Protecting communitarian interests and promoting equal citizenship: a paradoxical commitment of the Indian State with respect to education in government-aided minority schools

Indian society and its Constitution have long been celebrated for their secular characteristics and for the constitutional safeguards the latter accorded to the nation’s religious and linguistic minorities. Provisions such as Article 30 of the Constitution, which guarantees minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice and which also guarantees state aid without discrimination, have been hailed as instituting a regime of cultural rights that take cognizance of claims of groups rather than merely of individuals. 1 While secularism and protection of minority rights are enshrined in the Indian Constitution, there has been considerable amount of litigation in discerning and delineating the contours of these Constitutional values. Further, the tension between the universal right of freedom of all religions to practice their faith and the right to education for all children has been tested time and again in the courts.