Congress resolution on rights of minorities
Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"
Meaning
This was a resolution the Congress passed in 1947, after Partition, at the urging of Gandhi and Nehru. It promised that India would be "a democratic secular State". In such a state every citizen has full rights, and the government protects everyone equally, whatever their religion. The resolution mattered because Partition had been made on religious lines. Through it, the Congress said it had never accepted the two-nation theory, the idea that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations.
Example
In 1947 riots and refugee movements were spreading across north India. Gandhi was doing peace work in Bengal and Delhi at the time. The Congress used this resolution to promise Muslims who stayed in India that they would have equal citizenship and the state's protection.
Don't confuse with
- Lahore Resolution (1940): this was the Muslim League's demand for self-rule in Muslim-majority areas. The Congress resolution of 1947 did the opposite: it rejected dividing people by religion.
Related concepts
- Provincial elections of 1937
- Congress ministries 1937-39
- Wardha scheme of basic education
- Congress Socialist Party
- Haripura session 1938
- Tripuri crisis 1939
- Forward Bloc
- Second World War
- Lord Linlithgow
- Resignation of Congress ministries