Minority Claims and Majoritarian Anxieties

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) held a seminar recently. Dr. Manisha Sethi presented her paper exploring the demands of the Jains for a minority status. The title of the paper was ‘Minority Claims and Majoritarian Anxieties: The Jain Question’. Dr. Manisha Sethi presented numerous facets of the Jains and the history related to the community.

Dr. Manisha Sethi answering a question

The paper explores the judicial and legislative response to the claims for the minority status by the Jains. She started by saying that when the Constitution was drafted, Article 25, Explanation II included Jains (and Buddhists and Sikhs) under the broad rubric of Hinduism stating, “In sub-clause (b) of clause (2), the reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jains or Buddhist religion, and the reference to the Hindu religious institutions shall be construed accordingly.” After reading this, the Jain representatives met Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and other senior cabinet ministers to submit a petition challenging this anomaly in early 1950s.

Dr. Manisha Sethi with his lecture

In response to Jain suspicions, the drafter of the Constitution cleaved the definition of a Hindu i.e. Hindu by faith and Hindu by law. A letter to the Jain leaders were sent and read as follows: ‘The article 25 merely makes a definition. This definition enforces a specific constitutional arrangement. Likewise you will note that this mentions not only of Jains but also Buddhist and Sikhs. It is clear that the Buddhists are not Hindus and therefore there need be no apprehension that the Jains are segregated as Hindus. There is no doubt that the Jains are a different religious community and this accepted position is in no way affected by the constitution.”

Mr. Anil Nauriya, the chair of the lecture

Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar dismissed reservations of the Hindu court bill by the argument that the peculiarity of the Hindu religion is that it is one religion that has got a legal framework integrally associated with it. In this country all the religions changed but the law remained the same. The Jain asks the question if they will be forced to be Hindus. The Same question is asked by the Sikhs and the Buddhists. Dr. Ambedkar expressed his helplessness by saying that we have been following the single law system and it is too late to for anyone to reject this system. That cannot be done.

The speaker and the chair commenting on the lecture

From the early years since Independence, one can see hectic jostling for ensuring that the rights enshrined in Article 29 and 30 were not frittered away. There were basically three pertinent questions that needed to be dealt with: first, whether Jains were Hindus; second, whether Jains constituted a minority; and lastly, what was the nature of special rights enjoyed by minorities. The courts have at times granted the Jains the benefits of the minority status, at others denying it. Also, the Jain demand for minority status leads to some anxieties in certain sections about the fragmentation of the Hindu society.