Minority rights in the constitution of India

The term minority is a well versed one in the various arenas of life and academic circle. As per oxford English dictionary, the literal meaning of minority is, “The smaller number or part, especially a number or part representing less than half of the whole.” A more detailed and living explanation for the minority can be found in the scholarly works of academicians. According to Louis Wirth, a renowned Sociologist minority group is "a group of people who, because of their physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out from the others in the society in which they live for differential and unequal treatment, and who therefore regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination.” India is a land of diversities housing large varieties of people with different culture, language, religion, caste, race, tribes, costumes, food habits, way of living, standard of living, party affiliations’ so and so. Within this diversity, when it comes to religion, Hinduism is the majority religion in India with its 79.80 % population. India also has minority religions like Islam, Christianity, Jainism, Buddhism, Parsi, Sikhism etc. This numeral difference in the strength of believers of various religions is a fertile ground for communal violence and riots. This also makes the minorities vulnerable to the attacks of the majority religion and its believers. India has an inglorious history and legacy of many communal clashes and ferocity. Partition of India is a prominent example for justifying India’s faded heritage on accounts of intolerant religious sentiments. Keeping the fresh memories of bloodshed communal riots and mutinies, the founding fathers and framers of Indian constitution were very particular and cautious to include such provisions in Indian Constitution, which can stop the communal violence and safeguard the rights of the minorities. In this context, this piece of paper of intends to throw some light on various provisions of Indian constitution that are aimed at preventing communal insurgences, protecting the minority rights and keeping up the social morals of secularism and brotherhood. This paper also intends to analyse how minorities are being treated in the Constitution of India.