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.
Identify the speaker of this passage?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → N.G. Ranga
N.G. Ranga, a socialist who had been a leader of the peasant movement, welcomed the Objectives Resolution but urged that the term minorities be understood in economic terms. For him the real minorities were the poor and the downtrodden. Legal rights meant little to the poor in the villages unless conditions were created in which they could enjoy them: “They need props. They need a ladder.”
Note 1: This passage is Ranga’s speech in the Constituent Assembly, printed as a source in the NCERT chapter ‘Framing the Constitution’ and reproduced here almost word for word. A speech quoted in a chapter is fair game for the paper, so read the speeches with the speaker’s name in mind.
Note 2: A same/similar question was asked in CUET (UG) in the papers below.
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
| 11-05 S2* 29-05 S2 | – | – | – | – |
* A similar question.
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. He welcomed the legal rights the Constitution was granting to each individual but pointed to its limits. In his opinion it was meaningless for the poor people in the villages to know that they now had the fundamental right to live, and to have full employment, or that they could have their meetings, their conferences, their associations and various other civil liberties. It was essential to create conditions where these constitutionally enshrined rights could be effectively enjoyed. For this they needed protection. ‘They need props. They need a ladder,’ said Ranga.”
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