Read the passage and answer the questions:
“The 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.
When was the ‘Objective Resolution’ introduced in the Constituent Assembly?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → 1946
The passage says only that N.G. Ranga welcomed the Objectives Resolution introduced by Jawaharlal Nehru. The date is 13 December 1946, when Nehru introduced the “Objectives Resolution” in the Constituent Assembly. This momentous resolution set out the defining ideals of the Constitution of independent India: an “Independent Sovereign Republic”, justice, equality and freedom for its citizens, and safeguards for minorities, backward and tribal areas.
Note: This passage is taken from the NCERT chapter ‘Framing the Constitution’, almost word for word, where it is printed as one of the sources of the chapter. The source boxes inside a chapter turn up in the paper as often as the main text, so give each of them a proper read.
NCERT (2025-26): “2. The Vision of the Constitution … On 13 December 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru introduced the ‘Objectives Resolution’ in the Constituent Assembly. It was a momentous resolution that outlined the defining ideals of the Constitution of Independent India, and provided the framework within which the work of constitution-making was to proceed. It proclaimed India to be an ‘Independent Sovereign Republic’, guaranteed its citizens justice, equality and freedom, and assured that ‘adequate safeguards shall be provided for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and Depressed and Other Backward Classes…” |