The scheme announced by British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald in 1932 that extended separate electorates to various communities, including, for the first time, the Depressed Classes.
- Announced on 16 August 1932 by Ramsay MacDonald, following the failure of the Second Round Table Conference to reach agreement on the communal question.
- Granted separate electorates to Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, Europeans, and, controversially, to the Depressed Classes.
- Gandhi opposed the separate electorate for the Depressed Classes, seeing it as a permanent split in Hindu society, and went on a fast unto death, which led to the Poona Pact (1932).
- For other communities the Award's communal divisions were retained and broadly carried into the Government of India Act, 1935.
- It deepened the politics of communal and group representation that the framers of the Constitution later sought to undo by abolishing separate electorates.
It is the direct cause of Gandhi's fast and the Poona Pact, and a key step in the chain of communal electorates running from 1909 to Partition.
The Communal Award (1932) extended separate electorates to the Depressed Classes; the Poona Pact then replaced that with reserved seats in joint electorates, while other communities kept separate electorates.
1932 Communal Award (MacDonald): separate electorates for many communities including the Depressed Classes; triggered Gandhi's fast and the Poona Pact.