This article is written by Divya of 1st semester from NLU, Vizag.
Everyday we hear about never- ending debate about “reservation” to minorities in educational institutions from our elders and now as we are in universities, it has become a point of argument for us too. But before going there we even don’t understand what the term Minority actually mean and jump on our conclusions supporting it or going against it. Another point which I have been thinking about is culture, we all heard on various occasions that India is culturally diverse but what comes in it and how are we rich in this aspect from others. So with this in my mind we would find what are these and rights given to us by grundnorm i.e. Constitution.
Article 29 and Article 30 of our constitution talks about cultural and educational rights given to Indian citizen. The complex nature of India gave rise to both these Articles. Article 29 of the Constitution gives protection to minorities and culture .
MINORITY
There is no official definition for minority group by the government. Under Article 29(1), it safeguards the rights of minority communities and states that anyone with” a distinct language, script, or culture of its own” has the right to conserve it. Article 30 tells us about two types of minority communities – Linguistic and Religious. But later in some cases courts rely on other factors such as economic welfare to decide whether the community is minority or not. In India , Hindus are religiously in majority but in some north-eastern states they are in minority, lesser in number and other communities are in majority which are otherwise a minority overall. To back these communities and maintain their identity we have some provisions in our Constitution.
ARTICLE 29
It was promulgated on 26th April,1975 under Fundamental Rights and it is given to only those who are citizens and reside within the territory of India.
Article 29(1)Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.
Article 29(2) provides citizen with “admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race , caste, language or any of them.”
According to Supreme Court, the scope of Article is not just restricted to minorities but to ‘section of citizens’ which includes both majority and minority.
S.P. MITTAL V. UNION OF INDIA (1983)
In this instance, Sri Aurobindo was not only a superb administrator and academician but also involved in political action. Later, he abandoned everything to live a life of meditation in Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu. There he met Madam M. Alfassa, later known as Mother, who would go on to become his disciple.
In order to spread and put into practise Sri Aurobindo’s principles and beliefs, his disciples and the Mother later founded The Sri Aurobindo Society.
The Mother, the organization’s founding president, created the municipality of Auroville as a place where people might gather and engage in a variety of activities.
In the future, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
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