A social media post claiming that ‘as per article 330 & 342 of the Indian Constitution SC/ST/OBC’s are not Hindus but are natives of India’ is being widely circulated across all social media platforms. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: ‘As per article 330 & 342 of the Indian Constitution SC/ST/OBC’s are not Hindu’s but are natives of India’.
Fact: Articles 330 & 342 of the Indian Constitution deal with identification of certain tribes as Scheduled Tribes and providing reservation to SCs/STs in the house of people. And there is no such clause in these articles stating that SCs/STs/OBCs are not Hindus. Moreover, the constituent assembly debates emphasised that Scheduled castes as Hindus. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Article 330:
Article 330 of the Indian Constitution deals with some special provisions relating to certain classes. It provides for the reservations of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the House of the People.
As per this article seats shall be reserved in the House of the people for
- The Scheduled Castes.
- The Scheduled Tribes except the Scheduled Tribes in the autonomous districts of Assam.
- The Scheduled Tribes in the autonomous districts of Assam.
Article 342:
Article 342 of the Indian Constitution deals with the provisions related to Scheduled Tribes. It states that ‘the President may, with respect to any State or Union territory, and where it is a state, after consultation with the Governor thereof by public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities which shall, for the purposes of this constitution, is deemed to be scheduled tribes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as the case may be.’
Thus, it is evident that the above mentioned articles (330 & 342) deal with identification of certain tribes as Scheduled Tribes and providing reservation to SCs/STs in the house of people. And there is no such clause in these articles stating that SCs/STs/OBCs are not Hindus.
Further, from the constituent assembly debates records, it is also evident that during the formative stages of the Indian Constitution, debates took place between the members of assembly over the aspects of religion. However, these debates were pertaining to issues like providing religious freedom, rights, etc. But there were no debates about which castes constitute the Hindu religion or not.
In fact, there are instances wherein the framers of the constitution referred these sections of people as Hindus. For example, during a debate over article 300A & 300B, which deal inclusion/exclusion of certain castes, race, tribes from the list of SCs & STs, the members of the constituent assembly emphasised that Scheduled castes are Hindus. Thus, these arguments negate the claim made in the viral post.
To sum it up, argument that Indian Constitution did not identify SCs/STs/OBCs as Hindus is false.
