Group Representation and Reservations for Minorities in Colonial India

Abstract

Representation is recognized as integral to the study of the legislature today. However, no attention has been given to how different minority representations became possible in India and what this difference tells us about the relationship between the minorities and the colonial state. Although the study of the relationship between the Indian National Congress, religious minorities, their organizations, and the colonial state is well established, some aspects of their representation under colonial rule haves thus far been less focused. This chapter seeks to correct this omission by tracing the development of group representation policies in colonial India as central to the production of religious differences between Hindus and Muslims in British India. The approach followed is that of claim-making which offers another way to think about representation and identity. Considering representation as a type of performance prevents it from being seen as a passive process between representative and represented. Today, the meanings attached to reservation policy through their historical association with the colonial structure of political representation are responsible for disempowering various groups like religious minorities asking for reservations. The objective of this article is to view debates on parliamentary representation for minorities up to the 1940s. A policy of reservations was implemented under British colonial rule in response to demands from various communities that members be given equal opportunities in the political institutions of the colonial state. The paper will focus on the various perspectives towards religious minorities, notably Muslim minorities, taken by colonial officials and how these perceptions changed over time. On the one hand, there existed no clear-cut or systematic British policy towards minorities during most of the colonial period; colonial administrators did not consider Islam an independent category when they formulated their colonial policies. They only implemented policies that were found suitable for their administration. This chapter reviews how colonial rule affected the design of policies and institutional settings for the subsequent inclusion of disadvantaged groups in India. Although they were competing notions of representation, representation for minorities and depressed classes became primarily descriptive rather than delegate-based or trustee-based. By looking at these rules and the nature of demands regarding the relationship between different minorities, the chapter demonstrates that the Indian political system that emerged following independence was strongly inspired by some of the developments of the colonial era. Yet many differences exist as the postcolonial state presented different justifications while limiting the beneficiaries of the reservation policy.RepresentationStateInclusionDifferencesMinoritiesDepressed classesColonialismReservationsDescriptive representationConstitutionalismDalits