Read the passage given below to answer the following questions:
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.
The above passage is related to:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Exploitation of the villagers and the tribals
Ranga argues that the real minorities are the masses of the country, and to show why, he describes how the tribals lose their lands to merchants and how the villagers are exploited by the money-lender, the zamindar and the malguzar.
Option (1) The Muslim and Sikhs — Incorrect. Ranga names the Sikhs and the Muslims only to say that they are not the real minorities.
Option (2) Civil rights of all Indians — Incorrect. Civil rights come up in one line only: the oppressed masses are not able to take advantage of the ordinary civil rights. The passage is about why these people cannot use such rights, that is, about their exploitation, not about the rights of all Indians.
Option (3) Exploitation of the villagers and the tribals — Correct. Most of the speech describes this exploitation, and Ranga ends by calling these exploited people the real minorities that need protection.
Option (4) The Hindus in the Pakistan Provinces — Incorrect. Like the Sikhs and the Muslims, the Hindus in the so-called Pakistan provinces are mentioned only as a group that is not the real minority.
NCERT: Themes in Indian History Part III — Chapter 12: Framing the Constitution (2026-27)
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