I want to highlight a strange difference in interpretation, by our executive and judiciary, of the Rights guaranteed under our Constitution for running our temples (religious establishments) and a section of our citizenry running educational institutions. Common structure between religious establishment rights and educational rights There is considerable similarity in the way rights related to... Continue Reading →
Educational Rights for Hindu Minority Communities
This post is part 2 of a 2-part series. Read the 1st one here. Article 23 in the Draft Constitution When the Constitution was being drafted, the Rights under Articles 29 and 30 were clubbed under a common Article 23. This Article had 3 clauses. Clause 3 had 2-sub-clauses. The entire Article consisted of clause... Continue Reading →
Evolution of Minority Cultural & Educational Rights
This post will be part of a 2-post series where I aim to prove that the makers of our Constitution very much intended to provide Educational Rights to all communities, INCLUDING THOSE WITHIN THE HINDU RELIGION. The deduction of that intention will be made in the 2nd post of this series. However, in order to... Continue Reading →
Core and the Rationale Behind Equal Rights for All Institutions
This article is a response to the article titled "Jamia and the Rationale Behind Special Rights for Minority Institutions" published by The Wire on the 22nd of August 2017, in which the author has attempted to justify, with several arguments, the need for special status for minority educational institutions. A response is especially important since... Continue Reading →
SJW Laws: Designed for Misuse?
Recently, the Supreme Court of India issued some landmark directions to curb the menace of misuse of the draconian IPC 498A. It has brought in a more rigorous review process, in the form of Family Welfare Committees, to reduce the problem of false cases and consequent arrest of innocent people. Naturally, this new directive has... Continue Reading →
Temple funds for Hindu schools: Yes or No?
Background: (Only an overview provided here - not the full details of the mess 🙂 ) Temples and Charitable Institutions in Karnataka are governed by the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act 1997. This Act was challenged in the Karnataka High Court in Sri Sahasra Lingeshwara Temple, ... vs State Of Karnataka. In the year 2006, the... Continue Reading →
Benefits of Minority Tag in India
Some leaders of the Lingayat community in Karnataka have renewed their demand for their group to be considered as separate from Hindus. They want to 'move out' of the Hindu fold. This demand has been in existence from many decades and seems to have a co-relation to the recognition of non-Hindus as 'minorities' and consequent... Continue Reading →
Three Definitions of Minorities
Based on the actions taken by the State of India, three different definitions of the word "minorities" can be identified. Depending upon the purpose intended to be served, one of the three definitions is used. Here is a short introduction to the 3 types. Type 1: "Minority need to be Majority" This definition kicks in... Continue Reading →
Is the NDA denying minorities their rights?
Today, the Hindustan Times has published an article titled "How the NDA is systematically denying minorities their rights" in which the authors, owing allegiance to the Congress party, make several claims trying to prove that the Modi Government is actually denying the benefits of many of the schemes that exist for minorities. If one were... Continue Reading →
Amendment to Article 15 of the Constitution
In order to further the cause of #Core2 and #Core3, here is a proposed amendment to the Constitution of India. The PDF version is available constitutional-amendment-article-15-draft. ============================================================================ THE CONSTITUTION (ONE HUNDRED AND XXXXXX AMENDMENT) BILL, 2017 A BILL further to amend the Constitution. BE it enacted by Parliament in the Sixty-eighth Year of the Republic... Continue Reading →
