Constitution is steeped in India’s civilisational values — but it’s not stuck in the past

To accidental that the Constitution framers thought of India arsenic conscionable a nation-state and undermined its civilisational individuality is factually incorrect. There were repeated references to our civilisation successful Constituent Assembly deliberations. For instance, supporting Nehru’s Objective Resolution — guiding principles that helped the Constituent Assembly of India draught the Constitution — Krishna Sinha criticised the federation versus civilisation binary. “There has arisen successful India, an Indian nation, with Indian civilization and an Indian civilisation,” helium said.

Critics should, astatine least, judge the views of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, laminitis of Jana Sangh who besides supported the Objective Resolution. He said, “After all, we are sitting present not successful our idiosyncratic capableness but we assertion to correspond the radical of this large land. Our authorisation is not the British Parliament, our authorisation is not the British Government; our authorisation is the radical of India.”

In fact, portion moving the Objective Resolution connected December 13, 1946, Nehru recalled the large “civilisational travel of 5,000 years”. He termed it the infinitesimal of modulation from aged to new, erstwhile this “ancient land” would attain its rightful and honoured place. Purushottam Das Tandon mentioned past assemblies astatine which pandits discussed important affairs. He talked of protecting the civilisation, portion besides moving forward.

The assertion that the Constitution has nary intrinsic worth and decoloniality is imperative to forestall the decimation of what remains of “Bharat’s indigeneity” is excessively sweeping. For immoderate specified critics of the Constitution, indigenous individuality means the Aryan identity, not that of the Adivasis. Jaspal Singh, representing the Adivasis successful the Constituent Assembly asserted, “Adivasis are the archetypal inhabitants of India and Aryans were intruders.” He said that the Objective Resolution cannot thatch the Adivasis arsenic they person been practising ideology for ages.

A conception of the Constitution’s critics privation to beryllium seen arsenic the saviours of Indic civilisation and reason constitutionalism, secularism, socialism and individualism. They reason the Sabarimala judgement (2017) for its reliance connected law morality. But then, was not Ashoka’s Dhamma a benignant of law morality, and not state-sponsored religion? Does not the word dharma mean righteousness alternatively than immoderate religion? In 1944, Hindu Mahasabha framed the Constitution of the Hindustan Free State. Twenty years earlier, the Constitution of the Irish Free State came into force. Aren’t determination similarities successful the names? Article 8(15) of the Mahasabha’s Constitution declares that determination shall beryllium nary authorities religion. Secularism was possibly much explicitly incorporated successful the Hindu right-wing constitution compared to the country’s Constitution.

M R Masani underlined the cardinal contented earlier the Constituent Assembly: Should the authorities ain radical oregon the radical ain the state? He said, “in our democracy, men volition neither beryllium slaves to capitalism nor to a enactment oregon the state. Man volition beryllium free”. India adopted British parliamentary ideology but alternatively of having a hereditary caput of state, the state became a republic with an elected caput of state. In borrowing cardinal rights from the US, the Constitution framers incorporated restrictions successful the substance itself. The American doctrine of “due process” was rejected. Unlike different federations, our governors are nominated by the Centre and not elected by the radical and we opted for separation of functions alternatively than separation of powers. Are not ideas of the separation of powers fundamentally portion of the Indian civilisation’s ethos of Lakshman Rekha?

Our past assemblies did not person nonstop elections based connected cosmopolitan big suffrage. India had a caste strategy that undermined equality, liberty and idiosyncratic dignity. In the Constituent Assembly, Hansa Mehta spoke astatine magnitude connected the unequal presumption of women successful past India. We borrowed individualism from the West retired of our escaped choice.

A constitution sets the docket for the future. It should look forward, not backward. Learning from the past is bully but an uncritical outlook towards the past and the tendency to revive past values is fundamentalism. We are so arrogant of our glorious civilisation that gave commencement to the thought of India that underlines extortion to, and preservation of diversity, tolerance and acceptance. If the full satellite is our family, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, we are entitled to follow ideas from anywhere.

The writer teaches law instrumentality and is Vice-Chancellor of Chanakya National Law University, Patna. Views are personal