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Introduction
The Preamble
to a Constitution embodies the fundamental values and the
philosophy, on which the Constitution is based, and the aims and
objectives, which the founding fathers of the Constitution
enjoined the polity to strive to achieve. The importance and
utility of the Preamble has been pointed out in several decisions
of the Supreme Court of India.
Though, by
itself, it is not enforceable in Court of Law , the Preamble to a
written Constitution states the objects which the constitution
seeks to establish and promote and also aids the legal
interpretation of the Constitution where the language is found to
be ambiguous .
The Preamble
to our Constitution serves, two purposes:
(a) It indicates the source from which the constitution derives
its authority:
(b) It also states the objects which the constitution seeks to
establish and promote.
The words-
We, the people
of India.
adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution?, thus,
declare the ultimate sovereignty of the people of India and that
the constitution rests on their authority . Sovereignty means the
independent authority of a state. It means that it has the power
to legislate on any subject; and that is not subject to the
control of any other state or external power. The Preamble
declares, therefore, in unequivocal terms that the source of all
authority under the Constitution is the people of India and that
there is no subordination to any external authority. It means a
government by the people and for the people.
The fraternity
which is professed in the Preamble is not confined within the
bounds of the national territory; it is ready to overflow them to
reach the loftier ideal of universal brotherhood; which can hardly
be better expressed than in the memorable words of Pandit Nehru:
the only
possible, real object that we, in common with other nations, can
have is the object of co-operating in building up some kind of a
world structure, call it one world, call it what you like.
Thus, though
India declares her Sovereignty to manage her own affairs, in no
unmistakable terms, the Constitution does not support
isolationism. The picture of a
democratic
republic
which the Preamble envisages is democratic not only from the
political but also from the social standpoint; in other words, it
envisages not only a democratic form of government but also a
democratic society, infused with the spirit of
justice,
liberty, equality and fraternity.
(a) As a form
of government, the democracy, which is envisaged, is, of course, a
representative democracy and there are in our Constitution no
agencies of direct control by the people, such as
referendum
or
initiative.
The Constitution holds out equality to all citizens in the matter
of choices of their representatives, who are to run the
governmental machinery. The ideal of a democratic republic
enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution can be best
explained with the reference to the adoption of universal
suffrage.
(b) The
offering of equal opportunity to men and women, irrespective of
their caste and creed, in the matter of public employment also
implements this democratic ideal. The treatment of minorities,
even apart from the constitutional safeguards, clearly brings out
that those in power have not overlooked the philosophy underlying
the Constitution.
That this
Democratic Republic stands for the good of all the people is
embodied in the concept of a ?Welfare State? that inspires the
Directive Principles of State policy. The
economic
justice
assured by the Preamble can hardly achieved if the democracy
envisaged by the Constitution were confined to a political
democracy. In the words of Pandit Nehru:
Democracy has
been spoken of chiefly in the past, as political democracy,
roughly represented by every person having a vote. But a vote by
itself does not represent very much to a person who is down and
out, by itself, is not enough except that it may be used to obtain
a gradually increasing measure of economic democracy, equality and
the spread of good things of life to others and removal of gross
inequalities
Dr.
Radhakrishnan has put it-
Poor
people who wander about, find no work, no wages and starve, whose
lives are a Continual round of sore affliction and pinching
poverty, cannot be proud of the constitution or its law.
This shows that the Indian Constitution provides not only
political but also social democracy, as explained by Dr. Ambedkar
in his speech in Constituent Assembly:
Political
democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social
democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life
that recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity, which are not to
be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of
trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to
defeat the very purpose of democracy. Liberty cannot be divorced
from equality; equality cannot be divorced from liberty. Nor can
liberty and equality be divorced from fraternity.
The state in a
democratic society derives its strength from the cooperative and
dispassionate will of all its free and equal citizens . Social and
economic democracy is the foundation on which political democracy
would be a way of life in the Indian polity . The banishment of
poverty, not by expropriation of those who have, but by the
multiplication of the national wealth and resources and an
equitable distribution thereof amongst all who contribute towards
its production, is the aim of the state envisaged by the Directive
Principles to the extent that this goal is reached. The ideal of
economic justice is to make equality of status meaningful and life
worth living at its best removing inequality of opportunity and of
status- social, economic and political . SOCIAL JUSTICE is a
fundamental right . Social Justice is the comprehensive form to
remove social imbalance and will build up a welfare state .
Combining the ideals of political, social and economic democracy
with that of equality and fraternity, the Preamble seeks to
establish what Mahatma Gandhi described as
The India of
my dreams,
namely -
An India, in
which the poorest shall feel that it is their country in whose
making an effective voice?an India in which all communities shall
live in perfect harmony.
WORDS IN
PREAMBLE: JUDICIALLY DEFINED WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA
Nowhere does a Constitution state expressly or declare that all
powers vest in the ultimate analysis in the people of India or the
ultimate or residual power or the sovereignty vests in the people
of India. The Constituent Assembly itself was divide
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Preamble: A Key To Open The Minds Of The Framers Of The 
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author can be reached at: romit@legalserviceindia.com /
