Whither Indian Constitution

by Girish Mishra; December 30, 2007

More than six decades have elapsed since India’s independence and almost fifty years of its becoming a republic. It is interesting to look back and see how far it has marched towards its declared goals.

In the very beginning of the Constitution of India, there is Preamble that states the goals towards which the people of the country have to try their level best to march. These goals have to inform each and every action of theirs. Preamble reads as follows:

“WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political

LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity and to promote among them all

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.”

Keeping in view the basic spirit of the Preamble, the Constitution has provided for only one kind of citizenship throughout the country. In other words, there can be no discrimination among citizens on the basis of religion, gender, caste, language, colour and place of residence. In 1976, the 42nd amendment joined the words “socialist” and “secular” together. Thus the establishment of a society in which there would be no discrimination on the basis of religion and belief was mandated. Every citizen was given the freedom to propagate his religion or faith peacefully. It was made crystal clear that state would have no religion of its own. In state-run or funded institutions, no religious education or preaching would be encouraged nor would the construction of any place of worship be allowed. Simultaneously, the state was mandated to strive for establishing an equalitarian society in which there would be no place for exploitation and oppression.

State was to work towards doing away with regional economic imbalances inherited from British imperialist rule of almost two hundred years. This was necessary to strengthen national integrity and ward off the danger of separatism cropping up. At the same time, an emphasis was placed on eliminating inequalities and discriminations prevalent in the society. It was felt that, without this, there could be no social cohesion. To this end in view, special measures were needed to uplift Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women. Special scholarships, quotas in jobs, etc. were proposed. To begin with, reservation of seats in Parliament and state legislatures for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was provided for by the Constitution.

Speedy economic development with emphasis on doing away with regional imbalances and all sorts of social discriminations and inequalities rampant for ages was thought to be the panacea. It was realized by national movement and the leaders who came to preside over India’s destiny after Independence that speedy economic development was predicated on modern science and technology, though it was not by itself sufficient. Secularism, rationalism and socialism were no less important.

Secularism stressed that state and society should concentrate their attention on mundane, rather than otherworldly, matters and supernatural phenomena. Religion should not play any role in the conduct of business by society and state. It should remain confined strictly to private domain of individuals. High value is placed on the rational manipulation of human and material environment. Rationality is the opposite of superstition and magic. In the context of economic development it means the adoption of means, processes, and organisation of production to turning over goods and services in the most efficient possible way. From the days of renaissance and reformation, the fight against superstition and magic had accelerated. Scientists like Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and others and philosophers like Voltaire, Rousseau, Hobbes, Locke and so on and, much later, Charles Darwin pushed up rational ideas. This lessened the hold of religion and the Church on state and public life.

Rationality aroused the need to decipher the mysteries of nature and its laws scientifically. In Western Europe, the barriers against the import of scientific ideas and technological devices from other societies collapsed. It imported many useful ideas and devices from China and elsewhere. In India, no such urge was witnessed. In fact, the upper caste Hindus looked down upon the West as the abode of the barbarians. Till the nineteenth century, West Europeans were regarded as greedy, ignorant and uncultured and all contacts with them were to be shunned. Orthodox Hindu opinion in India frowned upon crossing the seas and oceans to go to European countries. The people like Raja Ram Mohun Roy constituted a minuscule group with not much influence outside the English educated.

By 1727, the change in values and attitudes in Britain had become so great that men of science and technology were accorded more respect and honour than to politicians and the royalty and it became obvious at the state funeral of Isaac Newton, a mere scientist, in the Westminster Abbey, at which the highest in the land were proud to act as pall-bearers. Voltaire, an eye-witness to the whole thing, wrote in his Letters on England: “Not long ago, in a distinguished company, they were discussing this time-honoured and frivolous question: who was the greatest man, Caesar, Alexander, Tamburlaine, Cromwell, etc.

“Somebody answered that it was unquestionably Isaac Newton. He was right, for if true greatness consists in having received from heaven a powerful genius and in having used it to enlighten himself and others, a man such as Newton, the like of whom is scarcely to be found in ten centuries, is the truly great man, and these politicians and conquerors, in which no period has been lacking, are usually nothing more than illustrious criminals. It is to the man who rules over minds by the power of truth, not to those who enslave men by violence, it is to the man who understands the universe and not to those who disfigure it, that we owe our respect.”

This has been rarely seen in India after the end of the Nehru era. At present, all sorts of criminals and corrupt people command more respect than a scientist or man of letters. India media sing hymns of praise for businessmen, actors and actresses indulging in obscenity and vulgarity and tainted politicians because they happen to be moneyed. Print or electronic media rarely give a few centimeters of space when a distinguished man of science, technology or literature passes away.

To promote economic development, people at large must take interest and participate in it. This can happen only when they hope to receive their due share of the fruits of development. There is no inborn inequality between man and man. This attitude was developed and imparted a scientific basis by socialism. This can be easily understood in the perspective of the Constitution of India. It is a matter of great regret that India has been continuously deviating from it.

To illustrate this, let us take “secularism”. On Saturday, August 16, 2003, from 8.10 to 9 PM, the BBC television had a programme, entitled “Hindu Nation,” in which a number of prominent Indians participated. Two of them were the BJP leader and Deputy Prime Minister of India, L. K. Advani, and the former Chief Minister and prominent Congress leader, Digvijay Singh. Not withstanding sharp ideological differences between their two parties, surprisingly they were one about unsuitability of secularism. They held that secularism had failed to play any effective role in country’s politics and economic development because it was supposedly contrary to people’s thinking. Singh opined that the Congress was unable to fight the RSS, the mother-organisation of the BJP because it was not able to relate itself to religious feelings of the people at large. Advani stressed that, because of secularism, the Hindus could not take pride in their great ancient religion. In short, both leaders, in spite of belonging to two different parties ideologically opposed to each other, was one in holding that Hindu religion, in the garb of secularism, should be made the basis of Indian polity and of the official outlook. Obviously, very few people who run the administration are seriously committed to secularism. Over the years, especially since the demise of Nehru, places of worship have mushroomed on public land, and in the premises of educational institutions and other government establishments. Religious rituals are performed and hymns sung at official functions like inauguration, and launching of projects.

Coming to socialism, nowadays, it is never mentioned by government documents, leaders and, even by Congressmen, Communists and Socialists. It seems, they think, the collapse of the Soviet Union has ended the relevance of socialism. They forget that socialist ideas and the yearning for an equalitarian socio-economic system have been there since time immemorial. Their seeds are found in the works of devotional poets in almost every language of India. Why they have been put under the carpet needs serious investigation. Needless to say that it shows an utter disregard for the Constitution and the commitments made to the people of India during the freedom struggle and after Independence.

Superstitions and religious intolerance were severely attacked by devotional poets and philosophers of India. Sikhism and Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Samaj and so on came heavily on them. Buddhism rejected caste system and religious rituals. In spite of this great tradition, religious intolerance, rituals and superstitions are on the increase. States run by the governments in which the BJP is a participant have been encouraging them. Religious intolerance has manifested itself in attacks on Muslims and Christians. The Gujarat carnage and the riots in the wake of BJP leader Advani’s ratha yatra have not been forgotten. In Gujarat and Orissa, Christian missionaries and churches have been quite often targeted. In Orissa, an Australian missionary, Graham Staines, and his children were burnt alive by the activists belonging to a sister organisation of the BJP. In recent days, a number of churches and Christian families have been attacked in Orissa by the same outfit. In Gujarat, there have been several such incidents of assaults on Christians, their property and places of worship. The famed painter M.F.Hussain and his works are constant targets of the BJP and its ally, Shiv Sena. Only a few months ago, intolerance of the BJP and its sister organisations was seen on the campus of the Sayaji Rao University, Baroda in Gujarat, ruled by Narendra Modi. In the name of preventing religious conversion, repression has been let loose.

When the BJP-led NDA government was in power in New Delhi, its Human Resource Development minister, Dr. M.M.Joshi, did his level best to get history text books re-written to suit his backward-looking ideology and inculcate in the young minds a feeling of hatred and intolerance towards the minorities. He also tried to introduce astrology and other such subjects. He could not succeed because of a strong popular opposition.

. On the economic front, the acceptance of neo-liberalism inherent in economic reforms based on the Washington consensus has led to the demolition of the public sector, shelving the unfinished task of land reforms, reduction in the rates of taxation on the rich, curtailment of subsidies to the weaker sections of the society and making public distribution system more and more ineffective. With growing privatisation and dependence on market forces, the policy of reservations in jobs for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs is becoming redundant. All this has led to increasing regional imbalances and social inequalities. In Bihar, Jharkhand and U.P., while old industrial units are downing their shutters, no new investments are coming. Liberalisation of foreign trade has killed numerous small-scale industrial units, making people connected with them unemployed and miserable. With the demise of rural industries, there has been an exodus of people from rural to urban areas, leading, among others, to a fast growth in slums. The ascendancy and growing dominance of neo-liberalism has made the constitutional stipulation of India being a “sovereign” nation meaningless.

The aim of a common citizenship has been fast becoming meaningless with growing attacks on the immigrants from other regions. The armed attacks in Assam, Mumbai and elsewhere and concerned authorities looking the other way underline increasing disrespect to the Constitution.

Parliamentary democracy is in a great peril as more and more criminal and corrupt elements have been successfully entering Parliament and state legislature. Not only the Prime Minister but also chief ministers and other ministers have been fighting shy of seeking direct electoral mandate. Most parties are guilty of accommodating defeated candidates in their ministries and helping them to enter Parliament and state legislature through backdoors. Incidents of corruption and criminal acts involving several members of Parliament and state legislature indicate how far our democracy has deviated from the path charted by the makers of our Constitution. It is high time that thinking minds ponder over the present situation before it becomes too late.

gmishra@girishmishra.com