Minority Rights Protection in India; From Sachar Committee Recommendations to Mob Lynching

Abstract

Minority Rights has been a debatable issue since independence and this issue always remains in mainstream national politics. The Constitution of India does not define the word ‘Minority’ and only refers to ‘Minorities’ and speaks of those ‘based on religion or language’. According to the 2011 census, the Indian Muslim population is 172.2 million, which accounts for 14.2 percent of the country’s population. Muslims in India constitutes the largest and one of the oldest Muslim minorities in the world and account for about 10% of the world’s Muslim population. An overwhelming majority of Indian Muslims – over 90 per cent – are of native origin, whose descendants accepted Islamic faith at the hands of Sufis and the Scholars at different points of time. Indian Muslims have developed highly remarkable and wide-ranging contributions to architecture, arts and crafts, music, language and literature.