 177.

78 BLAP, 15 July 1940, p. 6.

79 For the entire province for instance, of 120 inspectors recruited since October 1940, 20 were Scheduled Castes. Of the 592 in-service Assistant Inspectors, 80 were Scheduled Castes. Khan had evidently gone out of his way to produce the results desired by the Scheduled Caste leadership. Ibid., 10 September 1941, p. 133.

80 Ibid., 9 April 1941, p. 180.

81 Ibid., 18 March 1940, p. 224.

82 Ibid., 27 August 1941, pp. 6–8.

83 It is well known that the 1941 census was not thoroughly executed due to financial constraints and the diversion of administrative attention to the war effort. Bandyopadhyay largely views the widespread manipulation that accompanied this enumeration from the perspective of the Hindu Mahasabha's attempt to ‘inflate the number of Hindus in Bengal vis-à-vis the Muslims. . .’. That said, he also adds that the ‘dalit population. . .was not as yet very enthusiastic in their response to such appeals’. See his ‘Caste and the Territorial Nation: The Hindu Mahasabha, Partition and the Dalit’, in Caste, Culture and Hegemony: Social Dominance in Colonial Bengal, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2004, pp. 201–207. As will be clear from the evidence I present, not only were they not ‘very enthusiastic’ but several of the most prominent Scheduled Caste leaders were extremely critical of what had come to pass.

84 BLAP, 3 December 1940, p. 324.

85 Mukunda Behari Mullick, Letter addressed to the Right Hon'ble Sir Stafford Cripps Kt., 24 March 1942, IOR/L/P&J/10/14.

86 The Statesman, 19 April 1944, in Jagadishchandra Mandal, Mahapran Jogendranath, pratham khanda, pp. 131–134. Mandal also warned Governor R. G. Casey several years later that ‘the 1941 census results are not reliable—as each community was out to inflate its own numbers, and so its importance’. R. G. Casey, Personal Diary, Photo Eur 48/1, January–June 1944, 21 April 1944, p. 213.

87 Porter, A. E., Census of India, 1931, Volume V, Bengal and Sikkim, Part 1, Report, Calcutta: Central Publication Branch, 1933, 502Google Scholar; Dutch, R. A., Census of India, 1941, Volume IV, Bengal, Delhi: Manager of Publications, 1942, 44.Google Scholar

88 BLAP, 10th March, 1941, 39.

89 Ibid., 19 March 1942, pp. 130–131.

90 See Sumit Guha (2003), The Politics of Identity and Enumeration in India c. 1600–1990, Comparative Studies in Society and History 45: 148–167 for a review and critique of this paradigm.

91 Sen, Shila, Muslim Politics in Bengal, New Delhi: Impex India, 1976, pp. 126–136.Google Scholar

92 Jogendranath Mandal, Aprakasita atmakatha, pp. 44–45.

93 Ibid., pp. 69–70.

94 The fact that Mandal received these notices, and the sense of shame with which Namasudra leaders presumably approached the members of their constituencies, suggests that the concerns of the Scheduled Castes and their leadership were not entirely discordant. Even if one ought not to read too much into statements such as these, it may be mistaken to assume that miles from the seat of power in Calcutta, they were utterly indifferent to their leaders’ parliamentary emphases. Ibid., pp. 69–70.

95 BLAP, 23 February 1942, pp. 242–246.

96 Roy, Naresh Chandra, A critical study of some aspects of public administration in Bengal, Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1945, p. 98.Google Scholar

97 Jogendranath Mandal, Aprakasita Atmakatha, p. 112.

98 Mukti Sangram, Prakasak: Sri Apurbba Lal Majumdar, pp. 6–7. I believe there is a case to be made for viewing the Federation's concerns as melding demands for recognition with those of redistribution. See Fraser, Nancy and Honneth, Axel, Redistribution or Recognition?: A Political-Philosophical Exchange, London: Verso Books, 2003CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for a detailed debate about these concepts; Private collection of Shri Jagadishchandra Mandal.

99 BLAP, 14 March 1941, pp. 201–205.

100 Although he knew that the plight of the ‘starving, crushed, extorted’ populace would not touch the hearts of the eternally contented members of the assembly, he nevertheless wanted to bring their mortification to the latter's attention. The class of which he spoke was composed primarily of Scheduled Castes and a particular tier of Muslims. These Scheduled Castes had been neglected in all spheres; they had been unable to avail of the country's opportunities and conveniences, neither did they possess any business or industry. They lagged behind in business, education, and government employment. Predominantly farmers, if they had a little land, they were able to cultivate food grains on the same. Demonstrating his awareness of the cycles of an agriculturalist family's economy, Mandal continued, ‘Today it is the month of Phalgun; there is still some rice-grain in the houses of many. By the time of Chaitra, there will be nothing. The body shudders to think of what will befall this extorted class of Bengal at that time’. Mandal's point was that Government had to rise above factional disputes and the pursuit of prestige to fulfill the duty to which it was pledged. A crisis in the provisions of cloth loomed as well. In his view, Government's sole responsibility was to make arrangements to provide the populace with food and clothing. Instead, the entire complex of interests engaged in profiteering—no doubt mahajans and businessmen, but from the Government ministry, to their supporters, and from the highest to the lowest in the administrative work-force—were all ‘recklessly playing around with the lives of the people of Bengal’. Ibid., 10 March 1943, pp. 36–37.

101 Ibid., 15 March 1943, pp. 250–251.

102 Like on previous occasions, Mandal did not withhold from levelling critique couched in rhetoric intended to bite. In his view, instead of resolving the problems that appeared most acute, the problems being confronted by Government stemmed mainly from how to best retain political power and the privileges of office. ‘The problem that has arisen today is how to avoid the actual problem by bluffing the people’. Ibid., 18 March 1943, pp. 381–382.

103 Ibid., 24 March 1943, pp. 542–543.

104 Ibid.

105 Ibid., 24 March 1943, p. 543.

106 R. G. Casey, Personal Diary, 21 April 1944, Photo Eur 48/1, p. 212.

107 The question of whether Scheduled Caste MLAs’ legislative demands corresponded to the aspirations of the communities they represented is an important one, yet one that cannot be satisfactorily answered within the ambit of this paper. In addition to the few places where this issue has been addressed herein, there is certainly evidence in the mid to late 1940s (from the Bengal Federation's paper Jagaran for instance) that an increasing number of Scheduled Caste students and professionals were remarkably sensitized to the kinds of issues being raised by their leaders in the assembly. This said, it seems quite implausible that the vast majority of the Scheduled Caste population of the province would have been uniformly cognizant of and concerned with the fruition of their leaders’ demands. Neither should this be taken as a suggestion or implication of this work, which is primarily concerned with the aspirations of the political elite, and more specifically, with Mandal. It nevertheless appears unlikely that the leadership would have pursued their legislative demands with the persistence they did, if they were not convinced that the provisions of communal representation, educational opportunities and agrarian reform were the most appropriate means by which to serve their communities, and, in turn, if these were not the three core issues regarding which their communities desired intervention. It remains of deep concern that we need to understand the hegemony the Scheduled Caste leadership sought to exercise over their communities.