Minorities (rights): India
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Constitution does not define minorities: Govt
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
The Times of India 2013/08/13
New Delhi: The Constitution does not define the term “minorities” anywhere but only mentions it in some Articles, the Centre said on Monday. “The Constitution of India used the word minority or its plural form in some Articles, 29 to 30 and 350A to 350B, but does not define it anywhere,” minister of state for minority affairs Ninong Ering said in Rajya Sabha.
He said though Article 29 refers to “minorities” in its marginal heading, it speaks of “any section of citizens having a distinct language, script and culture”.
An entire community or a group within a majority community could thus be seen as a minority.
Article 30 speaks about two categories of minorities — religious and linguistic — while Article 350 relates to linguistic minorities only, the minister said.
Ering clarified that the National Commission for Minorities Act has declared five communities — Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis — as religious minorities
Minorities:Statute ensures minority rights
Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN
New Delhi: Why is the expression ‘minority’ — such a touchy word — undefined under the Constitution? Is it because a large number of benefits are conferred on minority communities through a series of inviolable fundamental rights?
The Supreme Court takes them as a protective arrangement. In its 2005 judgment in Bal Patil vs Union of India, the court said: ‘‘The group of Articles 25 to 30 of the Constitution, as the historical background of partition of India shows, was only to give guarantee of security to the identified minorities and thus to maintain integrity of the country.’’
Article 25: Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion
Article 26: Freedom to manage religious affairs
Article 27: Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion
Article 28: Freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in certain education institutions
Article 29: Protection of interests of minorities
Article 30: Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions
The apex court, in its 2005 judgment, felt that the special guarantees and protection to the religious, cultural and educational rights of minorities was guaranteed as a fundamental right in the Constitution, in the backdrop of the bloody partition, to allay apprehensions and fears in the minds of Muslims and other religious communities.
‘‘Such protection was found necessary to maintain unity and integrity of free India because even after partition, communities like Muslims and Christians in greater numbers living in different parts of India opted to live in India as children of its soil,’’ the court had said.
It said the minorities initially recognised, were based on religion and on a national level, for example Muslims, Christians, Anglo-Indians and Parsis. However, it had sounded a warning against votebank politics based on divisive tactics and underlined that ‘‘the constitutional ideal, which can be gathered from the group of articles in the Constitution under Chapters Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties, is to create social condition where there remains no necessity to shield or protect rights of minority or majority.’’
dhananjay.mahapatra@timesgroup.com
