So its Republic Day today, here in India. On this day, 67 years ago in 1950 the Constitution of India came into effect. The constitution draft was accepted in the assembly on 26th November 1949.
The entire country goes into a different mood. Flag hoisting across the country, patriotic songs and time spent with friends and family.
After the flag hoisting ceremony, as the hosts of the program, I and my co-host decided to check if people still remember the Preamble of our constitution. We decided to speak to people across age groups and moved into the crowd with our questions.
What do you think? What percentage of people would have told us the Preamble?
You are right. None.
The ‘Preamble’ of the Constitution of India is a brief introductory statement that sets out the guiding purpose and principles of the document, and it indicates the source from which the document derives its authority and meaning. It drives its authority and meaning from the people of India. The hopes and aspiration of the people as well as the ideals before our nation are described in the preamble in clear cut words. It may be considered as the soul of Constitution.
While each one of us need to know our Preamble, we thought let’s check if people at least recollect some words mentioned in it.
When we asked for single words, we got favourable responses. People remembered and shared with us some key words. ‘Sovereign’, ‘Secular’, ‘Equality’ are some of the words that came in from different individuals.
We further asked if any one individual remembered all 5. We were not disappointed. One person knew all 5. ‘Sovereign’, ‘Secialist’, ‘Secular’, ‘Democratic’ and ‘Republic’.
The constitution secures the rights of the citizen and there is a mention of these rights in the Preamble. We decided to check if all people knew about the rights that are mentioned in the Preamble.
‘Justice’, ‘Liberty’, ‘Equality’. Bang came the reply from someone in the crowd, as though he was expecting this question. We felt great. But we also asked him the next question. What does it promote? His look indicated to us that we had asked him out of syllabus question.
Is there someone who can tell us what the Preamble promotes, we ask the crowd. We don’t get this one from the crowd. So we share the details.
The 3 things that Preamble mentions as the right of every citizen in the country are:
- JUSTICE : Social, Economic and Political
- LIBERTY : Of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship
- EQUALITY : of status and opportunity
It promotes FRATERNITY, assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.
Note : I and my co-host also took these questions while preparing for the program and even our performance wasn’t as impressive.
The Preamble reflects the philosophy as well as fundamental values of Indian Constitution.
- It mentions that the Constitution derives its Authority from the people of India.
- It declares India to be sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic and republic country.
- It clarifies the objectives of the Constitution are Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
- It states the date of Adoption i.e., 26 November 1949
- It came into effect on 26th January 1950.