Special Provision for Anglo-Indians in Services

Anglo-Indian services reservation refers to the temporary constitutional guarantee under Article 336, which protected the community's continued appointment to certain Union services after Independence while phasing that protection out over a fixed ten-year window. It sits within Part XVI of the Constitution, the cluster of special provisions relating to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward classes and the Anglo-Indian community, and stands out as one of the few reservation provisions the Constitution itself built with an automatic expiry date.

Why a Separate Provision for Anglo-Indians

Before Independence, members of the Anglo-Indian community held a recognised, protected share of appointments in specific Union services — the railway, customs, postal and telegraph services. Article 336 was drafted to manage the transition of this pre-existing arrangement into the new constitutional order, rather than to create a fresh entitlement. It did so by anchoring the starting point of the guarantee to the position "immediately before the fifteenth day of August, 1947" — the date of Indian independence — and then winding the arrangement down on a fixed schedule instead of leaving it open-ended.

What Article 336 Provides

Article 336(1) covers appointments of members of the Anglo-Indian community specifically to posts in the railway, customs, postal and telegraph services of the Union. For the first two years after the commencement of the Constitution, such appointments were to continue on the same basis as they stood immediately before 15 August 1947. After that, for every succeeding two-year period, the number of posts reserved for the community in these services was to be reduced, as nearly as possible, by ten per cent compared with the immediately preceding period. A proviso to the clause fixed an outer limit: all such reservations were to cease altogether at the end of ten years from the commencement of the Constitution, regardless of how the phased reduction had proceeded.

Article 336(2) clarifies that this arrangement was not meant to restrict Anglo-Indian candidates generally. It states that nothing in clause (1) bars the appointment of members of the Anglo-Indian community to posts other than, or in addition to, those reserved for them under the clause — meaning the community's members remained free to compete for and be appointed to any other posts, with clause (1) only governing the specific reserved quota in the four named services.

The Ten-Year Phase-Out, Illustrated

The text of Article 336(1) sets out its own arithmetic: a flat continuation for the first two years, then a roughly 10 percentage-point reduction every two years, ending in complete cessation by year ten. Applied to the Constitution's commencement on 26 January 1950, the schedule the article itself describes works out as follows.

Placement Within Part XVI

Article 336 does not stand alone. It is part of Part XVI's broader set of special provisions relating to certain classes — Articles 330 to 342A — which cover reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in legislatures, special representation, reservation in services and posts, educational grants, and the national commissions for these groups. Within this set, Article 336 is immediately preceded by Article 335 (claims of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to services and posts) and immediately followed by Article 337, which makes a related but distinct special provision for educational grants for the benefit of the Anglo-Indian community. Article 336 itself deals only with employment in the four named Union services; it does not extend to representation in legislatures or to educational grants, which are addressed by separate articles in the same Part.

UPSC Relevance

Prelims

• Article 336 covers only four Union services by name: railway, customs, postal and telegraph.
• The base date for continuity of the pre-existing arrangement is 15 August 1947, not the date the Constitution commenced.
• All reservations under Article 336(1) cease at the end of ten years from the commencement of the Constitution, by an express proviso.
• Article 336(2) preserves the general eligibility of Anglo-Indian candidates for posts outside the reserved quota.

Mains

• Discuss how Article 336 illustrates the Constitution's use of a self-terminating, time-bound special provision as distinct from open-ended reservation clauses elsewhere in Part XVI.
• Examine the relationship between Article 336 (services) and Article 337 (educational grants) as a coordinated transitional safeguard for the Anglo-Indian community.

FAQ

Q1. Which services did Article 336 cover? It covered appointments of Anglo-Indian community members specifically to posts in the railway, customs, postal and telegraph services of the Union.

Q2. From what date was continuity measured? Continuity for the first two years after the Constitution's commencement was measured against the position immediately before 15 August 1947, the date of Indian independence.

Q3. By how much did the reservation shrink over time, and when did it end? Every two years after the first, the reserved posts were to be reduced by about ten per cent from the previous period, with a proviso ending all such reservations completely at the end of ten years from the Constitution's commencement.

Q4. Did Article 336 stop Anglo-Indians from getting other jobs? No. Article 336(2) expressly preserves their ability to be appointed to posts other than, or in addition to, those reserved under clause (1).

Q5. How does Article 336 relate to Article 337? Article 336 deals with reserved employment in four named Union services, while the immediately following Article 337 makes a separate special provision for educational grants for the benefit of the Anglo-Indian community; both sit together in Part XVI's set of transitional safeguards.

Quick Revision

• Article 336: special, time-bound provision for Anglo-Indian appointments in railway, customs, postal and telegraph services.
• First two years: continuity with pre-15 August 1947 position.
• Every two years thereafter: reserved posts reduced by about 10% from the prior period.
• Proviso: all reservations cease at the end of ten years from the Constitution's commencement.
• Article 336(2): does not bar appointment to posts beyond the reserved quota.
• Located in Part XVI, between Article 335 (SC/ST claims to services) and Article 337 (Anglo-Indian educational grants).

Sources

• The Constitution of India, Article 336 — https://legislative.gov.in/constitution-of-india/
• India Code, Constitution of India — https://www.indiacode.nic.in/

Further Reference

For deeper reading on this topic and the wider polity syllabus, these standard works are recommended:

• M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity (McGraw Hill) — the standard UPSC handbook.
• D.D. Basu, Introduction to the Constitution of India (LexisNexis) — authoritative constitutional-law treatment.
• The Constitution of India — Bare Act — the official text.

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