Examine the views of N.G. Ranga and Jaipal Singh on Objectives Resolution on the need to protect the tribes and question of minorities.

The views of N. G. Ranga and Jaipal Singh on Objectives Resolution on the need to protect the tribes and question of minorities:

(i) While welcoming the Objectives Resolution, N. G. Ranga, a socialist who had been a leader of the peasant movement,urged that the term minorities be interpreted in economic terms.

(ii) The real minorities for Ranga were the poor and the downtrodden. He welcomed the legal rights the Constitution was granting to each individual but pointed to its limits.

(iii) For this they need protection. “They need props. They need a ladder” said Ranga. Ranga also drew attention to the gulf that separated the broad masses of Indians and those claiming to speak on their behalf in the Constituent Assembly.

(iv) One of the groups mentioned by Ranga, the tribals had among its representatives to the Assembly the gifted orator Jaipal Singh. In welcoming the Objectives Resolution, Singh said “As an Adibasi, I am not expected to understand the legal intricacies of the Resolution. But my common sense tells me that every one of us should march in that road to freedom and fight together.”

(v) Singh spoke eloquently on the need to protect the tribes and ensure conditions that could help them come up to the level of the general population.

(vi) Jaipal Singh was not asking for separate electorates, but he felt that reservation of seats in the legislature was essential to allow tribals to represent themselves. It would be a way, he said, of compelling others to hear the voice of tribals, and come near them.