Read the passage and answer the questions:
Constitution: Welcoming the Objectives Resolution
“…As an Adibasi, I am not expected to understand the legal intricacies of the Resolution. But my common sense tells me that every one of us should march in that road to freedom and fight together. Sir, if there is any group of Indian people that has been shabbily treated it is my people. They have been disgracefully treated, neglected for the last 6,000 years. … The whole history of my people is one of continuous exploitation and dispossession by the non-aboriginals of India punctuated by rebellions and disorder, and yet I take Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at his word. I take you all at your word that now we are going to start a new chapter, a new chapter of independent India where there is equality of opportunity, where no one would be neglected.” Singh spoke eloquently on the need to protect the tribes, and ensure conditions that could help them come up to the level of the general population. Tribes were not a numerical minority, he argued, but they needed protection. They had been dispossessed of the land they had settled, deprived of their forests and pastures, and forced to move in search of new homes. Perceiving them as primitive and backward, the rest of society had turned away from them, spurned them. He made a moving plea for breaking the emotional and physical distance that separated the tribals from the rest of society: “Our point is that you have got to mix with us. We are willing to mix with you … ”. Singh was not asking for separate electorates, but he felt that reservation of seats in the legislature was essential to allow tribals to represent themselves. It would be a way, he said, of compelling others to hear the voice of tribals, and come near them.
Identify the speaker of this passage:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Jaipal Singh
The speaker is Jaipal Singh, a gifted orator who represented the tribals in the Constituent Assembly. He spoke while welcoming the Objectives Resolution, calling himself an Adibasi and describing the long history of exploitation of his people. Jawaharlal Nehru cannot be the speaker: the speech says, “I take Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at his word.”
Note: This passage is taken from the NCERT chapter ‘Framing the Constitution’, almost word for word. In the book the line just before the speech names the speaker; NTA left that line out and kept only “Singh”. The speeches quoted in that chapter are worth reading slowly, along with the line that says who is speaking. This one came into the paper whole, with five questions on it.
NCERT (2025-26): “3.2 ‘We will need much more than this Resolution’ … One of the groups mentioned by Ranga, the tribals, had among its representatives to the Assembly the gifted orator Jaipal Singh. In welcoming the Objectives Resolution, Singh said: ... as an Adibasi, I am not expected to understand the legal intricacies of the Resolution. But my common sense tells me that every one of us should march in that road to freedom and fight together. Sir, if there is any group of Indian people that has been shabbily treated it is my people.…” |