"Minority Claims & Majoritarian Anxieties: The Jain question" a talk by Dr. Manisha Sethi at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 6th January 2015
Time : 3:00 pm
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"Minority Claims & Majoritarian Anxieties: The Jain question" a talk by Dr. Manisha Sethi
Event Page : http://goo.gl/Br6jqt
Seminar Room, 1st Floor, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011
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Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Venue : Seminar Room, 1st Floor, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to the Weekly Seminar on "Minority Claims and Majoritarian Anxieties: The Jain question" a talk by
Dr. Manisha Sethi, NMML.
Abstract :
This paper explores the judicial and legislative response to the claims for minority status by the Jains. Article 25, Explanation II included Jains (and Buddhists and Sikhs) under the ‘broad’ rubric of Hinduism stating, “In sub-clause (b) of clause (2), the reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jains or Buddhist religion, and the reference to the Hindu religious institutions shall be construed accordingly.” Colonial courts had on the whole established that Jains would be treated as Hindu dissenters subject to demonstration of contrary customs. Though, in post-colonial India, personal laws receded into the shadows and other pressing questions such as tax law, the management of temples, trusts and educational institutes came into play, many of the earlier themes continued to have resonance. Jains were not the only community approaching the courts seeking redress, entitlements, benefits due to minorities, asking the courts to clarify the term minority community and its application. From the early years since Independence, one can see hectic jostling for ensuring that the rights enshrined in Articles 29 and 30 were not frittered away. The litigation by Jains needs to be placed in this stream. We can identify three broad questions posed before the courts: first, whether Jains were Hindus; second, whether Jains constituted a minority; and lastly, what was the nature of special rights enjoyed by minorities. Closely related to this was the issue of rights enjoyed by “individual citizen” as opposed to rights granted to community or “class of citizens”. The courts have at times granted the Jains the benefits of minority status, at others denying it. However, the process shows that the wresting of rights was often tortuous – commitment to minority rights notwithstanding – with both the State and courts viewing minority rights with suspicion and detrimental to “national unity”. Moreover, the Jain demand for minority status leads to some anxieties in certain sections about the fragmentation of Hindu society.
Speaker :
Dr. Manisha Sethi is Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. She is the author of Escaping the World: Women Renouncers among Jains, 2012 and Kafkaland: Prejudice, Law and Counter terrorism in India, 2014.
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Venue : Seminar Room, 1st Floor, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to the Weekly Seminar on "Minority Claims and Majoritarian Anxieties: The Jain question" a talk by
Dr. Manisha Sethi, NMML.
Abstract :
This paper explores the judicial and legislative response to the claims for minority status by the Jains. Article 25, Explanation II included Jains (and Buddhists and Sikhs) under the ‘broad’ rubric of Hinduism stating, “In sub-clause (b) of clause (2), the reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jains or Buddhist religion, and the reference to the Hindu religious institutions shall be construed accordingly.” Colonial courts had on the whole established that Jains would be treated as Hindu dissenters subject to demonstration of contrary customs. Though, in post-colonial India, personal laws receded into the shadows and other pressing questions such as tax law, the management of temples, trusts and educational institutes came into play, many of the earlier themes continued to have resonance. Jains were not the only community approaching the courts seeking redress, entitlements, benefits due to minorities, asking the courts to clarify the term minority community and its application. From the early years since Independence, one can see hectic jostling for ensuring that the rights enshrined in Articles 29 and 30 were not frittered away. The litigation by Jains needs to be placed in this stream. We can identify three broad questions posed before the courts: first, whether Jains were Hindus; second, whether Jains constituted a minority; and lastly, what was the nature of special rights enjoyed by minorities. Closely related to this was the issue of rights enjoyed by “individual citizen” as opposed to rights granted to community or “class of citizens”. The courts have at times granted the Jains the benefits of minority status, at others denying it. However, the process shows that the wresting of rights was often tortuous – commitment to minority rights notwithstanding – with both the State and courts viewing minority rights with suspicion and detrimental to “national unity”. Moreover, the Jain demand for minority status leads to some anxieties in certain sections about the fragmentation of Hindu society.
Speaker :
Dr. Manisha Sethi is Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. She is the author of Escaping the World: Women Renouncers among Jains, 2012 and Kafkaland: Prejudice, Law and Counter terrorism in India, 2014.
"Minority Claims & Majoritarian Anxieties: The Jain question" a talk by Dr. Manisha Sethi at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 6th January 2015
!["Minority Claims & Majoritarian Anxieties: The Jain question" a talk by Dr. Manisha Sethi at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 6th January 2015]()
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Tuesday, January 06, 2015
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