Preamble of Constitution of India

By-Nishant Pote, 12A

The Preamble to Constitution of India is guidelines to guide
people of the nation, to present the principles of the
Constitution, to indicate the source from which the
document derives its authority, and meaning. It reflects the
hopes and aspirations of the people. It was adopted on 26
November 1949 by the Constituent Assembly and came into
effect on 26 January 1950, celebrated as the Republic day in
India.
Sovereignty
Sovereignty denotes supreme and ultimate power. It may be
real or normal, legal or political, individual or pluralistic. In
republican form of governments, which mostly prevail in the
contemporary world, sovereignty is shifted to the elected
representatives of the people. In the words of Cooley, "A
state is sovereign when there resides within itself supreme
and absolute power, acknowledging no superior".
Sovereignty, in short, means the independent authority of a
state. It has two aspects- external and internal. External
sovereignty or sovereignty in international law means the
independence of a state of the will of other states, in her
conduct with other states in the committee of nations. The
external sovereignty of India means that it can acquire
foreign territory and also cede any part of the Indian
territory, subject to limitations (if any) imposed by the
constitution. On the other hand, internal sovereignty refers
to the relationship between the states and the individuals
within its territory. Internal sovereignty relates to internal
and domestic affairs, and is divided into four organs, namely,
the executive, the legislature, the judiciary and the
administrative. Pandit Nehru declared that India will continue
– "her full membership of the Commonwealth games of
Nations and her acceptance of the King as the symbol of the
free association of the independent nations and as such the
Head of the Commonwealth". Her membership of the
Commonwealth of Nations and that of the United Nations
Organization do not affect her sovereignty to any extent. It is
merely voluntary association of India and it is open to India
to cut off this association at her will, and that it has no
constitutional significance.
Socialism
The word “socialist” was not there in the preamble originally.
It was added by the 42nd amendment to the constitution in
1976.Though the term has not been defined in the
constitution it does not envisage doctrinaire socialism in the
sense of insistence of state ownership as a matter of policy. It
does not mean exclusion of private enterprise and complete
state ownership of material resources of the nation.
Jawaharlal Nehru described democratic socialism as one,
which will be based on political liberty, equality and
tolerance. Under democratic socialism we could maintain
individual freedom and initiative with centralized-social
control and planning of the economic life of the people. He
evolved a system of mixed economy as an alternative to both
the rival systems, drawing the positive aspects of each and
rejecting their negative aspects. It would be a combination of
free private enterprise and state controlled economy.
According to the Supreme Court, the principal aim of
socialism is to eliminate inequality of income and standards
of life and to provide decent standard of life to working
people. Democratic socialism aims to end poverty, inequality
of income, disease and to provide a decent standard of life to
working people. Socialist concept of society should be
implemented in the true spirit of the constitution. The term
socialist used here refers to democratic socialism, i.e.
achievement of socialist goals through democratic,
evolutionary and non-violent means. Essentially, it means
that wealth should be shared equally by society through
distributive justice, not concentrated in the hands of few, and
that the government should regulate the ownership of land
and industry to reduce socio-economic inequalities. It aims to
end poverty, ignorance and inequality.
Secularism
The secular state is a state which guarantees individual and
corporate freedom of religion deals with the individual as a
citizen irrespective of his religion is not constitutionally
connected to a particular, nor does it seek either to promote
or interfere with religion upon closer examination it will be
seen that the conception of a secular state involves three
distinct but inter-related sets of relationships concerning the
state, religion and the individual. Secularism means' that
state shall have no religion of its own and all persons of the
country shall be equally entitled to the freedom of their
conscience and have the right freely to profess, practice and
have the right freely to profess, practice and propagate any
religion. Secular not only meant that the state should have
no religion of its own and should be neutral as between
different religious, but that political party which sought to
capture the power, the religious would come to capture the
power, the religions would come to acquire a secondary or
less favourable position. Secularism as contemplated by the
Constitution of India has the following distinguishing
features:
(1) The state will not identify itself with or be controlled by
any religion;
(2) While the state guarantees to everyone the right to
profess whatever religion one chooses to follow, it will not
accord any preferential treatment to any of them.
(3) No discrimination will be shown by the state against any
person on account of his religion or faith.
(4) The right of every citizen, subject to any general
condition, to enter any offices under the state and religious
tolerance form the heart and soul of secularism as envisaged
by the constitution.
Democracy
Democracy is a system of government in which the citizens
exercise power directly or elect representatives from among
themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. It
is also referred as “rule of the majority”. Here the power
can’t be inherited. People elect their leaders. Representatives
stand in an election and the citizens vote for their
representative. The representative with the most number of
votes gets the power. One of the tenets of democracy is that
all members of the society must be equal. For it to function,
this equality must be present in the individual vote. Denying
groups the right to vote is contrary to the function of a
democracy, a system of government where each individual’s
vote has equal weight. The U.S. system of government is a
republic, a type of democracy in which elected officials carry
out the will of the people. India is the world’s largest
democracy. India became a democratic nation post its
independence in the year 1947. Thereafter, the citizens of
India were given the right to vote and elect their leaders. In
India, it gives its citizens the right to vote irrespective of their
caste, color, creed, religion, and gender. It has five
democratic principles – sovereign, socialist, secular,
democratic and republic.
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which "power is held by
the people and their elected representatives". In republics,
the country is considered a "public matter", not the private
concern or property of the rulers. The primary positions of
power within a republic are attained through democracy or a
mix of democracy with oligarchy or autocracy rather than
being unalterably occupied by any given family lineage or
group. With modern republicanism, it has become the
opposing form of government to a monarchy and therefore a
modern republic has no monarch as head of state. India has a
president who is indirectly elected and has a fixed term of
office. There's an absence of a privileged class and all public
offices are open to every citizen without discrimination.

Justice
Justice stands for rule of law, absence of arbitrariness and a
system of equal rights, freedom and opportunities for all in a
society. The term “justice” is found only in a few places in the
entire Constitution namely the Preamble, Article 38, Article
39A & Article 142. On one hand Article 38 aims at promoting
a social order in which justice viz. social, economic and
political shall inform all the institutions of the nation as has
been enshrined in the Preamble. On the other hand Article
39A aims at secure that the operation of the legal system
promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall,
in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or
schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for
securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of
economic or other disabilities. Furthermore, connecting
Article 38 tothat of Article 142 it acts as an enabling provision
which gives power to the Apex Court to pass any order or
decree with the aim of doing complete justice in any cause or
any matter pending before it. However, these provisions do
not give a clear idea as to what the meaning of justice is. The
absence of any clear explanation to the term “justice” in the
Constitution leaves no options for the scholars but to delve
into diverse theories of “justice” and through interpretations
of such theories one needs to find out how far the
Constitution reflects such theories and ideas of “justice”.