Minority Claims and Majoritarian Anxieties

An exploration of the judicial and legislative responses to the claim for minority status by the Jains in post-independence India reveals the state's deep-seated disquiet about the idea of minority rights. Both the state and the courts, notwithstanding their commitment to these rights, viewed the demand of Jains with suspicion and detrimental to "national unity." This article hopes to demonstrate that the case of Jains is in fact quite central to the way in which definitions and understandings of minority and majority have come to be interpreted in our polity.