“We The People Of India”

“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;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this 26th day of November, 1949,
do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.”

The above mentioned Preamble to The Constitution of India is an introductory statement, a guiding principle for the functioning of the country. It says the authority, in every way, lies with the people of India. The directions for the nation are laid out and can be considered as the spirit and soul of the constitution, and hence the country.

Whenever I read these lines, I get goosebumps. Each time, I dream of India the way it is projected in the Preamble. Giving priority to Justice above Liberty, Equality and Fraternity in itself shows that Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, a social reformer, was bent on developing India as a just society. Today, it has been 127 Years since he started his journey of life and throughout his lifetime, touched infinite number of milestones. Considered to be one of the most educated people in the world, he dedicated himself towards building a modern India where the voice of the down-trodden as well as of those deprived of their rights and liberty shall not only be heard but also acted upon.

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar has been projected as “The Father of the Constitution” in school books but that’s pretty much the only thing books mention about him. There’s much more a child in India should know about this “Bharat Ratna”. A large number of people regard him as a ‘Masiha’ (the divine angel) for Dalits. But we should be aware that he not only fought for Dalits but for another lesser-empowered section of the society – Women. More than sections, he believed in Equality. While history books say that Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was the Architect of Modern India, in my humble opinion, if one reads about Dr. Ambedkar and his books, one would come to know that he also played a crucial role in building this nation.

He was the child who was not allowed to sit in the class, who was seen as someone to take away the purity of books merely by his touch. They called him an “Untouchable” but look what he did – he went on to write the Constitution of India. He supported the ideology that everyone should be equal. He said that, We, are not the people of a Religion, Caste, Age or Gender but “the People of India”.

India, as a democracy, with all its diversity, is of the people, for the people and by the people. In today’s scenario, this is only getting worse. We are moving towards a civil war. The kind of atrocities being inflicted upon human beings, be it Dalits, Women, Children or Men, only speak of suffering and injustice.

Take the recent case in Kathua, where a 8-year-old girl was brutally gang-raped and murdered. The way media and other entities are involving different political groups to project it as a religious issue, it is sure to result in communal disharmony. Even though the terms ‘Socialist’ and ‘Secular’ were inserted in the Preamble through 42nd Constitutional Amendment in 1976, in practice, they were already a part of the Preamble in 1950. The way our Constitution has been drafted, it is evident that Dr. Ambedkar was always a believer in peace and harmony. His attempt to protect the civil, political, social and cultural rights is visible through Part III of the Indian constitution.

He once mentioned, “I believe, if India has to become a great nation, it has to free the society from all kind of discrimination, give Dalits equal rights, give Dalits freedom. I have a dream that one day Indians will think beyond caste and religion. I will end with words of Martin Luther King Jr. from his ‘Letter from a Birmingham jail’ (just change colored, nigger, negro to Dalit and whites to so called upper caste and almost everything is so true)”

The only people who have to fulfill his dream of India are “WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA”.