Gandhi claimed to speak for Untouchables he never consulted.

Evidence

For more than thirty-five years before that, Gandhi’s Mahatmahood had billowed like a sail in the winds of the national movement. He captured the world’s imagination. He roused hundreds of thousands of people into direct political action. He was the cynosure of all eyes, the voice of the nation. In 1931, at the Second Round Table Conference in London, Gandhi claimed—with complete equanimity—that he represented all of India. In his first public confrontation with Ambedkar (over Ambedkar’s proposal for a separate electorate for Untouchables), Gandhi felt able to say, “I claim myself in my own person to represent the vast mass of Untouchables.” — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 179

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the central question of this chapter — how Gandhi’s universalist leadership claim occluded caste voice.