Read the passage and answer the questions:
“The real minorities are the masses of this country”
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 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, the merchants are still 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 moneylender 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 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.
Who were the “real minorities” according to the speaker?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Masses of this country
Ranga asks who the real minorities are, and answers: not the Hindus in the so-called Pakistan provinces, not the Sikhs, not even the Muslims, but the masses of this country. He wanted the term minorities to be understood in economic terms: for him the real minorities were the poor and the downtrodden, who needed protection to enjoy the rights the Constitution would give them. Options (1), (2) and (4) each name a religious community, which is the very idea he rejects.
NCERT (2025-26): “3.2 ‘We will need much more than this Resolution’ … While welcoming the Objectives Resolution, N.G. Ranga, a socialist who had been a leader of the peasant movement, urged that the term minorities be interpreted in economic terms. The real minorities for Ranga were the poor and the downtrodden.…”
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