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Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2025/Paper II/Ethnicity, Tribal Movements & Social Change
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper II 2025 15 Marks Model Answer Available

Linguistic and Religious Minorities in India — 2025 Paper II

Question · 2025 · Paper II · 15 Marks

Define minority. Elaborate the patterns of linguistic and religious minorities in India.

Model Answer

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Introduction

A minority is not simply any group smaller in number. Louis Wirth emphasised differential and unequal treatment, while Francesco Capotorti defined a minority as a numerically inferior, non-dominant group with distinct ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics and a sense of solidarity directed towards preserving them. The Indian Constitution does not provide one exhaustive definition; minority status is contextual.

Religious minorities: pattern and safeguards

The Central Government has notified six religious minority communities under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains.

  • Muslims are widely dispersed, with major concentrations in Lakshadweep, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, including large urban clusters.
  • Christians are strongly represented in Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Kerala, Goa and several tribal belts of the North-East and central India.
  • Sikhs are territorially concentrated in Punjab but have an extensive national diaspora.
  • Buddhists include Neo-Buddhist concentrations in Maharashtra and Himalayan traditions in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
  • Jains are a small, mainly urban and commercially dispersed community with concentrations in western and central India.
  • Parsis are a minuscule, ageing population concentrated mainly in Mumbai and parts of Gujarat.

Articles 25-28 protect religious freedom, while Articles 29-30 protect cultural and educational rights.

Linguistic minorities: relational pattern

A linguistic minority is a group whose mother tongue differs from the principal language of a State or relevant territorial unit. The Supreme Court in T. M. A. Pai Foundation treated the State as the unit for deciding minority status under Article 30. Therefore, Tamil speakers may be a majority in Tamil Nadu but a minority in Karnataka, just as Hindi speakers can be a minority in several southern and north-eastern states.

  • Border regions contain overlapping bilingual minorities - Marathi-Kannada, Assamese-Bengali, Telugu-Odia and others.
  • Migration creates Urdu, Tamil, Bengali, Nepali and Hindi-speaking minorities in cities and industrial centres.
  • Tribal languages often form very small minorities within both State and district populations and face language shift despite constitutional recognition of some languages.
  • Articles 29 and 30 protect language and educational institutions; Articles 350A and 350B provide for mother-tongue instruction at the primary stage and a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities.

Critical issues

Minority categories are internally differentiated by caste, class, gender, denomination and region. The Sachar Committee Report (2006) showed that minority protection cannot be reduced to freedom of worship: among Muslims, identity intersected with deficits in education, formal employment, credit and public representation. A community dominant in one State may be vulnerable nationally, while a dominant group within a minority may suppress a “minority within the minority.” Cultural autonomy must therefore coexist with gender equality, individual rights and equitable access to resources.

Conclusion

India’s minority pattern is territorially uneven and relational rather than fixed. Constitutional pluralism must protect language, faith and educational institutions while addressing socioeconomic deprivation and internal inequality, thereby converting diversity into equal citizenship rather than segregation.

Diagram to draw: Numerical inferiority + non-dominance + distinct identity + will to preserve -> minority; map regional concentrations and state-specific linguistic status.

Selected authentic sources: Francesco Capotorti, UN Study on Minority Rights (1979); National Commission for Minorities Act 1992 notifications; Constitution of India, Articles 25-30 and 350A-B; T. M. A. Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka (2002); Sachar Committee Report (2006); Census of India 2011.

2026 Tana Bhagat movement. 2026 Kumar Suresh Singh's contribution in studying tribal movements. 2026 Discuss the impact of Christianity on the tribal population of Jharkhand. 2025 Discuss the rising ethnic conflicts in India and propose their possible remedial measures.

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