Poona Pact

The Poona Pact refers to an agreement between Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi signed on 24 September 1932 at Yerwada Central Jail in Pune, India. It was signed by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and some other leaders to break the fast unto death undertaken by Gandhi in Yerwada prison to annul the Macdonald Award giving separate electorates to Dalits for electing members of state legislative assemblies in British India.

The British invited leaders of different parties in the Round Table Conferences in 1930-32 to draft a new law involving self-rule for the Indians. Mahatma Gandhi did not attend the first and the last but attended the second of the Conferences. The concept of separate electorates for the Untouchables was raised by Ambedkar. Similar provisions were already available for other minorities, including Muslims, Christians, Anglo-Indians and Sikhs. The British government agreed with Ambedkar's contention and British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald's Communal Award to the depressed classes was to be incorporated into the constitution in the governance of British India. Gandhi strongly opposed the Communal Award on the grounds that it would disintegrate Hindu society. Ambedkar vehemently criticised the way of handling the problems of the Harijans by Gandhiji. Gandhi took up a fast unto death in his prison cell in Poona, protesting that separate electorates were a device which would separate the untouchables from the Hindu society forever. He began an indefinite hunger strike at Yerwada Central Jail from 20 September 1932 to protest against this Award. A compromise was reached on 24 September 1932.

The text uses the term "Depressed Classes" to denote Untouchables who were later called Scheduled Castes under India Act 1935, and the later Indian Constitution of 1950.

...
Wikipedia