The Nehru Report and Muslim Rights — Page 59
[ 59 ] (5) When the minority does not consider itself to belong to the country and has its eyes fixed upon its brethren beyond the country, then the majority feels apprehensive lest the minority should some day deal with it treacherously, and therefore it tries to suppress it. (6) When the majority is benefitted materially by the economic backwardness of the minority, it is afraid lest it should lose by an awakening among the minority. These are the six important causes, the existence of some or all of which makes the majorities resort to a policy of aggression against the minorities, and the minorities distrustful of the majorities. A consideration of these factors will lead every sensible man to the con clusion that there is no reason why bigger minorities should be less in danger than smaller ones. On the con trary, it is apparent that whether the minority be big or small, it will be equally in danger whenever there are present the above-mentioned conditions. In fact, a very small minority which forms only one or two per cent. of the entire population, or less, has practically nothing to fear, because the majority is fully confident that its posi tion is in no danger. It is therefore that the Christians, the Buddhists, and the Parsees, who together form only one-tenth of the whole population, are in no danger at all. If there is any class that is in a real danger, it is the Mussalmans, regarding whom the Hindus might feel apprehensive that they might one day increase and over whelm them. PROTECTION OF MINORITIES IN EUROPE. In other countries too we find no discriminative pro cedures adopted between big and small minorities. In Europe, for instance, in dealing with the protection of