While presenting the draft of the Constitution in the Constituent Assembly, Babasaheb described what he perceived as the core nature of Bharat’s Constitution. This was not just an expression of confidence in the works of the drafting committee but a statement of the document’s intent and inherent philosophy governing the nation. Marking 75 years of its adoption by the Constituent Assembly, there is a scholarly consensus today on how the Constitution has become an organic document of the country responding to the will of its people, the needs of governance and the demands of the institutions.
(The Constitution) is workable, it is flexible and it is strong enough to hold the country together both in peacetime and in wartime
– B R Ambedkar
Samvidhan Diwas, celebrated on November 26 every year, is a suitable occasion to honour the living legacy of a document which carries Bharat’s civilisational ethos codified in, perhaps, the language and vocabulary of liberal and legal philosophy. This year, on the completion of 75 years of adoption of the Constitution, Samvidhan Diwas represents a remarkable moment in the civilisational history of Bharat where the nation reaffirms the promises of Babasaheb Ambedkar and reconciles with its aspirations and commitment towards a Viksit Bharat.
Bhartiya Constitutional Values
The recently concluded biggest festival of democracy ever carried out in the history of humanity witnessed the participation of more than 900 million registered voters. The deepening of democracy in Bharat is not just reflective of the citizenry’s trust in people’s mandate and the nation’s institutions but also should be seen as a renewed commitment of its citizens to constitutional values. Every electoral exercise is a testament to the real workings of the principles that govern our Constitution. The same constitutional thought also prevents any anarchic ideas from taking root in society.
In its comprehensive journey from being imagined and conceived in a colonised reality by anti-colonial leaders and representatives to its ever-expanding significance in Bharat’s contemporary de-colonised-colonised reality, the Constitution of India should also be studied as a cultural text or through a cultural lens. A transformative understanding of the Constitution from a legal document to a civilisational literature which could have been produced, practised and preached only by a rooted culture, can be arrived at. In its invocation of fundamental rights and justice – social, political and economic, the Constitution may adopt a vocabulary of liberal philosophy and carry undertones of colonial modernity; however, the fact that the generations of Bharitya people have lived, upheld and continue to add to the constitutional principles and meanings suggests that the embedded philosophy comes from a more rooted organic experience and Bharatiya epistemic frameworks.
One of the noteworthy achievements of the Bharatiya Constitution is to recognise and make provisions for the marginalised sections of society. It reflects the diverse, reformative and even self-critical intellectual culture that Bharat has historically witnessed. The Constitution, thus, carries the accumulated wisdom and collective memory of Bharat as a civilisational society. The underlying philosophy of the Constitution, which defines and delivers institutions for the nation, goes beyond the formal points of reference that codify the functioning of the government and set up the ambit of the law.
Vernacularisation
The legal and scholarly community among other stakeholders, while the nation moves towards the objectives and frameworks of Viksit Bharat 2047, have a responsibility towards deepening the engagement of the citizenry with the Constitution. In her address on the 75th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s establishment, the President remarked on the inaccessibility of the laws and the delivery of justice for the common citizenry. The legislation, the judgements, the Constitution, and its accompanying secondary texts should be readily available in the regional languages of Bharat. It is the responsibility of vernacularisation that awaits the stakeholders of the Amrit kaal to make the Constitution more accessible and its reach more widespread.
Challenges
The biggest blow to constitutional values and principles comes from the empty rhetoric of a feudal and dynastic ruling class. This rhetoric functions because the country’s citizenry does not make informed political and social choices. The messiah complex needs to be countered with increased de-colonised engagements with the constitutional text, cultural and civilisational readings of the constitutional principles and Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita. Through continuous democratic exercises throughout the country, the people of India remain assured of making the Constitution work for themselves. They are the sole guarantees of social justice to themselves.
Among its social aspirations, implementing the Uniform Civil Code will revive the nation’s commitment to equality and gender justice. It will also bridge the chasm between the constitution’s the socio-political reality of the country it ideationally governs. This unparalleled document is a civilisational achievement of the Bhartiya people that they judiciously employ for their betterment.
