October  2004 
Year 11    No.102

Dalit Drishti


Righting the balance

The government’s decision to appoint a National Commission for Minorities Welfare to identify socially and economically backward religious and linguistic minorities for stipulated reservations aims to correct inherent discrepancies in the presidential order of 1950

BY AK SAHAI

Article 341 (1) of the Constitution of India states – "The President after consultation with the Governor of a State or Union Territory, by public notification, specify the castes, races, or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races or tribes which shall for the purpose of this Constitution be deemed to be Scheduled Castes in relation to that State or Union Territory as the case may be."

Acting under the provisions of Article 341 (1), the President issued a notification in 1950 listing low-caste Hindus and Sikhs as scheduled castes. Such Hindus and Sikhs were entitled to reservations in government educational institutions and to government jobs.

The presidential order was discriminatory on two counts. First, the presidential order included only the Hindus and Sikhs and not the backward classes among Muslims, Christians and Buddhists; and second, the presidential order stated that if any person belonging to a scheduled caste chose to convert to any other religion, he or she would loose their scheduled caste status and consequently, its related benefits.

Thus when Dr. BR Ambedkar converted to Buddhism in 1956 along with two million members of the scheduled castes, they lost their SC status and its related benefits. A plea was made that on conversion to Buddhism their social and economic status would not change. However, it was only after Mr. VP Singh became Prime Minister that an amendment to the presidential order of 1950 was made in 1990, which gave the same benefits to these Buddhists who had converted from scheduled caste Hindus. They were called Neo-Buddhists. However, people of scheduled castes converting to any other religion remained ineligible for SC status and its related benefits.

A few years later, with the support of Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, the then railway minister, and Dalit Christian leaders, especially Bishop VM Concessao, the central government submitted a Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Amendment Ordinance 1996, which was to extend reservations to Dalit Christians. Mr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, the then President, returned the ordinance saying that the promulgation of such an ordinance on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections would not pass the test of constitutional propriety.

Similar demands have been made by Muslims as well. Keeping in mind that most Muslims and Christians in India have converted from low caste Hindus, denying them the benefits of scheduled castes was unjustified.

Almost every political party has granted or promised to grant reservations to various religious groups, castes and sub-castes in order to get their votes. The advantages to reservation are so great that almost everyone wants to be a scheduled caste, including Brahmins and Rajputs! The presidential order of 1950 disallowing scheduled caste status to members of the scheduled castes who had converted to another religion was presumably implemented to prevent low caste Hindus and Sikhs from converting to Islam, Buddhism or Christianity. Former Prime Minister Mr. PV Narasimha Rao is supposed to have stated privately to Mr. NKP Salve – a Christian – that the day reservations were granted to Christians, millions of scheduled castes in his own home state of Andhra Pradesh would convert to Christianity!

Whether his apprehensions were justified or not will soon be known, now that the UPA government has approved the formation of a National Commission for Minorities Welfare to determine the socially and economically backward among religious and linguistic minorities in order to grant them reservations in educational institutions and jobs in the government within the existing 50% ceiling stipulated by the Supreme Court. The presidential order of 1950 thus stands corrected by the UPA government’s recent move.

(WgCdr. AK Sahai, retd., is general secretary, All India Minorities Forum). 


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