The Nehru Report and Muslim Rights — Page 58
[ 58 J such causes as create in the two parties mutua'l rivalry and animosity, and when such causes are present it is immaterial whether the minority is big o. r small, the majority tries to bring it to grief. CAUSES OF FRICTION BETWEEN MAJORITIES AND MINORITIES. Of the different causes that make for a clash between minorities and majorities, the following are the most potent:- ( 1) In case the minority had held its sway over the majority in the near past and oppressed it, or created an impression in the mind of the majority that it had been so oppressed; in both these cases the majority is obses sed with the idea of avenging itself. (2) If the minority has a culture and social order which is superior to and predominant over that of the majority, then the majority feels impelled to destroy the minority because of its constant fear that, given the opportunity to progress the, minority will obliterate its own culture and social order. (3) When there is something peculiar in the minority which prevents it from being absorbed in the majority, the latter feels ill at ease over the prospect of the country being always divided into two parties with no hope of the minority merging in the majority, nor even of its being so reconciled to the majority that its distinctive features might disappear and there• might be at least an outward appearance of unity. ( 4) When a minority has such potentialities as to make the majority apprehensive that, if not curbed the minority will one day become the majority.