‘The Bhangi and the Chamar should be Called to the Councils of Empire’: Lord Lothian, the Indian Franchise, and the Untouchables

Abstract

ABSTRACT The franchise enquiry led by Lord Lothian (Philip Kerr) was a central component in the Indian constitutional reform process of the 1930s. This article examines the general context of the enquiry, as well as the specific circumstances, under which it was conducted in both the United Kingdom and the sub-continent. Lothian’s investigation paid special attention to the means by which increased numbers from untouchable caste groups could be enfranchised. The article explores the ways in which the position of the untouchables became a principal concern in discussions about the franchise and more general political reform. It also examines the close involvement of Lothian in the Round Table movement and its influence on his thinking about expanding the electorate and constitutional change in the subcontinent. A detailed focus is the effort made by Lothian to determine the potential number of untouchable voters in the United Provinces. Here, in one of the most populous provinces of British India, Lothian encountered multiple problems as he attempted to estimate the population of untouchable caste groups. The article argues that many of the difficulties he confronted had their origins in an earlier reticence on the part of the authorities in the province to recognise the untouchables as a minority that should be given any special political consideration. It was, ironically, Lothian’s colleagues in the Round Table who had laid the foundations for this perspective and thus contributed to many of the difficulties and quandaries with which he subsequently wrestled.