The Nehru Report and Muslim Rights — Page 115
[ 1 15 ] Third Argument. Of the eight major provinces in India, six are pre dominantly Hindu ill population, culture and custom. The Hindu preponderance is so formidable in these provinces that there is absolutely no chance for the Muslims ever to come into power. Only in two provinces, the Muslims command a majority. But the majority is not so large as to warrant a perpetual Muslim domination, and con tinual progress on the lines of their national traditions. The Mussalmans, therefore, very legitimately desire that they should have opportunities at least in these two pro vinces to progress according to their own traditions ; and the only way to this lies in the reservation of seats. No doubt, in the absence of a reservation of seats, it is possible for a community to gain more than its legi timate proportion of seats, but it is equally possible that it may not gain even its legitimate proportion. The danger is all the more real, when the margin of difference between the two communities is so small and the minority is so strong, as is the case in the Punjab and Bengal. The Nehru-Report itself has admitted the danger of the Punjab Muslims losing their majority position. It says: ·' The Muslims being in a minority in India as a whole fear that the majority may harass them, and to meet this difficulty they have made a novel suggestion-that they should at least dominate in some parts of India. We do not here criticise their demand. It may have some justification in the present comrnunal atmosphere but we do feel that it has little to do with the prem�ses we started from, unless indeed the best safeguard that one can have is to occupy a position of domination oneself. '' ( Nehru Report, p. 28-29. ) The Muslims contend that as they have only these two provinces where they are in a majority, they cannot afford to run the risk of their