Let EG be a stable principal G–bundle over a compact connected Kähler manifold, where G is a connected reductive linear algebraic group defined over ℂ. Let H ⊂ G be a complex reductive subgroup which is not necessarily connected, and let EH ⊂ EG be a holomorphic reduction of structure group to H. We prove that EH is preserved by the Einstein–Hermitian connection on EG. Using this we show that if EH is a minimal reductive reduction (which means that there is no complex reductive proper subgroup of H to which EH admits a holomorphic reduction of structure group), then EH is unique in the following sense: For any other minimal reduction of structure group (H′, EH′) of EG to some reductive subgroup H′, there is some element g ∈ G such that H′ = g-1Hg and EH′ = EHg. As an application, we show the following: Let M be a simply connected, irreducible smooth complex projective variety of dimension n such that the Picard number of M is one. If the canonical line bundle KM is ample, then the algebraic holonomy of the holomorphic tangent bundle T1, 0M is GL (n, ℂ). If [Formula: see text] is ample, the rank of the Picard group of M is one, the biholomorphic automorphism group of M is finite, and M admits a Kähler–Einstein metric, then the algebraic holonomy of T1, 0M is GL (n, ℂ). These answer some questions posed in V. Balaji and J. Kollár, Publ. Res. Inst. Math. Sci.44 (2008) 183–211.