Minority Claims and Majoritarian Anxieties: The Case of the Jains

<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences </strong> <strong>CSSS Colloquium</strong> <strong>Dr. Manisha Sethi </strong> (Jamia Millia Islamia) a talk on <strong>Minority Claims and Majoritarian Anxieties: The Case of the Jains</strong> Date : <strong>April 23, 2015</strong> <strong>Abstract:</strong> This paper explores the judicial and legislative response to the claims for minority status by the Jains. Article 25, Explanation II included Jains (and Buddhists and Sikhs) under the 'broad' rubric of Hinduism stating, "In sub-clause (b) of clause (2), the reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jains or Buddhist religion, and the reference to the Hindu religious institutions shall be construed accordingly."Colonial courts had on the whole established that Jains would be treated as Hindu dissenters subject to demonstration of contrary customs. Though, in post-colonial India, personal laws receded into the shadows and other pressing questions such as tax law, the management of temples, trusts and educational institutes came into play, many of the earlier themes continued to have resonance. Jains were not the only community approaching the courts seeking redress, entitlements, benefits due to minorities, asking the courts to clarify the term minority community and its application. From the early years since Independence, one can see hectic jostling for ensuring that the rights enshrined in Articles 29 and 30 were not frittered away. The litigation by Jains needs to be placed in this stream. We can identify three broad questions posed before the courts: first, whether Jains were Hindus; second, whether Jains constituted a minority; and lastly, what was the nature of special rights enjoyed by minorities. Closely related to this was the issue of rights enjoyed by "individual citizen" as opposed to rights granted to community or "class of citizens". The courts come across as polyphonic, at times granting the Jains the benefits of minority status, at others denying it. However, the process shows that the wresting of rights was often tortuous – commitment to minority rights notwithstanding – with both the State and courts viewing minority rights with suspicion and detrimental to "national unity". Moreover, the Jain demand for minority status created anxiety about the fragmentation of Hindu society, amongst certain political groups, as also occasionally for the courts. <strong>Bio-Data: </strong>Manisha Sethi teaches at the Centre for the Study of Comparative Religions, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She writes on issues of gender, religion, communalism, law and terrorism. Her books include Escaping the World: Women renouncers among Jains (Routledge, 2012) and Kafkaland: Prejudice, Law and Counterterrorism in India (Three Essays Collective, 2014). Sethi was a Fellow at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in 2013-2014. She works with the civil rights group, Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Association.