Communal Award

The Communal Award was a scheme announced by British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald in 1932 that provided separate electorates for various minorities in British India, including depressed classes, religious minorities, and other groups, forcing Indian political leaders to reckon with caste and communal divisions. It was later modified by the Poona Pact.

Claims that use this term

• India’s Communal Award forced politicians to reckon with caste divisions
• Republican Rome’s constitution encoded patrician-plebeian quotas like India’s Communal Award