Who is a minority?

There are Minority Commissions at the national level and in States where only Muslims and Christians are in minority, but not where the Hindus are a minority. This is an invidious discrimination against the Hindus

In Kerala, the Hindu population will very soon fall below 50%. Would they still be called the majority? There are Minority Commissions at the national level and in States where only Muslims and Christians are minority, but not where the Hindus are a minority. This is an invidious discrimination against the Hindus.

In fact, the Hindu society itself is a conglomeration of over 4,000 castes, each one of which is a miniscule minority compared to Christians or Muslims. Just consider this. Great Britain was the ruling power in India. In that capacity, it divided India on the basis of religion to create Pakistan where Muslims are majority. The India Independence Act 1947 gave freedom to the more than 500 Princes, Maharajas and Nawabs in India to accede to Pakistan or to India or to be independent.

Suppose Hari Singh , the Maharaja of J&K, chose to be independent and then trifurcated the State to reflect the religious composition and thereafter he ceded /acceded the Muslim majority Kashmir Valley and Gilgit and Baltistan to Pakistan and Hindu majority Jammu and Buddhist majority Ladakh to India. That was perfectly legal. It is unfortunate that no such suggestion was ever put forward to him.

Communist writers like G K Reddy, Editor of Kashmir Gazette, and Premnath Bajaj, the President of the Communist-controlled Workers and Peasants Party in J&K, also advocated the accession of the entire J&K State to Pakistan. Communists had supported Md Ali Jinnah’s demand for creation of Pakistan, taking cue from Stalin’s thesis about “self-determination for nationalities.” Even today the Communists would very much wish that the Muslim majority Kashmir should go to Pakistan.

There is now a “Communist Party of United States of India” based in Telangana. This is one of the Stalinist Communist parties in India. If the BJP-PDP coalition government collapses in J&K, President‘s rule should be introduced in J&K. Then the final settlement of the Kashmir issue need not stop with trifurcation of the State as suggested by the author (Dr T H Chowdary- June 2015- South Asia Politics).

Along with Article 370, Article 30 and every other Article which mentions minorities should be deleted and rights and privileges given to “minorities” should be given to majority also. The word ‘minority’ should be anathema in any open democratic society. (The writer is Director of the Center for Telecom Management & Studies, Chairman of Pragna Bharati, Andhra Pradesh and a Fellow of Tata Consultancy Services. He was a former IT Advisor, Andhra Pradesh)

By Dr T H Chowdary