Minority Rights and Rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits
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(text revisited on Oct. 30, 2009)
By K.N. Pandit,
A clear cut definition of “Minority” as a component group of a given society has remained elusive. At the United Nations, the Commission for Human Rights (now called Council for Human Rights) has been grappling with precise definition. The reason is that situations develop in different parts of the world in which a particular group of population suddenly gets disempowered and dispossessed. In more frequent examples the affected people could be political victims. It becomes difficult to define their category. Besides, there are many other circumstances that throw up an isolated segment of population.
Generally speaking numerical strength is taken a factor for determining a group as majority or minority. But if large groups are accepted as minorities and clubbed together, they might over-strip the majority group. In a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-linguistic country like India, the minorities when clubbed together are likely to claim large political power, social recognition and economic priority. Would they still be called minorities and deprived segments? Continue Reading…