Article 29 is a provision within Part III of the Constitution of India, which guarantees Fundamental Rights to citizens. It was adopted and entered into force on January 26, 1950, following debates in the Constituent Assembly that aimed to secure the cultural and educational rights of minorities in a diverse nation. The article is titled "Protection of interests of minorities," but its first clause applies to any section of citizens.
Article 29 works through two distinct clauses. Clause (1) grants any section of the citizens residing in India, having a distinct language, script, or culture of its own, the right to conserve the same. This right to "conserve" has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to mean that the State cannot take steps to erode a community's culture, language, or script, and it allows citizens the freedom to preserve their heritage themselves. Clause (2) is an individual right that prohibits the denial of admission to any citizen into an educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language, or any of them.
This provision is closely connected to Article 30, which grants religious and linguistic minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. The two articles together form the "Cultural and Educational Rights" cluster. A significant judicial interpretation occurred in State of Madras v. Champakam Dorairajan (1951), where the Supreme Court struck down caste-based reservation in educational institutions, citing Article 29(2). This judgment directly led to the First Constitutional Amendment, which added Article 15(4) to allow special provisions for the advancement of socially and educationally backward classes. More recently, the Supreme Court, in the case In Re: Section 6A of The Citizenship Act, 1955, reaffirmed in 2024 that the right under Article 29(1) is not restricted to minorities and applies to all sections of citizens with a distinct culture.