Sir, I take this opportunity to extend unqualified support to the motion moved by the Honourable Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The inclusion of backward sections among the Sikhs in the category of scheduled classed for all political purposes is a happy decision over which the Minorities Advisory Committee deserves to be congratulated. It is a matter for regret that the Sikh society could not altogether succeed in eradicating class and sectional distinctions which it was meant to wipe out. The deep-rooted and age-long class consciousness prevailing among the sister communities had a great deal to do with the existence and prevalence of this unhappy state of affairs among the Sikhs, but taking things as they are, the Advisory Committee could not do better than to recommend and this House to accept the extension of the same rights and privileges to members of the scheduled classes regardless of whether they profess this religion or that. The recommendation is doubly welcome on account of the removal of discrimination which should not have been allowed to continue particularly on the basis of religion. I maintain that the Advisory Committee could not do otherwise, if an advance consistent with the establishment of a secular State had to be made. The Sikhs are not alien to the conception and experience of a secular State. The State of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, though not a democracy, was secular in concept and practice inasmuch as a large proportion of his ministers and high government functionaries were Hindus and Muslims. The court language too was Persian. Paradoxically enough, the Sikh Raj was not a theocratic Raj and reflected hundred per cent. secularly and cosmopolitanism of the times. The Sikhs are essentially a democratic people and will always feel more at home in a genuinely secular atmosphere.
