Minority rights and the nationalist doctrine in India: contestation and coalescence in the public sphere

Abstract

In India the genealogy of the concept of minority rights is drawn from its pre-independent past and is intrinsic to the nationalist doctrine that emerged. Indeed minority groups were endowed with certain self-preservation rights, albeit extremely limited, in the new Constitution. This single fact has driven theorists to laud the commitment of the Indian polity towards minority entitlements. Amidst such celebratory euphoria, however, the disquiet, deceit and aversion with which the prevailing nationalist opinion engaged with the concept, is often overlooked. This essay seeks to trace the trajectory of the idea of minority rights as it evolved within the Constituent Assembly as much as outside it in the public domain. In the process, the essay interrogates the constitution of the public sphere as an arena, rational and autonomous of state influences.

Keywords:

• nationalism
• identity
• public sphere
• minority rights
• Indian Muslims
• Constituent Assembly

Notes

1. Habermas, ‘Public Sphere’, 49.

2. Letter to Badruddin Tyabji, January 24, 1888 (emphasis mine).

3. Chatterjee, ‘Whose Imagined Community?’, 3–13.

4. Omvedt, ‘Struggle for Social Justice and the Expansion of the Public Sphere’, 135–6.

5. Freitag, Collective Action and Community, 220.

6. Jinnah, ‘Presidential Address at the Lucknow Session of the AIML’.

7. Freitag, Collective Action and Community, 220–1.

8. Bajpai, ‘Constituent Assembly Debates and Minority Rights’; Jha, ‘Rights versus Representation’; Massey, Minority Rights Discourse in India.

9. Speech of Singh reported in Times of India.

10. Khan, ‘All India Mohammadan Deputation on Separate Electorate for Muslims’, 426.

11. In the Government of India Act, 1909, separate electorates for Muslims alone were accepted.

12. The Schedule Caste Order of 1936 barred non-Hindu caste groups from being included in the list of SCs.

13. Rao, Framing of India's Constitution, 426–9.

14. Letter of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel addressed to the President, Constituent Assembly, May 11, 1949, CAD, vol. VIII, 310–12.

15. For the arguments put forth by Sardars Bhopinder Singh Mann and Hukam Singh and Mr Naziruddin Ahmed, see CAD, vol. X, 229–36.

16. CAD, vol. X, 232–6.

17. Dr P.S. Deshmukh representing Central Provinces and Berar, Wednesday, August 27, 1947, CAD, vol. V, http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/vol5p8a.htm (accessed November 3, 2010).

18. Ibid.

19. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Wednesday, August 27, 1947, CAD, vol. V, http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/vol5p8a.htm (accessed November 3, 2010).

20. Speech of Dr S. Radhakrishnan, August 28, 1947, CAD, vol. V, http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/vol5p9b.htm (accessed November 3, 2010).

21. G.B. Pant, August 27, 1947, CAD, vol. V, http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/vol5p8a.htm (accessed November 3, 2010).

22. Speech of R.V. Dhulekar, CAD, vol. IX, http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/vol9p33a.htm (accessed November 3, 2010).

23. The official language of India is Hindi with English as an additional language for official work. However, states in India are entitled to legislate their own official languages. Besides, the Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution contains a list of 22 scheduled languages.

24. Harijansevak, October 12, 1947.

25. Cited in Austin, Indian Constitution, 275.

26. ‘Hindi Hi Kyon’.

27. According to Tandon, even after Partition, attempts were being made to appease the Muslims on the question of national language. India's real national language should be Hindi with Devanagri script, and irrespective of caste, creed and religion it was incumbent upon every loyal citizen of India to adopt it. The Tribune, January 3, 1948.

28. The Tribune, July 20, 1948.

29. Mahavir Tyagi, August 27, 1947, CAD, vol. V, http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/vol5p8a.htm (accessed November 3, 2010).

30. Dainik Vartaman, September 21, 1947; and Aaj, January 10, 1948.

31. Seth Govind Das speaking in the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan said that despite their pledge of loyalty to the Indian nation, Muslims had failed to establish it in concrete action. Reported by Tandon, The Tribune, January 3, 1948.

32. ‘Word to Indian Muslims’.

33. ‘Wafadari ka Sawal’.

34. ‘Musalmanon ki Wafadari’.

35. ‘Hindu Naam se Chiddh Kyun?’.

36. Reported in The Tribune, August 6, 1948.

37. The Tribune, February 20, 1950.

38. Cited in Pandey, ‘Can a Muslim be an Indian?’, 618.

39. Reported in Zulqarnain, April 12, 1948.

40. President of the Akali Dal (Nagoke group), Jathedar Udham Singh, termed the Akali Dal decision a treachery with the Sikh martyrs. Reported in The Tribune, January 18, 1950; Sardar Pratap Singh Kairon, Sikh leader of Congress, termed the Akali leaders as traitors and enemies of the Indian republic. Recounting innumerable Sikh sacrifices for the country, he appealed to the Sikh masses not to be swayed by such calls to boycott. Reported in The Tribune, January 17, 1950.

41. Reported in The Tribune, December 29, 1949.

42. B. Pocker Sahib Bahadur, August 27, 1947, CAD, vol. V, http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/vol5p8a.htm (accessed November 3, 2010).

43. Chaudhuri Khaliquzzaman, Ibid.

44. ‘Musalmanon ki Maujuda Mushkilat aur Uska Hal’ (Urdu).

45. ‘Hindustani Musalman Aur Hindustan-Begunahon ka Jurm Kabil-e-Tawajjoh’.

46. Maulana Qasim, Zulqarnain.

47. Ittehad, January 9, 1949.

48. Qasmi, ‘Musalmanon ki Maujuda Mushkilat Aur Unka Hal’.

49. ‘Ek Qaum ke liye Ek Zuban Hona Zaroori Nahin’.

50. Dainik Vartaman, August 12, 1947.

51. Government of India, Constitution (Scheduled Caste Order), 163.

52. Speech of Acharya Kripalani reported in Sunday Tribune.

53. ‘Charter for Minorities’.

54. Ibid.

55. Nehru–Liaquat Agreement on Minorities, Selected Indo-Pakistan Agreements, 8–14.

56. All India Reporter, 163.

57. DAV College, ‘Jullundur vs the State of Punjab’.

58. DAV College, ‘Bhatinda vs State of Punjab’.

59. State of UP versus Anjuman Madarsa Noorul Islam Dehra Kala and Others, in High Court of Allahabad, Special Appeal Defective No. 322 of 2007, Rd-Ah 6384, April 6, 2007.

60. T.M.A Pai Foundation vs the State of Karnataka, Writ petition no. (C) 317 of 1993, November 25, 2002.

61. Minorities, specifically the religious ones, were listed centrally in the ‘Report of the Advisory Committee on Minorities’ appointed by the Constituent Assembly. More recently, this view of a national list was strengthened with the issuance of central notification declaring Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoarastrians as minorities. GOI notification dated October 3, 1993.

62. Sahil Mittal vs the State of Punjab and Others, 8.

63. Ibid., 7.

64. ‘Bal Patil vs Union of India’.