A\nspecial feature of the political life in India under the British was the\nexistence of communal electorates. Nationalist opinion was always opposed to\nit. Yet it continued and in course of time, it established a pattern of\ncommunal politics unknown in any other country. According to this, almost every\nreligious minority in India, the Muslims, the Sikhs, the Indian Christians and\nothers, had a certain number of seats reserved for them in the legislatures.\nThis privilege was extended to the Anglo-Indians and the Europeans also. Under\nthe Government of India Act of 1935, the Scheduled Castes were also to be\ntreated as a separate community and given separate representation. But the\nhistoric fast of Gandhiji at Poona (now Pune) in 1933 prevented it and the Scheduled\nCastes were given reservation in constituencies based upon joint electorates\nwith other Hindus. In 1947, when India became independent, this was the\nsituation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although\nthe country was divided into India and Pakistan on the religious basis, the\npartition of the country did not by itself solve the problem of religious\nminorities. Pakistan became a Muslim State, but all the Muslims of undivided\nIndia did not migrate to that State. Some forty million Muslims still remained\nin India. Besides, there were large groups of other religious minorities such\nas Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Parsees and others. The Scheduled Castes and\nScheduled Tribes were still treated on a par with other religious minorities\ndeserving special consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When\nthe Constituent Assembly took up this question in 1947, there was nothing\nfundamentally different from the old ideas on the subject. The Assembly formed\na Committee, the Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights and Minorities, with\nSardar Vallabhbhai Patel as its Chairman. The Committee was asked to study the\ndifferent aspects of the problem and make recommendations to the Assembly so\nthat these recommendations could be given due recognition in the provisions of\nthe new Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\ndecision of the Constituent Assembly arising out of the discussions on the\nrecommendations of the Advisory Committee opened a new trend in Indian\npolitics. The main features of this new trend were :
\n(1) abolition of separate electorates, (2) abolition of reservation of seats in\nthe legislatures, and (3) abolition of separate safeguards to minorities. The\nonly exceptions made were with regard to the three communities, Scheduled\nCastes, Scheduled Tribes and Anglo-Indians, each of which had a special case.\nBut even in these cases, the special provisions were to exist only for a\nlimited period of ten years from the commencement of the Constitution. These\nprovisions are embodied in a separate Part (Part XVI) of the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nScheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been specified by 15 Presidential\nOrders issued under the provisions of Articles 341 and 342 of the Constitution.\nAccording to the 2011 Census, about 25.2 percent of the country\u2019s population\ncomprised the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In addition, some State\nGovernments have also specified other categories of people known as \u201cOther\nBackward Classes\u201d and denotified nomadic and semi-nomadic communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According\nto the 2001 Census, there were over 25 crore Scheduled Caste and Scheduled\nTribe people who were entitled to benefits provided under the special\nprovisions of the Constitution. According to the 2011 Census data, the\nScheduled Castes alone numbered some 20.14 crore. They are divided into several\ngroups and are spread all over the country. The Scheduled Tribes numbered around\n10 and a half crore. Most of them were in the States of Madhya Pradesh (15.3\nmillion), Maharashtra (10.5 million), Odisha (9.5 million), Rajasthan (9.2\nmillion), Gujarat (8.9 million), Jharkhand (8.6 million), Andhra Pradesh (5.9\nmillion) and West Bengal (5.2 million). The Backward Classes, which include the\nex-criminal tribes, have not been precisely defined yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Constitutional\nSafeguards<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nConstitution prescribes protection and safeguards for the Scheduled Castes and\nScheduled Tribes, and other weaker sections either specially or by way of\ninsisting on their general rights as citizens with the objective of promoting\ntheir educational and economic interests and removing the social disabilities.\nThe main safeguards are :<\/p>\n\n\n\n (1)\nAbolition of \u2018untouchability\u2019 and forbidding of its practice in any form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (2)\nPromotion of their educational and economic interests and their protection from\nsocial injustice and all forms of exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (3)\nThrowing open Hindu religious institutions to all classes and sections of\nHindus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (4)\nRemoval of any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to\naccess to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment\nor the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort\nmaintained wholly or partially out of State funds or dedicated to the use of\nthe general public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (5)\nCurtailment by law, in the interest of any Scheduled Tribe, of the general\nrights of all citizens to move freely, settle in and acquire property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (6)\nForbidding of any denial of admission to educational institutions maintained by\nthe States or receiving aid out of State funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (7)\nPermitting the States to make reservation for the Backward Classes in public\nservices in case of inadequate representations and requiring the State to\nconsider the claims of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in making of\nappointments to public services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (8)\nSpecial representation in the House of the People and the State Legislative\nAssemblies to Scheduled Castes A special feature of the political life in India under the British was the existence of communal electorates. Nationalist opinion was always opposed to it. Yet it continued and in course of time, it established a pattern of communal politics unknown in any other country. According to this, almost every religious minority in India, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":618,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions\/618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nand Scheduled Tribes.\n\n(9) Setting up of Tribal Advisory Councils and separate departments in\nthe States and the appointment of a special officer at the Centre to promote\ntheir welfare and safeguard their interests.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"