Identify the incorrect statement/s from the following about provisions for Anglo-Indian Community. A. Article 335 is related to Representation of the Anglo-Indian Community in the Legislative Assembly. B. Grants if any, were made for the benefit of the Anglo-Indian Community in respect of education in the financial year ending on the 31st March, 1948, the same shall be given for the first three financial years after the commencement of the Constitution. C. During every succeeding period of three years, the grants may be less 10%, than that, for the immediately preceding period of three years.
- (1)Only A
- (2)Only B and C
- (3)Only C
- (4)All of the above
Correct — option (1), Only A. Statement A is the incorrect one: Article 335 of the Constitution has nothing to do with Anglo-Indian representation — it deals with 'Claims of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to services and posts', providing that SC/ST claims shall be taken into consideration, consistent with maintaining administrative efficiency, in making appointments to Union and State services. The constitutional provisions that actually dealt with Anglo-Indian representation in legislatures were Article 331 (nomination of Anglo-Indian members to the Lok Sabha, if the community was not adequately represented by election) and Article 333 (the corresponding provision for State Legislative Assemblies) — not Article 335. (Both Articles 331 and 333 were themselves omitted from the Constitution by the 104th Amendment Act, 2019, which discontinued the reservation of seats for Anglo-Indians.) Statements B and C, by contrast, are accurate: they closely track Article 337, which specifically deals with educational grants for the Anglo-Indian community. Article 337 provides that whatever grants were made for Anglo-Indian education in the financial year ending 31 March 1948 would continue to be made, at the same level, for the first three financial years after the Constitution's commencement — exactly statement B — and that during every succeeding period of three years, those grants could be reduced by up to ten percent compared with the immediately preceding three-year period — exactly statement C. Because A is the only statement that misattributes the wrong Article to Anglo-Indian representation, while B and C both correctly describe Article 337's education-grant scheme, the correct set of incorrect statements is 'Only A'.
- (2)Only B and C — This flags B and C as incorrect, but both closely and accurately reproduce Article 337's language on Anglo-Indian education grants — continuation of 1948-level grants for the first three post-Constitution financial years (B), and a possible 10% reduction in each successive three-year period thereafter (C). Neither statement contains a factual error; this option misses the actual error, which lies in statement A's misattribution of Article 335 to Anglo-Indian representation.
- (3)Only C — This flags only statement C as incorrect, but C accurately restates Article 337's provision that education grants for the Anglo-Indian community may be reduced by up to 10% in each successive three-year period after the initial three years. Since C is factually correct, and this option does not identify A — the statement that wrongly attributes Anglo-Indian legislative representation to Article 335 — it misses the genuine error entirely.
- (4)All of the above — This treats every statement as incorrect, but B and C are both accurate, near-verbatim descriptions of Article 337's education-grant scheme for the Anglo-Indian community. Only statement A, which misattributes Article 335 (actually about SC/ST service claims) to Anglo-Indian representation, is genuinely wrong; sweeping B and C into the same judgment overstates the error and fails to isolate the one statement that is actually false.
The Constitution originally contained several time-bound special provisions for the Anglo-Indian community, reflecting their distinct social and historical position at Independence. Article 331 provided for the President to nominate Anglo-Indian members to the Lok Sabha if the community was not, in the President's opinion, adequately represented there, and Article 333 provided a parallel nomination mechanism for State Legislative Assemblies by the Governor. Article 336 dealt with continued preferential appointment of Anglo-Indians already in the railway, customs, postal and telegraph services for a limited period after Independence. Article 337 dealt separately and specifically with educational grants: any grants made for Anglo-Indian education in the year ending 31 March 1948 would continue at that level for the first three financial years after the Constitution's commencement, with the grant permitted to taper by up to 10% in each subsequent three-year period, and provided that at least 40% of admissions in a grant-receiving institution be open to students outside the Anglo-Indian community. Article 335, entirely separately, deals with Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe claims to services and posts, balanced against maintaining administrative efficiency — a provision unrelated to the Anglo-Indian community. All the specific Anglo-Indian representation provisions (Articles 331 and 333) were eventually removed by the 104th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2019, which discontinued reserved/nominated Anglo-Indian seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
MPSC's polity questions on minority and community-specific constitutional provisions frequently test whether a candidate can correctly attach each numbered Article to its actual subject, rather than assuming any Article discussed alongside 'Anglo-Indian' or 'reservation' language must relate to the community. Article 335 (SC/ST service claims) is a particularly effective distractor for an Anglo-Indian question because it appears in the same general neighbourhood of the Constitution (Part XVI, 'Special Provisions Relating to Certain Classes') as Articles 331, 333, 336 and 337, all of which genuinely do concern Anglo-Indians — making the misattribution plausible to a candidate who has only a rough sense of which Articles cluster together.
- Article 335 concerns Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe claims to services and posts, balanced against administrative efficiency — it is unrelated to the Anglo-Indian community.
- Article 331 (Lok Sabha) and Article 333 (State Legislative Assemblies) were the actual provisions for Anglo-Indian legislative representation, both omitted by the 104th Amendment Act, 2019.
- Article 337 provides for Anglo-Indian education grants: continuation of 1948-level funding for the first three post-Constitution financial years, tapering by up to 10% every subsequent three-year period.
- Article 337 required at least 40% of admissions in a grant-receiving institution to be available to communities other than Anglo-Indian.
- All of Part XVI's Anglo-Indian-specific provisions (Articles 331, 333, 336, 337) were designed as time-bound, transitional safeguards, not permanent constitutional guarantees.
Only A is wrong — the article number is misattributed.
- Assuming any Article numbered close to genuine Anglo-Indian provisions (331, 333, 336, 337) must itself concern the Anglo-Indian community
- Confusing Article 335 (SC/ST service claims) with Article 336 (Anglo-Indian service continuation) simply because both deal with government service appointments
- Treating the education-grant scheme's precise numbers (three years, 10% taper, 40% other-community admissions) as interchangeable or approximate rather than exact figures
- Not registering that Articles 331 and 333 have since been omitted by the 104th Amendment, so treating them as still operative for current-affairs purposes
MPSC polity questions on Part XVI's community-specific provisions often list several statements with precise Article numbers and figures, deliberately swapping in a plausible but wrong Article number (like 335 for Anglo-Indian representation, when it actually governs SC/ST service claims) to test whether a candidate has verified the exact Article-to-subject mapping rather than relying on the general neighbourhood of related Articles.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which Articles of the Constitution originally provided for the nomination of Anglo-Indian members to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, before being omitted by the 104th Amendment Act, 2019 ?
- (a)Articles 330 and 332
- (b)Articles 331 and 333
- (c)Articles 335 and 336
- (d)Articles 338 and 338A
Answer(b) Articles 331 and 333 — Article 331 provided for nomination to the Lok Sabha and Article 333 for nomination to State Legislative Assemblies; both were omitted by the 104th Amendment Act, 2019.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Article 335 of the Constitution of India deals with which subject ?
- (a)Anglo-Indian representation in legislatures
- (b)Claims of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to services and posts
- (c)Educational grants for the Anglo-Indian community
- (d)Special provisions for linguistic minorities
Answer(b) Claims of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to services and posts — Article 335 requires SC/ST claims to appointments in Union and State services to be considered consistently with maintaining administrative efficiency.