By Farida Hasanali
On January 26th, 1950 India declared itself a Republic. I don’t know about you but it’s been ages since I last looked at my history or civics book to remember what that actually means. Researching this article was a great eye opener for me and made me realize again how proud I am to be an Indian and the great gift our forefathers gave us…our freedom.
Republic Day is a celebration of the day India became a true democratic republic. The day we signed the Constitution of India! Yes, we actually have a Constitution. The Constitution declares the Union of India to be a sovereign democratic republic assuring its citizens of justice, equality, liberty and of promoting fraternity among them all. Being the supreme law of the country, every law enacted by the government must conform to the constitution. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, as chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, was the Chief Architect of Indian Constitution. Following is the oath taken by our forefathers when signing the constitution.
“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 twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.”
By no means do I intend to go into the whole Constitution but I thought I might share some interesting facts and developments that some of us may not be privy to because we’ve been gone so long.
In 2000, three new states were added to India. Chhattisgarh (November 1, 2000) was created out of eastern Madhya Pradesh, Uttaranchal (November 9, 2000), since renamed Uttarakhand, was created out of the hilly regions of northwest Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand (15 November 2000) was created out of the southern districts of Bihar. The Union Territories of Delhi and Pondicherry (renamed to Puducherry) have since been given the right to elect their own legislatures and they are now counted as small states.
Section III of our constitution is my favorite so far. It covers our fundamental rights. I am sure no other section in the constitution is as violated as this one. Section III guarantees that as citizens of India we have the right to liberal democracies such as equality before law, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, freedom to practice religion, and the right to constitutional remedies for the protection of civil rights by means of writs such as habeas corpus. These rights apply universally to all citizens, irrespective of race, place of birth, religion, caste, creed, color or sex.
As we all know, what is written and intended and what is practiced are two very different things. For example, the freedom of speech and expression covers the freedom of the press. For anyone who has grown up in India we know, that Doordarshan was not allowed to freely report on anything. It was a highly controlled report of what the government wanted its population to hear. Another of our constitutional rights that we make a mockery of every day is the right to equality. All citizens in the eyes of the Constitution are equal. Really! We all know what happens not just behind closed doors but out in the open. People from “lower” castes are treated miserably. Child labor still abounds in India. Adults and children are still rampantly sold into prostitution. I know those of you whose families live in the cities and whose nieces and cousins are now educated and holding overseas jobs are thinking; things have changed. India has progressed. That is probably true to an extent, a small extent. Seventy percent of India is still rural and a majority of that percentage is still bound in slavery to the land owners, which by the way is considered unconstitutional. Interestingly enough I have never heard of a farmer who demanded his constitutional rights from his Zameendar.
Despite how we chose to interpret or disregard our Constitution, the fact is that our forefathers did a phenomenal job in putting it together. It is the longest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, containing 395 articles in 22 parts, 14 schedules and 94 amendments, for a total of 117,369 words in the English language version. Besides the English version, there is an official Hindi translation. To provide some perspective, American Constitutional authority, Granville Austin, wrote that what the Indian Constituent Assembly began was ‘perhaps the greatest political venture
since that originated in Philadelphia in 1787.
It is no wonder then that Republic Day is a national holiday in India and celebrated with such enthusiasm. It is a celebration of our freedoms, of our rights and of the impact we make on the world.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely that of the author and not of NetIP National or NetIP Houston. Farida Hasanali is the President of NetIP Houston and can be reached at Farida@netiphouston.org. For upcoming NetIP Houston events please go to http://www.netiphouston.org
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