Ethnic Pluralism

In one line

An ethnic group is a community that sees itself as sharing descent, and the Indian Constitution protects ethnicity without ever using the word.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: an ethnic group is a body of people who regard themselves, and are regarded by others, as a distinct community by reason of a shared ancestry, history, homeland, language or culture. Ethnic pluralism is the condition of a State containing several such groups. The Indian Constitution nowhere uses the word "ethnic", but it protects the interests ethnicity raises through four devices: the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of race and place of birth in articles 15(1) and 16(2); the protection of a section's language, script and culture in article 29(1); the notification of Scheduled Tribes under article 342 with the Fifth and Sixth Schedules; and the special provisions for named States in articles 371A to 371J.

Why the Constitution avoids the word

Because "race" was the word available in 1950 and it carried a different sense. Articles 15(1) and 16(2) forbid discrimination on grounds of race, which is the nearest term the drafters used, and international instruments of the period used it too.

Because ethnicity in India does not map onto a single axis. A group may be ethnically distinct by descent, by language, by tribe or by region, and the Constitution provides for each of those separately rather than through one concept.

And because a general ethnic category would have been unworkable. A protection defined by self-identification, with no list, would have had no boundary. The Constitution instead uses notified lists under articles 341 and 342, and named States in the 371 series.

The consequence is that an examiner's question about ethnic pluralism has to be answered through those four devices, and an answer that looks for an article using the word will find none.

Where ethnicity is protected

Article 29(1): the general protection, and it is wider than most students think. Any section of citizens residing in the territory of India or any part of it having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same. It is not confined to minorities, and it protects culture as well as language.

Article 342 and the Fifth and Sixth Schedules: the tribal protection. Notified Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Areas under the Fifth Schedule with the Governor's power to disapply an Act, and the Autonomous District Councils of the Sixth Schedule. That is ethnicity protected territorially, and it is worked in [Tribal Pluralism] and in [The Fifth Schedule and the Scheduled Areas].

Articles 371A and 371G: the strongest protection there is. No Act of Parliament in respect of Naga or Mizo religious or social practices, customary law and procedure, the administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to customary law, or ownership and transfer of land and its resources, applies to Nagaland or Mizoram unless the State's Legislative Assembly by resolution so decides.