424 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
have there provided also a further qualification, that while it is free to give religious instruction in the institution and the grant made by the State shall not be a bar to the giving of such instruction, it shall not give instruction to, or make it compulsory upon, the children belonging to other communities unless and until they obtain the consent of the parents of those children. That, I think, is a salutary provision. It performs two functions . . . . . . .
Shri H. V. Kamath : On a point of clarification, what about institutions and schools run by a community or a minority for its own pupils—not a school where all communities are mixed but a school run by the community for its own pupils ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : If my Friend Mr. Kamath will read the other article he will see that once an institution, whether maintained by the community or not. gets a grant, the condition is that it shall keep the school open to all communities. That provision he has not read.
Therefore, by sub-clause (2) we are really achieving two purposes. One is that we are permitting a community which has established its institutions for the advancement of its religious or its cultural life, to give such instruction in the school. We have also provided that children of other communities who attend that school shall not be compelled to attend such religious instructions which undoubtedly and obviously must be the instruction in the religion of that particular community, unless the parents consent to it. As I say, we have achieved this double purpose and those who want religious instruction to be given are free to establish their institutions and claim aid from the State, give religious instruction, but shall not be in a position to force that religious instruction on other communities. It is therefore not proper to say that by this article we have altogether barred religious instruction. Religious instruction has been left free to be taught and given by each community according to its aims and objects subject to certain conditions. All that is baaed is this, that the Stale in the institutions maintained by it wholly out of public funds, shall not be free to give religious instruction.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : May I put the Honourable Member one question 7 There is, for instance, an educational institution wholly managed by the Government, like the Sanskrit College, Calcutta. There the Vedas are taught, Smrithis are taught, the Gita is taught, the