India’s Communal Award forced politicians to reckon with caste divisions

Evidence

What is the significance of the Communal Award, with its allocation of political power in defined proportions to diverse classes and communities? In my view, its significance lies in this: that political constitution must take note of social organisation. It shows that the politicians who denied that the social problem in India had any bearing on the political problem were forced to reckon with the social problem in devising the constitution. The Communal Award is, so to say, the nemesis following upon the indifference to and neglect of social reform. It is a victory for the ‘social reform party’, which shows that, though defeated, they were in the right in insisting upon the importance of social reform. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 840

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the Roman constitution’s consuls/priests quotas discussed below — Ambedkar’s comparative constitution-making evidence.