Soon after it became definite that the farming of the future Constitution of India was to be entrusted to a Constituent Assembly the Working Committee of the All –India Scheduled Castes Federation asked me to prepare a Memorandum on the Safeguards for the Scheduled Castes for being submitted to the Constituent Assembly on behalf of the federation. I very gladly undertook the task. The results of my labour are contained in this brochure. The Memorandum defines Fundamental Rights, Minority Rights and Safeguards for the Scheduled Castes. Those who hold the view that the Scheduled castes are not a minority might say that in this matter I have gone beyond prescribed bounds. The view that the Scheduled Castes are not a minority is a new dispensation issues on behalf of the High and Mighty Hindu Majority which the Scheduled Castes are asked to submit. The spokemen of the Majority have not cared to definite its scope and its meaning. Anyone with a fresh and free mind, reading it as a general proposition, would be justified in saying that it is capable of double interpretation. I interprete it to mean that the Scheduled Castes are more than a minority and that any protection given to the citizens and to the minorities will not be adequate for the Scheduled Castes. In other words it means that their social, economic and educational condition is so much worse than that of the citizens and other minorities that in addition to protection they would get as citizens and as minorities the Scheduled Castes would require special safeguards against the tyranny and discrimination of majority. The other interpretation is that the scheduled Castes differ from a minority and therefore they are not entitled to the protection which can be claimed by a minority. This interpretation appears to be such unmitigated nonsense that no sane man need pay any attention to it. The Scheduled Castes must be excused if they ignore it. The Scheduled Castes are not a minority will, I am sure, agree with me that I am justified in demanding for the Scheduled castes, all the benefit of the Provisions for the Protection of the minorities and in addition special Safeguards.
State and Minorities
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Bibliographic information
Title
State and Minorities
Author
Edition
2nd ed.
Publisher
Siddharth Books, 2008
ISBN
9788190568968
Length
102p., Tables; Appendix; 23cm.
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