The ten are Jawaharlal Nehru, B R Ambedkar, Jaipal Singh Munda, Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar, Dakshayani Velayudhan, Hasrat Mohani, K M Munshi, Hansa Mehta, G Durgabai, and James Joy Mohan Nichols Roy. What is perhaps well-known is that despite contrasting ideologies, the men tried to work together.
For instance, Ambedkar, who was an ardent critic of Gandhi’s stance against separate electorates which he felt would help Dalits and the Congress, became the head of the drafting committee and the first law minister of independent India.
What is less known are figures like Munda. An ICS and hockey professional-turned-politician, and an ardent supporter of Tribal rights, he critiqued the proposal of prohibition, associating it with tribal identity.
The book cites a part of his speech: “In West Bengal, for instance, it would be impossible for paddy to be transplanted if the Santhal does not get his rice beer. These ill-clad men, without even their barest wants satisfied, have to work knee-deep in water throughout the day, in drenching rain and in mud.
What is it in the rice beer that keeps them alive? I wish the medical authorities in this country would carry out research in their laboratories to find out what it is that the rice beer contains, of which the Adivasis need so much, and which keeps them against all manner of diseases.”
