Describe the main features of poona fact
Answers
1. British had accepted Dr. Ambedkar's demand of separate electorates for Dalits but Gandhi thought that would not integrate the Dalits into the society.
2. Gandhi began a fast unto death against the separate electorates so Ambedkar had to agree and the Poona Pact of September 1932 was declared.
3. It gave the Depressed Classes reserved seats in the provincial and central legislative councils but not any separate electorates.
Poona pact is an agreement which was signed by B.R. Ambedkar and M.K. Gandhi on 24th September, 1932 at Yervada Central Jail in pune. It was signed by many other leader to break the fast that Gandhi was keeping at the Jail. The main features of the pact are:
1. There shall be seats reserved for the Depressed Classes out of general electorate.
2. Election to these seats shall be by joint electorates subject, however, to the following procedure –
All members of the Depressed Classes registered in the general electoral roll of a constituency will form an electoral college which will elect a panel of four candidates belonging to the Depressed Classes for each of such reserved seats by the method of the single vote and four persons getting the highest number of votes in such primary elections shall be the candidates for election by the general electorate.
3. In the Central Legislature 19% of the seats allotted to the general electorate for British India in the said legislature shall be reserved for the Depressed Classes.