How would you define positive discrimination as per indian constitution?
Answers
The need to discriminate positively in favour of the socially underprivileged was felt for the first time during the nationalist movement. It was Mahatma Gandhi, himself a devout Hindu and a staunch believer in the caste system, who was the first leader to realise the importance of the subject and to invoke the conscience of the upper castes to this age-old social malady of relegating whole communities to the degrading position of “untouchables”. He also understood the political logic of inducting this large body of people into the political mainstream in order to make the freedom movement more broad based. By renaming these untouchables as “Harijans” (people of God) he tried to give this policy a religious sanction so as not to disturb the traditional sensitivities of the caste Hindus more than was really necessary.