The Nehru Report and Muslim Rights — Page 119
[ 119 ] favour of Muslim minoritie� we are not introduc{ng the anomalies arising out of reservation for majorities. . /\ minority must remain a minority whether any seats are reserved for it or not and cannot dominate the majority. ·· ( Vide p. 52. ) From the above quotation 1t 1s clear that the Nehru Committee think that in Bombay, Madras, the U. P. , etc. , the Mussalmans shall continue in a minority posi tion for all times to come, which in other words means that in those provinces the Hindus shall always hold the reins of Government. This is exactly what is meant by • • one- community domineer�ng over another. •· And when such domination of one community over another shall prevail in some of the provinces without causing any harm whatsoever, what reason is there that a similar situation should not be created in the Punjab and Bengal? If the permanent preponderance of representation of a particular community is bad, it is so everywhere ; but if it can be tolerated in Bombay and Madras, it can cer tainly be tolerated in the Punjab and Bengal as well. It should be noted here that the Nehru Committee has itself been so much obsessed with communal senti ments that it has viewed the Muslim demands through the same communal goggles, and has in consequence committed the blunder of reading in the Muslim demand an ambition to rule in the Punjab and Bengal to the com plete exclusion of the non-Muslims. That is not the Muslim demand at all. All that they demand is that whereas in the predominantly Hindu provinces, Hindu representation on the legislative bodies would necessarily remain a permanent majority, similarly the MusEm repre sentation in the Punjab and Bengal, where they form the majority of the population, should exceed that of the other communities ; and further as the Muslim majority