\n\n<\/span>Problems of Religious Minorities in India<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n- In spite of the provisions of the constitutional equality, religious minorities in India often experience some problems among which the following may be noted.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Prejudice and Discrimination: Prejudice and discrimination are found in any situation of hostility between racial and ethnic groups and divergent religious communities.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Prejudice refers to a \u2018prejudged\u2019 attitude towards members of another group.These groups are regarded with hostility simply because they belong to a particular group, and they are assumed to have the undesirable qualities that are supposed to be characteristic of the group as a whole.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Discrimination, on the other hand refers to an action against other people on the grounds of their group membership. It involves the refusal to grant members of another group the opportunities that would be granted to similarly qualified members of one\u2019s group.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Speaking in the Indian context, discrimination especially in providing opportunities to people of different communities is, not at all in practice.The Preamble of the Constitution itself declares that all people irrespective of their caste, class, colour, creed sex, region or religion will be provided with equal rights and opportunities. Articles 15 (I) and 15(2) prohibit discrimination on grounds of religion.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Article 25 promises the right to profess, propagate and practice religion. It is clear that there is no legal bar for any religious community in India to make use of the opportunities [educational economic, etc.] extended to the people. It is true that some religious communities [for example, Muslims] have not able to avail themselves of the opportunities on par with other communities. This situation does not reflect any discrimination. It only reveals that such communities are lagging behind in the competitive race.<\/span><\/li>\n
- As far as prejudices are concerned prejudices and stereotyped thinking are common features of a complex society. India is not an exception to this. Commonly used statements such as \u201cHindus are cowards and Muslims are rowdies and Christians are converters\u201d, etc., reflect the prevalent religious prejudices.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Common people who are gullible in nature never bother to find out the truth behind these statements, but are simply carried away by them. Such prejudices further widen the social distance among the religious communities.This problem still persists in India.<\/span><\/li>\n
- In general Lack of distributive justice, differential accessibility to resources and cultural differences have been considered the main causes of inter-religious (minority) problems.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<\/span>Muslim<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n- Economic Disparity:<\/strong>\u00a0Leads to owner disparity like educational attitudinal and cultural disparities. During the period of industrial growth, the symbol of economic progress was the growth of cotton mills. In India cotton mills increased from 74 to 206 between 1883 and 1904 of all these only one mill owner was a Muslim, the rest were Hindus, Parsis, Englishmen.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Least Beneficiaries of Post Independence Industries:<\/strong>\u00a0Their upper class depended upon feudal mode of production and after independence became weaker and weaker as the Indian Bourgeoisie emerged stronger. Both in UP and AP where the Muslim feudal classes were strong, they faced economic ruination with abolition of Nizam\u2019s estate on the one hand and on the other, change in mode of production.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Personal Law :<\/strong>\u00a0Indian Muslims have deep distrust of those who try to tamper with it Art 44 of Indian constitution (common civil Code) reads, \u201cThe State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.\u201d While Muslim leadership considers the state\u2019s non-interference in the community\u2019s personal law as the touchstone of Indian secularism. All India Muslim Political Convention passed a resolution in Dec 1970. The Parliament had no right to interfere in the personal law-based on Quran and Sunnat<\/span><\/li>\n
- Urdu Language :\u00a0<\/strong>Increasing neglect Urdu is not even a second regional language. Further, Muslims argue that a mere legal recognition without adequate educational facilities for its speakers would create. a dilemma. It\u2019s largely associated with one particular religion of India, Islam.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Counter-argument:<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n- Everyone knows that people speak the language of the particular area in which they live. It has nothing to do with religion. The Bengali Muslim speaks Bengali, the Madrasi Muslim speaks Tamil Sindhi Muslim speaks Sindhi.<\/span><\/li>\n
- No special effort have been made to fulfil the needs of education and ranking of the major portion of Muslim population which belongs to the lower strata of society.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Muslims complain that in the text-books an over weightage is given to the Hindu mythological cultural and historical features.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<\/span>Sikhs<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\nPolitical Problem : Almost monopoly, the ideal of secularism was in saddle. The question was \u201cHow could the Sikhs retain their distinct and separate identity in a state nominally pledged to secularism but in actual practice increasingly Hindu?\u201d<\/span>
\nSikhs formed three important concessions for their constituency :<\/mark><\/strong><\/span>
\n(a) Service formula, (b) the Parity formula, (c) The Sachar formula<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Established numerical proportions of Hindus and Sikhs in the bureaucracy of the Punjab Govt<\/span><\/li>\n
- Number of Sikhs and Hindus in the ministry would be equaL<\/span><\/li>\n
- Provides details for the teaching of Punjabi and Hindi in different areas of the Punjab.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
After Akali Dal had won three post independence elections within the then felt he had sufficient support to demand Punjabi Sabha or a Separate State or Linguistic basis.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>Christian<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n- A number of UP villages the economic status of Christians declined after their cooperative failed (United Church of North Indian Survey, 1968).<\/span><\/li>\n
- A Lucknow study showed, after independence, Christians of that city had the lowest per capita income of the ten communities.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Christian leaders report that the proportion of govt workers from the Christian community in civil service jobs is actually less than 2% of their population.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<\/span>Parsis\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\nThe real problem confronting the community is not political but demographic- one of the steadily declining numbers. In 1981census it was recorded that there was a decline of 20,000 in 10 years..<\/span><\/p>\nPossible reasons :<\/span><\/h3>\nInbreeding, reduction of fertility rate, late marriages, and out of community marriages. Moreover, The Marwaris in Assam, Bengal and Bihar are a minority, but they control trade and business in these states. They are treated as \u2018outsiders\u2019 and \u2018exploiters\u2019, \u2018Sons of the Soil\u2019 movement have been reported in Assam, Bengal Orissa and Karnataka, and subsequently Marwaris were looted, killed in Bolengir (Orissa). One of<\/span>
\nserious implications of these movements is that people can not move freely from one state or region to other state or regions.<\/span><\/p>\nOther Common Problems of Minorities<\/span><\/h4>\n\n- Problem of Preserving distinct Social and Cultural Life:<\/span><\/li>\n
- Problem of Providing Protection :<\/span><\/li>\n
- Problem of Communal Tensions and Riots:<\/span><\/li>\n
- Problems related to language:<\/span><\/li>\n
- Problems related to religion:<\/span><\/li>\n
- Problems related to family and marriage.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Problems related to general life.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Problems of anomy.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
A Fact File of Minorities<\/span><\/h4>\n\n- Majority of Muslims live in the cities and almost all Jains live in cities, whereas the Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians live in village and towns.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The rate of procreation is the highest among the Muslims followed by Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Christians in the same order. Christians have the lowest rate of reproduction.<\/span><\/li>\n
- A demographic study of the minorities shows that the ratio of women is less than men in almost all the religious communities, except Christians where the women are more than men. This ratio is the lowest among the Sikhs.<\/span><\/li>\n
- All the main minorities try to retain their identity. Each one of them has a particular way of worship, and different customs and traditions.This diversity is visible in their day-to-day practical lives.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The religious diversity and plurality of Indian society has been creating situation of conflict from time to time. It is one of the main problems in the present times as well and communal riots fundamentalism and separatist tendencies are shaking the foundations of the Indian society.<\/span><\/li>\n
- After Independence India has been acknowledged as a secular state. The Constitution clearly states that all religions are equal and the followers of each religion have equal rights. No citizen of India shall be discriminated against on the basis of religions, caste, race or gender.<\/span><\/li>\n
- On the practical level the government has not been able to keep aloof from various religious matters and conflicts.Some leaders of religious communities have openly declared that their religion is comprehensive and includes the social religious and political aspects in its fold.Thus, they cannot keep politics out of it.<\/span><\/li>\n
- According to\u00a0K.L. Sharma<\/strong>\u00a0the literacy rate among the Parsis, Jains, Jews and Christians is higher than others. With the exception of the Christians all of them are involved in trade and business.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
In spite of all these diversities there is an underlying unity in the Indian society. In fact, religion has been our greatest treasure.The differences are linguistic and superficial. A deeper study of religions reveals the underlying oneness in them.As a matter of fact, the declaration of secularism is an acceptance of that intrinsic universality of all religions, especially of the Indian origin.The need of the hour is to realize the religiousness of all religions more than the outer layer of rituals and traditions, as spirituality, which is the predominant feature of Indian society, is above religions and communities.<\/span><\/p>\nThere are so many examples in the Indian history related to minority communities who have made their significant contributions in the field of social cultural and political development. During the freedom movement minority groups were very active in their participation. Some of the examples of their participation are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Politically they have occupied the posts ranging from the President of the world\u2019s largest democracy to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Punjab, land of Sikhs, is the foremost producer of wheat as well as rice and they have made Green Revolution a great success.<\/span><\/li>\n
- In the field of cultural activities minorities have made their significant contributions. Urdu language is an excellent example of cultural tradition of Hinduism and Islam.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Many Muslims, Christians and the members of other minorities have also made their remarkable contribution to literature in other Indian languages. They have also contributed to classical music, dance and films etc.<\/span><\/li>\n
- By the efforts of minority communities, science, journalism and sports have become richer in India.<\/span><\/li>\n
- In the industrialization of the country, Parsis have played their splendid roles.<\/span><\/li>\n
- In this way, minority communities have made their best in promoting national integrity and co operations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Minorities and Marginalisation<\/span><\/h4>\n\n |
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