The purpose of the Indian Constitution
By Justice Katju
A video discussion was held by the eminent Indian Supreme Court lawyer, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, and former Indian Union Minister Kapil Sibal with 3 lawyers on the topic ” Has the Indian Constitution failed us, or have we failed the Constitution “
Most of the panelists said that the people of India have failed the Constitution. In other words, they think there is nothing wrong with the Constitution.
In my opinion the very question has been wrongly put. So let me explain.
The Indian Constitution was made borrowing from Western models. Our Constitution makers borrowed the parliamentary system of democracy and an independent judiciary from Great Britain, the fundamental rights and federal system of government from the US Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy from the Irish Constitution etc.
Thus the Indian Constitution had modern principles like freedom of speech, liberty, equality, freedom of religion and secularism, etc, and it set up modern institutions like parliamentary democracy, independent judiciary, non- political bureaucracy, etc
This modern Constitution was transplanted from above and imposed on a largely feudal country, which India was at the time of Independence in 1947.
Thus the Indian Constitution and Indian society did not correspond with each other, the Constitution being modern, while society being feudal and backward. This was unlike Western countries, where the Constitution and society corresponded with each other, both being modern.
The thinking of our Constitution makers was that this modern Constitution will transform our feudal, backward society and uplift it into the modern age.
And to some extent, and for some time after the Constitution was made in 1950 it did. More children, including girls, started going to school, engineering colleges and steel mills were set up, etc.
But thereafter this process was reversed our modern institutions were gradually feudalized, and the modern principles of freedom of speech, liberty, secularism, etc were made fig leafs, hollow and empty shells. Under the BJP rule from 2014 atrocities against Muslims have increased exponentially, freedom of speech has been considerably curtailed, criticism of the government and communal agents becoming dangerous, as in Germany in the Nazi era.
How did this happen ?
It happened because the basic misconception of our Constitution makers was that transformation of a feudal country into a modern one can be achieved by merely making a modern Constitution or modern laws.
In fact all historical experience shows that such radical transformation can only be achieved by a mighty historical people’s struggle led by patriotic, selfless, modern minded leaders, culminating in a historical people’s revolution, as it happened in England in the 17th century, in France in 1789, in Russia in 1917, and in China in 1924-49.
Without such a people’s struggle and people’s revolution it is a total fallacy to believe that such radical transformation of a nation is possible by merely making a modern Constitution and imposing it from above on a feudal, backward society,
What purpose the Indian Constitution is now serving has been detailed in the article below :
