International Journal of Political Science

Minorities form an important fabric of cultural diversity of India which is a multi religious and multi lingual country. Albeit innumerable references to minorities to be found in, there is no generally accepted definition of the term “minority” in international legal instruments. The word “minority” is also not defined in Indian constitution but has been divided as religious and linguistic minorities. During the colonial period, minorities were referred to as ‘depressed classes’ and measured based on religion, untouchability and tribes but after the independence of India, partition of the British India played a crucial role in shaping the discourse on the majority- minority and the new criteria to describe minorities was based on numerical status and cultural identity. The framers of the Constitution of India were acquainted to the complex character of the problems of minorities. They believed that healthy national consciousness would grow if the minorities are guaranteed liberty, equality, fraternity and justice. A balancing approach to bring equality in society was adopted and the cultural and educational rights of the minorities were incorporated in the Constitution of India. In order to fulfill the demands of Karachi Session and Cabinet Mission Plan of the pre partition India, which envisaged the preservation of religious and cultural minorities, the Constituent Assembly had consensus to provide certain rights to religious and linguistic minorities in the constitution of India but failed to provide political representation as a separate electoral and reservation in government employment on the basis of fulfillment of social backwardness criteria. Many Committees set up time to time on minorities’ issues have discussed the pathetic and miserable conditions of minorities at educational and social fronts in a candid manner. Riots against religious minorities occurred from time to time and the dominance of Hindi language over regional languages reflected the vulnerability of minority rights to uphold their rights of linguistic and cultural identity in India. Post Independence, minorities of India got certain rights to preserve the linguistic and cultural identity though despite of all the provisions in the constitution and right intentions of the government, the situation of minorities is still deplorable. This paper presents the historical aspects of minorities’ rights from colonial period to the present times in India and along with throws light on some of the divergence either ways with regard to the minorities in India. The paper also highlights the need to protect the basic human rights and freedoms without any discrimination of minorities in existing circumstances and a requirement of positive support from the state in the preservation of their distinctive characteristics, or partial or full autonomy.

Keywords: Minorities; Religion; Linguistic; Cultural; Political Safeguards; Constitutional Rights.

The new Panchayati Raj is opening up possibilities for a better flow of information is power and the dominant classes kept the ordinary people in the dark. Transparency in public dealings was missing because everything official was secret and confidential. Panchayats come to break this centrilesed information system when 30 lakh elected members ask for information on a variety of matters that affect people’s lives. By all indicators northern states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are lagging behind in terms of social development. One of the reasons for this is the absence of social reforms movement that several other parts of the country have had from time to time. This historical gap could will be filled by panchayats through motivation of the people to take charge of their own lives. At the threshold of the 21st century the new panchayats have the capacity to turn a new leaf in the life of the village of these states. Resistance will be high, it could even be violent; but democratization is a process that cannot be stopped by such outbursts. Once people taste power, they would yield to none. Unfortunately, forces against devolution of powers to the Panchayats as well as strengthening democracy at the grassroots are still powerful. Once can discern deliberate attempts on the part of the vested interests supporting the status quo to create skepticism about the working of the local governments. Constructive criticism or creative action is absent. But the new Panchayati Raj showing the way. A strong campaign to make panchayats the integral part of people’s live is the need of the hour. The process is irreversible. This is the second chance to restructure the Indian polity and Democracy.

Keywords: Development; Democracy; Governance; Federalism.

Telangana turns two on June 2 and the State government is pulling out all stops to make it memorable. The Telangana Formation Day also gives us an opportunity to revisit some of the key events that led to the creation of the 29th State of India. The seeds of Telangana struggle were sown in 1955 when the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission to retain Hyderabad as a separate State went unheeded. Telangana leaders accused the people of Andhra of "colonising the region" by grabbing their jobs and land, and the government of not investing in the region's infrastructure. On November 1, 1956, Telangana merged with the State of Andhra, carved out of erstwhile Madras, to form Andhra Pradesh, a united state for the Telugu-speaking populace. The main reason for emergence of the movement for separate state is the formation of Andhra Pradesh state based on linguistic formula. State Re-organization Commission too stated that language alone should be the basis of state reflecting the democratic aspirations of people. There are several districts socio-economic variations among the people who speak same language. The commission also recognised the variations during the colonial times also. Hence, the commission suggested that the distinctive historical specificities have to be considered in the formation of states. However, as the centre could not consider these suggestions in the formation of linguistic states, two different regions become a single state. This led to the situation where developed regions exploited the backward regions.

Keywords: JACs; NGOs; TRS Party; Sagara Haram.

After the World War II, the US and India have the two dominant actors in the Indian Ocean. However, with the increasing Chinese inroads in Indian Ocean, and its littoral space in the recent decades, the strategic equations of the Indian Ocean have changed beyond imagination. In 1990s, China came with the string of pearls s strategy, moved ahead to deploy her naval forces in 2007 in the name of fighting piracy, and now launched her ambitious BRI project in 2013 across Indian Ocean. China has also acquired new strategic assets in the region in the form of access to Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar port and naval base in Djibouti. Perhaps, India, which considers Indian Ocean as her backyard, is the most affected nation due to these developments. India’s security, trade and other vital economic interests are contingent on her credible presence and influence in the Indian Ocean. This paper seeks to analyze the nature of strategic competition or even rivalry between India and China and the role of the US in this emerging strategic situation. It also seeks to outline India’s options including modernization and restructuring of her naval forces, and emerging partnership with her neighbours as well the US and other powers in the entire Indo-pacific Ocean. The idea of Indo-pacific has also linked the fate of two Oceans-the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. India needs to dovetail her maritime strategy with the notion of Indo-Pacific to evolve a broad coalition of forces to balance emerging and assertive China to protect her vital interests.

Keywords: Strategic Competition; Indo-Pacific; Maritime Strategy; String of Pearls; Strategic Partnership

India is one of the most sensitive disaster prime countries of the world, which is exposed to recurring devastations due to cyclones, floods, earthquakes, landslides for centuries. It is estimated that over 80% of the country’s geographical area is under the risk of natural disaster. Further 59% of the land mass is prone to earthquakes of various intensities; over 40 million hectares is prime to floods; about 8% of the tidal area is prone to cyclones and 69% of other area prone to drought. According to a study conducted by UNICEF, every year 65 million people an average in India is affected by natural disaster. Keeping this in background an attempt has been made here to examine four major aspects connected with the subject viz., the evolutionary process of disaster management in India, an overview of the major disasters in the country, significance of the Disaster Management Act 2005 and the key elements of disaster management plan, 2016. Although the NDMP has been designed as a dynamic document which needs periodic improvement in tune with the emerging global best practices in disaster management. It requires certain modifications. Firstly it has nto laid down a clear and practical roadmap. The identification of activities for disaster management and disaster risk mitigation are to generic. Secondly, the plan has not given a clear time frame for carrying out the activities given in the plan design. Instead it has prescribed that the activities must be carried out in short, medium, mid-and long term basis. Thirdly, NDMP has neither projected the requirements of funds nor provides now the funds shall be mobilized for carrying out the activities mentioned in the plan. Fourthly, it is silent about monitoring and evaluation of the plan. Fifthly, the activities mentioned in the NDMP are not new and they have already been mentioned in the Act and guidelines issued by the Natural Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) since 2007. Lastly, unlike Sendai Framework, the NDMP does not set any goals or targets nor it has explicity provided how the Sendai goals shall be achieved. Thus we can conclude that NDMP needs to be supplemented with clear goals, targets and time frames in order to achieve the vision of disaster resilience. Natural disasters are the result of climatic imbalance and it cannot be prevented fully but we can develop effective working system and minimize its loss by reducing vulnerability and increasing capacity. Vulnerability is more in India because of population growth, poverty, rapid urbanization environmental degradation and lack of information about disaster. Certainly we cannot prevent disasters but its vulnerability can be reduced to a large extent by taking adequate and timely pre-contrarary means.

Keywords: Disaster; Management; Cyclone; Land Slide.