Read the passage and answer the questions:
Constitution: Real Minorities are the Masses of this Country
Welcoming the Objectives Resolution introduced by Jawaharlal Nehru, N.G. Ranga said: Sir, there is a lot of talk about minorities. Who are the real minorities? Not the Hindus in the so-called Pakistan provinces, not the Sikhs, not even the Muslims. No, the real minorities are the masses of this country. These people are so depressed and oppressed and suppressed till now that they are not able to take advantage of the ordinary civil rights. What is the position? You go to the tribal areas. According to law, their own traditional law, their tribal law, their lands cannot be alienated. Yet our merchants go there, and in the so-called free market they are able to snatch their lands. Thus, even though the law goes against this snatching away of their lands, still the merchants are able to turn the tribal people into veritable slaves by various kinds of bonds, and make them hereditary bond- slaves. Let us go to the ordinary villagers. There goes the money-lender with his money and he is able to get the villagers in his pocket. There is the landlord himself, the zamindar, and the malguzar and there are the various other people who are able to exploit these poor villagers. There is no elementary education even among these people. These are the real minorities that need protection and assurances of protection. In order to give them the necessary protection, we will need much more than this Resolution.
As per the speaker, why are the tribal people so depressed and oppressed?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Economic hardship of the tribals led to economic slavery
Ranga says the tribal people are depressed and oppressed because merchants snatch their lands in the so-called free market and turn them into “veritable slaves by various kinds of bonds”, even making them hereditary bond-slaves. Their hardship is economic, and it ends in a kind of slavery.
Option (1) Due to their being minority — Incorrect. Ranga does not count heads. For him the masses are a “minority” in a different sense: they are too poor to use their civil rights.
Option (2) Due to absence of law for the tribal areas — Incorrect. The law exists: by their own tribal law their lands cannot be alienated. The trouble is that merchants snatch the lands in spite of the law.
Option (3) Economic hardship of the tribals led to economic slavery — Correct. Loss of land and debt bonds make them hereditary bond-slaves.
Option (4) Masses were in minority — Incorrect. The masses are the bulk of the people, not fewer in number; Ranga calls them the “real minorities” because they are oppressed, and that is not the cause of their oppression.
NCERT: Themes in Indian History Part III — Chapter 12: Framing the Constitution (2026-27)
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