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RIGHT TO INFORMATION
INDIAN LEGAL SYSTEM AND MINORITIES
Submitted by Reyan khan-20214242
2BPSENGNCR
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ABSTRACT
With the rise of right wing nationalism all around the world,intolerance and persecution have
also seen a surge in all corners of the [Link] the systematic genocide of the Uyghurs in
Xinjiang,China to the institutional racism against african americans in the United States Of
[Link] we have seen backlash against varied form of oppression of those in minority
in terms of race,religion and gender we have yet to understand the deep rooted oppression of
ethnic,castial,racial and religious minorities here in [Link] dwell deep into the topic of minority
persecusion and the dividing laws which are meant for the protection but counterintuitivly
increase the gap among those in majority to those in the minority.
Minority as recognised by the government of india
are-Mulims,christians,sikhs,budhhist,zoroastrians and sikhs under section 2(c) of the national
commission of minorities (NCM) act,1992 but the term minority has not been defined in the
indian [Link] writing will discuss the reason of rise in persecution of minorities from a
historical perspective,contemporary trends,law enforced the subtle hypocrisy by the current
government in relation to the [Link] the light of the emergence of the hindu nationalist
party,BJP has been notorious of establishing said and unsaid laws that have been lawfully or
unlawfully enforced on the minorities of [Link] have been a significant number of
incidences indicating a flawed and biased justice system which if one was inlinced to list down
there would be too many to [Link] is also hurtful to point out that the biggest democracy in the
world deems criticism by the local and international community as an international propaganda
where quite ironically on many instances the government has been accused covertly and overtly
propagating hate and biases against its religious [Link] being killed over false
accusation of possession of beef to the forced chanting of religious slogans to being painted as
anti national and separatists towards the sikh community and the very recent case of harassment
of 2 nuns on a train by [Link] might have been only viewed as an imaginary dystopia a mere
decade ago it is slowly but surely converting itself to an all blown out reality
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INTRODUCTION
To set up the pedestal of the chosen topic it would be in the best interest to point towards the
drop in democracy rating conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).To have an
optimistic approach would be to ignore the elephant in the room and blame all other institutions
except for the treatment,oppression and persecution of the religious and castiel minority in india
since the ruling of the [Link] entire fiasco starts with the unclear definition of minorities in
india.
“ The Supreme Court of India in TMA Pai Foundation & Ors v. State of Karnataka & Ors (2002)
has held that for the purpose of Article 30 of the Indian Constitution, a minority—whether
linguistic or religious—is determinable with reference to a state and not by taking into
consideration the population of country as a whole.”
This is a inherent institutional problem that does not provide appropriate and just recognition of
minorities in the [Link] hence forth some religious minorities have struggled to get a
national based [Link] community of jains are such an [Link] are widely
recognised a religious minority in several [Link] jain community petitioned the Indian
Supreme court to seek a judgement for a parallel recognition at a national [Link] plea was
endorsed by National Commission for minorities in India however they were left with an unclear
decision.A very real and threatening situation looms around and it was rightly expressed by
human rights watch organisation to point out the following observation;
“The government passed a citizenship law in December 2019 that discriminates against Muslims,
making religion the basis for citizenship for the first time. In August 2019, the government also
revoked the constitutional autonomy granted to the only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and
Kashmir, and imposed restrictions in violation of people’s basic rights. Since October 2018,
Indian authorities have threatened to deport Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar despite the
risks to their lives and security, and have already repatriated over a dozen. States use laws against
cow slaughter to prosecute Muslim cattle traders even as BJP-affiliated groups attack Muslims
and Dalits on rumors that they killed or traded cows for beef. Most recently, three BJP-ruled
states have passed an anti-conversion law, which in practice is used against Muslim men who
marry Hindu women.”
In recent times a lot of controversial religious bills have been passed by the government that
have been questioned by critics the important ones which will be covered are the;
-MISLEADING FREEDOM OF RELIGION ACTS–CONVERSION AND RECONVERSION
-FOREIGN CONTRIBUTION REGULATION ACT
-ARTICLE 48: PROTECTION OF COWS LEGISLATION
-CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS AGAINST UNTOUCHABILITY AND STATUS OF THE
DALITS
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INDIAN LAW AND MINORITIES
India despite of what ordeals have been taken up in the past decade the indian constitution calls
for a definite and ardent stand in providing safety for its [Link] of the laws that are
prominent mentioned in the indian constitution are-
Under the Constitution of India, there are various provisions to safeguard the rights of
minorities.[7] Preamble of the Constitution declares India to be a secular state.[8] Article 15
prohibits any sort of discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, caste, sex, descent, place of
birth or residence.[9] Article 16 also prohibits any sort of discrimination when it comes to public
employment, on the basis of religion, caste, language, race and so on.[10] This guarantees equal
employment opportunities to all the Indian citizens in case of government offices.
“The right to profess, practice and propagate any religion has been guaranteed to every person as
a fundamental right under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution. This article allows the minority
communities to follow their beliefs and practices without any hindrance as long as it does not
hamper public order, morality and health of any person.[11] But the State can regulate the secular
activities related to religious practices such as financial, political, economic activities.[12]
Article 26 gives the freedom to the religious denominations or any such sections to manage their
own religious affairs including managing institutions for religious and charitable purposes;
owning, acquiring and administering movable and immovable property.[13] Again, this right is
subject to public order, morality and health. Article 27 prohibits any compulsion on citizens to
pay taxes, proceeds of which are to be appropriated in promotion of any particular religion.[14]
Article 28 prohibits state funded educational institutions from providing religious instructions
unless there is a requirement in the terms of the endowment or trust, by which the institution has
been established, regarding imparting such religious instruction.[15] It also gives the person
attending any educational institution the right to not participate in any religious instruction
imparted by the institute.[16]
Article 29 of the Constitution provides the citizens with the right to conserve their language,
script and culture; as well as guarantees that they would not be denied admission into any
educational institution based on their race, language, religion or caste.[17] This right is provided
to any section of the society, whether it has been recognised as a minority by the State or not.[18]
Article 30 is pivotal to the protection of minority rights in India. It provides the minorities the
right to establish and administer educational institutions and the State has been prohibited from
any discrimination in matters of granting aids to such institutions.[19] But these educational
institutions can be regulated by the State. Although this article uses the term “minorities”, it has
not been given any definition by the Indian Constitution. The judiciary has tried to dwell upon
this matter in various cases.”
Even when these privileges are given there are many instances of obstruction of law in order to
harm the minorities such new formulated laws are misleading of freedom of religion acts which
are conversion or anti conversion laws seven states within the northern belt of india have adopted
this [Link] laws were intended to prevent forced conversion from one religion to another
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however it has resulted in the inadequate practices for oppressing minority to a point where
every conversion made is scrutinised through the lens of suspicion and [Link] a new
question arises as to the point that is right to freedom of conversion included in the freedom of
religion?as bought by Article 25 of the constitution.
“The Judgment in the case of Digyadarsan Rajendra Ramdassji v. State of Andhra
Pradesh(1969), the apex court decided that “the right to propagate one’s religion means the right
to communicate a person’s beliefs to another person or to expose the tenets of that faith, but
would not include the right to ‘convert another person to the former’s faith.”
“In another case of Rev. Stainislaus v. State of Madhya Pradesh (1977), the Supreme Court of
India decided,What Article 25 (1) grants is not the right to convert another person to one’s own
religion by an exposition of its tenets. It has to be remembered that Article 25 (1) guarantees
“freedom of conscience” to every citizen, and not merely to the followers of one particular
religion,and that, in turn, postulates that there is no fundamental right to convert another person
to one’s own religion because if a person purposely undertakes the conversion of another person
to his religion, as distinguished [Link] effort to transmit or spread the tenets of his religion,
that would impinge on the “freedom of conscience” guaranteed to all the citizens of the country
alike.”
Another controversial case that is often a session of debate is the ARTICLE 48:PROTECTION
OF COWS LEGISLATION”.While understanding and harmony should pursue in the country by
trying our best not to hurt the sentiments of our fellow indians the contemporary twist in these
laws are mixed with anti minority sentiments where law enforcement does not step up but the
law is taken into the hands of civilians which tragically has resulted in a number of death across
the muslim [Link] examples of Muslim persecution through the politics of cow
protection is the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq by Hindu mobs in September 2015. Mr. Akhlaq,
age 50,was dragged from his home in the village of Bisara 45 miles from the capital of
Delhi—and beaten to death by angry Hindu mob due to rumors that his family had been eating
beef and storing the meat in their [Link] Rana, son of a local BJP leader, and his cousin
Shivam are accused of leading the mob to Mr. Akhlaq’s house and assaulting the family.
COMPARISON/GAP
Although researching about this topic i was skeptical as to there ought not be as much
dissonance between the indian laws and minority rights however it has dawned upon that there
needs to be a more elaborate justice enforcement system,The term of minorities is not as
optimised and clear cut as it was perceived to [Link] was bewildering to realise there has been
sanctions on NGOs working for the betterment of minorities in [Link] is more an intense
and truffling atmosphere around the attitude towards minorities than ever before and we ought to
ease the aura of suspicion and cynicism towards minorities.
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SUMMARY
To say that indian laws are formulated attempt at harassing the minority would be wrong
however the underbelly of these laws might be used to aim towards oppression of minorities,a
clear example of this is the recently passed farmers bill which will have a direct effect on the
mostly sikh demographic that produces most of india's produce,this protest which has interests in
the livelihood of farmers was branded as a seperatist movement and the protest for
discrimination of muslims on CAA bill was seen as anti national,It is come to be understood that
there is a severe conflict of interests among the different groups within india and that a sense of
majoritarian superiority is [Link] is very common that with the rise of nationalism there is a rise
in prosecution among minorities but is the law really in favour of it?The conclusion draws there
needs to be several reforms optimising the pre existing laws,a debate with mutual understanding
of different groups and better enforcement of justice carried out by law enforcement.
REFERENCES
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