Communal Award and Poona Pact - General Knowledge Of Modern India

Communal Award and Poona Pact - General Knowledge Of Modern India

On August 16, 1932, Macdonald announced a resolution known as the Communal Award, which recommended a communal electorate. It is also known as 'MacDonald Award'. Public meetings were organized almost everywhere in the country, leaders of various factions like Madan Mohan Malviya, BR Ambedkar and MC Raza became active. This culminated in an agreement which came to be known as 'Poona Pact'.

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Communal Award (August 16, 1932)

On August 16, 1932, British Prime Minister Ramsey Macdonald introduced separate categories for upper castes, lower castes, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, Europeans, and untouchables (now known as Dalits) in British India. Announced it to provide the system of electoral college.

Poona Pact (24 September 1932)

This agreement was signed between BR Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi in the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune and the government allowed this agreement as an amendment to the Communal Award.

Key Points Of The Agreement

• In the agreement a separate electorate for the Depressed Classes was abandoned, but the number of seats reserved for the Depressed Classes was increased from 71 to 147 in the provincial legislatures and 18% of the total seats in the central legislature.
• The election of seats will be done by a joint electorate but its process will be as follows: All the Dalit members registered in the general electoral list of a constituency will together form an electoral college.

This electoral college will select a panel of four members from the Depressed Classes, through a voting system, for each reserved constituency. In this primary election, only the four persons who get the highest number of votes will be the candidates for the general electoral college.

• The above mentioned system of primary election and four-member panel will be abolished after ten years, unless it is abolished earlier by mutual consent.
• The system of representation of the Depressed Classes through the reserved seats will be applicable only for a certain time, otherwise it can be abolished by mutual consent of the communities concerned.
• The franchise of the Depressed Classes will be according to the report of the Lothian Committee (Suffrage Committee of India).
• No person shall be deemed to be disqualified for election to local bodies and for appointment to the public service merely on the ground that he is a member of any Depressed Class. In this context, every effort will be made to protect the proper representation of the Depressed Classes.