Govind Ballabh Pant
Also called: G.B. Pant · Topic: Framing the Indian Constitution · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Framing the Constitution"
Meaning
Govind Ballabh Pant (1887-1961) was a senior Congress leader from the United Provinces and its Premier from 1937. In the Constituent Assembly he strongly opposed separate electorates, in which only a community's own voters elect its representatives. He argued that every person must first be a citizen, loyal to one State. Communities could keep cultural rights, but not a separate political identity. He later became Union Home Minister.
Example
In the August 1947 debate, Pant said "separate electorates will be suicidal to the minorities". He warned they would shut minorities inside "an air-tight compartment" with no real voice in government. He added: "There cannot be any divided loyalty … It is the citizen that forms the base as well as the summit of the social pyramid."
Don't confuse with
- Sardar Patel: also opposed separate electorates, but his famous phrase was that they were a "poison" in the body politic. "Suicidal to the minorities" is Pant's phrase.