Article 29 and 30 — Rights of Minorities

St. Xavier’s in Fort, Wilson College at Girgaum, a Sindhi-medium school in Ulhasnagar, a Gujarati-medium school in Ghatkopar: Mumbai’s schools tell you that the city’s minorities run some of its best institutions. Can a college run by a community choose its own students and teachers? Can the State tell it whom to admit? Articles 29 and 30 sit at the centre of that question, and they are two separate provisions that students constantly blur.

In two minutes

Article 29 protects any section of citizens with a distinct language, script or culture and bars denial of admission to State-run or State-aided institutions on grounds only of religion, race, caste or language; Article 30 gives religious and linguistic minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

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