Before we delve into the discussion of rights of minorities in India, it is appropriate to understand what defines a minority. Internationally, there is no consensus upon the definition of a minority group. The United Nations has emphasized the rights of minorities and addressed the characteristics required for a group to be recognized as a minority within a specific region or country. According to United Nations, “An ethnic, religious or linguistic minority is any group of persons which constitutes less than half of the population in the entire territory of a State whose members share common characteristics of culture, religion or language, or a combination of any of these. A person can freely belong to an ethnic, religious or linguistic minority without any requirement of citizenship, residence, official recognition or any other status.”[i]

Simply because a group is numerically smaller and forms a distinct identity does not qualify to be minority to claim the rights enshrined in the constitution. In India, though neither the Constitution nor any other statute defines the term “minority” exhaustively but the Supreme Court has had intense discussions on this subject in various cases. In the Kerala Education Bill case[ii], the Supreme Court touched upon this query but did not resolve it. The Court remarked that even if the question is answered affirmatively, that a community with less than 50 percent of the population is a minority them another question arises: “50 percent of what? The entire population of India or the population of a state forming part of the Union?” This question was left unanswered.

Interestingly, in T. M. A. Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka[iii], the Supreme Court held that since the reorganization of states in India was based on linguistic lines so minorities have to be considered state-wise. This means that if a community is smaller in numbers in a particular state or Union Territory, it is to be considered a minority. While this judgment apparently seem fine but in reality, it created more confusion. Firstly, if the reorganization of states was based on linguistic criteria, why should religious communities be decided on the same logic? Furthermore, it was crucial to address this query to protect communities that, being in the minority, might become suppressed and vulnerable. By this reason, a community without appropriate representation or share in power might be excluded from the minority definition merely because it has larger numbers in a specific state.

However, on today’s date only those communities are minorities that are notified under section 2(c) of the NCM (National Commission for Minorities) Act, 1992 and so far there are six notified minority communities, that are Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, and Jains.[iv]

Though general fundamental rights, known as rights fall under common domain, are available to every group of citizens but there are certain specific rights that fall under separate domain, are particularly enshrined to protect the minorities. Besides other rights, it is pertinent to mention even these specific rights would not be helpful had there been right to equality not a fundamental right. There are religious minority that are minority and vulnerable thus leaving such communities on their own, merely because there is equality and other rights on the paper would not be beneficial. There might be equality in getting admissions in college or University but the impediment is the difficult path to reach to that level. If State would not take affirmative action to bring such community at the door of educational institutions, even the capable members of such community would choose to stay out mainly to find bread for them and their families. The vicious cycle of poverty and illiteracy would never allow them to get empowered.

When constituent assembly deliberated on the question of minority right, it rejected the suggestion of proportional representation or reserved electorates. The advisory committee on this subject made recommendations[v], that were revised to some extent and were passed in the form of Article 29 and Article 30 of the Indian Constitution. These two articles are the heart of minority rights. It gives right to preserve their culture and language, administer and manage minority institutions and provide religious education in an institution which is managed and aided by the minority communities.

The debate of minority institution is as old as the history of the constitution itself. The idea behind a minority institution was to protect the identity and culture of the community and to impart education amongst the members of establishing community. In India, Muslim community is the most vulnerable in almost all fields. As per Sachar Committee report 25% Muslim children in the 6-14 group have either never attended school or have dropped out, Only one out of every 25 undergraduate and 50 postgraduate students in premier colleges is a Muslim. Furthermore, less than 24% of Muslim regular workers are employed in the public sector or in government jobs as compared to 39% regular SC/ST workers, 37% Hindu upper caste and 30% OBC workers[vi]. With this backwardness, least Muslim Community was required to get best out of rights enshrined in the constitution but ironically, it had to fight for more than half of the century only to prove their two premiere universities fall under the definition of the minority institution. The Jamia Millia Islamia got minority tag only in the year 2011 whereas Aligarh Muslim University, an institution admittedly built by the collective efforts of the Muslim community, though got a favourable decision in AMU vs. Naresh Agarwal[vii] but yet awaits the clarity on the subject that would be decided by a regular bench in the near future. This is not only the question of the minority status of a particular institution, here AMU, rather it is question on the implementation of the rights of minority given in the constitution.

When it comes to the debate of reservation, religious minorities are denied reservation on the ground that reservation cannot be claimed on the basis of religion then question rises, if the whole community or the majority of a religious community is under representation, illiterate and backward then what could be the ways to empower such community, if not affirmative action? Furthermore, many Muslims and Christians are converts and majority of them belonged to under privileged and suppressed castes but merely because they got converted to Islam or Christianity, they are barred from the reservation because texts of their newly adopted religion does not recognise or promote caste system or caste discrimination. This ground goes well with the texts but does not change the situation on the ground. A Dalit converted to Islam gets a new religion but does his conversion elevate his status in the society or does his new name has changed the hearts and minds of the people who discriminated him before? The answer is a sure no, then denying him reservation merely on this ground is a sheer injustice. Professor Faizan Mustafa while favouring reservation for such castes in Muslims and Christians has rightly asserted, “If such castes are denied the facilities extended to Dalits from another faith, it would be discrimination based on religion. In effect, denial of such facilities will be against the Constitution”[viii].

Minorities deserve all rights and protections not only because they are minorities, but because these rights and protections were solemnly promised to them at the commencement of the constitution. On these promises they were entrusted with their future in India. If threats continue to undermine their security and institutions it would not only fail the trust of these communities rather it would compromise the very essence of the constitution itself.

[i] https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-minority-issues/about-minorities-and-human-rights

[ii] AIR 1958 INSC 64

[iii]AIR 2002 INSC 454

[iv] https://www.minorityaffairs.gov.in/WriteReadData/RTF1984/1659697873.pdf

[v] Massey J., Minorities and Religious Freedom in a Democracy, Centre for Dalit Subalter Studies (Manohar, 2003)pp. 24

[vi] Saika Sabir, Constitutional Rights of the Minorities, Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bengaluru

[vii] 2024 SCC Online SC 3213

[viii] https://radianceweekly.net/reservation-on-the-basis-of-social-condition-not-on-religion/