MINORITIES IN INDIA

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS & ACTUAL GOVERNANCE

Abstract

Justice Frankfuter said: "Democracy is always beckoning goal, not a safe harbour. For freedom is an unremitting endeavour, never a final achievement .... "
When our forefathers of various minority communities reposed their faith in the Indian Constitution at Independence, they were confident that it would result in an organized civil society. A society where all citizens would be respected for their religious beliefs and practices. Everybody would be enjoying true freedom, which comes from the annihilation of fear; where Justice and Equality before law would prevail and caster class and creed distinctions would be obsolete. Alas that was not to be so. As our eminent Jurist Mr. Nani A. Palkhivala has put it: In the last fifty years we have a constitution which is "defaced and defiled."