Joseph Pulikunnel
INDIA is a plural religious society. Perhaps no other nation in the world has such plurality in religion and culture. Each religious community has a sub-culture within the cultural symphony of India. The sum of these sub culture is the beauty of the Indian cultural mosaic.
The Fathers of the constitution were eager to preserve these subcultures, so as to preserve the Indian cultural mosaic. With this in view, the constitution provides protective clauses of which article 29 and 30 are of great importance.
Article 29 states: “Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.”
Article 30 states: “All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institution of their choice.”
Article 30 has to be read along with article 29; where in sections of the people have the right to conserve their culture. The rights of the language and religious minority is a cultural right and not contemplated as a religious right.
The crucial question raised at the moment is who enjoys the right under article 30 conferred on the minorities? Do a group of members of the community have the right to hijack this right for their private interests? This question has not been so far seriously discussed by the apex Courts in India.
Culture is a social product. As such its preservation and development is the function of the society. The rights enjoined in the Constitution have to be exercised by the community through their representatives. As far as the Christian community is concerned, this right is at present hijacked by priests and nuns, who form only an atomic minority in that community. 99.99% of the Christian community have at present no say in the administration of the educational institutions run by priests in the name of the community. Only educational institutions that are established by the will of the minority, and administered by the elected representatives of the community shall be deemed as minority institutions.
A test case in this regard is Pushpagiri Medical College. It is claimed that this institution is a minority institution. The medical College was started by the Bishop of the Malankara Catholic Church, without reference to the community and the members of the community are not involved in the establishment or administration of this institution.
The bishops are only religious heads and are appointed to that post by the Pope of Rome, the head of the state of Vatican. A bishop is not the leader of the community.
Almost all educational institutions run by the Christian Church are owned by the priestly class. The institutions are not established by the community nor administered by the community. It is only a private property of the bishops of heads of the religious orders, both men and women.
The unfortunate situation that exists today is that the vast majority of the community has no rights in the enjoyment of the constitutional right granted to the minority community.
Article 30 of the Constitution is totally misused by the priestly class in the Christian community to entrench their dictatorial authority over the community. The laymen who form 99.99 per cent of the community are sidetracked by the priestly class.
To protect the interest of the Christian community in the enjoyment of the minority rights, it should be made mandatory to register the educational institutions, which are desirous of enjoying the privileges under article 30 enjoined in the Constitution with the government before that status is granted. An educational institution that seeks for the minority status should be a charitable society with at least 100 members from the community. Membership of the society should be opened to all members of the community. No member of the community men be banned from the membership, thereby assuring the representative character of the community. The management of the institutions should be vested in a board elected by the members of the society.
Article 30 of the Constitution was not meant to promote a particular class in the minority community nor was it mean to authorize an atomic minority of the community to lord it over the vast majority in the community. Basic principle of the Indian constitution is equality of the citizens, a republican concept. It is high time for the government and the public to search, whether priests in the Catholic community are misusing the minority rights for their aggrandizement.
If one makes a survey of the catholic institution, it would be found that the priestly class has reserved the management of catholic educational institution to themselves. Who established and run the catholic institutions like St. Joseph’s college Thevara, St. Joseph’s College Devagiri, and KE College Mannanam? They are established and administered by priests of the Carmelites of Mary immaculate. St. Thomas College Pala and St. Berchman’s College Changanacherry are owned and run by the bishops. It does not belong to the community and the community is never involved in the administration of these institutions. Then how come these institutions owned and administered by priest come under the protection of article 30? It is high time for the state to go into this matter. No institution privately run by small section of the minority community, priests and runs can be deemed as minority institutions. Legislations have to be made by the government to spell out the criteria to consider the status of an educational institution as a minority institution. The prime criteria should be the legal involevement of the community in the establishment and administration of the institution.
The right granted by article 30 of the Constitution are to be enjoyed by the community and not by persons or a group of persons within the community, it has to be enjoyed collectively by the communities.
The right to establish and administer educational institutions is not granted to a section in the community or individuals in the community.
No section of the community should be allowed to hijack this right for the advancement of their vested interests.
Article 30 clearly states the community alone has the right to establish and administer Educational institution. So the involvement of the community in the establishment and administration of the educational institutions is a precondition for the enjoyment of these rights. At present the right granted by the Constitution have been reduced to the rights of the managers of the educational institutions. Now management of the education institutions is a monopoly of the priests and nuns.
The principal ship of the so-called minority institutions are a ‘Bali Kera Mala’ for the laymen. The right of the laymen and laywomen are dastardly denied by the Catholic Educational institutions in majority of the colleges run by the Catholic Community; the principle ship is reserved for the priests and runs alone. The Catholic community has produced Governors, Vice Chancellors, Ministers and the like, the priestly class in the community has monopolized the principal ships for themselves denying opportunities for laymen.
At present, the priestly class in the community armed with the minority rights under the constitution is trampling over the rights of the members of the minority community. It is high time that the government takes steps to guard and protect the members of the minority community against the discrimination meted out to the members of the community by priestly class.
(The writer is the Director, Indian Institute of Christian Studies)
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