Read the passage and answer the questions:
While welcoming the Objective 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 village 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.
According to N.G. Ranga, the 'poor and downtrodden' needed protection because _________.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → They were real minorities.
Ranga wanted the term minorities to be read in economic terms. For him the real minorities were the poor and the downtrodden. The rights the Constitution gave them meant little unless conditions were created in which they could enjoy those rights, and for this they needed protection.
Option (1) They are large in number. — Incorrect. Ranga does not ask for protection on the ground of numbers. His point is that the poor are too weak to use their rights, however many they are.
Option (2) They are less in number. — Incorrect. Ranga did not count heads either. Read in economic terms, the poor become the real minorities because of their poverty, not because they are few.
Option (3) They are culturally stronger. — Incorrect. The passage speaks of the poor as weak, not strong: they needed “a ladder” to reach the rights given to them.
Option (4) They were real minorities. — Correct. The poor and the downtrodden were the real minorities for Ranga, and it was for them that he asked for protection.
NCERT (2026-27): “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.” |