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The conflict over salt was common enough so as not to alienate congressional moderates and was simultaneously an issue of such significant importance as to mobilize a mass following. (Anthony Copley, Gandhi: Against the Tide (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1987), pp.46-8). Geoffrey Ashe, Gandhi: A Study in Revolution (London:
Heineman Ltd., 1968), p. 301 38 M. K. Gandhi, "Victory in South Africa" in Louis Fischer, ed., The
Essential Gandhi (New York: Vintage, 1962), pp.84-111 Homer A. Jack, GSW, op. cit, p.237 Ibid, pp.240-3 B.R. Ambedekar born into a caste of street-sweepers but was unwilling to sweep the streets. Ambedkar's caste had been employed at British military bases, and some of its members, including his father, had thus become rather better off than other Untouchables. Ambedkar attended school and, notwithstanding the humiliations there due to his Untouchable status, showed such academic promise that an enlightened maharaja undertook to subsidize his higher education. In due time he earned an M.A. degree at Columbia University in New York, and a Ph.D. at the University of London, and studied Sanskrit at the University of Berlin. He was unique. (based on Dhananjay Keer's Dr. Ambedkar. Life and Mission, Popular Prakashan; 4th ed., 2009) See The Diary of Mahadev Desai, vol. i (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1953), p.52 There was one very significant difference, however. The Muslims were at least concentrated in the North West and North East part of India. The Harijans, on the other hand, were scattered throughout India, but hardly formed a majority in any part of India. A demand for a separate state for them would have created tension in the country and the damage would have been done to the Harijans who formed a minority in almost every village where they lived. Gandhi also wanted to bring the Harijans in the mainstream of
Hindu society. 44 Narayan Desai, My Gandhi (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing
House, 2011), p. 126-128 45 Ibid, p. 127
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